Apple unleashes new MacBook Pros with powerful chips, more ports and a notch

Apple CEO Tim Cook started the event by mentioning, “Today we’re focusing on two important areas: music and the Mac.”

Here is a summary of all the new stuff Apple is bringing in 2021.

Apple Music Voice Plan

Apple has introduced a new Apple Music Voice Plan that allows you to use Siri to access Apple Music. It will cost $4.99 a month and will be available in 17 countries.

HomePod mini

Apple is offering new color options for the HomePod Mini, including yellow, orange, and blue. Starting in November, they’ll be available for the same $99 price.

AirPods

Apple has released a new version of its AirPods wireless headphones. They resemble the AirPods Pro in appearance, however they lack replaceable tips. The new headphones are sweat- and water-resistant and support spatial audio. They will be available next week and may be preordered for $179 on Monday.

Battery life in the new Airpods is increased to up to six hours of listening. Five minutes of charge gives you an hour of use. The case can do four full charges and has wireless charging.

The Airpods go for $179 with orders open today, and available next week.

New custom M1 Pro and M1 Max Chips

Apple unveiled the M1 Pro and M1 Max, its next two proprietary CPUs. The Pro boasts more than 33 billion transistors, while the Max has 57 billion transistors, so they appear to be big chips.

For the first time in pro systems, the M1 Pro and M1 Max include a system-on-a-chip (SoC) architecture. Fast unified memory, industry-leading performance per watt, and amazing power efficiency, as well as enhanced memory bandwidth and capacity, are all features of the processors. The M1 Pro supports up to 32GB of unified memory and has a memory bandwidth of up to 200GB/s. M1 Max has a memory bandwidth of up to 400GB/s, which is 2x that of M1 Pro and roughly 6x that of M1, as well as compatibility for up to 64GB of unified memory.

While the latest PC laptops have a maximum graphics memory of 16GB, having this much memory allows for graphics-intensive workflows that were previously unthinkable on a notebook. Because of the M1 Pro and M1 Max’s efficient architecture, they give the same level of performance whether the MacBook Pro is plugged in or running on battery power. The M1 Pro and M1 Max also have improved media engines with dedicated ProRes accelerators for professional video processing. The M1 Pro and M1 Max are Apple’s most powerful processors to date.

MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro comes with a 1080p camera, the greatest audio system in a notebook, and the most advanced connection that a MacBook Pro has ever had.

The all-new M1 Pro and M1 Max – the first pro CPUs developed for the Mac — power the MacBook Pro. MacBook Pro is available in 14-inch and 16-inch variants and offers breakthrough processor, graphics, and machine learning (ML) speed, as well as incredible battery life – enabling workflows previously inconceivable on a notebook. A Liquid Retina XDR display, a wide range of connectors for improved connectivity, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and a audio system in a notebook round out the new MacBook Pro.

14-inch variant

16-inch variant

Both models come with three Thunderbolt 4 ports for connecting high-speed peripherals, an SDXC card slot for quick media access, an HDMI port for connecting to monitors and TVs, and an enhanced headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. MagSafe 3 is back for the MacBook Pro, with a new design and the ability to put more power into the system than ever before. MagSafe 3 protects your MacBook Pro while allowing you to connect a charging cable quickly and easily. Fast charge is also available for the first time on the Mac, allowing users to charge up to 50% faster in just 30 minutes.

Users can now connect up to two Pro Display XDRs and a 4K TV simultaneously with M1 Pro, and up to three Pro Display XDRs and a 4K TV with M1 Max. The MacBook Pro also has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless networking.

A 1080p FaceTime HD camera is included with the new MacBook Pro, increasing the resolution and improving low-light performance. The camera system uses the M1 Pro and M1 Max’s strong image signal processor (ISP) and Neural Engine for computational video, which improves video quality and makes users look sharper with more natural-looking skin tones.

The 14-inch model goes for $1,999. The 16-inch model costs $2,499 and comes in Silver and space gray.