Apple will present MacBook Air with M4 chip this week: What will surprise you
Apple M4 will appear in new devices this week (photo: Getty Images)
Last month, Apple introduced the iPhone 16e, the most affordable smartphone of the generation. Now, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company is preparing to announce the MacBook Air on the M4 chip next week, reports MacRumors.
M4 MacBook Air
In March 2024, Apple released updated 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air models with the M3 chip, and in the near future the company will release versions with the M4 chip.
The design of the new MacBook Airs will not change - the main focus is on the M4 chip. However, the base model will now be equipped with at least 16 GB of RAM, as Apple has already increased the storage capacity of the M3 version of the MacBook Air from 8 GB to 16 GB.
In addition, the M4 MacBook Air may get a new 12MP Centre Stage camera with Desk View support, which will be an improvement over the current 1080p FaceTime HD camera. This makes sense, as the new M4-based iMacs and MacBook Pro also received an updated camera. The new MacBook Air is expected to be released this week.
M4 Mac Studio
Apple plans to update Mac Studio after the release of the M4 MacBook Air. The device will receive a variety of the M4 processor - probably M4 Ultra or M4 Max. The current version of Mac Studio uses M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips.
Considering that Mac mini with M4 Pro and new MacBook Pro are equipped with Thunderbolt 5 ports, it is highly likely that Mac Studio will also receive them. Earlier, Gurman claimed that the updated Mac Studio would be released with the MacBook Air, but now its release is expected to be in the period from March to June.
M4 Mac Studio (illustrative photo: MacRumors)
M4 Mac Pro
Apple last updated the Mac Pro in June 2023, equipping it with the M2 Ultra and completing the transition from Intel processors. According to Mark Gurman, the updated Mac Pro will be released in the summer of 2025.
Like the Mac Studio, the new Mac Pro will skip the M3 series and will immediately receive the most powerful version of the M4 chip, codenamed Hidra. This chip is likely to be presented in Ultra or Extreme versions.
Gurman claims that the M4 Ultra in the next Mac Pro will possibly get up to 32 CPU cores and up to 80 GPU cores, which is twice as many as the M4 Max (16-core CPU and 40-core GPU).
It is expected that the Mac Pro will also be equipped with Thunderbolt 5 ports and increase the amount of supported memory to 512 GB (the current generation has a limit of 192 GB).
M4 Mac Pro (illustrative photo: MacRumors)
Performance of the M4 series
Like the M3, the M4 chip is built on a 3nm process, but with TSMC enhancements that provide increased performance and energy efficiency. The M4 also features an improved Neural Engine that speeds up AI tasks. Apple claims that this is the most powerful Neural Engine in the company's history, capable of performing 38 trillion operations per second.
The M4 Max outperforms the top-of-the-line M2 Ultra in Mac Studio and Mac Pro in terms of multi-core CPU performance by 25 percent.
The M4 Pro's performance gains are partly due to the fact that the M3 Pro was only a minor update to the M2 Pro last year.
The M4 Max is about 20 percent faster than the M4 Pro in multi-core CPU performance.
Interestingly, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Max and 40-core GPU demonstrates 85 percent of the graphics power of Mac Studio with M2 Ultra and 76-core GPU, despite the difference of 36 graphics cores.
M4 chip series (illustrative photo: MacRumors)
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