The short version
- Apple announced a 14-inch MacBook Pro and a 24-inch iMac with its M6 chip on October 27.
- The MacBook Pro starts at ₹2,39,900 ($1,999). The iMac starts at ₹1,74,900 ($1,499). Both are big jumps over the M5 and M4 models they replace.
- Apple claims up to 30% faster graphics and 25% faster on-device AI than M5, plus up to 24 hours of battery life on the laptop.
- Pre-orders open October 28, and both go on sale November 6, in India as well as the US.
The M6 chip, in numbers
The M6 isn't brand new. Apple first put it in the Mac mini in August, and it's Apple's first chip built on a 2nm process. If that number means little to you, our process node explainer covers why smaller nodes matter.
What's new today is where it's going. Both Macs get the same core layout:
| M6 (MacBook Pro, iMac 12-core) | M5 (previous MacBook Pro) | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU cores | 12 | 10 |
| GPU cores | 12, each with a Neural Accelerator | 10 |
| Neural Engine | Dual 16-core | 16-core |
| Memory bandwidth | Up to 170GB/s | 153GB/s |
| Unified memory | 16GB, up to 32GB | 16GB base |
| Ray tracing | Third-generation engine | Third-generation engine |
The cheaper iMac uses a cut-down M6 with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. That's a binned chip, where Apple switches off a couple of cores, and our chip binning explainer explains why companies do it.
Image: Apple
Apple's performance claims
These are Apple's numbers from its own testing in September and October, not independent benchmarks.
Against the M5 MacBook Pro, Apple says the M6 model offers:
- Up to 30% faster graphics
- Up to 25% faster on-device AI work, such as running a language model locally
- A Neural Engine up to 1.9x faster
- Up to 1.3x faster Blender ray-traced renders and Xcode builds, and 1.2x faster image processing in Affinity
It also calls the M6 "the world's fastest CPU core" without naming what it was compared against. For gamers, the iMac release makes the clearest claim: up to 2x higher ray-tracing performance than the M4 iMac. Neither press release names a game, and Apple says nothing about MetalFX upscaling this time.
14-inch MacBook Pro: what else changed
The body looks the same as last year's. The changes are inside and in the wireless chips:
- Battery: up to 24 hours, which Apple calls the longest of any Mac. It charges to 50% in about 30 minutes with a 96W adapter.
- Display: 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR, up to 1,600 nits peak HDR, with an optional nano-texture finish.
- Ports: three Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, MagSafe 3, SDXC slot and headphone jack. It drives up to two external displays.
- Wireless: Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, up from Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
- Camera and audio: 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View, six speakers with Spatial Audio.
- Colours: space black and silver.
The base model now ships with 16GB of memory and 1TB of storage. The M5 version started with 512GB, which explains part of the price rise.
Image: Apple
24-inch iMac: same design, more ports
The iMac keeps its thin, colourful design and 4.5K Retina screen at 500 nits, with nano-texture glass as an option on the 12-core model. It comes in seven colours: blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and silver.
The two versions differ in more than the chip. The 12-core iMac gets four Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of two, an optional 2.5Gb Ethernet port, and Touch ID on the keyboard as standard. Both drive up to two 6K displays and have Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and a 12MP Center Stage camera. Both start at 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage.
Image: Apple
India prices and how they compare
| Model | India price | US price | Replaces (launch price) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-inch MacBook Pro, M6, 16GB/1TB | ₹2,39,900 | $1,999 | M5 model: ₹1,69,900 ($1,599) |
| iMac, M6 10-core, 16GB/256GB | ₹1,74,900 | $1,499 | M4 model: ₹1,34,900 ($1,299) |
| iMac, M6 12-core, 16GB/256GB | ₹1,99,900 | $1,699 |
Education pricing in India starts at ₹2,27,900 for the MacBook Pro, and at ₹1,68,900 and ₹1,87,900 for the two iMacs.
That's a ₹70,000 jump at the entry point of the MacBook Pro range. The cheapest MacBook Pro now costs about 41% more than it did a year ago, though it does come with twice the storage. The iMac's starting price is up ₹40,000. Apple hasn't explained the increases. Memory prices have climbed sharply this year, and that pressure has already shown up in console price talk.
On paper, that makes the ₹99,900 Mac mini the cheapest M6 Mac by a wide margin.
What's still unknown
Apple hasn't published independent battery or gaming numbers, and nobody has benchmarked these exact machines yet. There's also no M6 Pro or M6 Max. That fits Bloomberg's report that Apple will skip them and go straight to M7, and today's launches back up the first half of that report.
What to watch next
Apple calls this an "exciting week", and it has a "Pro and Tell" event on Wednesday, October 28. Reports point to an OLED MacBook Pro that keeps the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Pre-orders for today's Macs open the same day, so if you're choosing between the M6 and a higher-end model, it's worth waiting until Wednesday's announcements before you order.
