MacBook Pro with M2 chip could arrive early next year

(Image credit: Henry T. Casey)

Update: It now looks like new MacBook Pro production is underway, with production of the existing MacBook Pros slowing down to compensate.

14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the Apple M2 chip could start production very soon, claims analyst Ming-Chi Kuo on Twitter. Good if the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 or MacBook Air M2 didn't offer the power you were hoping for.

Production for the newest iteration of 14-inch and 16-inch MacBooks will start in the fourth quarter of 2022, Kuo says. That likely means they'll miss the Apple September event on the cards for just a few weeks from now, as well as Apple's second rumored event in October, which would mark the one-year anniversary of the 2021 launch of the 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro. As it stands, we'd expect to see these new laptops at Apple's habitual spring event in 2023 instead.

Kuo adds that these new MacBooks will be equipped with new chips, but they'll likely be 5nm chips, rather than the cutting-edge 3nm chips that had been previously rumored. While pilot production for this type of chip is said to be starting around the same time, it sounds like the 3nm process chips will only be ready for the start of 2023. Perhaps we'll see the first of these 3nm processors get labeled as next-gen M3 chips for the Macs and MacBooks that launch later in 2023 or in 2024, or possibly even the A17 mobile chip that we may see power the iPhone 15.

We'd heard that new premium MacBook Pros were coming this year recently, but also that beyond new chips, nothing else would be changing. Good if you want the maximum amount of performance possible from your MacBook, but underwhelming if you were hoping Apple would have upgrades or a design refresh in store for the rest of the laptop.

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Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.