Apple will roll out a MacBook Pro update with an M5 processor this fall and an iPad Pro with the processor in the first half of 2026, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
If he’s right, that would reverse what happened with the M4 chip. It surprisingly debuted in the iPad Pro first, then was incorporated into the MacBook Pro.
However, Gurman says that, before the release of M5 MacBook Pro models, Apple will launch updates to the Mac Studio and Mac Pro using its current generation M4 chip series. Unless those computer updates contain the “M4 Ultra” processor, it makes little sense to me that they would be updated with current M4 chips followed by more power laptops and tablets.
In a Medium post in December 2024 analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the M5 series chips will adopt TSMC’s advanced N3P node, which entered the prototype phase a few months ago. M5, M5 Pro/Max, and M5 Ultra mass production is expected in the first half of 2025, the second half of 2025, and 2026, respectively, he said.
As far as an M4 Ultra, it would likely be two M4 Max processors that would together. However, there have been reports that Apple will be changing the processor’s architecture, so we could see higher performance than in previous Ultra chips.
But back to Gurman’s predictions. He thinks we’ll see an updated MacBook Air with an M4 chip by March “at the latest.”
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