Mac mini: Is Apple skipping the M3?
Apple has still not updated its entry-level desktop Mac to the latest SoC. And what will happen to the Mac Studio and Mac Pro? There are new rumors.
Apple's Mac mini: Still waiting for a new SoC.
(Bild: Apple)
Apple's product strategy is actually to upgrade its entire model series to the latest SoC. There are now MacBook Pro models with an M3 chip, the MacBook Air M3 and the iMac M3 all-in-one computer. What is still missing, however, are the desktops without a screen – Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro. There are now new speculations about the Mac mini – and they look rather unattractive.
Skipped like the iMac M2?
As the usually well-informed journalist Mark Gurman from the financial news agency Bloomberg wrote in his newsletter over the weekend, it is conceivable that Apple will simply skip the M3 generation of the Mac mini. "At this point, I no longer believe [in a Mac mini M3]." However, this would not be entirely new, as at least the iMac has never been available in M2 guise. Instead, Apple skipped the variant and went straight from the iMac M1 to the iMac M3 – albeit years later.
According to Gurman, however, M4 and M4 Pro versions of the small desktop computer are planned. The new Mac minis are due to come onto the market towards the end of this year, which leaves little time for an M3 variant. "So you can probably assume that these Mac desktops will skip the M3 generation."
Mac Pro also only with M4
According to Gurman, the same also applies to the Mac Pro, Apple's workstation. This is designed for long-term use anyway, if only because of the high entry-level price of 8300 euros (cheaper in stores). Apple is also working on a new connection technology for Ultra chips, which could apparently also make a dual Ultra – which would then be called "Extreme" – possible.
It remains unclear what Apple will do with the Mac Studio. This was released in both M1 and M2 versions, the latter of which is still current. Here, too, it would be conceivable to skip the M3 generation. Alternatively, Apple could present the new model in the summer, to coincide with the WWDC developer conference, which will be held in June. However, the aforementioned Ultra chip is still missing, only M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max are available so far – the latter currently only in notebook versions. The Mac Studio with M2 Max and M2 Ultra was launched in March 2022.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
