MacBook Pros, An “M1X” Chip, And Other Stuff To Expect At Apple's ...

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Another month, another Apple event. Fresh off a September event that delivered new updates for the entire iPhone lineup, some new iPads, and a gently tweaked Apple Watch, Apple is preparing for another event on Monday, October 18. And this time, we're expecting the company to focus on the Mac, which is still in the middle of a transition from Intel chips to the Apple Silicon chips that are making new Macs feel exciting and important in a way they haven't in years.

We'll be following along live starting at 10 am Pacific on Monday, but in the meantime, we've gathered all the current rumors and put together a list of things we're most likely to see (as well as one or two things that aren't as likely). The short version is that Apple should finally be gearing up to show us high-performance Apple Silicon chips.

The “M1X” chip, or whatever it’s called

Just as the MacBook Air, the newest 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Mac mini, and the 24-inch iMac all use the same M1 chip, we expect the next round of Macs to share the same silicon as well. Commonly referred to as the "M1X," the chip's exact specifications are a bit of a mystery, since Apple's chip designs are among its best-kept secrets. But it's not hard to guess the general gist of what we'll be getting—new chips that improve upon the performance of the Intel processors they're replacing while also enabling a dramatic increase in battery life. Recent Intel MacBook refreshes have struggled to provide one or the other of these things, but the M1 Macs managed to do both.

To replace the higher-end Intel Macs, the M1X will need to have just a bit more of everything compared to the M1: more processor cores, more GPU cores, and support for more monitors and Thunderbolt and USB ports. Without adapters or docks, the M1 can drive only two screens at once, including the computer's internal display. We'd also expect configurations with more than 16 GB of RAM, the current maximum for M1 Macs.

A report from late last year suggested that a higher-performance chip destined for the MacBook Pros could include as many as 16 of Apple's performance cores, though more recent reporting suggests we could be looking at a chip with eight performance cores and two low-power efficiency cores. Even eight performance cores should be able to outpace the 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-core processors in today's Intel Macs. The M1X will also reportedly be available with either 16 or 32 GPU cores, compared to the seven or eight GPU cores included in the standard M1 (Apple could also improve graphics performance by increasing memory bandwidth, as it has done in some older iPad processors, but we haven't heard anything specific about that).

New MacBook Pros

New MacBook Pros that replace the four-port 13-inch MacBook Pro and the 16-inch MacBook Pro are the thing we're most likely to get out of Monday's event.

Apple's first few Apple Silicon Macs were very conservative from a design standpoint—the MacBook Air, two-port MacBook Pro, and Mac mini all put new guts into computers that looked identical to the ones they were replacing. But the new MacBook Pros could be a bit more adventurous, in the vein of the 24-inch iMac.

For example, persistent rumors claim that the 13-inch MacBook Pro could become a 14-inch MacBook Pro. And breadcrumbs left in some macOS betas suggest that Apple is working on laptops with higher-resolution screens that could obviate the need for the scaled, non-native resolution that all current MacBooks use out of the box. With a more efficient chip, Apple could also take the opportunity to shrink the 16-inch MacBook Pro's huge 100 WHr battery, reducing the 4.3-pound laptop's size and weight. Other improvements could include more energy-efficient mini LED backlighting for the displays and possibly even a 120 Hz refresh rate (the reporting for the 120 Hz refresh rate is thin, but it would dovetail nicely with macOS Monterey's support for external monitors with variable refresh rates).

Other rumors suggest that Apple will walk back some of the more controversial changes made to the MacBook Pro back in 2016, the last time the laptops got a comprehensive overhaul. Alleged schematics from earlier this year suggest that the MagSafe power connector could make a return, along with a full-size HDMI port and an SD card slot. These changes would reduce the number of Thunderbolt ports to three, but having a few kinds of ports would still make the laptops more convenient to use, on balance, for people who frequently use external displays or SD cards. The Touch Bar may also be removed in favor of a physical row of function keys.

A faster Mac mini

We'd say the new MacBook Pros are pretty much a sure thing, but there are a couple of less-likely-but-still-possible Mac refreshes Apple could introduce.

Apple already has an Apple Silicon Mac mini, but you may have noticed that the company continues to sell a version of the 2018 Intel Mac mini with more ports and up to 64GB of RAM. Recent rumors suggest that Apple could replace this machine with a sort of "Mac mini Pro," which would leverage the M1X's improved performance and expanded connectivity. The current Apple Silicon Mac mini is great for basic use or even light photo and video editing, but an M1X Mac mini would be a better workstation for code compilation or professional video editing, tasks that generally take advantage of all of the processing performance they can get.

A new large-screened iMac

The 27-inch iMac has slowly become Apple's mainstream workhorse desktop, thanks to CPUs with higher core counts and the Mac Pro's stratospheric pricing and intermittent update schedule. One day soon, we hope to see the 27-inch iMac get the same redesign and overhaul that Apple gave to the 24-inch iMac earlier this year. But the best information we have now suggests that this won't be one of the Macs we see on Monday. Reasonably reliable Apple leakers have said that the 27-incher was originally intended for release this year but that it was pushed back into 2022 at some point over the summer.

Take all Apple rumors with a grain of salt, of course—Apple could always surprise us, and there have been instances where the company has teased new hardware months ahead of its actual availability. But Apple is dealing with the same supply chain pressures that are making all kinds of computer parts and other components hard to get, and given that MacBooks generally outsell desktop Macs, it makes more sense to reserve more M1X chips for the MacBook Pros than it does to stretch supply thin by launching a bunch of different M1X computers all at the same time.

macOS Monterey

Here's another sure bet for Monday's event: either the actual release or a solid release date for macOS Monterey, currently in its 10th developer beta.

Monterey is a relatively minor release compared to the splashy redesign that Big Sur introduced last year. But the new operating system adds in many of the features and UI changes introduced in iOS and iPadOS 15, like Focus mode and iCloud+ privacy features like iCloud Private Relay and Hide My Email.

However, even this far into the beta process, the biggest Monterey features still seem like they aren't quite ready for prime time. Universal Control, the feature that allows you to use the same keyboard and mouse across multiple Macs and iPads, still needs to be enabled via Terminal commands as of the most recent beta. And Mac journalists and developers on Twitter have all been fairly critical of the user interface for Shortcuts on the Mac. Six Colors' Jason Snell sums it up well: "It works," but it's "really janky and weird."

That could still change between now and the public release, but it's worth noting that problems this noticeable are usually fixed by the time this many beta builds have been released. We'll be testing these features and tracking their progress in our thorough Monterey review, as usual.

New AirPods

Last but not least, some rumors suggest we could see a new version of Apple's basic AirPods. These headphones will probably be missing some advanced features reserved for the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, like Active Noise Cancellation, but rumors from earlier this year suggested that they could include shorter stems and a "new case design."

The standard AirPods were last updated in March of 2019—that refresh brought Bluetooth 5.0 support, hands-free "Hey Siri" support, a wireless charging case option, and a small boost to battery life but left the original design largely intact.

Related Stories “Unleashed”: Apple’s next, probably Mac-focused event happens October 18 We expect to hear news about faster Apple Silicon Macs and macOS Monterey. Redesigned AirPods are coming soon, report claims AirPods would have shorter stems, and AirPods Pro might have no stems at all. Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 241 Comments Comments Forum view Loading comments... Prev story Next story

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