Apple is making its strongest case in years for PC users to switch their allegiance.
The company, at its October event on Monday, unveiled a pair of MacBook Pro laptops, with stronger graphics and processing power, better battery life, and design changes that address user complaints.
The MacBook Pro 14-inch model will start at $1,999, while the MacBook Pro 16-inch starts at $2,499. Both models are available in silver and space gray—and preorders begin immediately. The devices will be available next week.
Apple is continuing production of the existing 13-inch Pro, but did not announce a change to its price.
The new machines will be powered by one of two new chips Apple unveiled—the M1 Pro and the M1 Max. Both feature a slew of tech advances that will result in higher-quality graphics performance, faster video encoding, and faster operating speeds.
“The proprietary M1 Pro/Max processor is the foundational part of this MacBook and ultimately we believe will be a game changer that will convert 30%+ of current MacBook users to upgrade over the next year, catalyzing growth on this hardware segment,” said Daniel Ives of Wedbush. “Cupertino continues to be in the midst of its biggest hardware refresh cycle in roughly a decade with today’s event adding to these product tailwinds.”
As with any MacBook Pro, the new models are light and thin. The 14-inch model weighs just 3.5 pounds and measures 15.5 millimeters thick. The 16-inch model is 4.7 pounds and 16.8 millimeters thick. Both systems will feature fast charging technology, letting users get up to a 50% battery charge in just 30 minutes.
That rapid charging may not be necessary for many owners, though. Apple says the battery life on the new MacBook Pros is the longest ever, lasting up to 21 hours, 10 hours more than the previous generation.
Additionally, Apple has introduced some design and functional changes to the new MacBook Pros that address some of the biggest (and loudest) complaints users have had about the existing line of laptops.
The touch bar at the top of the keyboard, for example, is going away, with physical function keys returning. And the menu bar has been raised to align with the camera, which opens up more screen space for users to work with.
The number of ports has also been greatly increased. The new MacBook Pros will come with an HDMI port, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SD card slot, a headphone jack, and the return of MagSafe charging (though users can continue to charge the device via Thunderbolt if they choose). Existing models have just two Thunderbolt ports—and no HDMI port, SD card slot, or MagSafe charging.
The forward-facing camera has been beefed up, as more people use their laptops for teleconferencing as a hybrid work world emerges. Apple said it has doubled the resolution to 1080 pixels and doubled the low-light performance.
The devices, along with the new AirPods Apple unveiled Monday, are likely to be in high demand during the upcoming holiday season. The bigger question is: Can Apple keep up with demand as late December draws near?
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