Apple is trickling in a number of announcements ahead of its Pro and Tell event coming in a couple of days. First came the iPad mini 8 and its piezoelectric Acoustic Display. Now, it’s the new iMac, as well as the 14-inch MacBook Pro, both with the base M6 chip. No OLED touchscreen for the latter, but the bitten fruit brand may very well be keeping that for the aforementioned event.
It’s worth noting that the M6 may be new to the MacBook Pro, but the chip itself launched when Apple refreshed the Mac mini with the silicon. This means it’s the familiar 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU matching the configuration of the Mac mini, in addition to having a dual 16-core Neural Engine instead of just a single core. That, in turn, translates to up to 30% faster graphics than the M5 MacBook Pro. It’s a bit much to compare this to the M1, but if you’re upgrading from that, the iPhone maker says your gains are 11x instead.
Having the new chip also gives the 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro access to the company’s own N1 chip, which grants it WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6 capabilities. Unified memory begins at 16GB, with 24GB and 32GB being other available options, while storage options are 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. As usual, Apple is not very forthcoming with battery capacity figures, but it does claim that this MacBook Pro can last for up to 24 hours on a single charge.
On the outside, it’s pretty safe to say that Apple has changed little with the 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro. You do get an additional Thunderbolt port, bringing the total up to three Thunderbolt 4 ports. Other I/O options include HDMI, MagSafe 3, an SDXC card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
For its screen, there’s the Liquid Retina XDR display, which boasts up to 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Up top is the 12MP Centre Stage camera with Desk View, three microphones, and a six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio. And finally, it ships with macOS 27 Golden Gate.
The 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro has a starting price of RM8,299, or RM7,899 with Apple Education. This can go up to RM16,849 if you dial the memory and storage options up to the maximum. That being said, you can’t exactly buy it right now. Instead, you’ll have to wait until 1:10 AM on 29 October, just slightly after the Pro and Tell event starts, to place your pre-orders. General availability starts on 6 November instead.
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