The Fruity Cargo Cult Apple has refreshed its MacBook Pro and iMac with M6 processors, retaining their existing designs and considerably inflated prices.
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, while the 24-inch iMac costs $1,499. Both have received processor upgrades, but anyone expecting meaningful changes to the machines themselves will have to keep waiting.
Job’s Mob has carefully avoided increasing prices with this particular launch, having already inflicted the damage in June.
The entry-level MacBook Pro originally launched with an M5 processor and 512GB of storage for $1,599. Apple later removed that configuration, made 1TB standard, and raised the entry price to $1,699 in March.
June brought another increase to $1,999, meaning the new M6 model costs $400 more than the original entry-level M5 machine, though buyers now get twice the storage.
The iMac has suffered similar treatment. Its starting price climbed from $1,299 to $1,499 in June, more than 15 per cent, with Apple blaming rising memory costs.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook previously argued that soaring component prices had made increases unavoidable. Unfortunately for customers, those increases have held firm.
The new MacBook Pro looks identical to its predecessor, retaining the same chassis, display, keyboard, port arrangement and colour choices.
Memory starts at 16GB and tops out at 32GB, while the standard storage configuration remains 1TB. The Liquid Retina XDR display and advertised 24-hour battery life are unchanged.
The existing three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI connection, SDXC card reader and MagSafe charging port return.
The principal improvements come from the M6 processor, which features 12 CPU cores and 12 GPU cores. Apple claims graphics performance has improved by up to 30 per cent over the M5, though that remains a company benchmark. Apple’s N1 chip brings wireless connectivity, including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
The desktop iMac is just as familiar. It retains its 24-inch 4.5K display, thin enclosure and seven colour options, with no visible changes to the industrial design.
Job’s Mob skipped the M5 generation for the iMac, so the move from M4 to M6 delivers a bigger processor upgrade.
The base model now features a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, compared with eight cores each in the previous entry-level machine. A more expensive $1,699 configuration offers 12 CPU cores and 12 GPU cores.
Apple claims the updated processor delivers up to five times the on-device AI performance of the M4 version, while SSD performance can be twice as fast.
Unfortunately, the base iMac still ships with just 256GB of storage and 16GB of unified memory, which seems particularly stingy for a desktop costing $1,499.
Customers who want more storage or memory must pay for upgrades, while the cheaper version remains limited to two Thunderbolt ports. The more expensive configuration provides four Thunderbolt ports and includes 2.5Gb Ethernet. Buyers of the base model must spend another $30 for the faster wired connection.
Apple has found more ways to raise accessory costs. The company now charges $50 to replace the supplied Magic Mouse with a Magic Trackpad, while reducing keyboard configuration choices.
These decisions make the iMac look increasingly expensive next to conventional desktop systems, especially when you consider storage capacity, upgrade options, and connectivity.
The MacBook Pro faces a similar problem. Its M6 processor should deliver better performance, but the rest of the hardware is so familiar that even Apple-focused publications have described the machine as an unexciting update. Neither machine offers much reason for recent owners to upgrade unless their workloads can take advantage of the additional processing power.
Both computers can be pre-ordered from 28 October, with deliveries scheduled to begin on 6 November. The launches precede Apple’s Pro and tell event in Los Angeles, where Bloomberg has reported that the company could introduce its first touchscreen MacBook Pro.
That machine might finally give customers something visibly different for their money, although Apple’s recent pricing behaviour suggests they should prepare their credit cards accordingly.
