This year has been a pretty slow one for the Mac so far, with only the M3 MacBook Air bringing any kind of update to Apple’s computer lineup. But that’s all set to change over the course of 2024, with a broad range of Macs poised to get the M4 series of chips in the coming months. In fact, it could be the first time that every Mac will be on the same family of chips.
That means if you’re looking to upgrade your Apple computer, this could be the time to do it. Wait just a few more months and you’ll have a huge range of up-to-date Macs to choose from, with everything from the MacBook Pro to the Mac Studio joining the M4 series by this time next year.
Let’s take a look at which Macs will be getting the M4 chip, when they’ll be getting it, and what you can expect from Apple in 2024 and beyond.
MacBook Pros, iMacs, and more
Despite being well into 2024, Apple is far from finished when it comes to launching new M4-series Macs this year. According to Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, Apple has plenty more up its sleeve in this department.
Between the end of 2024 and early 2025, Gurman reckons Apple will launch an array of desktop and laptop Macs powered by the M4. That includes the MacBook Pro in both 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. The former will come with the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chip options. The latter, meanwhile, will offer the M4 Pro and M4 Max. As well as that, we should see an M4 iMac and a new Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro chip options.
While new chips are a near certainty, we’re not expecting much in the way of hardware changes, at least for the foreseeable future. That applies to every Mac mentioned above, with hardware updates (like the OLED MacBook Pro, for instance) expected over the next few years. So, if you don’t like the design of the current MacBook Pro or iMac, you’ll need to be patient. Still, the M4 MacBook Pro certainly has plenty of hype behind it, especially for its enhanced Neural Engine to utilize Apple Intelligence.
Here are the rumored releases in one big list:
- MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4)
- MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4 Pro and M4 Max)
- MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro and M4 Max)
- iMac (M4)
- Mac mini (M4 and M4 Pro)
M4 Macs coming in 2025 and beyond
So that’s what’s coming in 2024, at least according to Gurman. But what about next year? Here, Gurman believes that new M4 Macs will continue to arrive throughout 2025, so there will be plenty to look forward to.
Starting in the spring, Gurman says we’ll see both the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air get an M4 revamp. That means there will only be about a year between this device’s M3 upgrade and its new M4 version, marking a pretty rapid upgrade for the thin and light laptop.
After that, the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro should join the M4 family in the second half of the year. Specifically, the Mac Studio will get the M4 Max and the M4 Ultra, while the Mac Pro will launch with the M4 Ultra. Both of these computers moved to the M2 series in summer 2023, and Gurman believes they’ll completely skip the M3 generation of chips.
Once the Mac Studio and Mac Pro step up to the M4 series, every Mac that Apple sells will come with some variant of this chip. No longer will there be the odd straggler (like the current Mac Studio and Mac Pro, which are still stuck on the M2 series), giving you plenty of choice if you are looking for a new Mac.
Which Macs have Apple already launched in 2024?
As we mentioned above, Apple has released a couple of new Macs in 2024, although the release schedule has been pretty sparse. Notably, none have featured the M4 chip so far.
In fact, the only new Macs we’ve already seen have been the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models, which launched with the M3 chip in March 2024. The exterior design of these laptops remained exactly the same as their previous M2 versions, but Apple did add support for two external displays (providing the MacBook Air’s lid was closed).
Strangely, we have already seen the M4, even though it hasn’t yet come to any Macs. That’s because the M4 chip has already landed in the 2024 iPad Pro — in fact, this tablet was the first Apple device to come with an M4 chip, being outfitted with it even before it appeared in the Mac line. That was a highly unusual move on Apple’s part.
It won’t remain this way for long, though. With the entire Mac roster due to migrate to the M4 series over the next few months, 2024 and 2025 could mark some sizable milestones in the Mac upgrade cycle.
