Apple revamps its MacBook Pro

After taking advantage of the new 100% Apple chip last year, “a gigantic step forward” according to the company, the MacBook Pros are entitled to a real boost this year with two new even more powerful chips and a series of novelties.

Karim Benessaieh
Press

For its second round of fall 2021 announcements on Monday, Apple has given pride of place to its business laptops, the MacBook Pro, which will be offered with screen sizes of 14 and 16 inches. Both now have a new generation of Apple Silicon chips, based on an ARM architecture inspired by mobile devices, which gradually since 2020 allows the American manufacturer to abandon Intel processors.

70% faster

These newcomers, the M1 Pro and its higher version M1 Max, gave Apple a real firework display of amazing statistics during the announcement.

It is, we said at the outset, “the most powerful chips ever built by Apple.” The central processor, or CPU, would thus be 70% faster than the previous M1, which already beat down most of the competition. The M1 Pro’s graphics processor (GPU) has been touted as twice as fast as that of the M1, and that of the M1 Max, over six times.

Combined with improved power efficiency, these processors now almost double the battery life, which is now 21 hours of video content player for the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

These laptops feature Liquid Retina XDR displays for the first time, reaching 1600 nits of brightness with 7.7 million pixels for the 16-inch model. They now achieve a refresh rate of 120 Hz and incorporate the famous notch at the top of the typical iPhone screen. New ports have been added to them, and they now offer three Thunderbolt 4 ports, one HDMI output, one SDXC card input, and fast charging using MagSafe. Connoisseurs have noted that the keyboard has undergone some changes, with the disappearance of the TouchBar and the return of the function keys. These computers will hit shelves on October 26, starting prices of $ 2,499 for the 14-inch model and $ 3,149 for the 16-inch.

New AirPods

One of Apple’s biggest hits in recent years, the AirPods wireless earbuds, are entitled to a third version which will also be available on October 26, priced at $ 239. They have a design that is close to the AirPods Pro, without the silicone tips and ambient noise cancellation, and are now sweat and water resistant. They praised their new ability to automatically adjust to their user, depending on their position and location, a feature called Adaptive EQ, and their ability to broadcast in spatial audio. Battery life has been improved and is now six hours, with an additional 24 hours stored in the case.

We have also announced a new type of subscription at a lower cost, Voice Plan, which allows access to songs from Apple Music only through Siri and voice control. It is unusable for any non-Apple device. This $ 4.99 package will be available “later this fall” in 17 countries, including Canada.