M6 chip lands in the iMac and base MacBook Pro, with a touchscreen Mac expected today
Apple refreshed two Macs by press release on Tuesday; the bigger news, a MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen, is expected on Wednesday.
After Monday's iPad mini, Apple on Tuesday also fitted the 24-inch iMac and the cheapest 14-inch MacBook Pro with its new M6 chip. MacRumors lists twelve CPU cores and twelve GPU cores for the M6 in the MacBook Pro, two more than the M5, and for the first time a dual Neural Engine with 32 cores in total. A new wireless chip, the N1, brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, Ars Technica reports. Neither machine changes in appearance.
US prices stay the same as for the previous generation: 1,999 dollars for the MacBook Pro and 1,499 dollars for the iMac. 9to5Mac points out that Apple had already raised those starting prices in June, from 1,699 and 1,299 dollars respectively. Orders open on Wednesday and deliveries begin on 6 November.
The real headline act is scheduled for Wednesday. According to MacRumors, citing Bloomberg, Apple will then unveil MacBook Pro models with an OLED touchscreen and a Dynamic Island. Apple is said to have discussed a starting price of 2,899 dollars for the 14-inch model, 400 dollars more than the current M5 Pro version.