There was a real sign of momentum in Apple’s latest special event, a recorded keynote that has just been released. Not only was there the first new iMac in more than two years and a new, dazzling color for the MacBook Pro, but in a company first, Apple revealed not one but three chips to power the new hardware.
The keynote also saw one laptop being retired, and at least one welcome price drop.
Apple M3
The new chips are the M2, M2 Pro and M2 Max. While the M2 processor was announced in June last year, 16 months ago, the M2 Pro and M2 Max are just nine months old – momentum indeed.
Last week, Snapdragon announced blazing-fast processors that beat the Apple M2 Max. The statistics revealed so far make it hard to know how much faster the M3 may be, but the timing is worth noting. While the Snapdragon X Elite chip announced on October 24 won’t be in computers until mid-2024, the hardware containing the new Apple chips can be ordered straight away (today) and go on sale from next week.
The new chips were characterized as the industry’s first built using a 3-nanometer process. That means you can squeeze 2 million transistors into the thickness of a human hair, I’m told. All those extra transistors make for faster speeds and greater power efficiency.
Just as importantly, the M3 family, as Apple calls this trio of chips, includes next-generation graphics processing. In fact, Apple claims it’s the biggest leap forward in graphics architecture yet seen in Apple’s silicon.
And where the first Apple silicon for Mac, the M1 processor, could only work with up to 16GB of RAM, the newest chips can now support 128GB of unified memory.
Apple MacBook Pro—The New Color
It’s fantastic. I’ve received an early look at it, and it’s like nothing else available, with a subtle but slightly glossy sheen. And then, when you touch it, you notice something very nice indeed: a new anodized finish means it doesn’t pick up fingerprints. Now, that’s progress.
Apart from the color, there’s no change to the design of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro.
No More 13-Inch Apple MacBook Pro
The new range sees Apple quietly retire the 13-inch MacBook Pro. That’s the one with the older design, a Touch Bar instead of the usual top row of keys, and no MagSafe charging. It also had an older FaceTime camera and no miniLED backlighting in the screen, which Apple calls Liquid Retina XDR. It means there is a simpler line-up now with four Mac laptops in total: 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple iMac
The current 24-inch iMac has the M1 processor. I suspect most users find this computer is powerful enough for their needs, especially as the iMac is a family machine. From today, it’s updated to the M3 chip, with two configurations for cores in the GPU. It means that the iMac you can buy today is twice as powerful as the one you could have bought last week.
Pricing
The 14-inch MacBook Pro can be configured with the M3 chip, as well as M3 Pro and M3 Max, while the 16-incher comes with M3 Pro or M3 Max only. The entry-level M3 model also sees a big price drop of $400, starting at $1,599 instead of $1,999 as previously. Other models remain the same as before, though some have higher storage or RAM levels for the same price.
Availability
As mentioned above, the new MacBook Pro models and iMac can be ordered straight away and go on sale next week. M3, and M3 Pro models will land next week, but M3 Max versions land later in November.
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