Thought Apple's M1 chip was fast? Meet the M1X

2/12/2020

Thought Apple's M1 chip was fast? Meet the M1X. According to a reliable source, Apple is about to take things up a gear. Since arm-ing (sorry) its most recent MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Mini with the new technology (which was developed to replace the industry-standard Intel chips), Apple has reportedly been working on a next-level version – the M1X.

Don't get too attached to the name, though, as it isn't yet confirmed. Although the new MacBooks already boast vastly-improved and impressive battery life, according to this leak, things are about to get even better, with a source quoted as stating "if you think M1 is fast, you haven’t seen M1X". We bet the new chip will mean the new MacBooks will head straight to the top of the most powerful laptops guide.

Twitter account LeaksApplePro shared the hot news in the above tweet. Apparently Apple will be moving from an eight- to a 12-core configuration comprised of eight high-performance cores and four efficiency cores – explaining the jump in power and speed.

Alongside the leak above is another rumour from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who, according to MacRumours, has given the release date as the "second or third quarter of 2021". The models in question could include redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models and a redesigned 24-inch iMac, plus a smaller version of the Mac Pro tower. Since the 16-inch MacBook Pro was last updated in 2019, it makes sense that 2021 would be the year of change for the flagship model.

Responses to the news of redesigned MacBooks with the M1X chip have included questions about the technology:

And another renowned leaker, l0vetodream, appears to hint that it won't only be Apple Silicon chips being shipped out with the new models – something that commenters find hard to believe.

In terms of other design elements, we wonder if Apple will listen to the wants of its user base. Included in the comments on MacRumours was more than one request for a touchscreen, plus passionate pleas for the removal of the touchbar.

While we can't be certain any of this will come to fruition, following the developing rumours of a new Apple product is almost as fun as the launch itself. We await the redesign with bated breath.

If you like to imagine how fast the M1 will be, be sure to check out the video of the M1 MacBook Air with new Arm-based M1 chip, yet M1X is touted as even better and faster.

This brief video shows apps like Safari, Maps, Mail, Messages, Apple TV, Keynote, Reminders and more opening without the laptop breaking stride. The video also features a look at a Mac Activity Monitor app at the end of the video showing the 8GB of RAM handling the load without issue, using up only 3.8GB of the available unified memory. Bear in mind, this is the base model M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM, not the newest, highest-end MacBook Pro model. This Mac also lacks an internal fan for cooling, which makes the achievement all the more impressive.