Apple Announces M6 MacBook Pro and iMac, Keeping June's Higher Prices

Apple today announced a new 14 inch MacBook Pro and a new 24 inch iMac, both powered by the M6 chip. Starting prices are unchanged from what the outgoing models cost yesterday, but both Macs remain well above where their predecessors launch price.

The 14 inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and the iMac starts at $1,499, in the U.S. Preorders open Wednesday, October 28, with availability beginning Friday, November 6, in 35 countries and regions.

Pricing Compared to the Previous Generation

Neither Mac received a new price increase today. Both, however, carry over the higher pricing Apple introduced across its Mac lineup on June 25, when the company raised prices on 14 products and said it could no longer absorb rising memory and storage costs tied to demand from AI data centers.

14 inch MacBook Pro

• M5 model at launch (October 2025): $1,599 with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage
• M5 model after Apple dropped the 512GB tier in March: $1,699 with 1TB of storage
• M5 model after the June 25 increase: $1,999
• New M6 model: $1,999 with 16GB of memory and 1TB of storage ($1,899 with education pricing)

That leaves the M6 MacBook Pro at the same price as yesterday, but $400 more than the M5 model's original starting price. The comparison is not quite equal, since the original $1,599 configuration had half the storage.

iMac

• M4 model at launch (October 2024): $1,299 for an 8 core CPU and 8 core GPU, or $1,499 for a 10 core CPU and 10 core GPU
• M4 model after the June 25 increase: $1,499 and $1,699
• New M6 model: $1,499 for a 10 core CPU and 10 core GPU ($1,449 with education pricing), or $1,699 for a 12 core CPU and 12 core GPU ($1,599 with education pricing)

Each iMac tier matches its price from yesterday and is $200 above its launch price. The base model does get a better chip for the money than the original $1,299 model did, moving from an 8 core configuration to a 10 core one.

14 Inch MacBook Pro With M6: Specs

The M6 chip in the MacBook Pro has a 12 core CPU and a 12 core GPU, two more cores in each than the M5. According to MacRumors, the CPU is made up of two super cores, four performance cores, and six efficiency cores. The Neural Engine moves to a dual 16 core design.

• Chip: M6 with 12 core CPU, 12 core GPU with Neural Accelerators in each core, dual 16 core Neural Engine
• Memory: 16GB standard, configurable to 32GB
• Memory bandwidth: up to 170GB/s, up from 153GB/s (MacRumors reports the higher figure applies only to 24GB and 32GB configurations)
• Storage: 1TB standard, configurable to 4TB
• Display: 14 inch Liquid Retina XDR, up to 1,600 nits peak HDR brightness, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, optional nano texture glass
• Battery: up to 24 hours
• Charging: up to 50 percent in 30 minutes with a 96W or higher USB C adapter
• Ports: three Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SDXC card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack
• External displays: up to two
• Wireless: WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6
• Camera: 12MP Center Stage with Desk View
• Audio: six speaker system with Spatial Audio, three microphone array
• Colors: space black and silver

Apple claims the M6 delivers up to 30 percent faster graphics and up to 25 percent faster AI workloads than the M5, and says the Neural Engine is up to 1.9x faster. In specific apps, Apple quotes up to 1.3x faster ray traced rendering in Blender, 1.3x faster Xcode builds, and 1.2x faster image processing in Affinity compared with the M5 model.

Owners of the 13 inch M1 MacBook Pro will see bigger gains. Apple says the new model offers up to 11.7x faster ray traced rendering in Blender and up to 13x faster time to first token for local LLM prompt processing.

Beyond the chip and the move to WiFi 7, the rest of the design is unchanged from the M5 model. Battery life is also rated at the same 24 hours.

iMac With M6: Specs

The iMac comes in two tiers, and the higher tier unlocks several features beyond the extra cores. Apple's own footnotes confirm that 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, four Thunderbolt 4 ports, nano texture glass, and a standard Touch ID keyboard are tied to the 12 core model.

• Chip: M6 with 10 core CPU and 10 core GPU, or 12 core CPU and 12 core GPU; dual 16 core Neural Engine
• Memory: 16GB standard, configurable to 32GB
• Memory bandwidth: up to 170GB/s
• Storage: 256GB standard, configurable to 2TB, with up to 2x faster read and write speeds
• Display: 24 inch 4.5K Retina (23.5 inch viewable), 500 nits, P3 wide color, optional nano texture glass on the 12 core model
• Ports: two Thunderbolt 4 on the 10 core model, four Thunderbolt 4 on the 12 core model
• Ethernet: 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet available on the 12 core model
• External displays: up to two 6K displays
• Wireless: WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6
• Camera: 12MP Center Stage with Desk View
• Audio: two pairs of force cancelling woofers and two tweeters, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, three microphone array
• Accessories: color matched Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad with USB C; Touch ID standard on the 12 core model, optional on the 10 core model
• Colors: blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange, and silver

The iMac skipped the M5 generation entirely, so Apple's comparisons are against the M4 model released in October 2024. Apple claims up to 2x faster graphics, up to 2x faster ray traced gaming, up to 1.5x faster performance in Microsoft Excel, and up to 5x faster on device AI performance in LM Studio. MacRumors attributes the faster SSD to PCIe 5.0 support.

For those coming from an Intel iMac, Apple says the new model is up to 18x faster than the most popular Intel configuration.

Both Macs ship with macOS 27. Siri AI, Apple's rebuilt and more conversational assistant, is available in beta in macOS 27.2 on Apple Intelligence capable Macs. It is integrated into Spotlight and system context menus, and a dedicated keyboard shortcut lets users ask Siri about what is on screen through Visual Intelligence.

Apple notes that some server side Apple Intelligence features, including Siri AI, are subject to daily usage limits, and that expanded access will be offered for a fee in the future.

What Comes Next

Apple did not announce M6 Pro or M6 Max chips today (Apple is rumored to be skipping M6 Pro & M6 Max entirely), and the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models remain on sale. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to introduce OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro models on October 28th.