Later this month, Apple will launch three new MacBooks. These will ship with the latest M4 Apple Silicon chipsets and, much like the recent iPhone launch, will place a heavy burden on the platform to deliver a successful generative AI experience to the faithful Apple community.
Yet, while all the attention is on the MacBook Pro line-up in general and the entry-level M4-powered MacBook Pro, the real game changer has yet to arrive. If consumers are looking for the macOS laptop best suited to their needs, they should wait.
In the early generations of the Mxx Apple Silicon series, Apple launched the base chipsets in with two MacBook Air models (a standard spec and a lower-specced entry-level model) alongside a consumer-focused MacBook Pro. Following tear downs from the likes of iFixit, it was found the MacBook Pro models running the first M1 chipsets were, broadly speaking, little more than the MacBook Air with some active cooling through a fan.
When the M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro models appeared with different physical configurations, it was clear that the first M1 MacBook Pro was an upgraded Air rather than a true MacBook Pro.
The same held true with the M2 MacBooks. The MacBook Pro with the vanilla M2 was more Air than Pro. For the M3 generation, Apple pulled a sneaky trick and launched the M3 MacBook Pro in November, waiting until March of the following year to release the M3 MacBook Air… consumers were denied the immediate and direct comparison to help their purchasing decision.
Apple looks to be pulling the same trick once again with the M4 family.
Three new MacBook Pro models are expected to appear at the upcoming October launch event. The professionally focused 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro will have options to use the more advanced and powerful M4 Pro and M4 Max chipsets. At the same time, the cheaper consumer-focused MacBook Pro will ship with the still relatively powerful but very much entry-level M4.
The MacBook Air is nowhere to be seen, although there are many reports it will appear in March 2025. If you’re looking for the base model, you’re looking at the MacBook Air… but Apple won’t officially show you that model for another six months. Instead, you’re left with the M4 MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air in all but name, and a far cry from the engineering and performance found in the genuine MacBook Pros also on sale.
There is one silver lining in all this. Apple has been consistently criticised for starting the MacBook Pro range with a paltry 8 GB of RAM. That looks set to change, with the base M4 MacBook Pro shipping with 256 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM. Why the increase? Apple Intelligence needs more memory to work with.
With the ambition to have Apple Intelligence across the entire platform, Apple will be forced to include the same RAM boost in the upcoming MacBook Air models, just as with the Pro models. Just as the iPhone 16 benefitted from the performance demands of generative AI, so will the MacBook Air.
The M4-powered MacBook Pro may look like an attractive alternative to the mighty M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pros, but if you want a powerful MacBook Air specced laptop… why not wait for the real thing?
Now read more on Apple’s hype over generative AI and how it damages the iPhone Pro brand…
