Apple is gearing up to launch a new wave of MacBooks, expected to arrive in the second half of 2024. While it’s still early, the first signs indicate that these models will be the first to use the new Apple M4 chip, currently under development in Cupertino.
Although technical details about the M4 are still scarce, Bloomberg reporter and Apple expert, Mark Gurman, believes that AI will be one of the main selling points for this chip. This makes sense considering the increasing hype around “AI laptops” since the debut of the Intel Meteor Lake CPU, which is equipped with an NPU, and Apple certainly wants to remind the public that MacBooks have been equipped with a Neural Engine optimized for AI since the 2020 MacBook Air M1.
No one knows for sure what the future holds, but we can make some educated guesses about what the next MacBooks might be like. Here’s everything we know so far about the M4 MacBook, and what we can expect when it arrives.
M4 MacBook: Rumored Specifications
The successor to Apple’s M3 chip will define the next generation of MacBooks, so it’s safe to assume we’ll see an upgrade to the M4. Aside from that, not much has been heard about any changes Apple will make to the M4 MacBook specifications.
However, Apple is usually quite conservative in changing the specifications of its laptops from generation to generation, so it’s likely they will be similar to what we’ve seen on the M3 MacBooks. The cheapest entry point, the 13-inch M3 Air ($1,099), starts with an 8-core CPU, an 8-core GPU, 8GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD.
Those numbers increase, reaching their peak on the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max which, when maxed out (~$7,199), has a 16-core CPU, a 40-core GPU, 128GB of memory, and 8TB of storage. We might see a nominal increase in the number of cores on the M4 MacBook, but it’s still too early to say whether Apple is planning a more radical specification upgrade than that.
M4 MacBook: Price and Release Date Speculation
Apple plans to release the first M4 MacBooks before the end of 2024, according to Gurman. He believes we should expect to see a “low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro” as well as possibly a “high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro… all with the M4 chip.”
That aligns with the company’s habit of holding release events in October, as they did in 2023 when they launched the M3 MacBook Pro during Apple’s “Scary Fast” event.
The other M4 MacBook lines are likely to be launched in 2025, as Gurman expects the 13-inch and 15-inch M4 MacBook Airs to debut in the spring.
Apple will likely also release M4-powered desktops, including a new iMac M4 and Mac mini M4 in 2024, which may then be followed by the M4-powered Mac Studio and Mac Pro in 2025.
These upgraded M4 models may be more expensive than their current counterparts, but it seems unlikely that Apple will significantly increase the price of the M4 MacBook unless they also significantly upgrade the specifications.
To give an idea of the starting price of the M4 MacBook, let’s look at how much the current M3 Macs cost. The 13-inch MacBook Air M3 and 15-inch MacBook Air start at $1,099 and $1,299, respectively, and I doubt Apple would want to price the M4 version of their cheapest laptop much above that.
The base 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 is priced from $1,599, while the more powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro starts at $1,999 and the large and powerful 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499. If Apple raises prices on the M4 versions, it seems unlikely they will do so more than they have in the past, usually around $100-$200.
M4 MacBook: Design
It’s too early to say what changes, if any, Apple will make to the design of the M4 MacBook line. Back in March, Gurman said Apple had just begun formal development of the M4 MacBook Pro, and given the popularity of its design, it seems unlikely we will see any major changes.
If the M4 MacBook Air is even further out, it might be too early to guess what it will look like, but since the lightweight and thin design is a key selling point of this line, I expect them to be as slim as their predecessors. Although I would like to see the Air get a more useful port array, it seems unlikely that Apple will sacrifice thinness.
M4 MacBook: Performance
One thing is for sure: Apple will talk about major improvements in performance and power efficiency for the M4 chip that will power these MacBooks.
We haven’t heard much about what to expect in terms of raw numbers, such as the number of cores or speed improvements, but since Apple hasn’t done much more than fix the MacBook design in recent years, improvements under the hood are usually the main stars of the show.
However, although there are only a few rumors so far about what is expected from the M4 chip line in terms of performance, Taiwan’s Economic Daily News has published a report claiming that this chip will feature an improved Neural Engine (which could mean more cores than the 16 on the Apple M3 chip) that is more optimized for AI and machine learning tasks that affect your daily workflow.
M4 MacBook: Battery Life
The 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max lasts more than 17 hours in our battery life test, which is one of the best in its class.
This is an easy prediction to make: the M4 MacBook will have great battery life.
MacBooks have consistently lasted 12 hours or more in our battery tests since the introduction of Apple silicon, and the M3 line is no exception, delivering 14-17 hours with ease.
M4 MacBook: Outlook
There’s still very little to go on at this point, but what we’ve heard so far suggests that the M4 MacBook line will be a performance upgrade that could give us our first real look at how Apple intends to promote AI on its laptops.
That might be interesting, because many of the tricks used to promote AI-optimized laptops today (such as auto-centering you on video calls or automatically editing images with the touch of a button) come from Apple’s playbook. If the company feels pressured to show how well they can integrate AI to make your everyday life on a Mac better, we could see some fun things. More colors wouldn’t hurt, would they?
However, even if it’s only a nominal improvement, like many new AI features on Windows laptops, it’s hard to imagine the M4 MacBook line not being popular. MacBooks have been quite easy to recommend since the debut of Apple silicon, and if the company doesn’t change much other than the chip, they may still compete with the best laptops on the market.
