During their “One More Thing” event, Apple officially announced its ARM-based Macs.
Apple M1 Chip
Apple first announced its transition to its own custom silicon back at WWDC earlier this year. The SoC (System on a chip) will officially be called the M1.
“There has never been a chip like M1, our breakthrough SoC for the Mac. It builds on more than a decade of designing industry-leading chips for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, and ushers in a whole new era for the Mac,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “When it comes to low-power silicon, M1 has the world’s fastest CPU core, the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer, and the amazing machine learning performance of the Apple Neural Engine. With its unique combination of remarkable performance, powerful features, and incredible efficiency, M1 is by far the best chip we’ve ever created.”
The M1 chip has an 8-core CPU which offers up to 2X faster while using less power consumption. The chip also includes Apple’s most advanced GPU that can handle smooth playback of multiple 4K video streams, rendering complex 3D scenes and 2.6 teraflops of throughput.
The processor also features the Apple Neural Engine for up to 15x faster machine learning performance.
- Apple’s latest image signal processor (ISP) for higher quality video with better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, and improved auto white balance.
- The latest Secure Enclave for best-in-class security.
- A high-performance storage controller with AES encryption hardware for faster and more secure SSD performance.
- Low-power, highly efficient media encode and decode engines for great performance and extended battery life.
- An Apple-designed Thunderbolt controller with support for USB 4, transfer speeds up to 40Gbps and compatibility with more peripherals than ever.
The upcoming release of macOS Big Sur has been engineered to take full advantage of the M1 chip. Because of the M1 chip, the new Mac with the processor can instantly wake up from sleep and browsing is much faster in Safari.
And for developers can seamlessly make their apps compatible with the M1 chip using Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology.
Apple also announced that macOS 11 Big Sur will be launching on November 12th.
New MacBook Air with M1
Apple’s transition to M1 across the entire Mac lineup will take two years but it’s starting today with the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini.
“The introduction of three new Macs featuring Apple’s breakthrough M1 chip represents a bold change that was years in the making, and marks a truly historic day for the Mac and for Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “M1 is by far the most powerful chip we’ve ever created, and combined with Big Sur, delivers mind-blowing performance, extraordinary battery life, and access to more software and apps than ever before. We can’t wait for our customers to experience this new generation of Mac, and we have no doubt it will help them continue to change the world.”
The new MacBook Air with M1 is 3.5x faster than the previous model. The M1’s storage controller and the latest flash technology help deliver 2x faster SSD performance.
Battery life on the new MacBook Air is around 15 hours of web browsing and 18 hours of video playback.
Between the new M1-powered MacBook Air and the previous gen, here’s the difference:
- Export a project for the web with iMovie up to 3x faster.
- Integrate 3D effects into video in Final Cut Pro up to 5x faster.
- For the first time, playback and edit multiple streams of full-quality, 4K ProRes video in Final Cut Pro without dropping a frame.
- Export photos from Lightroom up to twice as fast.
- Use ML-based features like Smart Conform in Final Cut Pro to intelligently frame a clip up to 4.3x faster.
- Watch more movies and TV shows with up to 18 hours of battery life, the longest ever on MacBook Air.
- Extend FaceTime and other video calls for up to twice as long on a single charge.
The new MacBook Air features two USB 4/USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Touch ID and Wi-Fi 6. You can configure it with up to 2TB of storage and up to 16GB of RAM.
The M1-powered MacBook Air starts at $1,299 CAD with pre-orders starting today and shipping next week.
New 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1
The M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro is up to 2.8x faster than its previous iteration and the GPU is up to 5x faster.
Battery life on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is up to 20 hours of video playback and 17 hours of web browsing.
With the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1, you can:
- Build code in Xcode up to 2.8x faster.
- Render a complex 3D title in Final Cut Pro up to 5.9x faster.
- Fluidly design intricate game scenes in Unity Editor up to 3.5x faster.
- Perform ML tasks in Create ML up to 11x faster.
- Separate out beats, instrumentals, and vocal tracks from a recording in real-time in djay Pro AI, thanks to the amazing performance of the Neural Engine.
- Playback full-quality, 8K ProRes video in DaVinci Resolve without dropping a single frame.
- Compile four times as much code on a single charge, thanks to the game-changing performance per watt of the M1 chip.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro features two USB 4/USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Touch ID and Wi-Fi 6. You can configure it with up to 2TB of storage and up to 16GB of RAM.
Pre-orders of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 start today and ship next week. It starts at $1,699 CAD and it replaces the Intel-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro with 2 Thunderbolt ports.
New Mac Mini with M1
The new Mac Mini is up to 3x faster and 6x faster in terms of graphical performance.
With the new Mac Mini with M1, you can:
- Compile code in Xcode up to 3x faster.
- Play a graphics-intensive game like “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” with up to 4x higher frame rates.
- Render a complex timeline in Final Cut Pro up to 6x faster.
- Take music production to new levels by using up to 3x as many real-time plug-ins in Logic Pro.
- Magically increase the resolution of a photo in Pixelmator Pro up to 15x faster.
- Utilize ML frameworks like TensorFlow or Create ML, now accelerated by the M1 chip.
The new Mac Mini features two USB 4/USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, 2 USB-A ports and Wi-Fi 6. You can configure it with up to 2TB of storage and up to 16GB of RAM.
The new Mac Mini starts at $899 CAD and ships next week, with pre-orders beginning today.
TheCanadianTechie 
One reply on “Apple announces the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini powered by their M1 chip”
[…] the Mac Mini side, the Mac has been long in the tooth for an update, as it was back in November 2020 when it was last updated to the M1 […]