Apple put a new chip in the 14-inch MacBook Pro this week, and despite months of rumors, it did not get a touchscreen. The laptop keeps the M5 Pro's exact chassis and 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, just with an M6 processor underneath. US pricing starts at $1,999, matching the outgoing M5 model, and preorders are open now with units arriving November 6.
The M6 chip packs a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, up from 10 and 10 on the M5, built on a new 2-nanometer process instead of 3nm. Apple doubled the Neural Engine to a dual 16-core setup, 32 cores total versus 16 before. The company says that adds up to 30 percent faster graphics and 25 percent faster on-device AI work compared with the M5, based on its own Blender rendering and Xcode build tests.
Memory tops out at 32GB, and the jump from the base 16GB configuration brings a real bandwidth boost, from 153GB/s to 170GB/s. Storage starts at 1TB, with 2TB and 4TB options above it. A new N1 wireless chip swaps in Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread support, replacing the M5's Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, and the laptop can now drive two external 4K displays at up to 165Hz each, up from 144Hz.
Everything else is familiar. The 120Hz ProMotion panel, the colors, the webcam and the ports all carry over unchanged, and Apple's battery claims stay put too, up to 24 hours of video playback or 16 hours of wireless browsing. Buyers who want the glare-reducing nano-texture finish on the screen still pay $150 extra for it.
The iMac gets the same upgrade
Apple also refreshed the M6 iMac this week with the same chip and N1 wireless hardware, plus support for two external 4K monitors at 165Hz instead of 144Hz. Separately, Apple updated its Creator Studio subscription with new AI tools, including a Generate Fill feature in Pixelmator Pro and OpenAI models alongside Apple Intelligence inside Final Cut Pro.
A touchscreen Mac may still be coming
None of that is the headline Apple seems to want this week. On Wednesday the company is holding an event in Los Angeles it has branded "Pro and Tell," and the expectation, built on weeks of leaks, is that Apple will finally show a touchscreen MacBook with an OLED display, something it has never shipped before.
Bloomberg has reported that a 14-inch version with an M5 Pro chip could start at $2,899, with a 16-inch M5 Max model tipped to open at $3,399 or more, which would make it the most expensive MacBook Apple has launched. Neither figure is confirmed. Apple CEO John Ternus posted a cryptic teaser ahead of the event that fueled speculation the laptop could bring back a glowing Apple logo on the lid, a feature missing from MacBook Pros for more than a decade. Apple has not confirmed that detail either. The event itself will settle both questions.
CDFiled by The Computing Desk
Laptops, desktops, processors, graphics cards and the operating systems that run on them.
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