Tuesday’s highly-anticipated “Peek performance” special event could see Apple preview its long-rumored new external display, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reporting in this week’s Power On newsletter that Apple supposedly completed work on the new display “months ago,” and the device was due to launch “soon after last year’s MacBook Pro.”
The next-generation external display is expected to be previewed alongside a new M2 or M1 Pro Mac mini, with sources claiming the machine is “ready to go.” The new machine is expected to launch alongside a new iPhone SE with 5G support and an updated iPad Air with upgraded internals and Center Stage camera support.
Gurman suggests that while a new Mac mini is expected next week, future Macs like an iMac Pro or Mac Pro update aren’t likely to be released. However, Apple may want “to preview at least one of those machines ahead of a release a little later this year.”
I’m told from a developer source that Apple has been testing multiple Macs with a new chip in recent weeks that includes an eight-core CPU (four efficiency cores and four high-performance cores) and 10 GPU cores. Those are exactly the specifications of the M2 chip I detailed last year. – Apple has been testing this new chip on machines running macOS 12.3 (which should be released in the next week or two and run on the new Macs) and a future macOS 12.4, as well as macOS 13, which will be previewed in June at WWDC 2022.
Gurman’s comments follow after a report on Friday claimed to have knowledge about a new “Apple Studio Display” with a 7K resolution, offering a higher resolution than Apple’s current Pro Display XDR, blurring the lines on whether the new arrival will be a replacement for the high-end Pro Display XDR or a new addition to join Apple’s standalone display lineup.
I also wouldn’t rule out Apple previewing its next-generation external display. I’m told Apple actually completed work on it months ago, and the device was due to launch soon after last year’s MacBook Pro. Apple’s last in-house monitor came in 2019 alongside the Intel Mac Pro. A monitor would also explain the “peek” spelling. I don’t believe the new iMac Pro or Mac Pro are ready to go on sale imminently, but perhaps Apple wants to preview at least one of those machines ahead of a release a little later this year.
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