What will the next Macs be on Apple Silicon?

With its Apple M1 chip, Apple has made an impression by promising significant progress in terms of both power and energy efficiency, which translates into significantly increased battery life for laptops. After the MacBook Air, the entry-level 13.3 “MacBook Pro and the Mac mini, what will be the next machines to switch to the Apple Silicon architecture?

Apple recalled earlier this week that the transition from Mac to Apple Silicon chips will take place over a two-year period. Without saying it explicitly, Apple made it clear that it would go – logically – from the least to the most powerful computers, the time to perfect its architecture and create the most muscular models of processors. So we can be pretty sure that the Mac Pro will be the last to join the party in 2022. In the meantime, we will have to update the iMac and the rest of the MacBook Pros, and Apple could have some surprises in store for us.

As for the iMac, many observers – including ourselves – believed that Apple’s all-in-one would be part of this first wave of updates. It’s an iconic computer, and it’s also a very popular computer with the general public, at least as far as the 21.5 “model is concerned, which does not necessarily require inordinate power. A redesign is long overdue. , and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo mentioned last June a model with a screen with a diagonal of 24 “with reduced borders. Mentions of support for Face ID facial recognition were also spotted in the beta version of macOS 11.0 Big Sur, a sign that an iMac with biometric authentication should be in the pipeline.

However, it seems that Apple preferred not to launch without being able to integrate a graphics card dedicated to its all-in-one. Indeed, Apple has already warned that Macs with ARM chips would not be equipped with third-party graphics cards, and the Apple M1 chip is content with an integrated graphics processor. Indiscretions speak precisely of the launch of a dedicated graphics card in 2021, which should therefore allow Apple to finally present its redesign of the iMac. The upcoming segmentation of the range remains to be seen: it is likely that the successor to the 27 “iMac will not be satisfied with an Apple M1 or M2 chip, but requires another beefier range (Apple M1X or M2X, on the same principle as the chip of the iPad Pro?).

IMac Concept Inspired by iPad Pro – By MacRumors

As for the MacBook Pro, the segmentation of the range is also questionable. With the M1 chip, Apple has shown us that it can upset its habits by equipping a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro with the same processor. It is therefore difficult to rely on Apple’s history with Intel processors to draw conclusions about the upcoming range. Side rumors, Ming-Chi Kuo promises in any case a complete change of the range in the second or third quarter of 2021, with a passage to a diagonal of 14 “with reduced margins for the small model (only the one with four ports?). The adoption of a Mini-LED screen would also be part, and we imagine that the MacBook Pro 16 “will benefit like the iMac from a dedicated graphics card.

While waiting for the arrival of the Apple Silicon models, could Apple update the 16 “MacBook Pro with an Intel processor one last time? In a release note of a Boot Camp update, Apple had made the month last mention of a 16 “MacBook Pro from 2020. However, the 16” MacBook Pro has not been updated since 2019 and ARM Macs do not support Boot Camp. Was this a simple one? Apple could have released this update this week at the same time as the Macs with the M1 chip, even if it means announcing significant delays if it was not quite ready. If the redesign with Apple Silicon is well planned. here next summer, the timing now seems a bit tight for a final update …

(read: New rumors for the 14.1 ” MacBook Pro in 2021)

If the Mac Pro does well in 2022, Apple might have a little surprise in store for us a little earlier when it comes to desktops. According to Mark Gurman, Apple would prepare a Mac Pro of a new kind which would have a design close to the current model but which would be twice as small. We do not know for the moment whether this model would be intended to replace the current model or if this “Mac Pro mini” would rather be intended to make the link between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. There is in any case a Mac mini with Intel processor in the catalog, and it shows us two elements that Apple will undoubtedly tackle next year: support for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and the possibility of going beyond 16 GB of RAM.