Apple Planning To Upgrade Macs With AI-Powered M4 Chips

Apple seems to be gearing up to refresh its whole lineup of Macs with the upcoming M4 chipsets that will be heavily focused on artificial intelligence (AI). According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the upcoming M4-powered Macs will be launched later this year, with the rest of the lineup set to be released early next year.

Although the company recently unveiled its first MacBook Pro with an M3 processor in November last year, Apple is “nearing production” on the M4 chip, as per the report. The Cupertino-based tech giant has reportedly turned focus on M4’s AI-processing capabilities, which could be a response to a plethora of rival AI PCs that have slowed down Mac sales.

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Apple’s M4 Chip To Focus Heavily On AI Processing

Apple’s upcoming M4 chip will be launched in three different categories, including the entry-level M4 chip, which is codenamed Donan, the mid-segment chip codenamed Brava, and the top-end chip codenamed Hidra, reports Bloomberg.

Apple will reportedly be adding the entry-level chip to the lower-end MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and the lower-end Mac Mini. The report also suggests that the company will be leveraging the mid-tier Brava chip for better-specced MacBook Pros, Mac Minis, and the Mac Studio. As for the Hidra chip, it will be used only for the Mac Pro.

Apple fanatics could get more info on the AI features when Apple holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10th.

Also Read: Meta’s Next-Gen AI Chips To Be Faster Than Ever Before

Microsoft Joins The AI PC Race With New Surface Laptops

Microsoft has also come up with two new Surface devices that won’t be available directly to consumers. The Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business come equipped with Intel’s newest Core Ultra processors, Microsoft’s latest Copilot key, and a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to boost upcoming AI-powered features on Windows 11.

Both new Surface devices carry the same design, which means the Surface Pro 10 for Business will come across as the bigger version of the Surface Pro 9. The Surface Laptop 6 for Business comes with an additional USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port and an optional smart card reader.

On the Surface Pro 10 for Business, users get a choice to pick between Core Ultra 5 135U and Core Ultra 7 165U options, along with a regular spec of 8GB RAM, which is upgradeable to 64GB RAM. The base model will come at a price of $1,199 and will pack 256GB Gen4 SSD.

The Surface Pro 10 will come equipped with two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports and Microsoft’s Surface Connect port. The company has also claimed a battery life of 19 hours with the latest Intel chips.