Apple puts M6 in the 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac, holding prices at $1,999 and $1,499
Same designs, faster chips, Wi-Fi 7 and prices unchanged since June's hike. Preorders open Oct. 28, the day of Apple's OLED event; both ship Nov. 6.
The skim
- Apple put its new M6 chip in the entry 14-inch MacBook Pro and the 24-inch iMac on Tuesday. Both keep their current designs and get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
- Prices hold at the levels Apple set in June: $1,999 for the MacBook Pro and $1,499 for the iMac, $300 and $200 above where they stood before that increase.
- Preorders open Wednesday, Oct. 28, and both ship Friday, Nov. 6. The bigger Mac news is expected at Apple's "Pro and Tell" event the same day.
What's new
The M6 in the 14-inch MacBook Pro has a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU, two more cores each than the base M5. Apple says graphics are up to 30% faster than M5 and on-device AI work, like LLM prompt processing, up to 25% faster. Memory starts at 16GB and tops out at 32GB, with bandwidth up to 170GB/s. Battery life is rated at up to 24 hours, which Apple calls the longest ever in a Mac.
Everything else is familiar: the same Liquid Retina XDR display (up to 1,600 nits HDR, optional nano-texture), three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, an SDXC slot, MagSafe 3 and a headphone jack, in space black or silver.
The iMac comes in two versions. The $1,499 model has a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, and the $1,699 model gets the full 12-core chip. Ports scale with the chip, two Thunderbolt 4 on the base model and four on the other, per Tom's Hardware. Apple claims up to 2x faster graphics and up to 5x faster on-device AI than the M4 iMac, plus SSDs up to twice as fast and optional 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. The 24-inch 4.5K display and the seven colors carry over.
Why it matters
This is a spec bump, not a redesign, and the headline number is the price that didn't move. In June Apple raised prices across its Macs and iPads, blaming the cost of memory. The base 14-inch MacBook Pro went from $1,699 to $1,999 and the iMac from $1,299 to $1,499, MacRumors and Ars Technica reported. The M6 models hold those prices, so you get more chip for the same money, but not the old money.
Who should care: anyone on an M1 or Intel Mac. Apple's own comparisons target those buyers, claiming up to 13x faster AI prompt processing than the M1 13-inch MacBook Pro and up to 18x the performance of the most popular Intel iMac. If you bought an M5 MacBook Pro or M4 iMac, there's little reason to switch.
Timing matters too. Apple is holding its "Pro and Tell" event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the first touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro. Shipping the routine updates a day early clears the stage. If you want a pro laptop, wait 24 hours and see what the OLED model costs before you order. Apple already showed the OLED iPad mini on Monday.
Sources: Apple (MacBook Pro), Apple (iMac), Tom's Hardware, MacRumors, Ars Technica and 9to5Mac.
