New M3 MacBook Pro box may have been leaked
An unverifiable source has shown what they claim is a photo of the box for a new, as yet unannounced MacBook Pro.
The claimed new MacBook Pro box
Apple is certain to be releasing Macs at its forthcoming "Scary Fast" event, not least given the prominent promotion of an Halloween redesign for the famous Happy Mac icon. However, there are conflicting reports over what Mac updates there could be.
An image on Chinese social media site Weibo suggests that the event is at least going to include a MacBook Pro. As relayed on Twitter/X by leaker ShrimpApplePro, the image shows a box with a typical Apple-style image of a MacBook Pro, but no details whatsoever.
I guess this is the new MacBook Pro
Source: Weibo pic.twitter.com/tdppFixOgJ-- ShrimpApplePro (@VNchocoTaco)
The design fits Apple's previous work, and there are no obvious signs of alterations to the image. Based on the thickness of the base, it does appear to be a MacBook Pro rather than another update to the MacBook Air, though.
There are very recent rumors of an M3 MacBook Pro launching in October, but until Tuesday's about-faces, the consensus is that it would not ship until 2024. Other reports say a 24-inch iMac is coming, while analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has even claimed that the old 13-inch MacBook Pro will get a refresh.
Apple will unveil the new Mac, or Macs, at the "Scary Fast" event on October 30, 2023.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Or there was one weird rumor of Apple trying to put the M2 Ultra in a laptop (presumably 16" only)... I have no idea whether heat and power would allow that in an Apple-approved laptop chassis. It certainly WOULD work in a larger gaming or workstation chassis, but would it just drop in to the 16" MBP?
Highest chance is M3 Pro/Max, then probably a weird upgrade, then a 13" redesign with feet, then the M2 Ultra??? I'd think a redesign would merit a bigger event?
https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/
The 14" MBP has an XDR display, M2 Pro, 16GB/512GB = $1999.
If they have a 14" screen like the Air non-XDR (-$200), M2 (-$300), 12GB/256GB (-$200), that can hit the same $1299 price point and remove the touchbar.
They can update the 24" iMac with the same M3 chip. They could update every M2 Mac with M3 at the same time but it would make sense to push the Airs out to 2024 as they are the highest volume and the 15" was recently updated.
The 14"/16" were also updated this year in January so aren't due a refresh.
They can update them all if they want though, that's the benefit of having their own manufacturing.
The 13" dies, and we get a 14" M3 — and later a 14" M3 Pro/Max. The 16" stays Pro/Max only.
In April, Mark Gurman reported on a new Mac15,3 model found in developer logs running Sonoma (then-unreleased) with the 14" screen resolution but a CPU configuration that matched the base M2. At the time he thought this would be the forthcoming 15" Macbook Air M2, however that ended up launching as Mac14,15 with a lower resolution screen than Mac15,3. Instead I think we were getting an early clue of what the M3 generation of MBP would look like.
The current 13" design with Touchbar was originally a cut-down variant of the higher-end 13" MBP design, the only major design difference from the higher end MBP was that it had 2 Thunderbolt ports rather than 4. But now, this 13" MBP M2 design is super outdated, it's still the last Macbook hanging on to the discontinued Touchbar, while the 14" and 16" models got an all new chassis design in 2021 in the M1 generation. It's long overdue for the entry-level MBP model to fall in line with the rest of the current MBP design. So Apple can say with a straight face again "the Macbook Pro starts at $1299" (or $1399 or whatever it will become.)
Called it! — except that I didn't expect the M3 Pro/Max to be ready just yet.