According to a report, Apple is preparing a new batch of Macs for release “between late spring and summer.”
A 15-inch MacBook Air would be the most significant of the three, but a new Mac Pro refresh would complete the Mac’s switch from Intel’s CPUs and AMD’s GPUs to Apple Silicon, and a new 13-inch MacBook Air might also be in the works. Additionally, a new 24-inch iMac that could be the first Mac to use Apple’s M3 chip of the next generation is rumored to be in the works.
Apple would launch a brand-new product category with the 15-inch MacBook Air: a laptop with a larger screen that costs less than a MacBook Pro. From the first Intel MacBooks to the current MacBook Air, Apple’s consumer-oriented laptops have all been between 11 and 13 inches. The 15- to 17-inch PowerBook and MacBook Pro models were always more expensive because they required more CPU and GPU power; The cheapest 16-inch MacBook Pro costs $2,499. The cheapest MacBook Air starts at $999.
If you want to fit more information on the screen at once or need text and images to be larger so they are easier to see, Apple’s lineup has plenty of room for a model in between those two extremes.
Other than the fact that the new 13-inch MacBook Air exists, Gurman’s report contains few details about it. Although the M2 model was just released in July, and the gap between the M1 and M2 Air was closer to a year and a half, it could be a new model with an M3 chip. In the same vein as the M2 version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, it could also be an M2-flavored update to the notch-free $999 MacBook Air.
“Apple has developed the next iMac on the same timeline as the M3 chip,” however, Gurman seems to be more certain that the M3 will be included in the new iMac. The 24-inch screen and color options on this new iMac would be identical to those on the current M1 model, but “some of its internal components” will be “relocated and redesigned.”
The new iMac is “at an advanced stage of development” and is expected to be available for purchase in the second half of 2023. Those who are still waiting for a replacement for the beloved 27-inch iMac must continue to wait; Although this report only mentions the 24-inch iMac, Gurman stated that Apple is still working on a larger model.
Except for the possible spring-to-summer release schedule, there are no new information regarding the Mac Pro. Despite the fact that Apple has already missed the two-year transition deadline it set for Silicon Macs in 2020, the plans for the new Mac Pro have reportedly changed as it is being developed. Gurman claims that the version we’re likely to get will be based on an M2 Ultra, a follow-up to the M1 Ultra in the Mac Studio desktop. However, those plans were shelved because it was supposed to have a unique super-high-end Apple Silicon chip.
Although the new Mac Pro is said to have room for user-upgradeable storage, external graphics cards and upgradeable RAM are extremely unlikely due to the tightly integrated design of Apple Silicon chips. If Apple wanted to give the new Mac Pro a better reason to exist, it could skip the M2 update for the Mac Studio.