From Mini To Mighty — The Mac Has Finally Caught Up With The iPad

And it’s mostly good news, apart from one monumentally stupid mistake. A software engineer’s notes on all the new M4 Macs.

M4 Chips. Photo used with written permission from Apple.

I will be holding off for a while longer on analysing what, I think, has been Apple’s worst year in recent memory, and stick to what matters to us Mac users because snarky headlines aside there are plenty of positives that have to be mentioned about Apple’s new M4 Macs released somewhat unceremoniously over the span of three days.

Yes, Apple’s release schedule in 2024 has been all over the place. My iPad Pro and my iPhone 16 Pro are both proof of that. For the first time in Apple Silicon history, the iPad received the M4 chip months before the Macs, which certainly left many of us wondering what in Silicon Valley’s most famous park that isn’t really a park, was Apple was up to? While I don’t think this peculiar order of releases had to happen, the extra wait time wasn’t in vain.

There’s no question about it. The M4 Mac lineup is impressive and well-worth the wait.

From iMac to Mac mini and MacBook Pro, all Macs except the MacBook Air, the Mac Pro and the Mac Studio, feature the M4 SOC in either M4, M4…