Apple’s WWDC is always a treasure trove of insight into new products, some announced, some unannounced, some leaked by accident.
In this case it’s the latter, with the metadata from Apple’s WWDC YouTube video appearing to confirm the existence of a new MacBook Pro, running the as-yet-unannounced M1X Apple Silicon processor.
As sported by Twitter user Max Balzer, the keywords for Apple’s official WWDC recap clip includes the words ‘M1X’ and ‘M1X MacBook Pro‘ alongside other terms like iOS 15, Apple Event, Apple Special Event and so-forth.
That raises the suspicion had initially planned to announce the M1X MacBook Pro at or around the WWDC keynote which took place on Monday and is ongoing this week. However, it does seem to confirm that, eventually, a souped-up version of the M1 chip is coming to a MacBook Pro in the near future.
You can see the metadata, added by the video uploader (in this case Apple) in the image below:
The M1X was heavily rumoured for WWDC 21, but as has happened in so many previous years, speculation about hardware releases failed to materialise during the even or the few days that followed.
A previous report from Bloomberg suggested M1X will be significantly more powerful, with a total of 10 cores, made up of 8 high-performance cores and 2 energy-efficient cores. This could suggest that Apple will prioritising performance over battery life compared to the M1.
Recent rumours suggest the M1X will offer a huge boost when it comes to graphics, with 16 and 32 graphics core variants rumoured. The current M1 has 8 GPU cores, which delivered impressive results, so this would be a huge boost moving forward.
It is also thought the M1X might introduce a new design after the initial wave of products largely adhered to the legacy Intel-based designs. Either way, it seems certain the M1X MacBook Pro will sit among the best laptops in 2021.
Have you been waiting for the second-generation of Apple Silicon hardware before jumping on board? Let us know @trustedreviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.