Apple is expected to start unveiling their M4 Mac lineup in less than two weeks, with updates coming to the iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini to kick off the new M4 transition.
It is unclear whether or not an actual Apple Event will take place, as the company decided to release the new iPad mini as a press release. Either way, the new Macs will be in customers’ hands from November 1.
Standard 16 GB RAM
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will likely ship at least 16 GB of RAM on the new M4 Macs, including the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, the new Mac mini, and the new iMac.
Apple has included 8GB of RAM on its base model Macs for the past 8 years, so this is a nice change. It makes absolute sense that Apple Intelligence is more memory intensive on our devices.
New design of the Mac mini
Recent reports have suggested that Apple’s upcoming Mac mini will be the biggest redesign in the 14-year history of computing, with the upcoming model expected to shrink significantly. In addition, it will also likely lose support for USB-A, although it should gain some additional USB-C ports to make up for this. It also has ports on the front, similar to the Mac Studio
While we don’t know much about what it will look like yet, it should certainly be exciting, especially considering it’s Apple’s cheapest Mac.
USB-C Magic Mouse, keyboard and trackpad
Rumors indicate a new iMac is coming this month, opening the door for Apple to finally refresh all its Magic accessories. Considering that Apple must comply with the European Union’s USB-C mandate by the end of this year, it’s almost certain that we’ll be saying goodbye to Apple’s desktop accessories lightning with the new M4 iMac refresh.
Space Black on the cheapest MacBook Pro
Currently, Space Black is exclusive to the higher-end M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros, and not available on the base model M3 MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, that computer still comes in Space Gray. While this may seem like a conscious choice, it could also just be a matter of convenience.
Last year, when the new M3 MacBook Pro was released, it was discovered that they were running macOS Ventura by default, instead of the latest macOS Sonoma. This may not seem like much, but the M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros did run macOS Sonoma.
The fact that the base model was running M3 Ventura could indicate that the MacBooks were ready to ship earlier than the more expensive models, but Apple simply didn’t release them. This could explain why the base model still has the older Space Gray color, instead of being consistent.
Hopefully this means we’ll see Space Black coming to Apple’s cheapest M4 MacBook Pro.
Brand new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips
While we saw the base model M4 chip debut in the iPad Pro back in May, we still haven’t seen Apple’s more expensive chips, the M4 Pro and the M4 Max. These chips should make their debut later this month in the new, more expensive MacBook Pros.
We don’t have any concrete leaks on the M4 Pro and Max chips, other than the fact that they should be based on TSMC’s more efficient 3nm process, shared by the A18 and M4 chips. They’ll be faster as usual, although there’s no word on core numbers at the moment.
WiFi 7
Apple will likely support the Wi-Fi 7 standard on the upcoming M4 Macs, as it will on the iPhone 16 series.
Wi-Fi 7 supports speeds of up to 46 Gbps, which is more than five times faster than the 9 Gbps of Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 7 also operates on 320 MHz channels and supports the 6 GHz band, significantly reducing interference and signal congestion.
Close
Overall, the M4 Mac range seems quite exciting, especially the base model MacBook Pro. It will be interesting to see whether or not the prices change given the RAM upgrade. The Mac mini getting a new design for the first time in more than a decade is also exciting, especially with frontal I/O.
Are you excited about the upcoming M4 Mac series? Are you going to buy one? Let us know in the comments.
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