In brief: Apple's slow drip of new product releases continues on Tuesday with the introduction of a refreshed MacBook Pro featuring the company's new M6 processor. The chip is comprised of a 12-core CPU, a 12-core GPU with neural accelerators in each core, a dual 16-core Neural Engine for AI workloads, and unified memory for faster overall performance.
The M6 features two additional CPU and GPU cores compared to the previous M5. According to Apple, the GPU delivers up to 30% faster graphics performance and 25% faster on-device AI performance.
The dual 16-core Neural Engine, meanwhile, is said to be 1.9x faster than the M5. Memory bandwidth tops out at 170GB/s, up from 153GB/s, but you'll need a model with 24GB or 32GB of RAM to realize the additional bandwidth (the base model includes just 16GB of memory).
Battery life is rated at up to 24 hours overall, which Apple claims is about four hours more for those coming from an M1 chip and a whopping 14 hours more for "Intel-based upgraders." Wireless connectivity has been upgraded to Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 6, from Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
Much of the rest of the laptop remains unchanged from the base M5 model, including the 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate, 1TB of base local storage, a six-speaker sound system with support for Spatial Audio, and a 12MP Center Stage front-facing camera. Port selection is the same as well, with three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports, an HDMI port, and an SDXC cart slot.
Even the dimensions and weight are identical to the previous model, measuring 0.61 inches (H), 12.31 inches (W), and 8.71 inches (D), and tipping the scales at 3.4 pounds.
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 will be available to pre-order starting tomorrow (October 28) from $1,999 in your choice of black or silver. Like other recent Apple devices, there is an option to upgrade to a nano-texture display that reduces glare for an additional fee. Look for it to ship on November 6.