From bgr.com
Apple is a few weeks away from unveiling several M4 Macs and the new iPad mini 7. That’s what all the leaks say, and I don’t have any reason to question them at this point. The M4 MacBook Pro appeared in a couple of hands-on videos in the past few days, so there shouldn’t be much of a question that it’s about to be announced.
The good news for buyers is that Apple is indeed preparing a few exciting upgrades for the base M4 14-inch MacBook Pro, which will make it an even better purchase than its predecessor. The bad news — at least, for Apple — is that someone was able to steal a bunch of these laptops. It’s unclear what the backstory is, but the Russian YouTubers who posted hands-on videos of the M4 MacBook Pro bought the unreleased laptop from somewhere.
Some said the M4 MacBook Pro was available via a Facebook group, but the seller has apparently gone further than that. The M4 MacBook Pro was being sold, at least briefly, on the black market in Russia. Spoiler alert: The base M4 MacBook Pro will be a much better value than the M3 variant, but you should absolutely not pay $7,500 for a stolen unit.
The biggest upgrade aside from the M4 chip is the entry-level RAM boost to 16GB. That’s double the RAM of the base M3 MacBook Pro. You’d have to pay an extra $200 to get 16GB of RAM on the current 14-inch model.
The hands-on videos have both confirmed that the M4 MacBook Pro comes with 16GB of RAM. We also have a benchmark test from one of the two YouTubers that proves the laptop has 16GB of memory. Assuming Apple keeps the base M4 MacBook Pro’s starting price at $1,599, it will be an even better alue than its predecessor.
The leaks also showed another upgrade some users will appreciate. The base 14-inch model features three USB-C ports instead of two. Last year, only the M3 Pro and M3 Max versions of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro featured three Thunderbolt ports.
The Russian leaks also suggested that the M4 MacBook Pro will launch in November, so you won’t have to wait long to get one.
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