Apple‘s anticipated MacBook Pro 2022 14-inch and 16-inch models are now expected to arrive in early 2023, as oft-reliable Apple tracker Mark Gurman claims the next group of Macs “probably won‘t launch until early next year.”
In his Power On newsletter, a source tells Gurman that the next-gen MacBook Pro models, which are expected to be equipped with upgraded M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, will coincide with the launch of macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.3. These are slated to launch in the first quarter of 2023 — sometime between the start of February and early March.
Power On: Apple’s next Macs are set for early next year based on the company’s internal plans and most recent earnings call comments. https://t.co/P34OdouI2ROctober 30, 2022
Seeing as it‘s rare for Apple to launch new products during the first two months of the year, it’s believed that the updated MacBook Pro models will be announced in the first half of March. This is in line with Apple’s Peek Performance March event earlier this year, which saw the launch of the Mac Studio.
Until recently, Apple was tipped to announce the updated MacBook Pro models via a press release — similar to the recent launch of the M2 iPad Pro and new iPad 2022. There was even a rumor of an Apple October event, but this didn’t happen. As Gurman notes, Apple was planning to release the fresh 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro’s this fall, but the Cupertino-based tech giant didn’t follow through.
To back this up, chief financial officer at Apple Luca Maestri said: ”We have a very challenging compare against last year, which had the benefit of the launch and associated channel fill of our newly redesigned MacBook Pro with M1.”
Maestri continues: “Therefore, we expect Mac revenue to decline substantially year over year during the December quarter.”
It turns out Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's claim that production of the new MacBook Pro models will begin towards the end of 2022 with a launch window early next year could ring true.
M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro still coming
While the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are now likely to be pushed back, along with the M2-powered Mac mini, it still means updated Macs are on the horizon.
As Gurman reports, the next M2 Max chip is set to sport up to 12 CPU cores and 38 graphics cores — an impressive increase from the 10 CPU cores and 32 graphics cores in the current MacBook Pros.
As for RAM, the chips seem to support up to 64GB of memory, and with no rumors or leaks around the onboard storage, it’s fair to assume that they will remain the same (from 512GB to 8TB SSDs). However, a new leak claims that the next MacBook Pro models will come with "very high-bandwidth, high-speed RAM," according to MacRumors forum member Amethyst.
Instead of the current LPDDR5 RAM in the current models, the M2 Pro MacBook Pro models could come with LPDDR5X RAM, which the report states could lead to "33% increased memory bandwidth with up to 20% less power consumption." That will certainly boost performance.
Regardless, we still have a while to go until we know what the next-gen MacBook Pro models offer. In the meantime, check out our thoughts on the MacBook Air M2. And, if you’re looking for a great MacBook deal in the lead-up to Black Friday, we’ve got you covered.
