It has been a busy period for Apple. They have hosted more online launch events in 2020 than any other manufacturer. At this week’s ‘One More Thing’ event, Apple unveiled an important piece of hardware that will be included in all its computer products going forward. Let’s take a look at all the important announcements from the event.
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Apple M1 Chip
The biggest reveal at Apple’s last event of 2020 is the M1, their proprietary chip that will power the line of Macs for the foreseeable future. The M1 is a 5nm chip with 16 billion transistors, support for Thunderbolt 4, an eight-core CPU and GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine to power machine learning capabilities.
The new chipset has four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores (used to complete lightweight tasks), and Apple are claiming it delivers much better performance that the top Intel processors while being a lot more efficient. Importantly, the RAM is built into the SoC, which likely means that you won’t be able to add more RAM to your new laptop or desktop after purchasing it.
The same M1 chip features in the refreshed line of laptops.
Macbook Air
Visually you will see no difference to the refreshed Air that was launched earlier in 2020. Largely due to the M1, Apple says this first version running their own silicon is nine times faster than the most recent Air they launched.
It has quicker wake-up times, a better display and the longest battery life the entry-level laptop has ever had. Apple says the battery can handle 18 hours of HD video playback, six more hours than current models.
The new Macbook Air costs from $999, but this is for a stripped-down version of the M1 with only 7 cores. For the full M1 experience you will need to spend at least $1,249.
Macbook Pro
The new 13-inch Macbook Pro is 2.8 times faster than the model it replaces, according to Apple. They also claim it is three times faster than the best-selling comparable Windows laptop, although we have no idea which device they were referring to.
It can play up to 20 hours of HD video playback, and 18 hours of wireless web browsing. The M1 chip also enables machine learning power at up to 11 times faster than the existing Pro.
It starts from $1,299 for the model with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, which climbs to $1,499 for 512GB of storage.
This raises an interesting question regarding the new line-up. Why would you fork out the additional money to buy a Pro if the new Air is much more comparable in performance?
Mac mini
The new mini desktop computer from Apple is also getting the M1 chipset treatment. It is three times faster and 60 percent more efficient than the 2018 model it replaces, according to Apple. It also has a 6x increase in graphical performance and a 15x increase in machine learning capability.
It costs $699 for the 256GB of storage and 8GB or RAM version, and 512GB of storage for $899.
