Apple Refreshes Entry-Level 14-Inch MacBook Pro With New M6 Chip

Apple has announced an update to its entry-level MacBook Pro, swapping in the new M6 chip. The company revealed the refresh on Tuesday in a press release. The processor first appeared in August, when Apple introduced it as part of upgrades to the Mac Mini.

The change follows a familiar pattern. A year ago, the entry-level MacBook Pro moved to the M5 chip with few other differences from the M4 version that arrived a year earlier. Design, port layout, webcam and speakers stayed the same. The main extras at that time were faster storage and an option to expand capacity to 4TB for an additional $1,200.

This year's 14-inch model again leaves most of the hardware untouched. It has three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports that support both charging and DisplayPort, along with a MagSafe 3 charging port, a full-size HDMI port and an SDXC card slot aimed at photographers. The 12MP Center Stage camera and the Liquid Retina XDR display, which offers a nano-texture option, carry over as well.

One notable addition is wireless. The laptop now supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 through Apple's N1 networking chip. Until now, that chip had only been included in MacBook Pro configurations with the M5 Pro and M5 Max processors.

The M6 is Apple's first 2nm chip. Its CPU grows to 12 cores from 10 in the M5, and Apple says that delivers up to 1.2 times faster multithreaded performance than the previous generation. The chip also has a dual 16-core Neural Engine for demanding on-device AI work, and an upgraded 12-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core. Apple adds that the M6 is more power efficient.

Pricing for the M6 model begins at $1,999 with 16GB of memory, matching the starting price of last year's M5 version. Moving up to 24GB raises the price to $2,199, and 32GB costs $2,399.

Storage begins at 1TB, but expanding it has become pricier because of the current memory shortage. A 2TB configuration adds $500, while 4TB adds $1,500. That is $300 more than the $1,200 charged for the same 4TB upgrade a year ago.

Preorders open on October 28, and shipping is expected to start on November 6.