Kuo: 'M3 Series MacBook Pro' to Be Focus of Apple's October 30 Event

[MacRazySwe]

As much we all dislike this "fake" MacBook Pro, it has its place. If Apple removes the Touch Bar while adding MagSafe and M2/M3 Pro option (for multiple external displays), it could be compelling for many.

It really doesn't.

The MacBook Air M2 is a superior laptop for the 13" crowd. Lighter weight, bigger display, better Facetime camera, Bluetooth 5.3, and, despite all this, cheaper, and with a thinner case.

For the people that really need a "Pro" and are willing to sacrifice weight and thinness, there is the 14" model with much better performance - better cooling (i.e. it has fans), faster Pro chips, more RAM et.c. for not much more.

The only reason I see the for the "Fake Pro" as you call it is the Touch Bar (which was controversial to begin with) and maybe most importantly - a lot of organisations worldwide that wrongfully believe their users need a Pro to do any actual work, so they purchase the old and cheap Pro, not knowing that the Air is actually the better option. I tend to see this a lot.

I think Apple should focus on bringing down the price of the "new Pro" and retire this old Touch Bar thingy.

 

[ghanwani]

Why am I not excited? I check MR multiple times a day, yet the last time something from Apple was of interest for me was with the SE 2022. I've all but written off their laptops and OLED iPhones because of eyestrain issues.

 

[0227114]

Aaaaaaand looks like I’ll be cancelling / returning my M2 Max 64GB 2TB order I suppose? Meant to arrive 1st November so perfect timing to see if this is true or not

 

[Greggers135]

My money is on a M2 refresh of the iMac and a A17Pro Apple TV to better bring the AAA gaming experience they are porting to iPhone to the TV.

 

[Saturn1217]

I would not be surprised (disappointed but not surprised) if this event ONLY featured the 13” M3 MBP. It has a fan so it is the perfect machine to showcase M3 (non-pro) performance improvements. I think that’s the real reason they don’t get rid of it.

Maybe they’ll also show off the iMacs with M3.

I’d love to be wrong but M3 Pro/Max MBPs being released BEFORE the MacBook Air refresh seems unlikely.

 

[GMShadow]

When was the last time MBP's were updated twice in the same year? I think 2012?

2006 had two - the initial Core Duo releases in January/February/April and the Core 2 Duo releases in October.
2011 had Early/Late but those were just spec bumps really.
2013 had Early 2013 which were spec bumps of the 2012s, then Late 2013 which moved CPU/GPU generations and saw *significant* battery life gains. Storage also moved to PCIe.
2019 had an update to the 15" in May, then it was replaced with the 16" in November.
2020 had the Intel 13" come out in May, then the lower-end model was replaced with the M1 in November.

 

[victorvictoria]

I don't need faster tech. I need smarter tech. Soooo many new features spring up with every update, and 90% of users have no idea what they do, much less how to use them. I worked for Apple for 11 years and it took me a week to set up 4 light bulbs in the Home app. Everything that could go wrong did. And Apple was no help. Still haven't figured out why my automations still don't work. I'll figure it all out eventually, but why should I have to? Why don't things jiust work?

 

[chucker23n1]

If this M3 Pro and Max goes straight from A15 cores to A17 cores, and has a proportional change in clock, the Max would score 3,466 / 18,854 (26.7% / 30.1% up). The high end of AMD, the Ryzen 9 7945HX, scores 2,705 / 15,309. Intel's Raptor Lake Core i9-13980HX seems to score around the same.

But, I'm not sure we'll quite get that. I wonder if production issues at TSMC mean that they'll instead either

a) go to A16 cores, or
b) use A17 cores but at the same process node as the M2, and as a result probably have to clock lower.

I'm not even sure how practical it would be to make the M3 Max at the M2's process node. It would be quite large. Maybe they can barely do the Max that way, but not the Ultra.

In both cases, we won't see quite as much of a bump.

But, reading the tea leaves: "scary fast". One can dream.

 

[AND411]

Only m3 I want is 15” Air

It is completely unlikely that the MBA 15 will be upgraded after just over 4 months.

 

[0227114]

Possibly an M2 Ultra MBP on the way?

 

[ThaRuler]

Should I watch Monday Night Football or this?

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

MrKevin is ready for an M3 screamer. Looking forward to the inevitable price cut on the MBP also.

Also Ming Chi No. The man has Prossered himself.

 

[nostaws]

All wrong. Will announce their Apple car/titan project.

 

[chucker23n1]

As much we all dislike this "fake" MacBook Pro, it has its place. If Apple removes the Touch Bar while adding MagSafe and M2/M3 Pro option (for multiple external displays), it could be compelling for many.

Almost everyone who buys it would be better served with either the Air or the 14-inch. Yes, it's $700 more, but if you really need a "pro", you probably want 16 GiB RAM (which still isn't a lot) and 512 GiB SSD. The $1,999 14-inch has those. Once you configure the $1,299 13-inch, you're at $1,699. Those remaining $300 buy you a much, much nicer machine.

 

[Coreymac84]

Damn, I just bought an M2 Max a couple weeks ago because I didn’t expect they’d be updating it in less than a year. What’s the best options here? I also already traded in my original laptop, so I can’t even go back to that temporarily.

you will survive. I assure you that you wouldn't see the difference between M2 and M3.

 

[now i see it]

Anything for clicks

 

[Armada2]

Why are we mentioning these 2 analysts that got it WRONG!! now they are stating what everyone is guessing on here what Macs are going to be shown due to how long they haven't been updated... poor anaylysts.. well done Apple for tricking everyone!

 

[chucker23n1]

It is completely unlikely that the MBA 15 will be upgraded after just over 4 months.

It's not unprecedented (though it is rare). For example, they introduced another G5 iMac in October 2005, then upgraded it to the Core Duo in January 2006, and upgraded it to Core 2 Duo in September 2006.

 

[Coreymac84]

Interesting. It almost seems like Apple is desperate to move on from M2. And yet they're releasing the Vision Pro with M2. I guess because M2 didn't sell well, so they have a bunch of leftover chips. One leaker predicted they might come out with an Apple TV with M2. If they do update MBPs at this event, that means there will be two different "2023 MacBook Pro" releases, which is confusing.

I think MaxTech might be correct that the iMac gets M2/M2 Pro and not M3. Regular M3 will be released after M3 Pro/Max next year with new MacBook Air models.

Alot of people jumped on M1 like myself when we all saw the benchmarks compared to intel-based PC's. Unless you're absolutely reckless with money or have large amounts to burn in a firepit, the M2 was simply not worth the upgrade for many of us M1'ers. M1 was THE generational leap. We are back to evolutionary instead of revolutionary.

 

[A7ibaba]

Cheap shot to boost sales

 

[drlunanerd]

Looks like the M2 chips are going to be the iPad 3 of Apple Silicon! M3 should be a much bigger upgrade over the M1.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

He's taken to Twitter to try to salvage it, desperate really he'll be doing Doge memes by 1am.

 

[bnumerick]

When was the last time MBP's were updated twice in the same year? I think 2012?

2019 had a May update for the 15" and the 16" came out in November.

I had noticed a week or so ago the BTO options were out about 3 weeks. Noticed earlier today (before the event announcement) that Best Buy is out of almost every model of the 14" and 16" models so I think there are some strong indicators the M3 Pro/Max will be announced.

 

[Nozgog]

How likely it is that these 14 and 16 MacBook Pro will be sold out on Launch Day?

 

[Falhófnir]

It's not unprecedented (though it is rare). For example, they introduced another G5 iMac in October 2005, then upgraded it to the Core Duo in January 2006, and upgraded it to Core 2 Duo in September 2006.

Don't even have to go that far back, in 2019 the 16 inch MBP replaced the final 15" model in November, when the latter had only launched a few months earlier in June. Having said that, this sounds like it's going to be iMac, and 14/16 inch MacBook Pros? Probably makes sense to prioritise the machines where power is a major selling point for chip updates.