Apple has has long been rumoured to be working on a new MacBook Pro with its most powerful processor yet, and it now looks like the laptop could only be a matter of weeks away from an official reveal.
Renowned Apple leaker Mark Gurman claims (via 9to5Mac), in his latest PowerOn newsletter, that the new MacBook Pro is “still on tap for 2021” and could be revealed “in the next month”.
“The new MacBook Pro didn’t appear at Apple’s September product unveiling, but it should still be launching in the coming weeks,” Mark Gurman wrote. “Apple typically does its major new Mac introductions in October. So stay tuned.”
This correlates with previous reports that suggested Apple will likely launch the MacBook Pro in either October or November, with a dedicated showcase event for its Mac line-up.
Gurman has also reiterated that the upcoming MacBook Pro will feature a new M1X chip, packing 8 high-performance cores and 2 energy-efficient cores. There will also apparently be two different graphics configurations: one with 16 GPU cores and another with 32 GPU cores.
If such reports are accurate, this chip would be significantly more powerful than the existing M1 processor that powers the MacBook Air and iMac.
According to various other reports, the MacBook Pro 2021 could also feature a Mini LED display, both a 14-inch and 16-inch model, and will see the return of ports such as HDMI, SD Card Slot and MagSafe charging.
Gurman also said that we can expect “a higher-end Mac Mini at some point” that features the new M1X chip. It’s unclear whether this dinky desktop computer could arrive this year or in 2022 instead.
Reports also suggest that Apple is working on a next-generation M2 chip that could power the next line-up of MacBook Air laptops. However, such devices aren’t expected to be unveiled until the second half of 2022, so expect a long wait.
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