Apple announced new MacBook Pro models Monday evening. It is a 16-inch and 14-inch model, which run on the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
The new laptops have an HDMI port, so you can easily connect them to external screens or your television, but also an SD card reader. These are connections that were still missing on the previous model of the Pro from 2016. You can also charge the MacBooks via the magnetic MagSafe charger, but also via one of the three USB-C ports.
New chips
The laptops run on the new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, which Apple claims are much faster than the Intel chips you find in most laptops. The M1 Pro chip uses a 10-core CPU that Apple claims is 70% faster than the current M1 chip. The M1 Max is said to be even more powerful than the M1 Pro. Both chips also use 70% less energy than competitor chips, according to Apple. The MacBook Pro supports up to 64GB of RAM, where the limit for the M1 MacBooks was 16GB.
With the 14-inch model you can watch about 14 hours of videos, while the 16-inch model even lasts 21 hours. Both models can charge approximately 50% of the battery in half an hour.
Also striking is the ‘notch’ or notch in the screen, comparable to the current iPhone models. This gives you more screen and fewer edges. For example, according to Apple, the edges on the outsides of the screen are 24% thinner, while the top edge is even 60% thinner. So you effectively have more screen space. The 16-inch model has a screen resolution of 3456 x 2240 pixels, the smaller model 3024 x 1964 pixels. Both laptops support ProMotion, or a frame rate of 120Hz.
It does not seem that the camera, as with the iPhone, supports facial recognition. The camera in the MacBook Pro has been improved further and now supports 1080p video, while the camera would also perform up to two times better in lower light than the previous model.
The keyboard was also addressed. The biggest change to that is the disappearance of the Touch Bar. You will find a fingerprint scanner on the keyboard.
Prices
The 16-inch model weighs over 2 kilograms and is 16.8 millimeters thin, while the 14-inch model is slightly heavier than 1.5 kilograms and is 15.5 millimeters thin. For the 16-inch model you pay at least 2,749 euros, while the smaller model has a price tag of 2,249 euros. This makes both laptops a bit more expensive than the previous models. The laptops are available from today to order and will be released on October 26.
