M4 MacBook Pro: Expect five updates in less than two weeks

Apple is expected to release the new M4 Mac line later this month, with updates to the iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro. There might not necessarily be an unveiling, given the fact that they launched the new iPad mini 7 through a press release, so we could see the same thing happen with Macs.

Regardless, the new MacBook Pro will be in customers’ hands starting November 1st.

Faster M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max chips

Obviously, with a new round of MacBook Pros comes a new round of chips, and that remains true with the next MacBook Pro. We’ll see the M4 chip, which initially debuted in the iPad Pro earlier this year, along with the high-end M4 Pro and M4 Pro chips.

The M4 chip has a 10-core CPU, compared to the M3’s 8 cores. We might see similar core count hits on the M4 Pro and M4 Max, though there are no concrete leaks for the high-end M4 chips. M4 is about 20-25% faster than M3.

More unified memory

Previous Bloomberg reports indicated that all Mac M4s would start with at least 16GB of RAM, according to information seen in developer logs. The base model M4 MacBook Pro will start with 16GB of RAM, upgradeable to 32GB. Previously, M3 models started with 8GB, upgradeable to 16GB or 24GB.

Currently, M3 Pro starts with 18GB of unified memory and M3 Max starts with 36GB. Although there is no direct confirmation of this, the M4 Pro and M4 Max will probably also start with additional unified memory, perhaps 24 GB on the M4 Pro and 48 GB on the M4 Max.

Three Thunderbolt ports on all models

According to a packaging leak and a leaked unboxing (yes, you read that right), the base model M4 MacBook Pro will have three Thunderbolt ports on all models. Previously, the base model of the MacBook Pro M3 line only had two Thunderbolt ports, with both on the left side.

Wi-Fi 7 support

Apple is likely to support the Wi-Fi 7 standard in the upcoming M4 MacBook Pro, as it did in the iPhone 16 line.

Wi-Fi 7 supports speeds of up to 46 Gbps, which is more than five times faster than Wi-Fi 6E’s 9 Gbps. Wi-Fi 7 also operates on 320 MHz channels and supports the 6 GHz band, greatly reducing interference and signal congestion.

Space Black on all models

Based on that same packaging leak referenced earlier, it also seems likely that the base model M4 MacBook Pro will come in space black, rather than space gray like the current model does.

The current base model M3 MacBook Pro probably comes in space gray because it was ready to launch before the M3 Pro and M3 Max models. We know this because the M3 MacBook Pros ran the older macOS Ventura operating system out of the box, while the M3 Pro and M3 Max models ran the latest macOS Sonoma.

wrap up

Are you excited about the new MacBook Pros? The base model looks like a very attractive offering with 16GB of memory and Space Black. Let us know in the comments below.

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