The MacBook is dead.
In my last video I talked about all the problems that it had, but Apple just announced a brand
new MacBook Pro that aims to fix everything that was missing and then some.
So here's why I'm excited to get my grubby hands on one.
There are a lot of headlines with the new MacBook Pros, there's MagSafe, more ports,
on top of the two brand new M1 chips, now called M1 Pro and M1 Max.
I'll dig it to them in a bit, but let's first take a visual look at what's changed.
Still available in silver and space gray, the new MacBook Pro's design is a bit of a departure
in that it's very asymmetrical. The design of the bottom reminds me of the corners of the OJ Intel MacBook from 2006.
The top screen is flat edged like the new iPad or the old titanium power book that started
Apple's Pro Laptop Revolution 20 years ago.
Actually, even the black keyboard calls out to that old laptop too.
And as I predicted, the touch bar is gone.
RIP in its place is a function row with full height keys to make it easier to change the
volume. The ports are a big deal with the new MacBook, bringing back things that really shouldn't
have been removed in the first place. HDMI, an SD card slot, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, and most remarkably, MagSafe.
Yes, it has returned, and no, the MacBook is not compatible with your old charger.
But this time around, MagSafe is now a detachable cable that on the charger end plugs into USB-C.
So you still have the flexibility if it frays, or the only cable you have around is a USB-C
cable. Really, the best of all worlds, finally.
The displays have grown and are massively improved now. The smaller laptop stretches to 14 inches across, while the larger model is still 16
inches. It only looks bigger. Most notable is the addition of Adaptive Pro Motion, which increases the top refresh
rate to 120Hz. But when there's not a lot of action on the screen, it drops the refresh rate to save
battery. And when you're watching a movie, it matches the frame rate of the content.
The panels are Liquid Retina XDR, with a 1600 nits peak brightness and mini LED contrast
ratio. This solution is now up to 254 pixels per inch for both.
With... what aspect ratio? I think the cinema's aspect ratio rating is going to make a comeback.
So that would be 1.55 to 1 versus 1.6 to 1 in the outgoing MacBook.
But wait, is there a notch?
There's a notch on the MacBook Pro screen now. I'm not one of those people who hates the notch on the iPhone, but this notch, which
contains the much-improved 1080p webcam, but no face ID, blocks the middle of the task
bar. And what's going to happen in full screen mode? Are they going to have to redesign Safari and other apps?
I'm not too sure. But I'll investigate in my review, subscribe to find out.
It's super interesting that there are two brand new chip options, one of which I wasn't
even expecting. Okay, the performance. The chips.
Apple announced two new chips in the MacBook Pro, dubbed M1 Pro and M1 Max.
They are the next layers in Apple's ARM transition.
For Apple, the name of the game here is both increased performance and efficiency, and
they raced through this announcement I could barely keep up. The CPU isn't the big story here, though it gets an increase to 10 cores.
Where Apple has put its focus on is GPU, memory, and machine learning.
And that's really where the differences between the M1 Pro and Max lie.
The M1 Pro is available with 14 or 16 GPU cores, and for video editors like me, has
a hardware accelerated media engine for encoding and decoding the most popular formats, along
with ProRes. Now, looking at Apple's chip product shots, here it appears that the Max features a duplicated
GPU, so up to 32 cores, with additional engines for faster video encoding and decoding.
This is going to be great for video editors.
This additional module in the M1 Max increases the unified memory to up to 64 gigabytes, and
memory bandwidth to 400 gigabytes per second, up from the 200 in the Pro.
Another big boon for professionals is that the Max will support up to 4 external displays,
with the Pro only supporting 2. Apple made a bunch of charts to show the differences between other laptops in the class, and while
I don't know how they quantify performance, these charts were really about efficiency.
And these MacBooks have some crazy sounding battery life.
Apple claims the 14 inch should get around 17 hours of battery life, while the 16 inch
will get up to 21 hours. Me wonders how much the more powerful CPUs will affect battery life.
Regardless, you'll be able to fast charge to 50% in half an hour.
Another interesting thing about the different chips is both are available on the small and
large MacBook Pros. And there are a lot of SKUs to choose from.
So will the performance be a bit different because there's more space to dissipate heat
on the 16 inch model? Another thing to investigate.
Pricing wise, a base 14 inch now starts at $2,000, and a base 16 inch will set you back
$2,500. This is $200 and $100 more than the outgoing models respectively.
Oh, and if you do want an M1 Max, you will have to upgrade the memory too, so that can
be a $900 upgrade. Keeping a reasonable amount of storage and maxing out everything else on the 16 inch
will set you back $3,900.
Yikes. As for me, I really like the idea of a maxed out 14 inch that I could just dock to the
desk and use for everything. It could be one computer to rule them all.
It wasn't just MacBooks that got announced. There are three new colors of the HomePod Mini, which should match your yellow, orange, or
blue iMac nicely. There are also new AirPods.
These third generation AirPods appear to be like AirPods Pro, but without the silicon
tips. The new design is supposed to hold into your ear better.
The charging case supports MacSafe, that's kind of cool. It's got an IPX4 rating for sweat and water resistance.
It has force touch and better battery life. It has spatial audio and an adaptive EQ.
Actually, looking at the comparison chart, these really do appear to be AirPods Pro without
some features. My concern is still that the mesh is too close to the tips.
It looks just ready to eat earwax.
There are $180 while the old second gen model remains on sale for $130 now.
Alright, thanks for sticking through this Mac Address.
If you like the new MacBook Pro, give this video a like.
If you're mad about the notch, then why not subscribe. I was kind of surprised by the amount of skews available in this MacBook, so I'm curious
if you were to get one, what model you'd order.