This was a week full of Mac releases, starting on Monday with a new iMac. It has a 24-inch display and is powered by the M4 chip. Note that there are two chips, both called “M4” – one with 8 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores and one with 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores.
The 24-inch screen is the same 4.5K panel as the previous model, but now it’s also available with nano-textured glass (but it’s a $200 upgrade). If you need more displays, Thunderbolt can drive two external 6K 60 Hz displays or one 8K 120 Hz display.
That is anyway the more expensive variant, which has four Thunderbolt 4 cores. The cheaper one only has two ports and only supports one 6K 60Hz external display. One last thing: the built-in camera has been upgraded to 12 MP 1080p with Center Stage support.
Another option for the desktop is the new Apple Mac mini. It’s small but powerful: it’s 5” square and you can use it with an M4 chipset (10 core CPU, 10 core GPU) or an M4 Pro (12 core CPU, 16 core GPU).
These two options come with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage or 24GB and 512GB of storage respectively. Note that the vanilla M4 comes with three Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M4 Pro has been upgraded to Thunderbolt 5.
Apple has also upgraded the MacBook Pro 14.2” and 16.2” with M4 chips. You can choose between an M4 (the 10 core variant), M4 Pro (note: there are two versions 12c/16c and 16c/20c) and the beastly M4 Max (14 CPU cores, 32 GPU cores or 16 CPU and 32 GPU cores).
Here too, the version of Thunderbolt you get depends on the chip: TB 4 on the M4 and TB 5 on the M4 Pro and Max. The smaller 14.2” model now has three ports. The displays are 120 Hz Liquid Retina XDR and have 12 MP cameras with Center Stage.
The new Macs are currently on pre-order and will be released on November 8 (next Friday).
By the way, Apple has also upgraded the older Mac models to have 16 GB of RAM in their base configuration. And retailers stocking 8GB variants want to get rid of them.
The 2022 MacBook Air 13.6 (with an M2 chip) is available for just $700, after a $100 discount and a $200 coupon. The 8/256GB configuration is limiting, but if you can make it work , this might be the best $700 laptop right now.
The 2024 MacBook Air 13 (this one with an M3 chip) can be yours for $850 if you click on the coupon. Again, 8/256GB isn’t perfect, but a 16/256GB M2 model from Apple.com costs $1,000 and the M3 model costs $1,100.
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