Apple has unveiled its first Mac computers that use its own silicon — the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The computers’ design are largely the same but feature something very different inside: Apple’s new M1 processor. The MacBook Air will start at $999 for the general public — the same price as the older version — or $899 for educators.
The Mac Mini starts at $699, which is $100 lower than the previous generation. And the MacBook Pro will start at $1,299 or $1,199 for educators, the same level as before. Preorders begin Tuesday, and the computers arrive next week.
“The Mac is having its best year ever,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the event. “More customers than ever are choosing the Mac.”
The computers use Apple’s new M1 processor. It’s based on 5-nanometer technology, the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology in the world. The M1 has an eight-core CPU and eight-core GPU, making it both powerful and battery efficient, said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. It’s twice as powerful as a rival laptop chip (likely one from Intel) while consuming a quarter of the battery life, he said.
The MacBook Air has a 15-hour battery life for wireless web browsing, while the 13-inch MacBook Pro can surf the internet for 17 hours on a single charge or playback video for 20 hours — 10 hours longer than its predecessor.
And Apple customized Mac OS Big Sur “to fully take advantage of all the capability and power of M1,” said Apple’s head of software, Craig Federighi. The software is available for Mac users Thursday.
The new MacBook Air is three-times faster than the best-selling Windows laptop on the market and is faster than 98% of all PCs notebooks sold in the past year, said Laura Metz, Mac product line manager. It sports a 13-inch retina display, TouchID and doesn’t need a fan to cool the machine.
“With M1 and Big Sur, we’ve taken the MacBook air and transformed it into something far beyond any other notebook,” she said.
Apple made the announcement during its third event in the past three months. The tagline for the latest launch was “One More Thing.” It followed September’s introduction of the revamped iPad Air and Apple Watch Series 6 and October’s unveiling of the iPhone 12 lineup.
Apple silicon for Macs is the latest effort by the company to control all of the hardware and software on its products. It designs its own application processors that act as the brains of its iPhones and iPads, a Bluetooth chip that quickly links its AirPods to its iPhones, and security chips that protect personal data and biometrics from hacking attempts. By designing its own chips, Apple is able to better control the features it releases, as well as better manage the timeline for introducing new devices.
“With the move to in-house capabilities, Apple is looking to regain control over the pace of the technology roadmap on the processor chips, and create a common architecture across all Apple products, making it easier for developers to write and optimize applications for the product ecosystem,” JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee noted.
