Apple could unveil redesigned MacBook Pros as soon as early this summer, according to details published by Bloomberg’s reliable Mark Gurman.
Gurman, who learned the details from “people familiar with the matter,” says redesigned MacBook Pros with next-gen Apple Silicon could arrive as soon as “early this summer.” Further, Apple will follow up the new MacBook Pros with a revamped MacBook Air, a new low-end MacBook Pro and an all-new Mac Pro workstation. Apple also has a higher-end Mac mini and a larger iMac in the works.
The redesigned MacBook Pro models will come in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes with the code names J314 and J316 respectively. Gurman reports that the new laptops will have a redesigned chassis and sport a magnetic MagSafe charger. Further, the Pro laptops will have more ports, including an HDMI port and an SD card slot.
Along with a new design and new ports, Gurman says the new MacBook Pros will feature new Apple Silicon. Apple is reportedly working on two different chips, one codenamed ‘Jade C-Chop’ and the other ‘Jade C-Die.’ Both feature eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores, and will have 16 or 32 graphics cores. To compare, Apple’s current M1 chips have four high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores, and seven or eight graphics cores depending on the configuration.
Moreover, the new chips will support up to 64GB of RAM compared to the maximum of 16GB available on the M1 chip. Gurman also says Apple will add an improved Neural Engine for machine learning as well as more Thunderbolt ports.
Better Mac mini, Mac Pro on the way
As for the more powerful Mac mini with the codename ‘J374,’ it will feature the same chip as the upcoming MacBook Pro. It’s also expected to have four ports versus the two available on the current M1 Mac mini. Gurman noted that Apple may cancel or delay the new Mac mini announcement, but will eventually phase out the Intel-powered Mac mini it still sells.
Finally, when the high-end Mac Pro desktop arrives next year, Gurman says customers will have a choice between two processors that will be twice or four times more powerful than the new high-end MacBook Pro chip. Sporting codenames ‘Jade 2C-Die’ and ‘Jade 4C-Die,’ the chips will offer either 20 or 40 computing core variations with either 16 or 32 high-performance cores and four or eight high-efficiency cores. There will also be 64 or 128 core graphics options.
Gurman notes that the core counts top the 28-core Intel chips offered in the Mac Pro and the higher-end graphics would replace parts made by AMD.
Apple reportedly has been working on the new Mac Pro for months, and the device is expected to look like a smaller version of the current design, which launched in 2019 (long live the cheese grater).
The company is also working on a larger iMac with Apple Silicon, but Gurman says Apple put development on hold to focus on the new 24-inch iMac.
Finally, the redesign MacBook Air coming at the end of the year will use a direct successor to Apple’s M1 chip. Bearing codename ‘Staten,’ it’ll boast the same number of cores but will run faster. It may also see a boost to graphics cores, bringing the configurations up from seven or eight to nine or ten. The rumoured low-end MacBook Pro would sport the same chip.
Although it looks like Apple’s mission to replace Intel components with its in-house silicon is going well, Gurman notes there’s still one Intel chip hanging out in the new Macs: a ‘USB Retimer.’ It helps power the USB-C and Thunderbolt ports, but Gurman says Apple plans to replace that with an in-house version as early as 2022.
Source: Bloomberg
