An M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro can still be a strong used buy in 2026, but battery condition, memory, warranty and price matter more than benchmarks.
Apple Silicon
Apple’s lead in performance and power consumption with its A line of ARM-based processors has become a significant advantage for the company’s mobile devices. With the announcement that it would move Macs to Apple silicon, the company is poised to bring that advantage to the personal computer market, too.
New Mac mini and Mac Studio reach stores, with pickup tied to local stock
Apple’s new Mac mini and Mac Studio now offer local store pickup where in stock, while custom configurations may require delivery from Apple instead.
Mac Studio’s real-world surprise is its much faster SSD
A Macworld review finds the M5 Max Mac Studio’s standout upgrade is its much faster SSD, with storage gains buyers may notice in daily work.
macOS 27 now lists your Intel apps: Here's where to find it and what it means
macOS 27 Golden Gate can show you which of your apps are still built for Intel. Open System Settings, click General, then About, and click the Details button next to Intel-based Apps in the macOS section. Apple's M5 and M6 chips side by side. The Intel-based apps list is for Macs with Apple silicon running…
iOS 27's New CPA2 Security Feature Needs A20 Pro, M6 or S11, and Mac Studio Misses Out
Apple’s release notes for iOS 27 name a new hardware security feature called CPA2, delivered through an instruction set Apple labels arm64e.x1. According to Apple’s own developer documentation, it works only on iPhone models with the A20 Pro chip or later, Mac computers with an M6 chip or later, and Apple Watch models with the…
Intel Mac Owners: What Actually Changes on Monday, September 14
Apple’s published compatibility list for macOS 27 Golden Gate names seven categories of Mac, and every one of them runs Apple silicon. No Intel-based Mac appears on it, which means Monday, September 14 is a non-event for an Intel Mac in one specific sense: it will not offer macOS 27 through Software Update, because Apple…
macOS 27 Golden Gate on M1 and M2 Macs: What Changes Monday, What Doesn't
macOS 27 Golden Gate becomes a free update on Monday, September 14, and Apple’s own compatibility page draws the line at Apple silicon, not at a specific chip generation. A Mac mini or MacBook Air from 2020 running M1 gets the same Liquid Glass redesign, the same Siri AI beta and the same Photos tools…
MacBook Pro's Education Prices, in Full: The Four Figures Apple Publishes
Apple’s Education Store lists a published price for MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max, the pro notebook line Apple introduced in March 2026. The 14-inch M5 Pro model is $2,199 standard against $2,049 education, the 16-inch M5 Pro is $2,699 against $2,499, the 14-inch M5 Max is $3,599 against $3,299, and the 16-inch…
Apple Vision Pro's Hardware Has Not Changed Since Its M5 Update Last October
Apple Vision Pro’s hardware has not changed since October 2025, when Apple added the M5 chip and a new Dual Knit Band. Eleven months later, that is still the version Apple sells today. Apple has announced no successor, no new chip and no price change since. The iOS 27 interface on iPhone. Vision Pro runs…
Mac Studio M5 Max vs. M5 Ultra: What the Extra $3,000 Buys
Mac Studio starts at $2,499 with M5 Max or $5,499 with M5 Ultra, a $3,000 gap between the two configurations Apple sells under one name. Apple has published full specs for both, and the difference is mostly cores, memory and bandwidth rather than any feature exclusive to one chip, arriving the same year Apple introduced…
Every Mac Apple Sells Right Now, and the Four Chip Generations Behind Them
Apple is currently selling six Mac models built on four different chip generations at once. Its newest chip, M6, ships in the cheapest desktop Apple sells, while the most expensive Mac Studio configuration runs a chip Apple announced on the very same day, but from an older generation. Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5…
MacBook Neo at $599: Apple's Cheapest Laptop Ever, Spec by Spec
MacBook Neo starts at $599, and Apple’s own framing for it is direct: “Apple’s most affordable laptop ever.” It has been on sale since March 11, 2026, six months ago, with a 13-inch display, a fanless design and up to 16 hours of battery life. MacBook Neo is the cheapest laptop Apple has sold. Image:…
Mac Mini and Mac Studio Go on General Sale Tuesday, September 22
Mac mini and Mac Studio go on general sale Tuesday, September 22, 2026, ten days from today. Apple announced both machines in August, weeks before the September 9 iPhone event, and has already published full pricing, chip options and ports for every configuration. Mac Studio with M5 Max from $2,499 and M5 Ultra from $5,499.…
Apple Is Building Mac Mini in the US, and Just Signed a $30 Billion Chip Deal
Apple says it is now producing Mac mini in the United States, and separately committed more than $30 billion to Broadcom to make custom chips domestically, its largest American Manufacturing Program agreement to date. Both facts come from Apple’s own newsroom releases, and both sit behind the Mac mini that goes on general sale September…
Apple Silicon's Unified Memory Ceiling Now Runs From 32GB to 512GB
Apple’s current Mac chips top out at a 32GB unified memory maximum on M6, the smallest chip Apple sells, and a 512GB maximum on M5 Ultra, the largest, a 16-fold spread between the two ends of Apple’s own lineup. Every figure below comes from Apple’s own chip and machine pages published in 2026. Mac mini…
M5 Ultra: How Apple Fuses Two Dies Into 'Its Most Powerful Chip Ever'
M5 Ultra is the chip Apple calls, in its own words, “Apple’s most powerful chip ever.” Announced August 25, 2026, it ships only in Mac Studio, where it starts at $5,499. What sets M5 Ultra apart from every other chip in Apple’s current lineup is not just its size, but how Apple builds it: by…
M5 Pro and M5 Max: What Apple Means by 'Fusion Architecture'
Apple introduced M5 Pro and M5 Max in March 2026 with a new term for how the chips are built: Fusion Architecture. Apple’s own words call the pair “a monumental leap forward for Apple silicon,” and Fusion Architecture is the name Apple has given to the design approach behind that leap. M5-generation silicon, the family…
M6 Chip Explained: Apple's First 2-Nanometer Mac Chip
M6 is Apple’s newest Mac chip and, by Apple’s own description, its first built on a 2-nanometer process. Apple introduced it on August 25, 2026, and it ships in the base Mac mini, on sale September 22 at $899. Mac mini with M6, the first Mac built on Apple's 2-nanometer process. Image: Apple That makes…
Apple Says Its New Mac Mini Is Twice as Fast at Gaming With Ray Tracing
Apple says its new Mac mini, built around the M6 chip, delivers up to twice the gaming performance with ray tracing compared with the previous M4 chip. Apple published the claim in an August 2026 newsroom release, and the Mac mini itself goes on general sale Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Apple's iPhone 18 Pro. Apple's…
iPad or Mac for On-Device AI Work? Apple Publishes Numbers for Only One of Them
If the job is on-device AI work, running and prompting models locally rather than sending everything to a server, buy the Mac. Start at the Mac mini with M6 at $899, or $799 education, and step to the Mac Studio with M5 Max at $2,499 if the work pays for itself, because every AI performance…
Which Mac Should You Buy? The $899 Mac mini With M6 Is the Pick for Most People
For most people buying a Mac right now the answer is the Mac mini with M6 at $899, or $799 on Apple’s Education Store. It goes on general sale on Tuesday, September 22, after pre-orders opened on August 25, and it is the one machine where Apple has put its newest-generation chip in its cheapest…
Rosetta Ends With macOS 27, Except When Apple Says 26 or 28
Apple has published three separate pages this month stating when Rosetta, the tool that lets Intel-only Mac apps run on Apple silicon, stops working. One says macOS 27. Another says macOS 27 too, with a narrower carve-out starting macOS 28. A third, posted eight days later, says macOS 26 was already the cutoff and that…
There Is No A20, Only A20 Pro: Every Chip in Apple's 2026 iPhone Lineup
Apple announced one new iPhone chip this year and gave it a Pro suffix. The A20 Pro ships in three products, the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the iPhone Duo, and Apple has announced no chip called A20 without it. The A20 Pro is the only new iPhone chip Apple announced…
A20 Pro vs A19 Pro, A18 Pro and A17 Pro: The Core Counts Apple Publishes
Apple names exactly one chip when it quotes a number for the A20 Pro in the iPhone 18 Pro, and that chip is the A19 Pro from the iPhone 17 Pro generation. Against the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro, or the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple has published no performance…