Apple Unveils 14-inch MacBook Pro With M6 Chip From $1,999

Apple has announced a new 14-inch MacBook Pro powered by the M6 chip. It starts at $1,999 with 16GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage, and pre-orders open tomorrow, October 28. The first orders arrive on Friday, November 6.

The machine is the base model in Apple's MacBook Pro lineup and replaces the version with the M5 chip. It comes in silver and space black. Apple is pitching it at college students, business users and creators.

Performance and on-device AI

The M6 has a 12-core CPU, which Apple says includes the world's fastest CPU core. The 12-core GPU is up to 30% faster than the M5, and the dual 16-core Neural Engine is up to 1.9x faster.

Apple points to gains in AI and development work. Time to first token for LLM prompt processing is up to 13x faster than on the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1, and up to 1.3x faster than on the 14-inch model with M5. Xcode project builds are up to 2.5x faster than on the M1 machine and up to 1.3x faster than on the M5 model.

Connectivity and ports

The new laptop moves to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, up from Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 on its predecessor. Ports include HDMI, MagSafe 3, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SD card slot and a headphone jack. A 12MP Center Stage camera is built in.

Fast charging carries over. With a compatible higher-wattage USB-C adapter, such as the 96W Power Adapter, the battery reaches up to 50 percent in 30 minutes.

Apple still sells the MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Rumors suggest those could get a major upgrade, including OLED touchscreens, as early as tomorrow, but Apple has not confirmed this.