Seven upgrades to expect with the M4 Mac lineup in a few days

Apple is going to begin unveiling their M4 Mac lineup next week, with updates to the iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini to start off the new M4 transition.

Although we’re not getting a proper Apple Event, Apple marketing exec Greg Joswiak announced that there’ll be a series of announcements over the course of next week, and highly suggested that it’ll be Mac focused.

16GB RAM as standard

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is likely to start shipping at least 16GB RAM on the new M4 Macs, including the base model 14” MacBook Pro, the new Mac mini, and the new iMac.

Apple has been shipping 8GB of RAM on its base model Macs for the past 8 years, so this is a pleasant change. It definitely makes sense with Apple Intelligence being more memory intensive on our devices.

Additional Thunderbolt ports

According to analysis of an M4 die shot done by Fred on Twitter, it appears that Apple’s M4 chip is equipped with four Thunderbolt controllers, compared to two on the M3 chip and earlier.

This likely means that all base M4 Macs will have additional Thunderbolt ports across the board. We already know that the base M4 MacBook Pro will have three Thunderbolt ports compared to two on the M3 model, thanks to the warehouse leak. The M4 iMac may potentially have four Thunderbolt ports as well, compared to the current 2 Thunderbolt and 2 USB-C.

Smaller Mac mini

Recent reports have suggested that Apple’s upcoming Mac mini will be the biggest redesign in the computers 14 year history, with the upcoming model expected to shrink significantly. In the process, it’ll also likely lose support for USB-A, although it should gain some additional USB-C ports to make up for it. It’ll also have ports on the front, similar to the Mac Studio

While we don’t know a ton about what it’ll look like, it sure should be exciting, especially given the fact that it’s Apples cheapest Mac.

USB-C Magic Mouse, Keyboard, and Trackpad

Rumors point to there being a new iMac this month, which opens the door to Apple finally refreshing all of the Magic accessories. Given the fact that Apple has to comply with the European Union’s USB-C mandate by the end of this year, it’s almost certain that we’ll be seeing goodbye to lightning on Apple’s desktop accessories with the new M4 iMac refresh.

Additionally, code spotted in the macOS 15.1 RC seems to suggest this fact as well, as there are new references to additional Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse models.

Space Black on the cheapest MacBook Pro

According to packaging leaks and a subsequent unboxing, the cheapest 14″ MacBook Pro with the base M4 chip will be coming in Space Black for the first time. Last year, the base model 14″ MacBook Pro with M3 still came in the older Space Gray color, likely because it was manufactured earlier than the later M3 Pro and M3 Max models.

Brand new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips

Although we already saw the base model M4 chip debut in the iPad Pro back in May, we still haven’t seen Apple’s higher end chips, the M4 Pro and the M4 Max. Those chips should be making their debut for the very first time in the new higher end MacBook Pros later this month.

We don’t have concrete leaks on the M4 Pro and Max chips, other than the fact that they should be based on TSMC’s more efficient 3nm process, shared by the A18 and M4 chips. They’ll be faster as per usual, although there’s no word on the core counts at the moment.

Wi-Fi 7

Apple is likely to support the Wi-Fi 7 standard on the upcoming M4 Macs, as they did on the iPhone 16 lineup.

Wi-Fi 7 supports speeds of up to 46 Gbps, which is over five times faster than Wi-Fi 6E’s 9 Gbps. Wi-Fi 7 also operates on 320 MHz channels and supports the 6 GHz band, widely reducing interference and signal congestion.

Wrap up

Overall, the M4 Mac lineup seems quite exciting – especially the base model MacBook Pro. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not things prices change, given the RAM upgrade. The Mac mini gaining its first redesign in over a decade is also exciting, especially with frontal I/O.

Does the upcoming M4 Mac lineup excite you? Will you be buying one? Let us know in the comments.

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