Planning To Buy A Mac? Apple's M4 Mac Refresh Is Allegedly Right Around The Corner

When Apple transitioned to its own custom-designed silicon several years ago, it allowed its upgrade cycle of chips to be fast and consistent. No longer relying on Intel's time frame for availability, it can now play completely in its own court. This fall, we expect to see new Macs with M4 hardware inside. This may be coming in November, so you may want to think twice about purchasing a Mac right now. 

Starting with the M4 chip in the iPad Pro launched this year, Apple has shown it has the technical chops with its custom silicon. With impressive single-core performance and efficiency, the M4 chips will make faster, smaller Macs a greater possibility. 

According to MacRumors, four different Mac models are expected to launch this year. A 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base M4 Chip will be the entry level model offered. Next will be both a 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, but with faster M4 Pro and M4 Max Chips. 

An iMac with the M4 chips is also expected, touting its all-in-one design for those that want an integrated monitor with Apple silicon. Lastly, a smaller Mac mini is also likely to be released with the new M4 chips. This Mac Mini is supposedly getting an entirely new redesign, which will see its small footprint get even smaller. 

Along with the suite of M4 chips, it is rumored the new Macs may also start with a minimum of 16GB of RAM. Apple Intelligence and the push towards AI computing can certainly use more RAM and allow better future-proofing of these devices. Current M3 Macs can start at 8GB of RAM, which is too little for many users. Apple's macOS does a good job of managing RAM, so it is still usable for some casual users. 

There are other Macs that are not expected to receive any upgrades this fall, however. The higher-end machines such as the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, currently packing the M2 Ultra chips, are slated for an update to M4 only in 2025. Interestingly, Apple skipped the M3 generation for these potent desktop Macs. The MacBook Pro received the M3 Max, which surprised many with its performance and efficiency. 

Apple has been testing its macOS 15.1 Developer Beta ahead of its anticipated M4 Mac refreshes, with an emphasis on the new Apple Intelligence features. It hopes to attract buyers with new software features, as the hardware has been consistently powerful during the last few generations of Apple silicon already.