Apple Event: Apple Unveils New 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro Models.

Apple finally listened to the pros. The company announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models at their October event. The models now feature a notch on the screen which houses a 1080p webcam, a 120Hz Liquid Retina XDR Display, a six-speaker sound system which supports Spatial Audio, and brought back MagSafe and ports, including the SD card slot. The MacBook Pro will be powered by new Apple silicon chips — the M1 Pro and the M1 Max.

The M1 Pro features up to 10-core CPU with eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores, along with an up-to-16-core GPU. Apple says the M1 Pro delivers up to 70 percent faster CPU performance than M1, and up to 2x faster GPU performance. M1 Pro also delivers up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth —which is nearly 3x the bandwidth of M1 — and supports up to 32GB of unified memory. The chip also adds a ProRes accelerator in the media engine for faster video processing.

The M1 Max features the same powerful 10-core CPU as M1 Pro, and doubles the GPU with up to 32 cores for up to 4x faster GPU performance than M1. According to Apple, it also has up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth — 2x that of M1 Pro and nearly 6x that of M1 — and up to 64GB of unified memory. M1 Max also features an enhanced media engine that features two ProRes accelerators for higher multi-stream performance. Apple says pros can edit up to 30 streams of 4K ProRes video or up to seven streams of 8K ProRes video in Final Cut Pro.

The new chips have also helped improve battery life on the MacBook Pro. According to Apple, the 14-inch model delivers up to 17 hours of video playback, which is seven additional hours, while the 16-inch model gets up to 21 hours of video playback, which is 10 additional hours as compared to previous generation MacBook Pro.

Apple have also replaced the touch bar with physical function keys and Touch ID at the top right corner of the keyboard. The Liquid Retina XDR Display has 1000 nits of brightness, with 1600 nits of peak brightness at 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate. Both models come with a larger display with thinner bezels than the previous generation — with the 16-inch model featuring a 16.2-inch display with 7.7 million pixels. And the 14-inch model with a 14.2-inch display and a total of 5.9 million pixels — more pixels than the prior 16-inch MacBook Pro. The notch which features the 1080p webcam however does not support Face ID for that extra layer of security users would want.

Pre-orders have begun for the MacBook Pro and will be available in stores on October 26. The 14-inch MacBook Pro has a starting price of $1999.

Tech Specs: 14-inch MacBook Pro

• Finish: Silver, Space Gray
• OS: macOS Monterey
• Display: 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display;1 3024-by-1964 native resolution at 254 pixels per inch, Up to 1000 nits sustained (full-screen) brightness, 1600 nits peak brightness, ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz

• Touch ID
• Camera: 1080p FaceTime HD camera

• Memory: 16GB Configurable to: 32GB (M1 Pro or M1 Max) or 64GB (M1 Max)

• Storage: 512GB / 1TB Configurable to: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB

Chip
Apple M1 Pro chip
8-core CPU with 6 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores
14-core GPU
16-core Neural Engine
200GB/s memory bandwidth
Media engine
Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW
Video decode engine
Video encode engine
ProRes encode and decode engine

Configurable to:
M1 Pro with 10-core CPU and 14-core GPU, M1 Pro with 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU, M1 Max with 10-core CPU and 24-core GPU, or M1 Max with 10-core CPU and 32-core GPU

Or

Apple M1 Pro chip
10-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores
16-core GPU
16-core Neural Engine
200GB/s memory bandwidth
Media engine
Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW
Video decode engine
Video encode engine
ProRes encode and decode engine

Configurable to:
M1 Max with 10-core CPU and 24-core GPU or M1 Max with 10-core CPU and 32-core GPU

• 67W USB-C Power Adapter (included with M1 Pro with 8-core CPU)
• 96W USB-C Power Adapter (included with M1 Pro with 10-core CPU or M1 Max, configurable with M1 Pro with 8-core CPU)
• USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable
• SDXC card slot
• HDMI port
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• MagSafe 3 port
• Three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports with support for: Charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s), USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)


Price
512GB 14-inch model: $1999
1TB 14-inch model: $2499