Apple is preparing a second hardware showcase before the month ends. Just as the company locked in an October 13 date for smart home gear, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reports that another launch is planned for on or around October 27.
The late-October gathering will reportedly pair a streamed presentation for viewers with an in-person hands-on space for the press. Four distinct hardware categories are slated to arrive, led by what could be the biggest visual overhaul to the Mac portable line in half a decade.
Touchscreens and an M6 debut
According to Gurman, the headliner is a completely revamped MacBook Pro available in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. The redesigned laptops are tipped to dump the display notch in favor of the Dynamic Island cutout familiar from newer iPhones. More Apple is said to be adding an OLED panel that doubles as a touchscreen, marking the first time any Mac ships with direct touch input.
That redesign will reportedly make the chassis considerably lighter, even if the thickness barely changes. But there is a notable trade-off on processing power. Apple is allegedly skipping M6 Pro and M6 Max processors entirely, choosing to stick with the older M5 Pro and M5 Max silicon until an eventual M7 generation arrives.
Buyers looking for Apple's newest base silicon will not be left out, though. Gurman reports that a traditional 14-inch MacBook Pro, keeping its existing unibody enclosure, will gain the standard M6 chip instead. Alongside it, the all-in-one desktop line gets its turn, with an updated iMac jumping to the M6.
OLED arrives on iPad mini
The fourth product on the reported roster is a redesigned iPad mini. Following the iPad Pro's transition to organic light-emitting diode technology, the smallest tablet in Apple's stable will reportedly switch to an OLED display as well. That move should eliminate the backlight blooming and sluggish response times that have dogged the compact tablet in earlier iterations.
Hosting two distinct media briefings within a single fortnight is unusual, but Apple has juggled split autumn schedules before when clearing a backlog of consumer and pro silicon. With the October 13 event already formalised, press invites for late October will likely follow once the home hardware leaves the stage.
CDFiled by The Computing Desk
Laptops, desktops, processors, graphics cards and the operating systems that run on them.
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