Apple Announces New Line of MacBooks and Mac Minis Powered by M1

[btarunr]

On a momentous day for the Mac, Apple today introduced a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by the revolutionary M1, the first in a family of chips designed by Apple specifically for the Mac. By far the most powerful chip Apple has ever made, M1 transforms the Mac experience. With its industry-leading performance per watt, together with macOS Big Sur, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU, up to 6x faster GPU, up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities, and battery life up to 2x longer than before. And with M1 and Big Sur, users get access to the biggest collection of apps ever for Mac. With amazing performance and remarkable new features, the new lineup of M1-powered Macs are an incredible value, and all are available to order today.

"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."



MacBook Air: A Thin and Light Powerhouse
MacBook Air is Apple's most popular Mac and the world's best-selling 13-inch notebook. With the M1 chip, MacBook Air speeds through everything from editing family photos to exporting videos for the web. The powerful 8-core CPU performs up to 3.5x faster than the previous generation. With up to an 8-core GPU, graphics are up to 5x faster, the biggest leap ever for MacBook Air, so immersive, graphics-intensive games run at significantly higher frame rates. ML workloads are up to 9x faster, so apps that use ML-based features like face recognition or object detection can do so in a fraction of the time. The M1 chip's storage controller and latest flash technology deliver up to 2x faster SSD performance, so previewing massive images or importing large files is faster than ever. And in MacBook Air, M1 is faster than the chips in 98 percent of PC laptops sold in the past year.

With the industry-leading power efficiency of M1, MacBook Air also delivers this performance in a fanless design, which means no matter what users are doing, it remains completely silent. And the new MacBook Air features extraordinary battery life, with up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 18 hours of video playback—the longest battery life ever on MacBook Air.2

When compared to the previous generation, the M1-powered MacBook Air can:

• 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, play back 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.

Other new features in MacBook Air include Apple's latest image signal processor (ISP) in the M1 chip, which improves camera image quality with better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, and improved auto white balance and ML-enhanced face detection so users look their best during video calls. Support for P3 wide color results in an even more vibrant, true-to-life Retina display. The Secure Enclave in M1, combined with Big Sur, delivers best-in-class security with features like Touch ID, which makes it easy to unlock MacBook Air and make secure online purchases using Apple Pay with the touch of a finger. And Wi-Fi 6 delivers faster wireless performance, while two Thunderbolt ports with USB 4 support allow for connectivity to a wide range of peripherals.

With its sleek wedge-shaped design, stunning Retina display, Magic Keyboard, and astonishing level of performance thanks to M1, the new MacBook Air once again redefines what a thin and light notebook can do. And it is still just $999, and $899 for education.

13-inch MacBook Pro: Even More Powerful and Even More Pro
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is Apple's most popular pro notebook. Students use it to power through college, and pros use it to channel their creativity. With the M1 chip and Big Sur, the 13-inch MacBook Pro becomes even more powerful and even more pro. The 8-core CPU, when paired with the MacBook Pro's active cooling system, is up to 2.8x faster than the previous generation, delivering game-changing performance when compiling code, transcoding video, editing high-resolution photos, and more. The 8-core GPU is up to 5x faster, allowing users to enjoy super smooth graphics performance whether they are designing a graphics-intensive game or a new product. And with M1, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is up to 3x faster than the best-selling Windows laptop in its class.3 ML is up to 11x faster, and for on-device ML tasks that use the Neural Engine, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is now the world's fastest compact pro notebook.4 With up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing and up to a staggering 20 hours of video playback, MacBook Pro delivers up to twice the battery life of the previous generation and the longest battery life ever on a Mac.2

When compared to the previous generation, the M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro 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.
• PerformML 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.
• Play back 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.

Other new features in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro include studio-quality mics for super clear recordings and calls, and Apple's latest camera ISP in the M1 chip enables sharper images and more detail in shadows and highlights on video calls. The new MacBook Pro also delivers best-in-class security with the Secure Enclave in M1 and Touch ID. And it features two Thunderbolt ports with USB 4 support to connect to more peripherals than ever, including Apple's Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution.

With its amazing performance and unbelievable battery life, combined with its gorgeous Retina display, Magic Keyboard, and 3-pound compact design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is the ultimate expression of what the M1 chip can do. And it is available for the same starting price of just $1,299, and $1,199 for education.

Mac mini: Staggering Performance and an Ultracompact Design
Mac mini is Apple's most versatile computer, and now with M1, it packs a staggering amount of performance and incredible new features in such a compact design. M1 brings an 8-core CPU with up to 3x faster performance than the previous generation, dramatically accelerating demanding workloads, from compiling a million lines of code to building enormous multitrack music projects. An 8-core GPU delivers up to a massive 6x increase in graphics performance, allowing Mac mini to tackle performance-intensive tasks like complex 3D rendering with ease. ML workloads also take a quantum leap forward with up to 15x faster performance over the previous generation. And when compared to the best-selling Windows desktop in its price range, the Mac mini is just one-tenth the size, yet delivers up to 5x faster performance.

When compared to the previous generation, the M1-powered Mac mini 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.

Mac mini also features an advanced thermal design to sustain its breakthrough performance while staying cool and quiet, support for up to two displays including Apple's Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution, and Wi-Fi 6 for faster wireless performance and the Secure Enclave in M1 for best-in-class security.

With M1 and Big Sur, Mac mini represents a massive shift in what an ultrasmall desktop can do. Far more versatile and far more capable than ever, Mac mini is now available for just $699, $100 less than the previous-generation quad-core model.

macOS Big Sur
All new Macs come with Big Sur, the latest version of the world's most advanced desktop operating system. Big Sur introduces a beautiful redesign that is entirely new yet instantly familiar, and powerful updates to apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps. Big Sur is engineered, down to its core, to take full advantage of all the capability and power of M1, delivering a massive boost in performance, astonishing battery life, and even stronger security protections. With M1, things users do every day feel noticeably faster and smoother. Just like iPhone and iPad, the Mac now instantly wakes from sleep. Browsing with Safari—which is already the world's fastest browser—is now up to 1.5x speedier at running JavaScript and nearly 2x more responsive.

With Big Sur and M1, Mac users can run a greater range of apps than ever before. All of Apple's Mac software is now Universal and runs natively for M1 systems. Existing Mac apps that have not been updated to Universal will run seamlessly with Apple's Rosetta 2 technology. And iPhone and iPad apps can now run directly on the Mac. Additionally, the foundations of Big Sur are optimized to unlock the power of M1, including developer technologies from Metal for graphics to Core ML for machine learning.

Pricing and Availability

• The new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini with M1 are available to order today on apple.com and in the Apple Store app. They will begin arriving to customers and will be in select Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers starting next week. The new MacBook Air starts at $999 (US), and $899 (US) for education; the new 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,299 (US), and $1,199 (US) for education; and the new Mac mini starts at $699 (US), and $679 (US) for education.
• Customers are able to find the same great shopping and support services at apple.com/shop, in the Apple Store app, and at Apple Store locations. Customers can get shopping help from Apple Specialists, choose monthly financing options, trade in eligible devices, and get Support services and no-contact delivery or Apple Store pickup options. Customers are encouraged to check apple.com/retail for more information on the health and safety measures in place, and the services available, at their local store.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheLostSwede]

Surprised to see USB 4 silicon, but then again, maybe not.
Their "faster than" claims are a bit ott, especially with regards to the GPU, as this is compared to Intel's integrated graphics...

 

[Just Some Noise]

Well, marketing slides.
BUT the comparison with the Intel integrated graphics is ok, because they used the Intel HD line in all their MacBook Pro 13, MacBook Airs and Mac Minis.
Just for testing purposes, mine is already preordered. Let's see how it goes.

 

[xkm1948]

Apple sheeple will still gobble them up

 

[BArms]

The last thing a flagrantly anti-consumer, anti-repair rights, increasingly developer-hostile company should do is make their hardware even more proprietary.

 

[mpd]

Where is the M1 fab?

 

[RandallFlagg]

Where is the M1 fab?

Has to be TSMC, so Taiwan. It's 5nm.

 

[xorbe]

They are claiming 3.5x faster than their past intel based while half the power?

> Compile four times as much code on a single charge, thanks to the game-changing performance per watt of the M1 chip.

Classic Prius vs BMW M3 thing that Top Gear did ...

 

[RandallFlagg]

"8-core CPU with up to 3x faster performance than the previous generation "

Prev gen is Ice Lake, i3 and i5. Anyone know which of the previous gen they're talking about? I'm guessing i3. A lot of 3x performance gain claims.

Even if it's i3, the performance claim is impressive. It would make the M1 perform in the general range of an i9-9880H based on the notebookcheck review below, which is to say about twice as fast as an Ice Lake Surface Laptop 3.

Apple MacBook Air 2020 Core i5 Review – The best MacBook you can get? – No

Notebookcheck reviews the new Apple MacBook Air with the quad-core i5 CPU. The keyboard has been improved, but the performance is still the Achilles heel of the laptop.

www.notebookcheck.net

 

[R-T-B]

I'm curious this arm chips tdp. Doubt they publish that, though.

 

[Patr!ck]

big.LITTLE core design on both laptop and desktop? interesting to see them advertising it as an 8 core CPU instead of 4+4. So both Apple and Intel are going the big.LITTLE route, meanwhile AMD is implying that Alder Lake doesn't make any sense https://www.pcgamer.com/amd-ryzen-hybrid-architecture-big-little-intel-alder-lake/ They also believe that the Windows scheduler isn't ready for big.LITTLE https://www.techpowerup.com/270010/...re-of-lakefield-hybrid-topologies-benchmarked

 

[silentbogo]

Not a Mac user, but there's one thing that concerns me the most... having everything on one big SoC package.
While having any upgrade perspectives kinda died back in Ivy Bridge times, this means that buying "higher" or "lower" end model is no longer on the table (unless we talk fused-off RAM running in single-channel). Will there even be something like low- and high-end?
And next on the table is a Big.Little model. It seems like big and small compute blocks have no shared cache, so when you switch from "high-power" to "low-power" you might have some lag due to all cache misses, if you are still running the same application. I doubt that super-uber-fast integrated RAM can compensate for that.

I'm only 15 minutes into this presentation, so I'm definitely going to have more questions along the way....

 

[Sandbo]

Not a Mac user, but there's one thing that concerns me the most... having everything on one big SoC package.
While having any upgrade perspectives kinda died back in Ivy Bridge times, this means that buying "higher" or "lower" end model is no longer on the table (unless we talk fused-off RAM running in single-channel). Will there even be something like low- and high-end?
And next on the table is a Big.Little model. It seems like big and small compute blocks have no shared cache, so when you switch from "high-power" to "low-power" you might have some lag due to all cache misses, if you are still running the same application. I doubt that super-uber-fast integrated RAM can compensate for that.

I'm only 15 minutes into this presentation, so I'm definitely going to have more questions along the way....

I guess there will be different SoC chips, like M1X in the future to make a higher-tier laptop/PC.
For now, though, they still manage to have a 7-core/8-core GPU variant of M1 if you look at the page of macAir.
Otherwise, at the moment, the price difference is mostly made up by the RAM and SSD sizes.

 

[RandallFlagg]

I'm curious this arm chips tdp. Doubt they publish that, though.

Prob not. They claim 17 hours of web browsing or 20 hours of video playback on a 49WH battery though. There's nothing in existence right now that can do that.

 

[R0H1T]

Depends on the task, for light usage the efficiency cores will easily make it run through that amount of time.

 

[Chrispy_]

The last thing a flagrantly anti-consumer, anti-repair rights, increasingly developer-hostile company should do is make their hardware even more proprietary.

IMO a lot of developers are just going to ignore ARM and leave Mac users emulating x86 on ARM which will be abysmal.
Why should they put extra effort in to develop with ARM in mind unless Apple literally throw huge bags of money at them?

 

[Space Lynx]

Can this macbook air run WoW? (asking for a friend) or does these types of cpu's not support mac gaming?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Not a Mac user, but there's one thing that concerns me the most... having everything on one big SoC package.
While having any upgrade perspectives kinda died back in Ivy Bridge times, this means that buying "higher" or "lower" end model is no longer on the table (unless we talk fused-off RAM running in single-channel). Will there even be something like low- and high-end?
And next on the table is a Big.Little model. It seems like big and small compute blocks have no shared cache, so when you switch from "high-power" to "low-power" you might have some lag due to all cache misses, if you are still running the same application. I doubt that super-uber-fast integrated RAM can compensate for that.

I'm only 15 minutes into this presentation, so I'm definitely going to have more questions along the way....

RAM isn't integrated.

Also:

Apple Announces The Apple Silicon M1: Ditching x86 - What to Expect, Based on A14

www.anandtech.com

 

[Aquinus]

Am I the only person who is upset that the largest memory option is 16GB? Even the last gen Mac Mini supported up to 64GB.

 

[R0H1T]

That's for regular Intel MBP or Air. This is the SoC ~

 

[TheLostSwede]

I guess there will be different SoC chips, like M1X in the future to make a higher-tier laptop/PC.
For now, though, they still manage to have a 7-core/8-core variant of M1 if you look at the page of macAir.
Otherwise, at the moment, the price difference is mostly made up by the RAM and SSD sizes.

Time to get some reading glasses. It's the GPU that has core differences, not the CPU.

Am I the only person who is upset that the largest memory option is 16GB? Even the last gen Mac Mini supported up to 64GB.

No-one will need more than 16GB of RAM on these new Macs...

 

[silentbogo]

RAM isn't integrated.

Watch the video, just a couple of frames forward from this image. This is their "Before", not "After". M1 has RAM, HSIO, LSIO and T2 integrated onto an SoC, kinda like iPhone.

 

[RandallFlagg]

It's not an A14. A14 has ~12 B transistors vs M1 16B for one, for another A14 is 6 core this is 8. It may be an 8 core A14, but I think there are other changes.

Edit: Looks like an 8 core A14, top right is the GPU so it's 8 core instead of 4 core like the A14.

Edit2: and lower left is completely different, probably cache reworked entirely.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Prob not. They claim 17 hours of web browsing or 20 hours of video playback on a 49WH battery though. There's nothing in existence right now that can do that.

The battery in the Pro is 58.2Wh.
The Air has a claimed battery life of 15/18h at 49.9Wh.

Watch the video, just a couple of frames forward from this image. This is their "Before", not "After". M1 has RAM, HSIO, LSIO and T2 integrated onto an SoC, kinda like iPhone.
View attachment 175123

Did you even look at the picture of the PCB in the post you replied to?
It says unified, not integrated in your picture. Those two words mean very different things.

 

[Sandbo]

"8-core CPU with up to 3x faster performance than the previous generation "

Prev gen is Ice Lake, i3 and i5. Anyone know which of the previous gen they're talking about? I'm guessing i3. A lot of 3x performance gain claims.

Even if it's i3, the performance claim is impressive. It would make the M1 perform in the general range of an i9-9880H based on the notebookcheck review below, which is to say about twice as fast as an Ice Lake Surface Laptop 3.

Apple MacBook Air 2020 Core i5 Review – The best MacBook you can get? – No

Notebookcheck reviews the new Apple MacBook Air with the quad-core i5 CPU. The keyboard has been improved, but the performance is still the Achilles heel of the laptop.

www.notebookcheck.net

Just found this nice review article by Anandtech:

Apple Announces The Apple Silicon M1: Ditching x86 - What to Expect, Based on A14

www.anandtech.com

If M1 is at the level of A14 or higher, the claim might actually be true, at least in raw performance.

Time to get some reading glasses. It's the GPU that has core differences, not the CPU.


No-one will need more than 16GB of RAM on these new Macs...

I missed typing GPU LOL