M4 is coming to Mac. It deserves better.

The M4 chip is finally coming to the Mac. The latest rumors say that before the end of the year, we will see updates to the MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini, and that the Mac Studio, Mac Pro, and MacBook Air will get the same chipset next year.

I'm usually excited about some kind of update to the Mac line. But this time? Meh.

It's all the iPad Pro's fault.

The new iPad Pro is the only Apple device with an M4 chip, and while that's perfectly fine for an Apple tablet, its presence does dampen the enthusiasm you might have felt for any M4 Mac just because it's not a mystery.

Now that the M4 is out, we know what kind of performance to expect: a 20 percent increase in multi-core performance over the M3 (when comparing 10-core processors). All good improvements, and we haven’t seen the M4 Pro, Max, and Ultra yet, so we’ll see more gains. These gains aren’t anything special, and even modest gains would put the Mac on par with the iPad. When the M4 is announced, we’ll have to sit through charts and speeches praising the new chip just to get what we already have.

But shouldn’t a Mac have more cache than an iPad Pro? It’s the platform users turn to when it’s time to do serious work—not that serious work can’t be done on an iPad Pro, but managing apps, multitasking, and managing large projects is much harder on iPad OS than it is on Mac OS. A Mac with the same M4 chip as an iPad Pro makes it seem like both are capable of doing the same things. They can’t.

I think what's old is new.

Gurman didn’t specify exactly when Apple might launch the first Macs with the M4 in 2024. It could be as early as September, which is when Apple is expected to launch the iPhone and Apple Watch, but I think it will be in late October or early November. That’s the time of year when Apple typically releases Macs.

That means the M4 Macbook Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini will arrive a full six months after the M4 debuts in the iPad Pro, long enough to start looking dated. The star of the show will likely be the Mac Mini, mostly because of its rumored new design, but also because it completely skips the M3. The iMac and Macbook Pro will get another slight spec boost.

Thiago Trevisan / Foundry

Thiago Trevisan / Foundry

Thiago Trevisan / Foundry

And that’s just the beginning — by the time it reaches the Macbook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro, they’ll be almost a year old. Granted, the Mac Studio and Mac Pro still run the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips, so the M4 will still be a welcome update. But after the M2 launches at WWDC, the Macbook Air will look like an afterthought when it gets a nearly year-old chip next year. Updates are always nice, but the M4 Air will be far less exciting than the first release.

Take it easy and wait for the M5.

At this point, Apple would be better off skipping the M4 cycle and moving straight to the M5 in 2025. Users continue to use their Macs for longer periods of time — even though the M4 offers a massive 60 percent speed boost over the M1 and M1. It’s still fast enough for most people who have invested in it. If the M5 sticks to its 20 percent speed boost pattern over its predecessor, that could mean the 5th-gen chip will be 80 percent faster than the M1. That’s a lot more compelling.

Thiago Trevisan

Thiago Trevisan

Thiago Trevisan

But that’s just the multi-core speed — there’s more. The M5 is rumored to be Apple’s first chip built using a new “3D silicon stacking” process that will improve thermal dynamics and electrical efficiency. It could also offer a significant boost in battery life, a spec that Apple could expand on and be a big selling point.

And of course we’re talking about AI. Apple says the upcoming Apple Intelligence features will work with all M-series Macs, so Apple Intelligence isn’t a reason for M1 or M2 Mac owners to upgrade to an M4 Mac. But Apple could improve AI performance with the M5. The M5, which not only has faster CPU cores and longer battery life, but also has improved AI performance, is a compelling upgrade.

The M5 Mac will arrive in 2025, five years after the M1, which also means that those still clinging to their Intel Macs — which will be more than five years old in 2025 — may finally be able to upgrade, making the M5 Mac the first MM-series Mac. Given what the M5 has to offer, this could be a great year for Mac sales.

Worth the wait

We’ve heard reports that the M5 will be Apple’s first chip to be manufactured using a 2nm process, and it began testing the process just last month. TSMC, which makes Apple’s chips, will need some time to iron out the kinks in its process. It could be ready for mass production in the second half of 2025.

The Mac M5 looks like it will be a much more impressive Mac than any M4 Mac ever was. So much so that Apple would probably be better off skipping the M4 altogether and offering a more befitting upgrade to the Mac.