Here’s What to Expect From Apple’s Mac Keynote on October 30

After launching the iPhone 15 and the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in September, Apple will announce more new products on October 30. The company’s “Scary Fast” keynote, which will kick off at 5 PM PT on Monday, is expected to be all about new Macs.

The usually well-informed Mark Gurman, who previously reported that we should see new M3-based iMacs and MacBook Pro during the keynote, is back with more details today. The M3 will be the first Apple Silicon chip that uses a 3nm manufacturing process, and it’s expected to bring significant performance improvements compared to M2-series chips.

If last year’s M2 chip made its debut in new 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, Apple is expected to shake things up a bit this year. The 24-inch iMac should be the first Mac to be upgraded with an M3 chip. This iMac hasn’t been updated since the release of the M1 version in Spring 2021.

According to Gurman, the iMac, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, may come with a redesigned stand but no other design changes. The M3 chip inside it should include the same 8 CPU cores as the M2 (4 high-performance cores and 4 efficiency cores), and the company also tested a configuration with 10 GPU cores, also similar to the M2.

Alongside this new 24-inch iMac with an M3 chip, Apple is expected to introduce new USB-C versions of its Mac accessories such as the Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. Apple launched a new Apple Pencil with USB-C port earlier this month, and the company is also expected to bring USB-C ports to the rest of its AirPods lineup next year.

Gurman believes that M3 versions of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air won’t launch until Spring 2024. An M3 version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro is also in the pipeline, but we may not see it on Monday.

This may be a bit unusual, but Apple is also expected to announce new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M3 Pro and M3 Max chips on October 30. These two MacBook Pro models were last upgraded with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in January, so this refresh is coming a bit early.

According to Gurman, Apple has been testing different versions of the M3 Pro chip: one with 12 CPU cores (6 performance cores, 6 efficiency cores) and 18 GPU cores, and another one with 14 CPU cores (10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores) and 30 GPU cores.

Similarly, the company is said to be testing different versions of its more powerful M3 Max chip, with a high-end version including 16 CPU cores (12 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores) and 40 GPU cores. On the unified memory front, the M3-series chips are also expected to offer new options including 24GB and 48GB.

This is also a bit unusual, but Apple’s keynote on October 30 will be online only, with no press gathering at the Apple campus. Again, the event will kick off at 5 PM PT instead of the usual 10 AM PT.