Continuing its steady march of new product announcements, Apple has introduced a new 14-inch MacBook Pro powered by M6.
Like the new iMac released alongside it, this update is strictly a chip bump.
M6 Performance Boost
Apple is offering the M6 MacBook Pro in a single chip configuration with a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU. That’s an additional two cores for both the CPU and GPU compared to the M5 configuration available on the previous generation.
Apple says M6 improves graphics performance by up to 30 percent over M5, while some on-device AI workloads run up to 25 percent faster. The chip also incorporates a third-generation ray-tracing engine and Dynamic Caching for demanding visual workloads. In Apple’s tests, Blender ray-tracing renders and Xcode project builds were each up to 30 percent faster than on the M5 14-inch MacBook Pro. The bump to M6 is more dramatic for owners of older Macs. Apple reports up to 11.7x faster Blender ray-tracing rendering than on the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro.
The M6 GPU also includes Neural Accelerators in every core, alongside a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Apple says the Neural Engine itself is up to 1.9 times faster than M5, helping with tasks such as image generation, AI upscaling, and Apple Intelligence features.
The MacBook Pro starts with 16GB of unified memory and can be configured with up to 32GB. Memory bandwidth reaches 170GB/s. Internal storage can be upgraded all the way up to 4TB.
Display and Connectivity
The excellent 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display remains the main reason you would opt for this MacBook Pro over the less expensive MacBook Air. The display offers up to 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness and an optional nano-texture finish for reducing glare. Apple rates battery life at up to 24 hours, and fast charging can reach 50 percent in about 30 minutes with a compatible higher-wattage adapter.
Connectivity is another advantage of the base model pro. The laptop includes three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, MagSafe 3, and a headphone jack, with support for up to two external displays.
Thanks to the inclusion of Apple’s N1 networking chip, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 are new additions. The 12MP Center Stage camera, studio-quality microphone array, and six-speaker sound system carry forward from the previous generation.
Pricing and Availability
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 starts at $1,999, or $1,899 with education pricing, and comes in space black and silver. Pre-orders begin October 28, with availability starting November 6.
