M6 MacBook Pro 14-inch opens for pre-order on October 28

Apple has announced the pre-order date for its M6 14-inch MacBook Pro. Orders open on October 28 at 20:10, and the company is positioning the new laptop as a powerful platform for AI workloads.

According to the product page, the new MacBook Pro promises substantial performance gains over the M1 family of chips. Apple frames its comparisons against the M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max, and attributes much of the difference to the AI accelerators built into the GPU.

Chip performance and the AI push

The 14-inch model with the M6 can be configured with up to an 18-core CPU and a 20-core GPU. Apple says it is up to 13 times faster than the M1. The Neural Accelerators inside the GPU are meant to deliver a similar speedup of up to 13 times for on-device AI tasks.

Higher performance tiers are offered on the 14- and 16-inch models. One option is described as up to 10.9 times faster than the M1 Pro. The top configuration pairs the 18-core CPU with a GPU that can be configured with up to 40 cores, and Apple says it is up to 11.6 times faster than the M1 Max. At that level, CPU performance in tasks such as code compilation and audio processing is said to rise by up to 2.4 times.

On the software side, Apple Intelligence and Siri AI take center stage. Apple notes that Siri AI is available in select languages and that usage limits may apply.

Display, connectivity and hardware details

The laptop uses a Liquid Retina XDR display with up to 1600 nits of peak HDR brightness. Hardware-accelerated ray tracing is offered for more detailed graphics and gaming, and Apple quotes up to 24 hours of battery life.

For connectivity, there are Thunderbolt ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, a headphone jack and MagSafe charging. Apple's own N1 wireless chip provides Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support. Both screen sizes come in Space Black and Silver.

For video calls, the machine has a 12 MP Center Stage camera with Desk View, a studio-quality three-microphone array and a six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio.

Security features and buying options

On the security front, Apple highlights Touch ID for fingerprint unlocking and app sign-in, the Passwords app with end-to-end encryption, FileVault for encrypting files, and Find My for locating or remotely locking a lost device.

Apple offers monthly installment plans through participating banks, subject to terms, as well as special education pricing for university students and educators. Customers ordering from Apple's online store can choose the chip, memory, storage capacity and color to suit their needs, and in-stock items can be picked up at an Apple Store.