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Russian YouTubers keep showing off alleged M4 MacBook Pros in historic Apple leak

M3 MacBook Pro


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Apple's M4 MacBook Pro seems to have made its way to Russian YouTubers after showing up on a private Facebook group in what might be the biggest pre-announcement leak of a retail-packaged Apple product.

Leaks and rumors around Apple products may seem commonplace, but there's never been anything quite like what's apparently happening on Russian YouTube. Just hours after YouTuber Wylsacom posted an unboxing of an alleged M4 MacBook Pro, another has done the same.

A YouTube Short shared by user Romancev768 shows an identical M4 MacBook Pro in space black with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM being unboxed. What ties this device to the ones leaked at the end of September are the identical boxes and model numbers.

There are some discrepancies between these boxes and Apple's current retail boxes, like the format is completely different on the spec stickers. The wallpaper is the same on the alleged M4 MacBook Pro boxes as the M3 series, which plays into the potential that these are fake.

Apple has never broken out its chipset into the spec bubbles for the 512GB and 16GB — here it shows "M4 chip." Apple usually puts the chip in the device name below these bubbles, as in "14-inch MacBook Pro with Apple M4 Pro chip."

The new sticker has a completely different layout, but shows all of the usual regulatory information. These stickers are very easy to fake and print out, and it's the only truly new and unique aspect that can be identified in any of the videos or leaks so far.

The alleged M4 MacBook Pro inside has three Thunderbolt ports, is colored space black, and has 16GB of RAM. A portion of the YouTube Short shows 16GB of RAM and M4 in an easily faked system info box.

Otherwise, the MacBook Pro shown could easily be the existing space black M3 Pro MacBook Pro, which has 18GB of RAM, not 16GB. The bump up to three Thunderbolt 4 ports from two Thunderbolt/USB-4 ports is a surprise, but not impossible.

It is also worth noting the model number and layout suggest these allegedly leaked models were destined for the US market. Apple doesn't currently do business with Russia, so no new MacBook Pro models would be making their way to the country.

There is only one way to know if these leaks are accurate, and that is once Apple reveals the new MacBook Pro models with M4 later in October. If these products are real, they will represent the biggest leak of an Apple product in history, even after the iPhone 4 in a bar, since the packaging was leaked as well.



18 Comments

rjharlan 2 comments · 8 Years

I can’t help but believe that this is a complete fake. There’s no way that two Russian influencers got their hands on two Macs that haven’t even been introduced to the market! Even the associates haven’t even been introduced to them yet. I think it’s much more likely that they’re searching for eyes on their channels. 

seanj 322 comments · 16 Years

This is from a country whose largest export to the world is disinformation… obviously fake.

hammeroftruth 1356 comments · 16 Years

rjharlan said:
I can’t help but believe that this is a complete fake. There’s no way that two Russian influencers got their hands on two Macs that haven’t even been introduced to the market! Even the associates haven’t even been introduced to them yet. I think it’s much more likely that they’re searching for eyes on their channels. 

Especially if you look closely at the label. The fonts for the model number dont match up with the rest of the label and there is some strange smudging at the bottom of the label on romance’s YouTube short. Apple labels don’t smudge and if you think it could be wear marks from the shipping, then why are they only there and they don’t match the marker color either. 

muso 33 comments · 15 Years

(cough) BULLSH!T (cough, cough) BULLSH!T!

Sorry, but no, MBPs that haven't even been introduced yet don't come with convenient retail packaging.   Some people will believe anything they see on teh webz.
\

blastdoor 3594 comments · 15 Years

seanj said:
This is from a country whose largest export to the world is disinformation… obviously fake.

Disinformation, hydrocarbons, and death.

Reagan was right about there being an evil empire. But the evil wasn’t due to the communism, it was due to the sadistic authoritarianism inherited from the czars.