Apple's M6 MacBook Pro Starts at $1,999 as the M6 iMac Arrives at $1,499
Apple's new 14-inch MacBook Pro and 24-inch iMac with the M6 chip start at $1,999 and $1,499, with pre-orders opening October 28 and deliveries from November 6.
Apple on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, announced a new 14-inch MacBook Pro and a new 24-inch iMac, both powered by its M6 chip. The MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 in the US and the iMac at $1,499, with pre-orders opening on Wednesday, Oct. 28, and deliveries starting on Friday, Nov. 6.
The two machines arrived by press release rather than at a keynote, and neither gets a new design. What changes is inside: more processor cores, a much larger engine for on-device AI tasks, and Apple's own N1 wireless chip with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. For anyone planning a laptop or desktop purchase before the holidays, the launch resets what Apple's entry-level pro laptop and its all-in-one desktop offer for the money.
Key facts at a glance
- Prices: the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 starts at $1,999 ($1,899 with US education pricing). The iMac starts at $1,499 with a 10-core chip, or $1,699 with a 12-core chip.
- Dates: pre-orders open Oct. 28 at 10:10 a.m. Pacific Time in 35 countries and regions, including the US. Products reach customers and stores from Nov. 6.
- Chip: the M6 in the MacBook Pro has a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU, two more cores of each than the M5, plus a Dual 16-core Neural Engine.
- Apple's claims: up to 30% faster graphics and up to 25% faster AI workloads than the M5 laptop. The iMac, which skips the M5 entirely, gets up to 2x the graphics and up to 5x the on-device AI performance of the M4 model.
- Same look: both computers keep the exterior design, display, camera and colours of the models they replace.
How we got here
Apple introduced the M6 chip in August in the Mac mini, so this week's launch spreads that chip to two more of its most popular Macs. The previous entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro, with the M5, came out a year ago and itself changed little from the M4 version before it.
Pricing has also shifted over the past year. In March, Apple dropped the 512GB configuration of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which made 1TB the minimum storage and $1,999 the effective entry price. In June, Apple raised the starting price of the iMac from $1,299 to $1,499. The new models hold those higher prices rather than raising them again.
A global shortage of memory chips has also pushed up storage and RAM costs across the PC market, and it shows in Apple's upgrade pricing this year.
What the M6 chip changes inside the MacBook Pro
The M6 in the 14-inch MacBook Pro has a 12-core CPU made up of 2 "super" cores, 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, according to Apple's technical specifications. The M5 had 10 cores. Apple says the M6 has "the world's fastest CPU core" and gives up to 1.2x faster multithreaded performance than its predecessor.
The graphics side grows to 12 GPU cores, each with a Neural Accelerator, a block of circuitry for machine-learning maths. Apple claims up to 30% faster graphics than the M5 and up to 25% faster AI work such as processing prompts for large language models (LLMs), the type of model behind chatbots. The Neural Engine, Apple's dedicated AI processor, doubles to two 16-core units, which the company says is up to 1.9x faster than the M5's.
Apple's own workload comparisons against the M5 laptop are more modest than the headline figures:
| Task (Apple's figures) | M6 vs. M5 | M6 vs. M1 |
|---|---|---|
| LLM prompt processing (time to first token) | Up to 1.3x | Up to 13x |
| Blender ray-traced rendering | Up to 1.3x | Up to 11.7x |
| Xcode code compiling | Up to 1.3x | Up to 2.5x |
| Affinity image processing | Up to 1.2x | Up to 3.3x |
Other changes are about connectivity. The N1 chip brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, which were previously only in the pricier M5 Pro and M5 Max versions of the laptop. The machine can now run two external 4K displays at up to 165Hz, up from 144Hz. Battery life is rated at up to 24 hours, which Apple calls the longest ever in a Mac, and the laptop weighs 3.4 pounds (1.55 kg).
Same starting price, pricier upgrades
The base MacBook Pro costs $1,999 with 16GB of memory and 1TB of storage, the same as the M5 model it replaces. Moving to 24GB of memory costs $2,199, and 32GB costs $2,399. Memory tops out at 32GB, and storage at 4TB.
Storage upgrades have become more expensive. Going from 1TB to 2TB adds $500, and going to 4TB adds $1,500. A year ago, the 4TB upgrade on the M5 model added $1,200, so the largest option now costs $300 more.
There is also a split in memory speed. Apple's specifications list 153GB/s of memory bandwidth for the 16GB model, the same as the M5 laptop, while only the 24GB and 32GB versions get the faster 170GB/s. Memory bandwidth is how quickly the chip can move data in and out of RAM, which matters most for heavy jobs such as running AI models locally or editing large video files.
In the US, Apple's Upgrade leasing programme, provided by Klarna, starts at $38.99 a month over 36 months for the base laptop, excluding tax and trade-in credit, subject to a credit check.
The iMac jumps two chip generations
The iMac goes straight from the M4 to the M6, so its gains are larger. The $1,499 model has a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, 16GB of memory, 256GB of storage and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. The $1,699 model moves to a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU and four Thunderbolt 4 ports. The two-port version tops out at 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage, the four-port version at 32GB and 2TB.
Apple says the new iMac has up to twice the graphics performance and up to five times the on-device AI performance of the M4 model. It also claims the M6 iMac is up to 12 times faster than the M1 iMac and up to 18 times faster than the last Intel-based iMac. Solid-state storage read and write speeds roughly double, thanks to support for the faster PCIe 5.0 standard.
Networking also improves. The iMac moves from Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and its power adapter can now include a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, up from 1 Gigabit. That adapter comes standard on the $1,699 model and is a $30 option on the base model.
The design does not change. The iMac keeps its 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with up to 500 nits of brightness, its 12MP Center Stage camera, and the same seven colours: blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and silver.
What it means for you
If you own an M4 or M5 MacBook Pro, Apple's own figures suggest gains of roughly 20% to 30% over the M5 in most tasks. That is a solid step, but rarely a reason to replace a laptop that is only a year or two old.
If you are on an M1 or an Intel Mac, the case is stronger. Apple says users coming from the M1 get up to four more hours of battery life, and Intel owners up to 14 more hours, along with 16GB of memory as the starting point.
If you plan to run AI models locally, look past the base model. The 16GB version keeps the older memory speed, so the 24GB configuration at $2,199 is the cheapest way to get the full 170GB/s.
If you are buying an iMac, the $1,699 model adds two more Thunderbolt ports, more cores and the faster Ethernet adapter for $200 more. The $1,499 model's 256GB of storage will fill quickly for anyone who keeps large photo or video libraries locally.
Buyers in the UK, Canada and Australia should check Apple's local store on Oct. 28, as prices vary by country and include local taxes.
The other side: a modest refresh
Apple presents the MacBook Pro as "an even more compelling value". Shelly Goldberg, Apple's vice president of Hardware Engineering, said the laptop delivers "a fantastic combination of performance, capability, and value".
The fine print tells a more mixed story. The starting price is unchanged, but the cheaper 512GB option is gone, so $1,999 is now the floor. Top storage upgrades cost more than last year, and the cheapest model misses out on the faster memory. Apart from the chip, the wireless and the display support, the MacBook Pro is unchanged from its predecessor: it still has no Ethernet port, and it keeps the same ports, webcam and speakers.
What happens next
Pre-orders open on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 10:10 a.m. Pacific Time on Apple's online store and in the Apple Store app. Orders begin arriving, and stock reaches Apple Stores and authorised resellers, on Friday, Nov. 6.
Apple has also invited media to a product launch experience in Los Angeles on Oct. 28, with the tagline "Pro and tell". A redesigned, higher-end MacBook Pro with a touchscreen is widely expected there, but Apple has not announced it, and its price and release date are not known. Anyone deciding between the new 14-inch model and a higher-end MacBook Pro may want to wait until after that event before ordering.
Key takeaways
- Check your current machine first. Owners of M4 and M5 Macs gain relatively little; M1 and Intel owners gain the most.
- Pick memory carefully. Choose at least 24GB if you want the full memory speed or plan to run AI models on the laptop, because memory cannot be upgraded later.
- Think about storage now. Storage upgrades cost $500 for 2TB and $1,500 for 4TB on the MacBook Pro, so an external drive may be cheaper for archives.
- Wait a day if you want a high-end model. Apple's Oct. 28 event in Los Angeles may change the line-up above the $1,999 laptop.
- Compare payment options. Education pricing saves $100 on the MacBook Pro and $50 to $100 on the iMac, and trade-in credit can lower the cost further.
FAQ
When can I buy the new M6 MacBook Pro and iMac?
Pre-orders start on Oct. 28, and the computers arrive in stores and with customers from Nov. 6.
Does the M6 MacBook Pro look different?
No. It keeps the same design, display, camera, speakers and ports as the M5 model, in space black or silver.