Welcome to another episode of 9to5Mac Weekly where, the only thing worse than Siri, is
paying for Siri.
I am your host, Miles Somerville.
And man oh man, this month is gonna be expensive.
Because Apple
Apple really kicked this event off with a bang.
Remember that voice assistant you don’t use?
Well now Apple is offering a $5 a month plan that allows you to search for music within
Apple music.
With Siri.
The Voice assistant you don’t use.
Mmmm.
They also revealed three new colors for the Homepod mini.
And I think this was only inevitable.
And I think they chose a nice set of colors to match some of their other products like
the iMac.
Prices will be the same, and they’ll be available to order ----
Apple finally unveiled the Airpods 3.
And it’s pretty much everything the leaks have been saying.
They’re more or less identical to the leaks we’ve been seeing all year.
The design is very reminiscent of the Airpods pro.
But without the silicone ear tips.
Onto the main hardware of
the event.
Apple finally unveiled the next step in the Apple Silicon transition.
And it’s M1 Pro and M1 Max.
Not M1x, so that name can finally be put to bed.
And this was a last-minute rumor that we weren’t sure of.
So now it makes sense as to why there was a back and forth with the 32GB vs 64GB memory
rumors.
M1 Pro will have up to 32GB of memory and M1 Max will have up to 64.
M1 Pro will be a 10-core CPU with a 16-Core GPU and 32GB of memory like I said.
You’ll also be getting support for more Thunderbolt controllers, and enhanced ProRes
encoding and decoding for video editing.
M1 Max will be a 10-Core CPU with a 32-Core GPU with up to 64GB of Memory.
And besides that, the only difference is in the memory bandwidth.
M1 Pro will have a 200GB/s memory bandwidth and M1 Max will have a 400GB/s memory bandwidth.
And those are insane numbers.
But more or less what we expected these chips to be.
And I’m not at all complaining about it so far.
And if the real-world performance pans out with these machines the way we’re hoping;
expect 8K HDR videos from both Jeff and I on the channel for the foreseeable future.
Apple unveiled what’s probably the craziest MacBook upgrade in years.
We’ve got the thinner bezels, all of the Pro legacy ports back, the death of the touch
bar, and yes.
A Notch.
But let’s break down everything you’re getting here.
The display is going to be one of the best things about these new MacBooks.
We can firstly see that they’ve done away with the MacBook logo on the bottom, shrunk
the bezels all the way around, and added a notch.
Now this notch rumor was also super last minute, but it was being brought up heavily all weekend.
And it’s real.
And honestly, I got over it with the iPhone relatively easily.
And personally it doesn’t bother me at all here on the MacBook.
There’s literally nothing ever happening at the top center portion of the display from
a UI standpoint.
And because these displays aren’t a true 16:9 aspect ratio, you’ve already got the
black border present when watching content on MacBooks anyway.
So having a notch on a MacBook doesn’t really change the usability experience in any way.
So I’m cool with it.
But what do you think about it?
Because of the shrinkage in bezels, the smaller MacBook Pro now has a 14.2-Inch display, and
the larger MacBook Pro has a 16.2-Inch display.
And just on paper alone, these MacBook pro panels are already the best you can get in
a laptop right now.
Both models will have ProMotion mini-LED displays with up to 1600 Nits of Peak brightness for
HDR content.
Apple essentially brought the ProDisplay XDR experience to the MacBook Pro, minus the 6K
resolution.
And I just cannot wait to see these in-person for the first time.
Just as all of the rumors pointed to, we’ve got the return of MagSafe, HDMI and the SD
Card-Slot.
This is something we’ve been waiting for since 2016, and it’s finally confirmed to
be returning.
Also cool to point out that this is the first Mac utilizing Thunderbolt 4, which doesn’t
really offer much as far as an increase in performance is concerned.
But it’s great to see that these ports will each have their own Thunderbolt controllers.
This means that you’ll be able to max out the performance of each individual thunderbolt
device connected to the laptop.
Apple didn’t specify which version of HDMI this is, but according to the website, it’ll
have support for one 4K display at up to 60Hz, which just sounds like it’s sporting an
HDMI 1.4 port which is disappointing for professionals who are using higher-end displays.
Like 5K monitors or 4K 120Hz displays.
But this isn’t a deal breaker persay, because through the Thunderbolt ports, you’ll be
able to connect up to 2 6K displays @60Hz with M1 Pro, or up to 3 6K displays @60Hz
with one 4K @60Hz with M1 Max, which is pretty insane to be able to do on a MacBook.
It’s nearly overkill honestly.
The SD Card Slot is a big question mark as far as what kind of performance you can get
out of it.
There was a long-running rumor from Luke Miani that there would be a UHS-II-compatible card
slot.
UHS-II is the current high-speed option for SD cards, and if you have a UHS-II SD card
and the MacBook Pro does not, then you’re going to be getting whatever speeds the MacBook
Pro supports, which right now, we don’t really know.
Apple pretty much gave zero detail on how fast it’s going to be.
But even if it is only UHS-I, It’s cool to have the SD card slot back.
Getting MagSafe back is a huge win for the MacBook Pro.
And especially because it’s technically optional.
You don’t have to use it, as all three Thunderbolt ports are capable of regular charging.
The change they made to the keyboard's design is interesting, as it’s now been completely
blacked out.
You no longer have the aluminum trim going between the keys.
And I wonder if that was done purposely to make these keyboards easier to replace without
having to get a whole new chassis for it.
I guess we’ll have to see.
And of course, the touch bar is finally dead, and the function keys are back in action.
I honestly never cared for the Touch Bar that much so this is a good thing if you ask me.
Just keeping it simple and giving Pro Users what they want.
And speaking of other things we want.
A better webcam.
And we finally got one in these new MacBook Pros.
A 1080p webcam in a Pro laptop shouldn’t be celebrated, but I’m personally very happy
to see these garbage webcams we had in the macbooks before be eliminated.
I assume this will more or less be the same quality camera as what we’ve got in the
24-Inch M1 iMac.
We’ve also got a new 6-Speaker sound system for both 14 and 16-inch models with support
for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.
And a new “Studio-quality” mic system for both models that should be a notable improvement
over the intel models.
We already knew the battery life on these laptops would be killer but Apple basically
confirmed it.
These new MacBooks should have up to 21 hours of battery life.
17 hours of video playback, 11 hours of web browsing, and you’ll be getting either a
67 Watt fast charger with M1 Pro or a 96 Watt fast charger with M1 Max.
So starting at $1999, you’ll be able to get the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an 8-Core
M1 Pro in either Space Grey or Silver.
And the 16-inch model will start at $2,499 and come in the same colors with a 10-Core
M1 Pro.
And from there you’ll be able to spec either models to a 10-core M1 Pro, or choose between
multiple configurations of M1 Max.
And once M1 Max is chosen, you’ll be able to get up to 64GB of memory in either model.
Then both 14 and 16-inch Pro will have up to 8TB of solid state storage, which is obviously
insanely expensive to upgrade to.
But that's the MacBook Pros.
They’re available to order right now and should start shipping next week.
And I’ve got my order in for a 14-Inch M1 Max model, which hopefully comes in next week.
These are obviously more expensive than the previous intel models.
But I can’t argue with what they’ve brought to the table so far.
And if the real-world performance pans out, then the pricing will be solidified even further
if you ask me.
What do you guys think about these new MacBooks?
Are they everything you hoped they would be?
And even more-so, are you going to order one?
Let us know in the comments section below.
And please make sure to subscribe to the channel.
Because we’ve got reviews on all of these machines coming.
Thank you for watching, and I’ll talk to you guys in the next one.