Apple launches 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac with new M6 chip; pre-orders open 28 October

Apple on Tuesday 27 October announced a new 14-inch MacBook Pro and a new 24-inch iMac, both powered by its new M6 chip, in two press releases from its Cupertino, California headquarters. The announcement came a day after the company unveiled a new iPad mini with an OLED display.

Apple said the M6 in the MacBook Pro has a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU, two more cores of each than the M5, and that graphics are up to 30% faster and on-device AI tasks up to 25% faster than the previous model, based on its own testing. The laptop adds Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and Apple quoted battery life of up to 24 hours, which it called the longest ever in a Mac. It comes with 16GB of memory, configurable up to 32GB.

The iMac comes in 10-core and 12-core M6 versions and seven colours. Apple said it offers up to twice the graphics performance of the M4 iMac, adds Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and offers 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet on the 12-core models.

“With the powerful M6 chip, we’re taking performance to the next level,” said Shelly Goldberg, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering.

In the US, the MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and the iMac at $1,499, or $1,699 for the 12-core model. Pre-orders open on Wednesday 28 October in 35 countries and regions, and both go on sale on Friday 6 November, Apple said.