The Mac Studio was revealed back at Apple’s Spring presentation, and here we are almost a third of the way into 2022 with just one new Mac under its belt.
In the next eight months, we anticipate a slew of new Apple laptops and desktops, and we now have concrete proof that the firm is testing the next gear.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is now testing “at least nine” new Macs, each with a different version of the impending M2 processor.
Third-party app developer logs, which have been a reliable indicator of impending hardware in the past, show that Apple is testing its next machines against real-world software, according to the evidence. According to Bloomberg, “people familiar with the subject” have confirmed this.
The M2 seems to be coming in four varieties, much like the M1. In addition to the standard M2, there seem to be Pro, Max, and Ultra models.
MacBook Air 2022 (J413), Mac mini 2022 (J473), and an entry-level MacBook Pro 2022 (J413) all look to be receiving the entry-level vanilla M2 (J493). You may be feeling déjà vu at this point, since these are the same three pieces of gear that Apple used to reveal the original M1 processor.
A total of ten graphics processing units (GPUs) may be found on the M2 chip, which has the same eight cores as the M1.
Computers with M2 Pro and M2 Max chipsets are also an option to consider. Just like last year’s corresponding M1 chips, these upgraded processors look to be going into MacBook Pros (J414 and J416 respectively), but there is also an M2 Pro powered Mac mini (J474) in the works.
According to Bloomberg, the M2 Max has 12 CPU cores and 38 graphics cores, up from 10 and 32 in the existing M2 Pro model. In addition, 64GB of RAM is said to be included.
The Mac Pro 2022, codenamed J180, is the last M2-powered Mac to be released in 2018. In what looks to be a follow-up to the Mac Studio’s M1 Ultra, this purports to include the M2 improved version.
Finally, Bloomberg reports that Apple is testing a new Mac mini using the M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this, but it was commonly expected that the Mac Studio would have rendered these versions obsolete – but the firmware of the Studio Display seems to reference current models, so maybe not.
It seems like Apple will have a busy year ahead of it, despite Bloomberg’s explicit statement that not all of these models would definitely be published. If Apple has finally found its Apple Silicon groove, it seems to be based on the symmetrical distribution of M1 and M2 models throughout the many models of the high-end MacBook Pro, the desktop Ultra, as well as the entry-level MacBooks and the Mac mini.