It appears that we might see the upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros sooner than initially thought, complete with the new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips for extra performance capabilities.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the development of these two MacBooks is well underway, meaning that there’s a chance Apple might be able to release them shortly.
Gurman remains one of the industry’s most reliable sources on upcoming Apple products. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman talks about the upcoming M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro. Set to be a follow-up to last year’s MacBook Pros, these 14-inch and 16-inch devices would launch the new version of Apple’s M2 chip.
According to Gurman, the next-gen MacBook Pros are well into the development and testing phases. Because of that, Gurman believes there might be a chance for the laptops to hit the market as early as this year.
Another reliable Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, has recently said that the new MacBook Pros will enter mass production in the fourth quarter of the year. This fits well with Gurman’s theory, although the timing and the supply may be pretty tight. Gurman himself said it’s possible that Apple might push the new notebooks back if there are issues with the supply chain or other problems.
As far as the new MacBook Pros themselves, most leakers don’t expect any design changes. The 2021 versions already provided enough of a redesign, so now, we’re looking at changes to the hardware itself. The new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are expected to deliver quite a performance uplift over the base M2, although we may have to wait until the Apple M3 to see a massive generational leap.
Initially, the rumor mill said that Apple would be using a 3nm process node for the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. However, Kuo recently said that Apple won’t start using the 3nm process until the first half of 2023. This implies that the M3 chips may be based on a 3nm technology, but the M2 chips might stick to the familiar 5nm process.
New 14" and 16" MacBook Pro with new processors will enter mass production in 4Q22. Given TSMC's guidance that the 3nm will contribute revenue starting in 1H23, processors of 14" and 16" MacBook Pro models may still adopt the 5nm advanced node.
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) August 22, 2022
When you compare the M1 chip to the M1 Pro and the M1 Max, it’s clear that the latter two chips are a huge upgrade. It remains to be seen whether the jump between the M2 and the M2 Pro and Max will be the same, but we can expect to see similar GPU core count and RAM increases as in the previous generation.
MacRumors reports that we might see a Mac Mini with an M2 Pro chip this year, too. There’s also the new 2022 Mac Pro, long overdue for an upgrade, that could come out with a bang and launch the M2 Ultra and the rumored M2 Extreme chip. Apple has an event coming up on September 7, but the predictions for the event don’t include any Mac products, so we might have to wait longer to hear more.
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