Apple unveils new MacBook Pros and high-powered M4 Max chip as AI takes center stage
10/30/2024 22:09
Apple revealed its updated MacBook Pro lineup on Wednesday complete with its a new, more powerful M4 Max chip.
Apple (AAPL) continued its parade of Mac announcements on Wednesday with the launch of its newest MacBook Pro family of laptops and the debut of its high-end M4 Max chip. The news comes after Apple showed off its latest Mac mini desktop and M4 Pro chip on Tuesday. The company also unveiled its updated iMac desktop on Monday.
Apple is reinvigorating its Mac line of products just ahead of the holiday rush and as PC sales recover from a prolonged decline after the explosive growth that the industry experienced at the onset of the pandemic. Mac sales improved in the first nine months of the year versus the same time period last year, climbing from $21.7 billion in 2023 to $22.2 billion in 2024.
The new Macs also land just as Apple begins rolling out its first set of Apple Intelligence features for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The platform includes a slew of new capabilities including notification summaries, writing tools for summarizing and rewriting text, and photo editing options.
Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops are designed for users in need of heavy duty machines that can handle everything from video editing to 3D modeling and more. And the company promises its latest line of Pros can do that and more.
The Pro line includes both the MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch. The 14-inch starts at $1,599 and includes Apple’s M4 chip and 16GB of memory. The 16-inch model starts at $2,499 and comes with the M4 Pro and 24GB of memory.
Apple debuted its M4 back in April alongside its latest iPad Pro offerings and announced the more powerful M4 Pro with the Mac mini on Tuesday. The M4 Pro features a 14-core central processing unit (CPU), 20-core graphics processing unit (GPU), and 16-core neural engine for processing AI tasks. Overall, Apple says the M4 Pro’s CPU is 1.8x faster than the M4’s and that its GPU is 2.2x faster than the M4’s GPU.
Overall, Apple says the MacBook Pro 16-inch with an M4 Pro chip is 3x faster than the MacBook Pro 16-inch with an M1 Pro chip. But the M4 Max takes things a step further.
Available with up to a 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, and 16-core neural engine with up to 128 GB of memory, the MacBook Pro 16-inch with the M4 Max should be a beast of a machine. In fact, Apple says the system is 3.5x faster than the MacBook Pro 16-inch with an M1 Max chip.
Despite the performance gains, Apple says the MacBook Pro will still get up to 24 hours of battery life.
In addition to their improved performance, Apple says the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch now include three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports when outfitted with the M4 chip. Those jump to Thunderbolt 5 when you select the M4 Pro or M4 Max.
Thunderbolt is a version of USB-C that offers exceptionally high data transfer rates. Thunderbolt 5, for instance, can reach speeds of up to 120 gigabits per second. That means you’ll be able to connect multiple high-resolution monitors and send and receive data from external data drives more quickly.
The new MacBook Pros also come with updated 12-megapixel Center Stage cameras that can automatically track individual or multiple users’ movements as they move to ensure everyone stays in the frame at the same time during video calls.
There’s also a nanotexture coating option available for the MacBook Pros’ displays to reduce glare when used in well-lit environments.
Beyond the Pros and new M4 chips, Apple also announced that it is increasing the base memory of M2 and M3-powered MacBook Airs from 8GB to 16GB while keeping its price at $999.
The move is likely meant to improve the M2- and M3-powered Macs’ performance while using Apple’s Apple Intelligence platform and its on-device AI features.
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