This is the MacBook Pro most people should buy this year. Nobody is talking about it, because the next day Apple showed a touchscreen MacBook Pro and that got all the attention. But for normal work, this one does the job and costs $900 less.
What's new
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 starts at $1,999. It has the new M6 chip, 16GB of memory as standard (you can choose 32GB), and the same kind of screen as recent MacBook Pros, which Apple says gets up to 1,600 nits bright for HDR video. Apple says the battery lasts up to 24 hours, the longest of any Mac.
You get the ports you'd expect: HDMI, MagSafe, three Thunderbolt 4, an SD card slot and a headphone jack. There's also Wi-Fi 7 and a better 12MP camera that keeps you in the frame on calls. It comes in space black and silver and arrives in stores on 6 November.
Apple says the M6 is up to 30 percent faster for graphics and up to 25 percent faster for AI tasks than the M5 model before it. Those are Apple's own numbers. Wait for independent tests before you count on them.
What I like
The battery. Up to 24 hours by Apple's count. Even if a real day gets less, a laptop you don't have to worry about charging is worth a lot.
You pay for things you'll use. No touchscreen you'll forget about. Just a good keyboard, trackpad, screen and ports, all of which you use every day.
The screen is still good. It isn't OLED, and on paper its contrast is lower than the expensive model's. But it's the same kind of screen people have been happy with on MacBook Pros for years. For documents, the web, spreadsheets and video calls, it's more than enough.
What I don't like
32GB is the most memory you can get. And you can't add more later. That's plenty for most people. But if you run big AI models on your laptop, edit huge photo libraries or keep lots of heavy apps open, you'll need the more expensive model.
Apple didn't say how much it weighs. It made a big deal of the touchscreen model being 3 pounds, but didn't list this one's weight. Pick it up in a store before you assume it's as light.
Still no Face ID. Neither MacBook Pro has it. Touch ID works fine, but it's odd at this price.
When to pay more instead
Only three reasons. You carry your laptop every day and want the lighter touchscreen model. Your work is photos, video or colour, where the OLED screen really helps. Or you need more than 32GB of memory. If none of those is you, the extra $900 buys things you'll stop noticing after a week.
My verdict
Buy this one. Put some of the money you save into more memory or storage, because you can't upgrade those later. It's not the exciting MacBook Pro this year. It's the practical one, and for most people's work, that's the better laptop.
Specs, prices and performance claims are from Apple's announcements of 27 and 28 October 2026; the performance numbers are Apple's own. The opinions are ours. We haven't used the M6 MacBook Pro yet; it's in stores from 6 November. Photos: Apple.