The Apple M1 chip first appeared back in 2020, debuting in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini of the same year. It’s gone through a number of upgrades and iterations since, being refined and tweaked by Cupertino into the M1 Pro, M1 Max and the recently launched M1 Ultra in the Apple Mac Studio. However, with the M1 architecture almost two years old now, it’s around the ripe time for an upgrade and according to new reports, Apple are already in the midst of testing out prototype M2 chips.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that Apple already has several different versions of the Apple M2 inside various machines undergoing internal testing. This info comes about thanks to logs maintained by Apple’s developers, and Gurman says that there’s at least nine new Mac machines with four different Apple M2 configurations inside Cupertino right now. Apple is said to be testing them with third-party apps in its App Store likely for compatibility and stability reasons. This could mean that we’re only months away from Apple officially announcing the arrival of its M2 chip.
The machines being tested reportedly include a Mac Mini with an M2 chip codenamed J473. This M2 chip consists of eight CPU cores and ten GPU cores. There’s also two more Mac Mini units being tested internally, one with the same M1 Pro chip in the current MacBook Pro codenamed J374 and another with an M2 Pro chip codenamed J474 though there’s no details on the M2 Pro for now. Then there’s a MacBook Air with an M2 as well, codenamed J413.
As for the MacBook Pro, there’s at least one with the same M2 chip in the MacBook Air and Mac Mini codenamed J493. There’s also a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro and one with an M2 Max chip, the latter codenamed J414. This M2 Max has twelve CPU cores and 38 GPU cores with 64GB of RAM. 16-inch versions of the MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro and an M2 Max also exists, with the same specifications as the 14-inch versions. Meanwhile, the Mac Pro that they hinted at during the Peek Performance event also seems to be here, codenamed J180. It packs the M1 Ultra that is currently in the Mac Studio.
Of course, there’s no official confirmation from Apple at all if they will indeed launch Apple M2-powered devices later this year, but it does look like that will be the case. The MacBook Air in particular is set to have a major redesign as well, featuring a thinner frame and MagSafe charging just like the MacBook Pro from last year.
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