Recently, there was an Apple Event where Apple announced the iPhone 12 Series. And well, they held another event last night where they have announced their first chipset for Macs along with three new Mac products. This new chipset by Apple is named M1 – which Apple claims to be a lot faster than its predecessor. And that chipset is now powering those three new Mac devices which were launched – Mac Mini, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro.
None of these newly launched devices have new design. However, internal upgrades have been made – mainly including the Apple’s new ARM-based chipset – M1. Let’s talk about the performance improvements on all three new Mac devices – one by one.
Mac Mini
First, let’s start with the Mac Mini. It’s the cheapest device of the launch event. However, it still offers several performance improvements. One must note that the last Mac Mini was revealed about two years ago. So, the Mac Mini was already due for an upgrade.
Apple says that the Mac Mini is now equipped with up to 3x faster CPU and 6x faster GPU. Apple also claims that the new Mac Mini is up to 60% energy efficient. Not only that but Apple also claims that the Mac Mini can do up to 15x faster machine learning. And well, all these claims are pretty big, but we can confirm them only after real-world usage.
The new Mac Mini now supports up to 6K external display and also comes with Wi-Fi 6 support. If you are someone who prefers to have a wired internet connection, then the Mac Mini also comes with a gigabit Ethernet port. As we are already talking about ports, there are two USB-C ports which comes with Thunderbolt and USB 4 support. Alongside these ports, there are two regular USB-A ports – which are still useful.
You can use the HDMI 2.0 port to connect your display. And if you want to have dual monitor setup, you can do that by using the DisplayPort over USB Type-C. One can configure the Mac Mini with up to 16GB of unified RAM and up to 2TB of SSD Storage – which is pretty good.
In US, the price of the Mac Mini starts at $699 – which is $100 cheaper than its predecessor. In India though, the Mac Mini starts at ₹64,990 – for 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD Storage. The one with 16GB RAM and 2TB SSD Storage will end up costing you ₹1,64,990 i.e. ₹1,00,000 more than the base variant.
13-inch Macbook Air
Next in the line-up of devices with M1 chipset is the Macbook Air. Again, if you’re expecting any huge changes in the design, then you’ll be disappointed. This new Macbook Air comes with the same design as its predecessor – which is not a bad thing at all. But well, there are differences in terms of performance here. So, let’s take a look at the upgrades here.
According to claims made by Apple, the new Macbook Air has up to 3.5x CPU performance along with 5x faster GPU. Not only that but Apple claims that the SSDs inside the Macbook Air are 2x faster than its predecessor. On the display side, Macbook Air will arrive with 13.3-inch 2560×1600 Retina Display – which even supports P3 colour space.
As the performance has improved, one would expect that the battery life might be taking a hit. But well, that’s not the case here. According to the claims made by Apple, this new Macbook Air will last you for 15 hours while browsing Web using Wi-Fi. If you just want to watch offline videos, then the Air will last for about 18 hours – which is pretty great. Apple also claims that the Air will last you twice as long for video calls – but no numbers have been claimed here.
Macbook Air still comes with Touch ID – which is a lot more convenient than entering a password. Also, Macbook Air is equipped with Wi-Fi 6 and Magic Keyboard. It also comes with two USB Type-C ports with support for Thunderbolt as well as USB 4. One has to note that there’s no fan inside the Macbook Air – which makes it have the silent design.
In US, the Macbook Air is priced at $999. This will have 7 cores GPU in the M1 chipset along with 8GB RAM and 256GB of SSD Storage. If you want to get 8 cores GPU with 8GB RAM and 512GB of SSD Storage, you will have to pay additional $250. In India, the base variant of the Macbook Air will cost you ₹92,900 while the one with 8 cores GPU starts at ₹1,17,900.
13-inch Macbook Pro
Along with the Mac Mini and Macbook Air, Apple has also launched a 13-inch Macbook Pro with the Apple M1 chipset. And well, Apple claims that this will make the Macbook Pro faster than the previous Intel versions. However, it has not been clarified by Apple whether the device will be faster when compared to the dual-core Intel variant or the quad-core Intel variant.
But well, let’s just have a look at what Apple claims. According to Apple, the new Macbook Pro will be able to build code in Xcode up to 2.8x faster than predecessor. Also, Apple claims that it’ll be able to render a complex 3D title in Final Cut Pro up to 5.9x faster and perform Machine Learning tasks up to 11x faster. If you’re someone editing videos using DaVinci Resolve on Macbook Pro, then you’ll be able to play full quality 8K ProRes video on the Macbook Pro.
While the Macbook Air comes with a fanless design, Macbook Pro does have a cooling fan. This means the machine might be able to sustain peak performance for a longer time. Also, Macbook Pro comes with touch bar and a slightly brighter display. It also comes with two USB Type-C Ports with Thunderbolt and USB 4 support. Also, Wi-Fi 6 is present here along with Touch ID.
Apple claims that the battery life on the new Macbook Pro is the best on any Apple laptop till date. According to Apple, it’ll last you for up to 17 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi and up to 20 hours of offline video playback. And that sounds pretty great.
In US, the 13-inch Macbook Pro starts at $1,299. And that comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB of SSD Storage. If you want to double the storage, you’ll have to pay $200 more than the base variant. In India, the new 13-inch Macbook Pro starts at ₹1,22,900. If you want to have double storage then you’ll have to shell out ₹1,42,900.
