If you’re eagerly awaiting an M4-based MacBook Pro, it might be en route later this year.
Per a tweet by noted display analyst Ross Young, Apple will release M4-based MacBook Pro notebooks in the fourth quarter of 2024. Young said that panel shipments for new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are set to begin in the third quarter of 2024, which suggests a launch toward the end of the year.
Apple began its M4 chip refresh in May with the surprising move of incorporating the M4 chip into the iPad Pro, and the first Macs with the M4 chip are slated for a 2024 launch. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also stated that Apple will refresh both the MacBook Pro and Mac mini lineups this year.
The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to get an M4 chip, while the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will be updated with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. The Mac mini will get M4 and M4 Pro chips. The MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro models won’t be updated with M4 chips until 2025, and it is not yet clear when the iMac might see an update with the refreshed chip technology.
The M4 chip is built on an upgraded 3-nanometer node, and Apple introduced its 3-nanometer technology with the M3 chip line. According to Geekbench 6 benchmarks, the M4 chip is up to 25 percent faster than the M3 chip when it comes to multi-core performance, which could promise similar gains for the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips.
Aside from M4 chips, the upcoming MacBook Pro models are not expected to have significant feature updates. Apple is working on OLED display technology, but an OLED MacBook Pro is not expected until 2026 at the earliest.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.