Dubious Report Suggests New MacBook Pro Models Coming This Fall

Although 2023 has been a relatively quiet year for Apple’s MacBooks, a new supply chain report offers a glimmer of hope that this might change in the form of new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBooks Pro expected to land by the end of 2023.

For reasons we’ll get into shortly, this one is best taken with a larger-than-usual dose of salt. However, DigiTimes suggests that Apple might be preparing to refresh its top-end MacBook Pro models with brighter and more power-efficient mini-LED displays in the upcoming weeks.

However, according to the report’s sources, Apple isn’t planning to let the new mini-LED displays get any brighter than they already are; instead, the ability for more luminance translates to lower power consumption. In short, Apple plans to run the displays at the same brightness while using less power.

Apple is expected to ship new models of 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro devices in the fourth quarter of 2023 with miniLED backlighting that can increase the display brightness by 10% compared to the first-generation specifications, the sources said.

DigiTimes

Oddly, the report focuses only on the display improvements, which suggests that little else is in the pipeline for these new MacBooks.

That’s not surprising since Apple only released the current M2 Pro/Max configurations in January, and while Apple might have its M3 chip ready to go this year, it seems a bit too soon for an M3 Pro/Max combo. By comparison, the M1 Pro/Max came out nearly a year after the M1 debuted, and the M2 Pro/Max landed with the current MacBooks Pro in January, six months after it appeared in the mid-2022 MacBook Air.

While there have been some reports that an M3 iMac could make an appearance this month, the jury is still out even on that one. The 24-inch iMac, which launched in early 2021 with an M1 chip, is overdue for an update, but it’s also long been expected to skip the M2 and go straight to the M3.

However, the rumor mill has been pretty quiet about Apple’s M3 Mac updates in recent months, with the only solid report coming from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who revealed that an M3 Mac mini and M3 Max MacBook Pro are being tested but aren’t expected to see a release until mid-2024, a timeline that’s also corroborated by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Nevertheless, there are hints that at least one new Mac is coming very soon; it’s just highly unlikely that it will be a MacBook Pro — at least not one of the higher-end models. Earlier this week, MacRumors discovered that Apple is planning to begin accepting new Mac trade-ins sometime this month, which is a move that typically precedes the release of a new Mac. The same thing happened in June when Apple began taking trade-ins of its 2021 Mac Studio and 2022 M2 MacBooks just before unveiling the M2 Mac Studio and 15-inch MacBook Air.

This leaves us with the possibility that we could see at least one M3-powered Mac show up soon. While the new 24-inch iMac seems like the likeliest candidate, as it’s been over two years since it was last refreshed, it’s also possible this could be the 13-inch MacBook Pro or even a 13-inch MacBook Air.

While we’ve heard nothing about an October Apple event, this isn’t strictly a prerequisite for launching a new Mac. Apple often announces new Macs with mere spec bumps via press releases rather than standalone events, as it did with the current 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, which were ultimately just M2 Pro/Max updates to the redesigned versions that Apple showed off two years ago. There’s no indication that a new iMac, MacBook Air, or 13-inch MacBook Pro will offer anything significantly new beyond the M3 chip, so if one or more of these show up this fall, expect it to be a much quieter affair.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]