The biggest MacBook Pro revamp since 2016 is just days away: here's what we know.
(Image credit: Renders by Ian)
It's the worst-kept secret in tech: Apple is believed to be just days away from unveiling its new MacBook Pro M1X.
And while nothing has been officially confirmed, it looks like being the biggest revamp of the MacBook Pro since 2016.
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros look set to form the main plank of a special event Apple is holding on Monday 18 October at 10am Pacific Time (6pm UK time) titled Unleashed. And the most reliable leak and rumour sites all seem to broadly agree on the main details.
We don't have images of these new MacBooks yet, but just to whet your appetites, we've included some concept renders on these pages, inspired by the leaked specs, courtesy of Renders by Ian, Antonio De Rosa, @theapplestack.
The biggest change will be internal, as the new MacBook Pros, codenamed J314 and J316, are tipped to use a higher-end version of the M1 processor called M1X.
This will be a lot more powerful, featuring eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores (compared to four of each in the M1). So basically, we're going to get much better performance, that makes even heavy-going software like Photoshop and 3DS Max run much faster.
(Image credit: Antonio De Rosa)
But other big changes are expected too. If the leaks are accurate, the most visually obvious will be the return of the HDMI port and SD card slot, which were removed in the last big redesign.
Get the Creative Bloq Newsletter
Daily design news, reviews, how-tos and more, as picked by the editors.
We're also expecting to see the controversial Touch Bar touch-screen strip vanish from the keyboard, and a new MagSafe charging port to replace the current USB-C setup.
(Image credit: Antonio De Rosa)
The display, too, is predicted to get a major update, shifting to a mini-LED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, along with thinner bezels and larger displays.
That's going to please a lot of graphic designers and video editors, as well as making watching movies and just general computing a lot more visually appealing.
(Image credit: Renders by Ian)
We're also likely to see an upgraded 1080p webcam, giving us a higher-quality experience with all those Zoom calls we're doing right now.
We should stress, though, that although these leaks are being shared by highly reliable sources, we won't know for sure until that Apple announcement arrives on Friday.
You can watch that live in the YouTube window below (so bookmark this page).
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and author specialising in design, photography and technology. His latest book, The 50th Greatest Designers, was released in June 2025. He's also author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.
