It seems that Apple may be saving its M2 Pro or M2 Max chips for later iterations of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, according to new rumors.
Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros featuring M2 chips are set to enter production in Q4 2022, but also that these chips will most likely not use TSMC’s 3nm process, which is widely believed to be what the M2 Pro or M2 Max silicon will be built on.
The 3nm node won’t be entering production until the first half of 2023, so the upcoming Pro models will likely be using the same 5nm node as the standard M2 in the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13-inch, which are the current M2 chips. Going by Apple’s previous track record with its laptop releases, there’s a good chance these rumors are true.
Even more evidence in favor of an M2 Pro/Max refresh next year
Kuo and Trusted Reviews aren’t the only sources claiming that Apple will give its MacBook Pros the M2 Pro or M2 Max upgrade.
According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, who made his prediction through his Power On newsletter back in July 2022, the Pro refresh will get the upgraded silicon between Q1 2023 and Q3 2023. He also predicted that the new, high-specced M2 chips will focus more on the graphical side of things, which tracks with the M1 Pro and M1 Max before it.
It’ll be interesting to see what the new M2 chips will have to offer though, hopefully, it won’t have the issue that the current M2 MacBook Pro has, like slower SSD speeds, compared to the M1 MacBook Pro.
As with all things Apple though, you can’t know until Apple makes an announcement, so be sure to take everything with a grain of salt.