If you’ve been mulling buying a new laptop for a while but haven’t taken the plunge yet, you might want to see what Apple apparently has in store. The tech giant has fallen into a rhythm of updating its MacBook line up annually, and according to a new report there could be a brand new MacBook Pro announced this week.
It has been a year since Apple launched its MacBook Pro with M4 chip, the latest generation of the firm’s powerful M-series processors, and according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is set to unveil at least one of those laptops’ successors this week.
Gurman said in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter that it’s “likely that a new MacBook Pro gets announced this week”.
Unlike last year, when Apple launched the MacBook Pro range with M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max options all at the same time, this week could see a new laptop with just the entry-level M5 chip.
Gurman suggests this is because the M5 Pro and M5 Max “won’t be ready in volume” until early next year, which is later than the MacBook Pro’s usual October or November announcement.
Apple switched from using Intel chips in its MacBooks with the M1 chip in 2020. The first laptop with that processor, the MacBook Air M1, was remarkable for its power and very long battery life in direct comparison to the Intel version prior to that.
Since then, Apple has forged ahead with successive annual improvements in its chipsets, introducing the M1 into the iPad Pro in 2021 and the iPad Air in 2022.
Apple now debuts its new M chips in either new MacBook Pro or iPad Pro models, deciding to launch the M4 with the redesigned iPad Pro in May 2024.
But if Gurman is correct, Apple will switch back to announcing the M5 with a MacBook Pro model this week.
“[T]he entry-level M5 chip is clearly ready for prime time since it’s in the new iPad,” he said. “That means the base-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is also ready for launch (the new chip is the main change).”
This implies a new 14-inch MacBook Pro (and subsequent 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models) will not have any drastic design changes compared to the existing models. That might be why Apple is apparently opting to announce this week’s new laptop in an online announcement (read: press release) rather than a pre-recorded livestream event like the firm did last month for its new iPhone range.
There’s no word on what a new M5 MacBook Pro might promise, but these updates are fairly regimented spec bumps. That’s not to say those bumps won’t be impressive, but a new model won’t necessarily bring huge updates over the M4 version.
Instead, the M5 MacBook Pro is likely to sell for the same price as the M4 version, meaning if you have been thinking about buying a MacBook Pro you might want to wait, as if you are about to drop at least £1,599 on a laptop, waiting a few days might mean you can pick up the updated version instead – if Gurman is correct.
If you don’t need all the power a MacBook Pro offers, don’t forget Apple sells the MacBook Air with M4 from £999. There’s no word on when we might see an M5 version, but it probably won’t be too soon seeing as Apple only updated the range in March.