What to expect at WWDC 2023: Reality Pro, iOS 17, and new MacBooks

Apple's 2023 Worldwide Developer Conference is just a few days away—it kicks off with a keynote on Monday, June 5. That keynote will be livestreamed (we'll liveblog it, too), and it's expected to be a doozy.

The WWDC keynote isn't always the most exciting for non-developers, as it usually focuses on iOS updates rather than exciting new hardware. There have been exceptions, though, and next week's event will surely be one of them. Apple is expected to finally unveil its rumored mixed reality headset, which has taken a long and winding path to market.

That will be the main focus, but there will be interesting new developments on the iPhone, Mac, and Watch. Here's what to expect from the WWDC keynote next week.

New MacBooks

Let's start with the bit that will be most immediate and relevant to consumers: There will be new Macs, and at least some of them are likely to launch this summer.

There have been numerous reports from various sources in the supply chain and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that Apple is working on a 15-inch MacBook Air alongside a refresh of the 13-inch Air.

There has been some confusion in the pre-launch rumors about which chip will ship in the 15-inch MacBook Air: the M2 or the upcoming M3. Some early evidence pointed to the M2, but we likely won't know until the keynote. Like the M2 that followed the M1, the M3 would probably offer a noticeable but not radical upgrade in CPU performance over its predecessor. The M2 saw a big jump in graphics performance, though. It remains to be seen whether that will be repeated this time.

The 15-inch Air won't differ significantly from the 13-inch model beyond the screen size.

Bloomberg additionally reported that Apple will refresh the 13-inch MacBook Pro—yep, the one that still has a Touch Bar. We're surprised to see that laptop sticking around; we've said before that it's a tough sell when the 13-inch MacBook Air and 14-inch MacBook Pro are available as alternatives. But Apple has repeatedly said that it's one of its most popular Macs, so it seems it's sticking around.

Below: Photos of the most recent iteration of the 13-inch MacBook Air with captions from our review last year.

Apple is also arguably due to update the 24-inch iMac, and of course, there's the long-in-limbo Mac Pro. We haven't heard specific credible rumors about that possibility at WWDC, but the timing lines up, so you never know.

Reality headset and xrOS

Now on to the big one: Apple will finally give developers in attendance a look at its long-in-development mixed reality headset, which is likely to be called Reality Pro. Alongside that, the company will go into detail about a new operating system specifically built for that device, probably called xrOS or something similar to that.

We've written a lot about the many, many leaks and reports about Reality Pro over the past few years, and by now, we have a clear picture of what to expect.