close
close

Good news for the price?

With the iPhone 16 release behind us and September almost over, we can look forward to Apple's next big product launch event. Rumors say it will happen in October. Apple will reportedly launch the iPad mini 7, iPad 11 and several new M4 Macs, including the highly anticipated refresh of the M4 MacBook Pro.

The latter appeared in an exciting new leak that MacBook Pro fans in need of an upgrade will absolutely love. The base 14-inch MacBook Pro's alleged retail packaging may have been leaked, seemingly confirming one of the best leaks of the year. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman hinted earlier this year that base models of the M4 MacBook Pro would have 16GB of RAM.

Apple's abandonment of the 8 GB RAM base variant is also great news given the price. You could save up to $200 assuming Apple maintains the current MacBook Pro pricing structure.

According to X user ShrimpAppleProThe following photo shows the basic packaging of the M4 MacBook Pro. It's impossible to say whether the retail packaging is authentic, but there are indications that it may be.

First, Apple removed the 13-inch MacBook Pro from its lineup last year. The cheapest model is the M3 MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,599. Therefore, the base M4 MacBook Pro would also be a 14-inch version. The 16-inch MacBook would have an M4 Pro chip or better.

The base storage for M3 MacBook Pros is 512GB. It's an issue that Apple recently fixed when they discontinued the 256GB option. Regardless of M3 chip type and screen size, you get at least 512GB of flash storage.

The only difference is the RAM. Instead of the expected 8GB of storage, the M4 MacBook Pro's alleged retail box lists 16GB of RAM. Currently, you have to add $200 to the starting price of the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro to get 16GB of unified storage. M3 Pro variants start with 18GB of RAM.

Since Apple Intelligence is one of Apple's main priorities, it makes sense to increase the base memory to 16GB of RAM on laptops with “Pro” in the name. This is a good way to differentiate the Pro models from the Air models and actually future-proof the computer.

Sure, professionals may buy custom configurations with a lot more RAM, but 16GB of storage will come in handy for regular computer buyers who opt for the cheapest option.

While the RAM details are by far the most exciting, other alleged specs are mentioned in the M4 MacBook Pro's retail box above. According to rumors, the base M4 chip will have a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. This is an upgrade from the M3 chip's 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU configuration.

The new 14-inch laptop will also have an additional Thunderbolt 4 port, increasing the number of USB-C ports to three instead of the previous two.

Finally, the retail packaging suggests that this is a Space Black version of the M4 MacBook Pro.

Again, there is no way to tell if the leaked retail packaging of the M4 MacBook Pro is real. However, there is an inconsistency that might catch your attention. The sticker says “Apple ID” instead of “Apple Account.” Apple only recently started the transition to Apple Account, which could explain the packaging issue.

On the other hand, previous leaks say that suppliers have started shipping some M4 Macs to Apple. The company is reportedly waiting for all of the M4 Macs to be ready so it can launch them at the same time. This would explain such leaks.

Even though it's a well-made fake, I still hope the other leaks are accurate. Apple will increase the base storage of the MacBook Pro to 16 GB starting with the M4 generation. We'll probably know for sure in a few weeks when Apple unveils the M4 Macs.

You may also like...