With the M2 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air already on the shelves, all eyes are on Apple’s desktop offerings, namely the Mac Pro and Mac mini. On the Max Tech YouTube channel, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has revealed some new information about Apple’s upcoming lineup of Macs and what this means for the next round of M2 chips.
As for the M2 chip, Gurman expects the same variations as the M1 – Pro, Max and Ultra, with a possible new Extreme model for the Mac Pro – but doesn’t think it will move to a 3nm process, as rumor has it. He suspects the next-generation process with the M3 chips will arrive in late 2023 or 2024.
In short, Apple has several M2 Macs planned for this fall, including a “spec bump” for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. Gurman expects the new laptops to get M2 Pro and M2 Max processors with the next refresh, but no new features like the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Also in line for a refresh this fall is the Mac mini. Gurman said Apple will update both the M1 Mac mini and the more expensive Intel version with M2 and M2 Pro chips respectively, but doesn’t think the machines will get a new design, as rumored. He said it would be “strange” if Apple introduced a new Mac mini design after the launch of Mac Studio.
As for the highly anticipated Mac Pro with Apple silicon, Gurman reveals that Apple planned to launch an M1-based Mac Pro “months ago”, but it has “deleted” to work on a model with an M2. He expects Apple to launch the high-end workstation only next year due to manufacturing and delivery issues.
Finally, Gurman thinks that Face ID on the Mac is still a long way off. Despite the addition of the notch, he doesn’t expect it to come to the M2 MacBook Pro anytime soon. In fact, he thinks it will come to the more expensive iMac models first. That could come with the M3 iMac, as Gurman thinks Apple will skip the M2 chip in the all-in-one machine.
