Apple’s M2 chips and the computers they’ll power detailed in new leak

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According to Mark Gurman, Apple is working on nine new Macs with M2 processors. Apple's announcement that the M1 Ultra would be the last chip in its current-gen lineup was hot on the heels of the release of the Mac Studio.

Most other Mac models will be getting an upgrade, according to reports, but they aren't predicting a replacement for the Studio yet. According to Gurman, he has seen evidence of an M2 MacBook Air with a 10-core graphics card, as well as an entry-level M2 MacBook Pro. The new Mac Mini and Mac Pro are also rocking next-gen Apple hardware.

It's hard to imagine that a Mac Mini with the M1 Pro would ever make it to market now that the Mac Studio exists.

The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips will have more than the current M1 Max chip, with the Max having more than the current M2 Pro chip. The breakdown of efficiency and performance core is not included in the report. Gurman predicts that the Mac Pro will have a successor to the M1 Ultra, and that the M2 Pro is an option for the Mac Mini.

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If you're trying to figure out how this adds up to nine computers, it's one MacBook Air, one entry-level Pro, two models of the Mini, two models of the 14 and 16-inch MBP.

The entry-level MacBook Pro is barely differentiated from the Air. The 13-inch model seems like an unhappy medium between the Air and the 14-inch Pro, which is why my colleagues usually predict that Apple will quietly stop selling it. It's an outlier with its Touch Bar, but it's an open question whether the successor will have one.

The iMac is not included in the list of computers. There is no mention of a successor to the M1 powered 24 inch all-in-one or a replacement for the iMac.

Gurman says developer logs show up because Apple was testing its new computers using third-party apps. It wasn't hard to predict that Apple would be working on the next generation of chips, but it is exciting to see evidence of their existence in the wild.

It may not be that long of a wait before an official announcement of at least a few of these computers.