Apple announced the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 and a new M6 iMac on October 27, 2026. The MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and the iMac at $1,499, and Apple’s newsroom posts for the MacBook Pro and the iMac both open pre-orders on October 28, with availability on Friday, November 6.
If you have been holding off on a Mac upgrade, the headline is speed and AI. The harder part is working out which of Apple’s comparisons applies to the machine sitting on your desk today.
TL;DR: The M6 MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and the M6 iMac at $1,499, with both shipping November 6. Apple’s gains are in the chip: up to 30 percent faster graphics than M5 on the MacBook Pro and up to 18x faster than an Intel iMac. Apple’s release describes no touchscreen on the MacBook Pro, and the iMac release lists no memory or storage options.
M6 MacBook Pro and iMac prices, colors and release date
Apple lists three starting prices across the two Macs, and the iMac price depends on which chip configuration you pick. The MacBook Pro comes in space black and silver, while the iMac comes in seven colors: blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and silver.
| Model | Configuration | Starting price | Education price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-inch MacBook Pro | 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU | $1,999 | $1,899 |
| iMac | 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU | $1,499 | $1,449 |
| iMac | 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU | $1,699 | $1,599 |
Prices are U.S. figures from the two Apple newsroom posts above. The cheaper iMac is missing a few options, which matters once you read the iMac section.
What the M6 chip brings to the MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro has a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, two more cores each than before, plus a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Memory runs from 16GB to 32GB, and Apple’s tech specs page lists 1TB to 4TB of storage.
Apple says graphics are up to 30 percent faster than M5 and up to 11x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1. Those are Apple’s own tests, and its M5 comparison machine had 32GB of memory and a 4TB SSD.
Apple quotes up to 24 hours of battery life, which its spec page measures as video streaming, and lists up to 16 hours of wireless web browsing.
The M6 iMac, and the options that need the 12 core
For the iMac, Apple compares against two machines. It says the M6 iMac is up to 18x faster than the most popular Intel-based iMac, and up to 5x faster at on-device AI than M4.
Apple’s footnote does not say which Intel iMac it tested, so the 18x figure is a ceiling, not a typical result. The display is a 24-inch 4.5K panel at 500 nits, and Apple’s footnote gives the actual diagonal as 23.5 inches.
Nano-texture glass, the 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet option and Thunderbolt 4 on all four USB-C ports are limited to the 12-core models. If you want any of those, the real starting price is $1,699.
What Apple’s release does not say
Apple’s MacBook Pro release describes no touchscreen and no new design, and the spec page I checked lists only the M6 chip, with no M6 Pro or M6 Max. I also could not find memory or storage options for the iMac in its release, and Apple’s iMac store page still showed only M4 models when I looked on October 27.
Both Macs ship with macOS 27, where Siri AI is in beta in macOS 27.2 in six languages and some server-based features have daily usage limits. Our iOS 27.2 report and Siri AI device list cover how that rollout works on the phone side.
Who should pre-order and who should wait
Apple frames the biggest jumps around Intel and M1 owners, and that is where the upgrade is easiest to justify. If you already own an M5 MacBook Pro, a 30 percent graphics gain is real but is not the kind of change you notice on an ordinary Tuesday.
My read is that the most useful number in either release is the one Apple left out, which is what the iMac costs once you add memory and storage. Apple’s configurator should show it once pre-orders open on October 28.
