You can also choose between different variations of the M4. If you don’t need all As for processing power, the base model has an eight-core CPU and an eight-core GPU. You can upgrade to a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. All models start with 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB, with the option to go up to 32GB (depending on processor). As for storage, you can upgrade up to 2 terabytes for an additional cost, but you start with 256 GB.
Photography: apple
The increase in RAM will allow for a smoother experience with Apple Intelligence (that’s why Apple increased RAM to 8GB on iPhone 16 models). Available with macOS Sequoia 15.1, you’ll have access to features like writing tools, a revamped Siri, transcript summaries in the Notes app, smart reply to messages, and more. You can read all about these features, along with all the other new additions to Sequoia, in our overview.
Apple Intelligence is not exclusive to the M4, but it is clear that Apple is on a crusade to update all of its hardware so that Apple Intelligence is at the forefront of its operating systems. As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman noted in his On fact sheetIt took Apple three years to update the iMac with an M3 chip; the company launched the M4 version within 12 months.
Still, like the iMac M3, the latest model is very much another spec bump. If you have a recent iMac, even the 2021 one, you can at least upgrade to the USB-C peripherals separately if you don’t need to improve performance but finally want to get rid of those Lightning accessories.