Apple October Event recap: M3 MacBook Pro, new M3 iMac and all the ‘scary fast’ news

Read our M3 MacBook Pro hands-on impressions

We're not stopping at the M3 iMac — Tony Polanco got a first look at the gorgeous new Space Black MacBook Pro. Seriously, I still can't get over how good it looks.

Read his first impressions here.

Hands-on impressions of the M3 iMac!

Our own Kate Kozuch got an first look at the M3 iMac. On the outside, not much has changed, but the M3 chip gives it a serious turboboost!

Find out more in her hands-on impressions.

Is M3 Pro actually worth it over M2 Pro?

I felt the heartbreak of watching my M2 Pro MacBook Pro get promptly outclassed by the M3 Pro system — more so given the fact that it's only been around 10 months since that last model came out.

But now that I've had a few hours to decompress and go over the stages of grief, I did some research and saw that the improvements are super minor in comparison to M2. In fact, there are a couple of downgrades to the M3 Pro chipset.

Here's a lot more detail about why it may not be worth the money to upgrade.

And that's it for the Apple livestream! That was a nice quick 30-minute affair, a rarity from Apple that's much appreciated given how late it is for most of us.

But while the Apple event is over, our coverage is just beginning! We've got breakout stories about all the biggest announcements we heard about today, and you can stay tuned for our hands-on impressions with the new iMac and MacBook Pros powered by the new Apple M3 chips!

We've got a full story on this new iMac, which once again comes in 7 colors (though you only get 4 on the base model) and sports a big 24-inch 4.5K touchscreen, a six-speaker sound system, a 1080p FaceTime camera and now a speedy M3 chip.

• iMac 2023 with M3 power unveiled — 2x faster and good enough for gaming

The new iMac is powered by the M3 chip but is otherwise basically identical to its 2021 predecessor. It starts at the same price, too: $1,299.

Now it's on to the final Mac we were expecting to see today, the new M3-powered iMac!

Now the pricing is announced, and the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro starts at $1,599 while the 16-inch Pro starts at $2,499.

What do you think about the new Space Black color scheme for these new M3-powered MacBook Pros?

We're getting a promo reel of all the new features the M3 chips can power in the new MacBook Pros running macOS Sonoma, like Game Mode.

Oooh it comes in black! Sorry, "Space Black"!

Ooh, the new MacBook Pro comes in a new color! Cue magnificently expensive promo video!

Now Apple is comparing how fast these new M3-powered MacBook Pros are compared to the old Intel-powered models, which should give you a sense of where Apple's concerns are right now.

Namely, the company is now several generations into the transition from Intel to Apple silicon, and it wants all the folks lagging behind to jump on the bandwagon so it can stop worrying about supporting them and their old-fashioned ways.

We're being treated to a rapid series of video packages and infographics about how the new M3 chip family is going to make these new MacBooks Pros and iMacs better at tasks which require serious computing muscle, like coding and scientific research. Also, did I catch some flashes of people playing _games_ in that sizzle reel?

Now we're off to chat with Apple execs about the new M3-powered MacBook Pros, starting with John Ternus, SVP of Hardware Engineering at Apple. Let's see what these chips can actually do.

These new chips are the first Apple's built on TSMC's new 3-nanometer process, and while they're not as revolutionary as the original M1 family they look likely to deliver a bigger jump over their predecessors than the M2 family did.

Srouji is now claiming the new M3's GPU is capable of delivering the same performance as an Intel 12th Gen laptop chip for one fifth the power draw. That's a complicated claim that we'll have to put to the test in our lab, but if what Apple's trying to promote here is true we may see M3 MacBooks achieve unprecedented heights of laptop battery life.

These new M3 chip GPUs are also capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading, which is a big deal for gaming that may make these new Macs much more capable gaming machines.

There's a lot to get into with these new chips, but right now Srouji is digging into one of the biggest new talking points: Dynamic Caching.

According to Apple, Dynamic Caching is an "industry-first technology, transparent to developers, and the cornerstone of our new GPU architecture" which works by (in very simply terms) dynamically allocating resources to the GPU of the M3 chip as it requires it. 

The new Apple M3 Chip family has three members, as we expected: 

• The base M3 chip
• M3 Pro
• M3 Max

Now we're meeting the new chips: The M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max!

"Tonight we're introducing a new family of breakthrough chips and bringing them to the world's best laptop: the MacBook Pro" says Tim as he throws to Johny Srouji, SVP of Hardware Technologies at Apple, to talk up the new laptops.

While MacBooks were front and center in the sizzle video, Tim's starting out talking about the Mac. Does that mean we'll meet the new iMac first?

Now we're getting a flyover of Apple HQ, but make it _spooky_ with dark lighting and moody fog. And who's that striding out of the mist...could it be...

...Tim?

With no costume???

Issa Rae spotted throwing to speakers from Porsche, Headspace and more all talking up how great these M3-powered MacBook Pros are gonna be. We'll see!

the beginning of this stream seemed so much like a YouTube ad I was confused for a second, but now we're deep into a promo video for M3-powered MacBooks!

And the Apple event has begun as we're treated to a mysterious branding exercise introducing us with that classic "Hello" script flowing into the Apple logo.

Here we go, one minute and counting....

Does anyone else have their Halloween costume while they're watching?

...no, just me?

Well maybe Tim Cook will have some cat ears on or something. Get ready — Apple's big prime-time "Scary Fast" event kicks off in 15 minutes, just in time for sunset on All Hallow's Eve out here on the Best West Coast!

Get ready, we're just under an hour away from the start of Apple's "Scary Fast" event at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT! 

We're expecting new Macs powered by an all-new M3 chip and we've got Apple's YouTube stream embedded at the top of this blog, which we'll be updating live with all the latest details from Apple and around the web. The YouTube stream may sometimes be a few seconds behind but is probably your easiest option to stay on top of the news, since it's compatible with the widest range of devices and browsers.

You can also head over to the Apple Events website for another streaming option straight from Apple. The company also sometimes drops bits of news and fun asides on the main Apple Twitter account (sorry, "X" account), but that's inconsistent at the best of times—and given that tweets weren't loading when I just went to Twitter to get that link, now might not be the best time to trust the social network for timely updates.

Just to set expectations accordingly, we're expecting to meet just one new iMac tonight at Apple's event that will be powered by the company's all-new M3 chip.

That's despite the fact that Apple's reportedly working on a new 32-inch iMac, and may have been for years. Word is it may have an ultra-bright mini-LED display, but if that's true it may also account for why it's taking so long to bring to market.

So while we may see it someday, don't expect to see it tonight -- the latest report we've heard claims the 32-inch iMac with mini LED display tipped to arrive in 2025, and it'll likely be pretty pricey to boot.

While we wait, let's talk colors. 

I wish more tech products came in more colors besides gray, silver, black and white. The original 24-inch iMac came in a remarkable 7 color schemes that helped it feel like a breath of fresh air, and I'd love to see even more color options available on a new iMac and new MacBooks.

However, if Apple does again go big on colors for a new iMac I'd love to see the company stop short-changing customers who aren't willing to spend more than the asking price for an entry-level model. What I mean is, like many Apple products the 24-inch iMac launched in 2021 didn't offer the best deal to people who bought the entry-level model. 

Sure, it was just $1,299 to start, but at that price you got an iMac that didn't have TouchID on the keyboard, lacked some USB ports and was only available in green, pink, blue and silver. Pay just $200 more to upgrade to the $1,499 model and you got not only TouchID on the keyboard and more USB ports, but the option to get your iMac in purple, orange or yellow as well.

Is there any logical reason why Apple couldn't paint the entry-level iMac orange, or sell an entry-level orange iMac for the same price as an entry-level green iMac? 

Maybe, but it's hard for a fool like myself to understand why entry-level iMac customers don't get the same treatment as those who pay more. This kind of two-tier system really makes Apple products feel exclusionary, and I'd love to see a new iMac debut tonight with every color option available at every price. 

While tonight's "Scary Fast" Apple event will be livestreamed remotely and feature no in-person audience that we know of, it sounds like Apple has invited a small group of media and influencers to a special location in New York City tonight to "watch the keynote" in person.

The report comes to us courtesy of a Twitter post from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, and further cements our hunch that we're going to see new Macs unveiled tonight. If Apple were going to showcase new laptops we expect they'd want people there in person to check them out and write about them, so the fact that we'd heard nothing about any formal get-togethers on Apple's dime had me a bit nervous they wouldn't have hardware to show off.

But now it sounds like there will be plenty of hands-on demo opportunities in NYC, so West Coasters like myself can rest on our laurels and happily while away the hours until 5 PM Pacific, when the big event kicks off and you can watch it live right here with us—Apple's YouTube video feed is embedded right at the top of this article.

We've mentioned before how Apple's event this evening is poised to undercut  Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip, which is designed to power Windows laptops when it debuts in 2024. Qualcomm talked up how the X Elite could outperform both the latest Raptor Lake CPUs from Intel and Apple's M2 chip....but now Apple is crashing Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite party with the M3 chip, which may outperform the X Elite and launch sooner to boot.

But don't count Intel out of the next round of competition to see who makes the best laptop chips. Intel's 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs have struggled to deliver the same power efficiency in Windows laptops that MacBooks boast thanks to Apple silicon, and Intel needs to do something about it to gain back ground in the laptop market.

That's perhaps why Intel is radically changing the design of its CPUs for the next generation, Meteor Lake (pictured), which will start showing up in Windows laptops by December 2023. When Intel Meteor Lake CPUs debut in December they're poised to offer serious competition to Apple silicon thanks to their new "chiplet" design, which basically means the CPUs are divided up into three main components: CPU, GPU and NPU (Neural Processing Unit, which excels at "AI" workloads like machine learning).

Sound familiar? At first glance it looks awful similar to the design of Apple silicon, which embed a CPU, GPU and Neural Engine (aka NPU) on a single chip and allow them to all access the same pool of dynamic memory. 

Intel looks to be taking a page from Apple's playbook as it gears up for serious competition in 2024, so I'm hopeful we'll see better performance and battery life from both the best MacBooks and the best Windows laptops in the year ahead.

Got Macs on the mind? We sure do here at Tom's Guide, where we were just talking about how bad we feel for folks who bought a new MacBook Pro 14-inch 2023 or MacBook Pro 16-inch 2023. These two M2 Pro/M2 Max Macs just came out in January, yet we're already expecting to see them replaced this evening with new M3-powered versions.

And while we can't say that's definitely going to happen, we've discovered another interesting fact which cements our predictions: We can't currently trade in a 2023 MacBook Pro via Apple's online trade-in program. If you head over there right now and try to trade in a MacBook from 2022 or earlier it's no big deal, but a far as I can tell there's simply no option (currently) to trade in a 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2023.

That's really too bad because there must be a legion of Apple fans who eagerly bought new MacBook Pros at the start of this year, and now they can't trade them in before they have their value cut out from under them tonight by new M3-powered MacBooks.

News and rumors are spreading ahead of Apple's event kicking off at 5 PM Pacific, and one of the most promising early reports is about a new iPad potentially being unveiled tonight.

While we're expecting Macs to be the centerpiece of this event, all powered by a new slice of Apple silicon called the M3 chip, there's a chance we may also see a new iPad packing the same chip. Specifically, we may see a new iPad mini 7 unveiled with an M3 under the hood. 

However, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (who has a great track record when it comes to reporting Apple news) has been saying it's likely that new iPads are slated for March 2024. So while I wouldn't count out a new iPad dropping tonight just yet, odds are looking good you'll be waiting until March to get your hands on a M3-powered slate.

Here's where you can watch the Apple Event

Apple is always punctual when it comes to setting up event livestream links, and you'll find it on YouTube! We've also added this embed to the top of the live blog too so you can watch along while finding out all the news.

What are you most excited for — the rumored M3 iMac, or the possible launch of 'Scary Fast' M3 MacBook Pros?

You know what I'm most excited about with the new MacBook Pros (if they are announced)? The announcement trailer music. Apple seems to always hit the hype notes just right with its sizzlers, just like they did with the M1 MacBook Pro!

Will Apple nail it again? That's left to be seen.

T-Minus 6 hours and 30 minutes

Apple's really going all out with the spooky animations — including this countdown on the home page!

In case you've been under a rock for a while, here's what we're expecting to see at the event based on recent leaks:

• Apple is looking set to unveil the new M3 chip — built on a 3nm process, and timed perfectly to blow Qualcomm's Snapdragon X elite out of the water.
• Rumors are pointing to three machines making the jump to M3 power: an iMac, the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. That means we'll see the M3 Pro and M3 Max too.

Will we see anything else announced? Maybe the iPad Mini that recently broke cover in a recent Chinese regulatory database update! That's for us all to find out soon.

How 'scary fast' is M3 set to be?

There's been a lot of talk about the M3 chip — using TSMC's 3nm process to create an even more powerful chip with better power efficiency. What does that mean exactly for the capabilities of it? How fast is this chip going to be?

Let's start with power efficiency. Apple’s 3nm chips could offer up to 35% better power efficiency because they can cram more transistors into the same amount of space compared to 5nm chips. That would be huge news for an improvement of the already impressive battery life credentials. The MacBook Pro 14-inch with M2 Pro lasted a very good 12 hours and 2 minutes, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro model with M2 Max chip endured for nearly 19 hours. 

Now for power. As reported by Bloomberg, the highest-end version of the M3 Pro chip has 12 CPU cores, 18 graphics cores and 36GB of memory. The current M2 Pro in the MacBook Pro 14-inch maxes out with 10 CPU cores, 16 graphics cores and 32GB of memory. So this would be a pretty significant jump in performance, depending on the configuration.

Apple may not launch a M3 13-inch MacBook Pro after all

We love the 13-inch MacBook Pro, but a recent report from Mark Gurman suggests we won't see an M3-powered smaller pro at the event. 

Don't worry, though! It's not all doom and gloom, as we fully expect M3 Pro and M3 Max versions of these laptops to make their debut at the Scary Fast event, and we may see the 13-inch Pro get an update in 2024 alongside a refreshed MacBook Air.

Whether this is true or not, we will see in just a few hours time.

Could the next MacBook Pro come with Dynamic Island?

The packaging of the 14 and 16-inch M3 MacBook Pro leaked recently, and there's a certain part of it that has us asking questions. Namely, did we just see a Dynamic Island on the new Pro laptops?

While it’s really hard to tell the full outline because of how dark the background is behind the cutout (some users have even questioned the credibility of that wallpaper given the angle of it), the more sharper curve of those bottom edges of what may be the Dynamic Island look a lot more notch-like.

What do you think?

How will M3 stand up to Intel's Meteor lake?

M3 is almost here, but it's launching against a more competitive backdrop. Not only is Qualcomm snapping at Apple Silicon's heels with the Snapdragon X Elite, but AMD and Nvidia are working on their own chips too. Plus, Intel is throwing its own hat into the ring with Meteor Lake.

These Intel Core Ultra chips look set to bring a CPU/GPU/VPU hybrid design to help improve video call quality, improve graphical performance, and increase battery life — three key things that Apple has been excelling at. Whether Intel stands a chance, we'll find out when these laptop chips debut in December.

BTW, you can get $50 off AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C

As a quick aside, it's looking like Apple has cut the price on a lot of its tech to coincide with both this Apple Event and the upcoming Black Friday sales. Right now, you can get fifty bucks off the USB-C-armed AirPods Pro 2nd Generation — easily my favorite true wireless earbuds.

AirPods Pro 2 (USB-C): was $249 now $199 @ Amazon
Apple's AirPods Pro 2 are "nearly perfect wireless earbuds" according to our review, offering world-class noise cancelation, spatial audio, quality sound and 6-30 hours of battery life. The audio quality is even a bit better. Grab them while you can.

We may see a USB-C Magic Mouse — will Apple fix my biggest gripe?

One of the smaller announcements that could be made at today's Apple Event is a big transition from Lightning to USB-C — including the Magic TrackPad, the Magic Keyboard, and the Magic Mouse.

With that latter, Apple has the potential to fix one of its biggest design fumbles in the form of that charging port on the bottom of the mouse. It stops any work from happening in its tracks. I have my fingers crossed that the company will move that port to the top of the mouse, so it can be used in a wired mode too!

ICYMI, Apple is keeping things spooky for influencers

Apple has truly steered into the whole Halloween timing of its event — not just through the name of its "Scary Fast" event, but through gift boxes that influencers received recently.

@lamarrwilson

♬ original sound - Lamarr Wilson

P.S. I agree with Lamar here, Apple. You were doing so well up until the candy corns!

The M3 looks set to steal the Snapdragon X Elite’s thunder

The timing of Apple's October event could be appropriately spooky for its competitors, especially for the likes of Qualcomm and its recently announced Snapdragon X Elite chip.

From a specs-perspective, Qualcomm’s upcoming silicon should smoke Apple’s M2 chip in terms of performance. Yet when it comes to the Apple M3 chip that’s almost certainly going to be unveiled alongside 14- and 16-versions of the new M3 MacBook Pro in just a few hours, the Snapdragon should be sweating.

Though the X Elite clearly has a lot going for it, Qualcomm is confident its CPU will boast 50% faster peak multi-threaded performance than Apple’s M2 MacBooks, we’re not sure if its 12 high-performance cores will be able to keep up with the 12 CPU cores and 18 GPU cores of the Apple M3 Pro.

Scarier still for the Snapdragon Elite 2, the M3 Max chip should have 16 GPU cores and 20 GPU cores. And if Qualcomm really wants to avoid night terrors, the company will be crossing everything the rumored M3 Ultra chip, which could feature 32 CPU cores and (a frankly absurd) 80 GPU cores, isn’t announced at tonight’s ‘Scary Fast’ event.  

Will Apple start taking Mac gaming seriously?

'Scary Fest' has the opportunity to answer a question that has been on our lips for ages: will we finally find out if Apple gives a damn about MacBook gaming?

The notion of being able to play the latest and greatest AAA games on the (almost certainly) soon to be announced M3 MacBook Pro is a juicy one indeed. And look, the sheer grunt the Apple M3 chip brings to the table should ensure it has more than enough power to run demanding modern games.

The M3 uses TSMC's 3mn process, which means a big increase in the number of transistors Apple is able to pack into its latest silicon. In terms of real-world upgrades, this means the M3 chipset will be both significantly more powerful than its M2 predecessor, but also more efficient.

Considering the M3 Pro chip that will feature in the 14- and 16-inch M3 MacBook Pros that should be revealed in a matter of hours, and that said chipset packs in 12 CPU cores and 18 GPU cores, that's a whole lot of power that could potentially be used to run modern games at high frame rates.

To be fair to Crew Cupertino, the company has shown some encouraging signs in terms of displaying more interest in gaming in the recent past. Not only does the brilliant Resident Evil Village run excellently on Apple M2 silicon, but Apple's Game Porting Toolkit could revolutionize Mac gaming — and amazingly, is capable of running Cyberpunk 2077 extremely well in previews.

It's not just on the laptop side of things where Apple could potentially smash it when it comes to games going forward. We've already seen what the A17 Pro can do in our iPhone 15 Pro tests, with the new mobile chipset blowing the competition away in our 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited GPU benchmarking. 

M3 iMac looking like a certainty for the event

The iMac has not got a lot of love over the past couple of years — being stuck with the M1 chipset. But that looks like it's all about to change, as it's looking likely we'll see an M3 iMac at today's event.

Don't expect significant changes (if any at all) to the design, and we believe the price will remain the same as well. 

This is looking more likely to be a performance boost on the inside to the new Apple Silicon, which given what 3nm is capable of in the iPhone 15 Pro (hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing for example) could be a significant jump in performance!

M3 in more detail

Today's Apple event is set to be (mostly) about the new M3 Macs — that much is pretty much for certain at this point, given the Finder logo tease in the company's promotional material.

Built on TSMC's 3nm process (like the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro), we're expecting to see some significant power gains. Here's what core counts have been rumored for these new chipsets.

By the way, don't expect to see the M3 Ultra at this event, nor the 13-inch MacBook pro, Mac Mini, Mac Studio, or MacBook Air. These should be coming in 2024, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill leaking these.

We could see an iPad Mini announced at the event after all

Here we were thinking this was just going to be a Mac event, but Apple has a surprise up its sleeve!

MacRumors uncovered a recent update to a Chinese regulatory database, which pointed to a new iPad Mini being a lot closer than we expected. These updates have given us an accurate view of what will be announced in the past, so following this consistent track record, you should start getting hyped about a new smaller tablet coming out of Cupertino!

Everything we know about M3 MacBook Pro

One of the big announcements we're expecting to see in today's Apple Event are new MacBook Pros sporting the M3 Pro and M3 Max. Flying in the face of Mark Gurman's previous prediction of these machines being unveiled in 2024, Apple seems keen to transition its prosumer machines over to the latest 3nm chipsets.

Here are some key details we're expecting the company unveil.

• The M3 Pro and M3 Max chips look like they will be absolute monsters for graphics — sporting up to 40 GPU cores
• Design looks set to remain the same, but there is a (small) chance we could see the MacBook Pro's notch replaced with a Dynamic Island.
• But don't expect a 13-inch MacBook Pro to be announced, as Mark Gurman claims that has been delayed to 2024.

Welcome to the Apple 'Scary Fast' event live blog!

Here's everything we are expecting to see:

• Apple is looking set to unveil the new M3 chip — built on a 3nm process, and timed perfectly to blow Qualcomm's Snapdragon X elite out of the water.
• Rumors are pointing to three machines making the jump to M3 power: an iMac, the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. That means we'll see the M3 Pro and M3 Max too.

And here are the potential surprises that could be dropping:

• Apple could be taking this chance to migrate some key Mac accessories over to USB-C — including the Magic Mouse, Magic TrackPad, and Magic Keyboard
• On top of this, after a sneaky battery submission to a regulatory database, it seems like the company could be unveiling a new iPad Mini too.