Mighty new M2 Pro/Max MacBook Pros could launch in 2022, 'won't be radically new'

MacBook Pro 2021 Review (Image credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / iMore)

What you need to know

Apple is thought to be readying the launch of upgraded 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
New M2 Pro and M2 Max chips could ship before the end of 2022.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also believes that new Mac mini and Mac Pro hardware is still being worked on.

Apple's already-speedy 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro notebooks could get even more impressive with new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips later this year, according to a new report.

The new MacBook Pro is already available in M1 Pro and M1 Max Apple silicon configurations, but with the new MacBook Air making the jump to M2 it's only a matter of time before the high-end Pro machines do the same. That, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, could happen as soon as the end of this year — although it's possible buyers might need to wait until 2023 depending on manufacturing capacity given the current issues being experienced in terms of supply chain delays.

Apple is also planning new high-end MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips for as early as the end of 2022, though the release date may slip into early 2023. These new 14-inch and 16-inch models, codenamed J414 and J416, won't be radically new products beyond offering the speedier chips. Apple is also releasing a new 13-inch MacBook Pro next month with the same M2 chip as the MacBook Air.

Gurman goes on to say that the M2 Max is expected to offer 12 processing cores and up to 38 graphics cores.

The same report also suggests that Apple's Mac Pro is in continued testing within the company, while an updated Mac mini is in the works. As is perhaps to be expected, the M3 chips are also being looked at with thoughts turning to future iMac products.

The currently 16-inch MacBook Air is the best Mac money can buy in terms of portability and performance, but that will only remain the case until it's replaced by a new model powered by upgraded Apple silicon. The prospect of that happening before the end of 2022 isn't an alien one, but given the fact buying an M1 variant today won't see it delivered for a number of weeks, we could get to the point where MacBook Pro buyers get upgraded to new machines before their even ship.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.