Apple is closing its 2026 product cycle with a bang, releasing a new iMac and MacBooks, including its first touchscreen laptop.
That last one may have to wait for a while as we're here to look at the retooled 14-inch (35.6cm) MacBook Pro, powered by its brand-new M6 chip.
The California-based company continues to ramp up its products in a bid to – much like other companies in the midst of an era of elevated prices thanks to events beyond control – offer the best value for money. Of course, artificial intelligence is also making the game more interesting.
For the purposes of simplicity, we'll be referring to the new MacBook Pro as the “M6" from hereon.
Familiar design (again)
From the M5, the M6 has no aesthetic changes – you still get the MagSafe charging port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left, and an SDXC slot, HDMI port and one more Thunderbolt 4 port on the right. The Thunderbolts, which are speedier versions of USB-C, still support a transfer rate of 40 gigabits per second.
The build around its display has a clean finish in silver and space black, which is our pick (I have always favoured darker tones). Its weight stays put at 1.55kg and that will be noticeable if you're switching from a 14-inch MacBook Air; in fact, the M6 is also heavier than the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air's 1.51kg. (The 16-inch M6 is even heftier at a solid 2.15kg.)
That being said, the decision to leave its design intact is, again, a double-edged sword: it would be refreshing to see even some subtle differences on newer MacBooks (yes, that's for all those who want to show off), although we could throw the don't judge the book by its cover philosophy here, because it's inside the M6 where things get interesting.
Core power
Apple bumped up the core count on the M6: it has 12 cores for its CPU and GPU; both were 10 on the M5. And although the M6's super cores were halved to two and its efficiency cores stuck at six, Apple added four performance cores, which mainly focus on power efficiency and background activity, working with the latest version of macOS, Golden Gate.
And, just as we described on the iPhone 18 Pro Max, there is this subtle speed increase that you might notice when opening apps and files. The display is also crisp, and we love the dynamic animated wallpaper that also doubles as a tribute to Apple's history.
You still get up to 24 hours of battery life, which is still at par with the M5 version. Of course, that varies on what you do and how much you use it. We had a pretty decent run: on a nine-hour work day, from a full charge in the morning, work stuff, videos, the internet, some games and other bits in between – resting for lunch and a couple of snack breaks included – left the battery at just a shade under its halfway mark, meaning we were on pace for more than 17 hours. That's nowhere near bad, considering that was enough to last a few more solid hours the following day.
Of course, Apple has retooled its AI game, and running large language models on the M6, according to the company, is up to 13 times faster compared to the M5. Gaming, coding and 3D rendering have also been improved across the board.
And as for your hardware choices, you can opt for up to 32GB of memory and up to 4TB of storage, in addition to nano-texture display that reduces glare similar to the one on the iPhone Duo.
Note: this new MacBook Pro is also available with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which also gives you higher configurations. So you may ask, what's the difference? The M6 is for daily grind of work, play, entertainment and video editing, while these higher-end M5s are positioned for heavy-duty and professional functions (also costs more).
More AI on Creator Studio
Alongside the launch of the new MacBooks, Apple also introduced new AI tools for its Creator Studio, which would appeal to regular users, creators and professionals. The software suite includes video editors Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor, image app Pixelmator Pro, and music tools Logic Pro and MainStage, in addition to new AI functions on Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Freeform (for the uninitiated, those are the Apple equivalents of Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Whiteboard on Windows).
Some of the interesting additions to Creative Studio include the ability to generate new images directly in a Final Cut Pro or Motion project, and the ability to choose Apple stock video with the introduction of Content Hub. These would be able to speed up work, or generally just get some ideas, since stock media and AI-generated content – this I'll have to admit – can be amusing. (Still, big no to AI slop.)
The four productivity apps mentioned above, meanwhile, get Intelligent Assistant, which is a tool to draft, format and research information on Pages, suggest chart types and make formulaes on Numbers, and create stories and animations for Keynote slide shows. Now these aren't new in the world of computing, but Apple is trying to give its own flavour to it.
One more thing: these Creator Studio updates will be available later this month for a monthly subscription of Dh49.99, or Dh499 per year.
Verdict
Of course, the biggest sticking point is the price, as the Apple M6 MacBook Pro starts at Dh8,499. That's above the M5's Dh6,899 starting point, but do remember that Apple raised the M5's price to Dh8,499 in June, so it's good that the company decided to maintain its pricing, which may be another sign of its supply chain resilience. Still, that's a high price to pay, but that may be the new norm.
While the design remains very clean and in Apple's minimalist appeal, we feel it's time for an update. We're not looking for a Touch Bar-level refresh, but at least something to distinguish it as a next-generation item. Colour accents? A revival of the illuminated Apple logo? Also, it could use a weight-loss programme.
