Apple's biggest leak in 14 years: unreleased M4 14-inch MacBook Pro photos and video revealed

Apple has its worst product leak in 14 years

Photos and videos of a suspected unannounced 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 chip have been popping up on social media lately, making this possibly Apple's worst product leak since an employee accidentally left an iPhone 4 prototype behind at a California bar in 2010.

Today, Russian channel Romancev768 posted a video of what could be the next-generation MacBook Pro on YouTube Shorts, a day after another Russian channel shared a similar video. The video shows a 14-inch MacBook Pro in a box, apparently equipped with an M4 chip with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a "Space Black" finish.

Based on the "About This Machine" software menu shown in the video, this MacBook Pro is said to be an unreleased November 2024 model. Since this MacBook Pro is powered by the standard M4 chip and not the high-end M4 Pro or M4 Max chips, the leaked device could be the next entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro, which, if true, would mean that the minimum RAM for the MacBook Pro lineup would be doubled from 8GB to 16GB, as rumored earlier. A third Thunderbolt 4 port would also be an upgrade for the base model, as the current entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro only comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Additionally, "Space Black" will be a new color option for the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro, as the current base model is only available in "Space Gray" and "Silver" options. The existing base model is only available in "Space Gray" and "Silver".

The other specs listed on the box are familiar, including the display size and resolution, as well as other ports such as MagSafe 3, HDMI, and SD card slot. Additionally, there doesn't seem to be any noticeable design changes to this 14-inch MacBook Pro.

The photos of the suspected MacBook Pro box were originally shared by leaker "ShrimpApplePro" on social media platform X last week. At the time, the authenticity of the photos was debated, especially since the box uses the same graphics found on the current-generation MacBook Pro packaging. These two unboxing videos boost the credibility of these leaks, but there's no hard evidence yet.

The source of these leaks is unclear. Last week, "ShrimpApplePro" claimed that at least one unreleased 14-inch MacBook Pro unit was being sold in a private Facebook group. In a follow-up post on Sunday, the leaker said he saw what appeared to be 200 unreleased 14-inch MacBook Pros being advertised online, leading him to believe the leak came from a warehouse. While it's unclear if these details are accurate, the whole situation is clearly very suspicious.

Even if these leaks are false, some of the specs shown are likely to be accurate. For example, the M4 chip was already unveiled on the iPad Pro earlier this year, and based on that, we know that the chip can indeed offer CPU configurations of up to 10 cores.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Sunday that he expects Apple to announce the first Macs with M4-series chips around the end of October, including a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 chips, as well as higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, respectively, and redesigned Mac mini and iMac with M4 chips. He mentioned that Apple plans to release "at least some" new Macs on Friday, November 1st.

Gurman previously mentioned that Apple would likely host an October event this year to unveil new Macs, much like it did last year when it unveiled the current M3-chip MacBook Pro and iMac models at a virtual event on October 30th. However, Apple has yet to announce an October event this year and could release the information via a press release at any time.

As we all know, Apple is known for its culture of secrecy, so leaks on the scale of this one are extremely rare among its products. As mentioned, this could be Apple's biggest leak since Gizmodo obtained and shared photos of an iPhone 4 prototype left behind by an employee at a bar in California. In that case, Apple had involved law enforcement agencies, and it remains to be seen how this one will be handled.