Apple seems to be eyeing Halloween as a new yearly product release staple. According to reliable Apple rumormongers, the full-sized candy bars the Cupertino company will be sticking in our candy bags include M4 MacBook Pro models, a redesigned, smaller Mac Mini, and even an iPad mini by late October or early November.
Even if you don’t care about tiny computers or tiny iPads, you may be enticed by the idea that Apple may finally make 16GB of RAM the starting point for M4 MacBook Pro models. Good, we were tired of getting the moral equivalent of pretzel bags in our outstretched pillowcases with 8GB starting MacBook Pros. However, the proof is in the pudding. Even though Apple has yet to peep about a new product launch, pictures and benchmarks for the latest laptops are already floating around online.
Apple shared its first look at the M3 MacBook Pro lineup at its Scary Fast showcase last October. It’s anyone’s guess what Apple calls its next spooky product debut. Still, at the very least, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims, based on anonymous sources, that Apple is going to show off more computers on Nov. 1. Just like last year’s launch, Gurman said we should see a lower-end 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4, plus higher-end 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros. We suspect this might encompass an M4 Pro and M4 Max chip, the same as the M3 lineup.
In addition, the M4 chip will be used in the new, slightly smaller Mac Mini. So far, we’ve only heard mention of the M4 Pro chip, which will be used in Apple’s NUC and higher-end MacBooks. The only M4 product is Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro. We have yet to see much specific mention of the M4 Max in the latest rumors, though we suspect the Pro and Max models will contain more unified memory and core counts.
Gurman noted we will also see an updated iMac. We hope this year’s version will be more than a mere iteration like the 2023 24-inch iMac, but we’re not holding our breath. The more interesting update this time is we could see the updated iPad mini show up on Nov. 1 as well. Previously, Bloomberg’s Apple rumormonger-in-chief suggested it may not have arrived in time for Black Friday.
We don’t have any new word on what’s contained in the refreshed teeny, weeny iPad, though we may already know how the MacBook could perform. This past weekend, the Apple newshounds spotted a new Geekbench entry listed as “Mac16,1,” which they took as relating to the M4 MacBook. It’s scoring 3,864 in single-core and 15,288 in multi-core settings. This would be a small upgrade performance-wise compared to the scores from this year’s iPad Pro, though a giant leap from the M3 base MacBook Pro and M3 MacBook Airs.
Gizmodo could not independently verify those scores. Instead, it’s best to consider these scores food for thought. The supposed new chip is a 10-core variant compared to the 9-core M4 in the iPad Pro. It also claims a slightly increased clock speed than the tablet version of the chip. The form factor and increased RAM could have also spurred a better score.
At least one Facebook user claims to have an M4 MacBook Pro already. Pictures have popped up on Facebook with specs similar to the Geekbench scores. A Russian-language YouTube channel also says they have a laptop retail unit. However, we can’t give these leaks nearly as much faith. The box art for both products is exactly the same as the M3 MacBook Pros. Even if this new laptop is a spec refresh with the same (increasingly tired) design, It wouldn’t be in Apple’s best interest to confuse customers with the same product image.
It could be an early test model without the new artwork, but while prototypes and renders sometimes slip into the public sphere, we rarely see retail versions of Apple products leak this early.
