7 years ago, the MacBook Pro received a redesign featuring a fresh chassis, a new keyboard, and the controversial touch bar in place of the function row. Now, almost a decade later, the design is still going strong, as Apple seems to have settled into a yearly chip upgrade in the machine to keep it fresh. This year now appears no different, as Apple looks to put the 3nm process-made M3 chip into the aging chassis.
As reported by 9to5 Mac (opens in new tab), which learned that Apple plans on releasing the refresh this year, The MacBook Pro will come alongside new MacBook Air Models and even a new iMac.
The newest chip on the block
The M3 is the first of its kind – a mobile processor made in the 3nm process. That means that the chip will be more efficient than chips made on the older 4nm process, as well as much faster. This comes after news that Apple has bought the entire first order and supply of 3nm chips, so it evidently looks to become the market leader in the technology.
The new 3nm produced chips are set to release in the second half of this year, so that gives a good release window for the new Macs with M3 chips inside. Those chips are reported to have a 70% logic density gain over the current chips, providing boosts of up to 15% using similar amounts of power, or 30% power reduction at the same speeds as the current lineup. That means more efficiency and fewer power-hungry processors for both Macs and iPhones.
This year looks to be a big one for the best Macs with the new M-chips coming out that seem to be going in a wider range of machines than last year. That includes this slightly bizarre MacBook Pro upgrade, in a machine many thought would be dead by now.
