The Mac in 2025: small updates and big hopes

MacBook Air M4

The model that will launch the 2025 Mac versions will be the M4 upgrade of the MacBook Air, which will likely land between January and March. The current MacBook Air M3 was released in March 2024, so the M4 model will arrive about a year later.

With the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, Apple introduced other changes to go along with the new chip: an additional Thunderbolt/USB 4 port, an increase in RAM from 8GB to 16GB, an option for nano-textured glass, and a Space Black. color possibility. Rumors indicate that the MacBook Air M4 will be little more than a chip upgrade, but any of these options could make an appearance.

Foundry

However, there is one functional change that will likely arrive with the MacBook Air M4. With the MacBook Air M3, you can run up to two external displays (one at 6K/60 Hz, the other at 5K/60 Hz) with the laptop closed. The MacBook Pro's M4 chip has a more robust bracket, where you can run two external displays in addition to the laptop's screen, for a total of three usable displays.

Now, perhaps thermal considerations prevent the MacBook Air's M4 from getting the same support as the MacBook Pro's M4, but we still think it's a likely upgrade. Additionally, Apple upgraded the MacBook Air M3 with 16GB of RAM when the Mac M4 was released, so it's a lock that the MacBook Air M4 will also start at 16GB.

Learn more about the MacBook Air M4

M4 Max/UltraMac Studio

The current Mac Studio has an M2 Max/Ultra chip and was released in 2023, so it is overdue for an update and will get one in 2024. Reports have indicated that the M4 Max and Ultra Mac Studio will be published in the first half of the year. year, perhaps at a spring event in March or at WWDC in June.

The new Mac Studio will feature the debut of the M4 Ultra, Apple's high-end chip, absent from the M3 family. Apple's Ultra chips are essentially two Max chips with an interconnect, so we can look at the M4 Max to get an idea of ​​what we might see in the M4 Ultra: a 32-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, a 32-core processor. Neural Engine and 96 GB of RAM to boot. Even though the M4 Ultra Mac Studio changes design and has slightly different specifications, it will be a powerful machine.

Willis Lai/Foundry

Another interesting upgrade for Mac Studio is support for Thunderbolt 5, which debuted in the MacBook Pro M4 Pro/Max. Thunderbolt 5 offers up to 120 Gbps throughput, but you need to have Thunderbolt 5 devices (and cables) to take full advantage of the bandwidth.

Learn more about the M4 Mac Studio

M4 Ultra Mac Pro

Since the M2 Ultra is no longer Apple's fastest chip (surpassed by the M4 Pro and M4 Max), Apple needs to do something about the Mac Pro. According to some reports, this will not happen before the end of 2025.

As mentioned with Mac Studio, the M4 Ultra is expected to be a beast of a chip and Apple will implement Thunderbolt 5, which will be a boon for media professionals who rely on Thunderbolt 5 devices for production.

Foundry

As for the design of the tower, it looks like Apple will stick to the same design – at least we haven't heard any reports indicating otherwise. The current design is decent and even though it will be six years old by the time the new Mac Pro comes out, it doesn't look dated. However, with the improvements in efficiency and heat dissipation, as well as the removal of RAM slots, it would be nice to see Apple do something different with the design, perhaps with a smaller package.

Learn more about the M4 Ultra Mac Pro.

New Apple screens

The current Apple Studio Display will be three years old in March 2025. The current Pro Display six years also in 2025. These displays need to be updated, the Pro Display XDR in particular. The MacBook Pro M4 features mini-LED displays that use quantum dot technology to improve color accuracy. This seems ideal for a new ProDisplay XDR, with a higher ProMotion-style refresh rate. The launch of a new display is harder to pin down, but we expect Studio Display alongside Mac Studio and Pro Display XDR to arrive with the new Mac Pro.

Foundry

M5 processor

How can we talk about Mac M5 when the M4 is barely a month old? With the Apple transition complete and rapid development, reports indicate that the M5/M5 Pro/M5 Max upgrades to the MacBook Pro could happen within a year. Another recent report states that Apple is also planning to release an M5 iPad Pro next year.

The M5, M5 Pro and M5 Max should provide an additional step forward compared to the M4 series that they will replace. This probably means an increase of between 15 and 25 percent.

Reports about the Mac M5 have focused on the MacBook Pro and failed to mention the Mac mini and iMac. It's possible that Apple will forgo M5 upgrades for the Mac mini and iMac, as it has already skipped chip generations for those Macs in the past.

Longshot: a larger iMac

There have been reports for years that Apple might have an iMac larger than the current 24-inch iMac in development, but the company has yet to decide when or if it would be released. Some older rumors place its release around 2025, so it could be ready by the end of next year, which would mean it would have an M5 chip.

Dominik Tomaszewski/IDG

Speculation is that this larger iMac would not only be a bigger screen, but a pro-level computer that would follow in the footsteps of the late iMac Pro. That could mean a Pro or Max chip, Thunderbolt 5 support, and a 32-inch (or larger) screen that would make for a great high-end all-in-one and a fantastic surprise for 2025.

Read the rumors about the new Mac Pro.