At the WWDC developer conference, Apple heralded the next round in the processor race with the M2. Now there are the first rumors about the associated devices.
Apple is rumored to be planning several MacBooks in new formats. Some of these are sizes that already existed in the past and are to be reintroduced. The aim of the US group is to gain further market shares in the notebook business. There is also speculation about an iPad with a 14-inch screen. The rumors come in the wake of the M2 chip re-launch unveiled at the WWDC developer conference.
15-inch MacBook Air
The redesigned 13-inch MacBook Air, 6-inch format, a larger model with the same design will be available at the beginning of 2023. The screen is intended to have a diagonal of 15 inches (approx. 38 cm). It would be the first time in the thin and light notebook’s 14-year history that there’s such a large variant, reports Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, citing sources at Apple. Introduced by Steve Jobs in 2008, the MacBook Air has been completely redesigned by Apple. It now looks more like a MacBook Pro, since Apple has dispensed with the distinctive wedge-shaped design. According to Gurman, the larger version should actually appear first – but Apple then gave preference to the previous size of the bestseller.
Return of the 12-inch MacBook
Even with the smaller notebook sizes According to the Gurman report, Apple wants to get involved again. A MacBook with a screen diagonal of 12 inches (approx. 30 cm) is to be released at the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024. It would follow on from the MacBook that was discontinued in 2019. The format has a long tradition at Apple: in the early 2000s there was a 12-inch PowerBook. An 11.6-inch version of the MacBook Air also existed for a number of years.
There has been speculation about a new device of this size for some time, as Apple has made an important prerequisite for this with the introduction of its own energy-saving chips has created. Gurman is not yet able to say whether this MacBook will be marketed as a MacBook Pro in the future.
M2 Pro and M2 Max in the MacBook Pro
Gurman’s forecast that the end of the year with new MacBook Pro models in the existing 14 and 16 inch format can be expected. These take up the M2 processor line presented at the WWDC and expand it with the variants M2 Pro and M2 Max. There have already been rumors about both in the last few days, as these deviate from the M2 basic model, which like the M1 still has 5 nanometer structures, are to be produced for the first time in the 3-nanometer construction method. However, the models marketed under the code names J414 and J416 at Apple could also be delayed until spring 2023 in view of global supply chain problems.
The M2 Max chip is said to have 12 CPU cores and 38 graphics cores. For comparison, the current high-performance variant of the M1, the M1 Max, has a maximum of 10 CPU and 32 graphics cores.
M2 chip in the iPad Pro
The assumption that Apple will also install the new M2 chip in the iPad in the future. The predecessor chip, the M1, is used in the current models of the iPad Pro and iPad Air.
What’s new is that Apple is said to be launching a larger one in addition to the updated 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models Variant plans. This should fully exploit the advantages of the Stage Manager function presented in iPadOS 16. The window manager extends the previous options for using apps simultaneously.
New 14.1-inch iPad Pro
Gurman predicts the updated iPad Pro models for the end of 2022 . The larger, new version, on the other hand, is not expected until 2023. Ross Young, who has worked in the display supply industry for 25 years and has many contacts, claims to have learned that this large iPad Pro is said to have a 14.1-inch display (approx. 36 cm).
As with the current models of the iPad Pro, Apple relies on mini-LED technology and the screen should also support ProMotion, i.e. the repetition rate of 120 frames per second. Young bases his statements on sources in the display industry.
