Soon enough, these became a hit among the public owing to the price to performance ratio and its stunning good battery life. Apple has now tried to live up to people’s expectations with the second generation of its silicon chips.
The trillion-dollar company has now launched not one but two new chipsets – the M1 Pro and M1 Max, which according to them, is the best chipset on any notebook so far. Both MacBook Pro 14 or 16 can be had with either of these processors. However, the new Macbooks offer much more than just a new processor, so let us look at five new changes in the new Macbook Pros.
1. Design and Display
The biggest highlight apart from the new processor is the display on the Macbook Pro siblings. Firstly, Apple has brought over the infamous notch from the iPhones to MacBooks to trim down the bezels even further. And no, the notch does not house the Face ID if you are interested in that. Did you miss the high refresh rate on Macbooks? Well, no more. Apple also brought over their Promotion technology to the Macbook Pro, bringing that fantastic 120Hz scrolling experience. In fact, Apple also went all-in with the quality of the display. Firstly they borrowed the Mini LED technology from the iPads for better contrast and deeper black levels. In fact, Apple claims its liquid retina display on the new MacBook Pro is the best display on any notebook in the market. Brightness on these new MacBook Pro is no slouch either. It can reach 1000nits of sustained brightness levels, and peak brightness levels can go as high as 1600 nits.
2. Performance
The new MacBook Pro 14 and 16 can be had with two new processors: M1 Pro and M1 Max. Apple spent a lot of time in their briefing explaining how fast these chipsets are compared to their counterparts. The brand claims the M1 Pro and M1 Max on the MacBook Pro 14 are 3.7x faster than the Intel Core i7 found in the MacBook Pro 13 in terms of CPU performance. And 2.1x faster than the Intel Core i9 on the 16inch variant. Apple seems to have taken the GPU on the new MacBooks to the next level. They go as far as to say that the graphics performance is 13x faster than before, which is a huge claim. Moreover, they also claimed faster render speeds with up to 13.4x faster on the M1 Max on the Macbook Pro 14. If you want a detailed comparison between the M1 chip and the M1 Pro and M1 Max, then you can refer to this article to understand the differences in detail.
3. Battery
The M1 MacBooks, released last year, have probably the best battery life on any modern notebook. But Apple took it one step further on the new Macbook Pros. According to the tech giant, the new MacBook Pro can last up to 17 hours of video playback and 11 hours of web browsing, irrespective of the processor you choose. However, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is in its own league with up to 21 hours of video playback time and 14 hours of wireless web browsing. Just like all other things, Apple also improved the charging times on the MacBook Pros. The new notebooks can charge up to 50% in just 30 minutes which is very good. In addition, Apple has also revived the MagSafe charger on the MacBooks, which many users prefer to date. In fact, our Editor still uses the MacBook Pro from 2015, which had MagSafe charging support and is a fan even today.
4. Ports and Speakers
Apple has been pretty famous for reducing the number of ports on their MacBooks, but they went with an opposite approach this time. What this translates into is Apple increased the number of ports on the new MacBooks. The famous HDMI port is back alongside a headphone jack and SD card slot. And you still get three Thunderbolt 4 ports with a MagSafe three connector. It is really nice to see Apple finally listen to their customers and add the beneficial ports back. Speakers have also seen an upgrade. Both the 14 and 16-inch models now get a six-speaker setup comprising of 2 tweeters. Apple claims the new speaker setup improves bass performance up to 80%, which is very good considering the MacBook speakers were already one of the best out there.
5. Keyboard
Gone is the not-so-popular touch bar, and back is the traditional function bar. After marketing the touch bar on the Pros for years, Apple has finally decided to remove the feature. While few might be disappointed about this omission, it is how Macbook Pro keyboards will be in the future. Moreover, the Touch ID has also been revived and neatly integrated into the power button above the keyboard.
Substantial Upgrades
Apple has gone all out with the new MacBook Pro 14 and 16. Users can choose between the M1 Pro and M1 Max, which is definitely a plus. The tech giant has tried to improve in almost every factor, trying to make the MacBook appealing to a broader set of audience.
