The new MacBook Pro is very powerful, but its big bangs make people miss Steve Jobs more and more

Author | Xiao Man

Editor | Li Shuaifei

The most powerful MacBook Pro ever, with an eye-catching notch screen, is here!

At the press conference held in the early morning of October 19th Beijing time, Apple brought the performance of its two new MacBook Pro products to new heights with the M1 Pro and M1 Max, two chips that are considered to be the "most powerful in history" - the return of many interfaces also gives people a hint of retro meaning.

However, the notch screens of these two new products are really hard to describe.

It is also worth mentioning that in addition to the two new MacBook Pro products, Apple also released the third-generation AirPods and HomePod mini in other colors.

The core products of this conference are undoubtedly the two MacBook Pros launched by Apple (14 inches and 16 inches), and the two built-in chips M1 Pro and M1 Max are undoubtedly the absolute highlights of this conference.

In fact, they’re also the most powerful set of chips Apple has ever built.

Let’s look at the M1 Pro first.

The M1 Pro chip adopts SoC architecture, adopts 5nm process technology, and packages up to 33.7 billion transistors, which is more than twice that of the M1.

In terms of CPU, the M1 Pro uses a 10-core processor, consisting of 8 high-performance cores and 2 high-efficiency cores. The official claims that its running speed can be increased by up to 70% compared to the M1. According to Apple’s comparison data, compared with an 8-core PC, the M1 Pro’s central processing unit performance can be up to 1.7 times that of an 8-core PC at the same power consumption level, and the power consumption to reach its peak performance is 70% less.

In terms of GPU, the M1 Pro's graphics processor is configured with up to 16 cores. Apple says its speed is more than three times that of the M1 chip. At the same time, the M1 Pro can be configured with up to 32GB of high-speed unified memory and 200GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Let’s take a look at M1 Max.

The M1 Max also uses a SoC architecture and a 5nm process technology. It has a total of 57 billion transistors integrated inside, which is 70% more than the M1 Pro and 3.5 times more than the M1. It is the largest chip Apple has ever made.

In terms of CPU, the M1 Max is consistent with the M1 Pro, with a 10-core processor - but in terms of GPU, it is equipped with up to 32-core graphics processors, and the image processing speed is increased by up to 4 times compared to the M1.

The M1 Max chip structure adopts a higher bandwidth, and the memory bandwidth is twice that of the M1 Pro, which makes its memory bandwidth reach 400GB/s, which is nearly 6 times that of the M1. Therefore, the M1 Max can be configured with up to 64GB of high-speed unified memory.

Apple said that with its unparalleled performance, M1 Max is the most powerful professional-grade laptop chip on Mac to date.

In addition to the above distinctions, M1 Pro and M1 Max also have many similarities.

For example, both the M1 Pro and M1 Max are integrated with an Apple-designed media processing engine, which can accelerate video processing while maintaining battery life. However, in terms of ProRes professional video decoding, the M1 Max's video encoding speed is up to 2 times faster than the M1 Pro, and it is equipped with 2 ProRes accelerators.

Their commonalities also include:

• The 16-core Neural Engine accelerates on-device machine learning and improves camera performance.

• The new display engine can drive multiple external displays simultaneously.

• The addition of Thunderbolt 4 controllers provides increased I/O bandwidth.

• Apple's custom image signal processor, combined with the neural network engine, uses computational video technology to improve the image quality of the built-in camera, making video images clearer and the skin tones of people in the video more natural.

• Industry-leading security system design, including Apple's latest secure enclave, authenticated hardware-based secure boot, and runtime data exploit prevention technology.

In addition, while launching the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, Apple also made coordinated efforts with macOS Monterey at the operating system level. For example, the optimization of Core ML can use the powerful neural network engine to run machine learning models at a faster speed.

Of course, in terms of application ecology, Apple stated that all apps provided for Mac are optimized for Apple chips and can run natively based on Apple chips. There are currently more than 10,000 universal apps and plug-ins available for use.

Finally, it should be noted that the M1 Pro and M1 Max are not intended to replace the M1 chip, but are more like powerful evolved versions of these two chips - they also constitute a well-defined chip combination, providing a clearer price range for the entire product line of MacBook Pro.

It can be said that through M1 Pro and M1 Max, Apple has once again elevated its superior position in the notebook computer field.

In addition to being the first to be equipped with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, the MacBook Pro also adopts a brand new appearance design.

MacBook Pro appearance parameters: 16 inches on the left and 14 inches on the right

From the appearance, the MacBook Pro uses an aluminum shell with a new heat dissipation design, and has an HDMI port, a MagSafe charging port, an SD card slot, and three Thunderbolt 4 ports.

In the keyboard area, the MacBook Pro has cancelled the Touch bar design and adopted a more original full-size functional keyboard.

Another important change is in the screen area, the 2021 MacBook Pro adopts a notch screen design with 3.5 mm bezels on both sides, and the top menu bar moves up and away, wrapping around the camera.

In addition to the new design, the MacBook Pro screen also uses a mini LED display for the first time, supports Liquid Retina XDR, has a peak brightness of 1600 nits, and a contrast ratio of 1000000: 1. Not only that, the MacBook Pro supports ProMotion adaptive refresh rate technology, up to 120Hz.

Leifeng.com learned from industry insiders that the MacBook Pro with Mini LED screen may increase the shipment volume of Mini LED again. In fact, the release of iPad Pro in the first half of the year has greatly boosted the market penetration of Mini LED and refreshed the application awareness of Mini LED.

Since its appearance, Mini LED has been mostly used in large-screen products. Before Apple adopted it, it was rarely used in small-screen products. Its biggest obstacle lies in the technical difficulty.

"The small screens are arranged more densely, and the thickness of the optical OD is required to be thinner, which will increase the precision requirements of the device and the difficulty of processing," an industry insider told Leifeng.com.

In addition, based on performance tuning in various aspects such as chips, the MacBook Pro has also made new improvements in battery life. Using video playback as a measure, the 14-inch MacBook Pro can play videos for up to 17 hours, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro can play videos for up to 21 hours, 10 hours more than the previous generation - this is the longest battery life of a Mac notebook to date.

It is worth mentioning that with the introduction of more expansion ports, users can choose to charge with the MagSafe charging port and the Thunderbolt port. At the same time, the MacBook Pro also adds a fast charging function for the first time, which can charge up to 50% of the power in 30 minutes.

In terms of price, the 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at 14,999 yuan; the 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at 18,999 yuan, and can be equipped with two chips: M1 Pro and M1 Max. In addition, the M1 version of the MacBook Pro is still on sale, priced from 9,999 yuan.

In addition to the MacBook Pro, the conference will also release the new wireless headphones "AirPods 3".

AirPods 3 adopts a new contour design, supports spatial audio, and is equipped with a force sensor, a new low-distortion driver, etc.; it supports dynamic head tracking, allowing for a more immersive enjoyment of spatial audio; it adopts a sweat-proof and waterproof design and supports sports wear.

In addition, by combining the performance of Apple's custom acoustic system and the H1 chip and using computational audio technology, the adaptive equalizer function is realized. The adaptive equalizer originally equipped on AirPods Pro has also been downgraded to AirPods 3, which can adjust the frequency in real time according to what the user hears.

In terms of battery life, AirPods 3 has a battery life of up to 6 hours, and with the charging case, the total battery life can reach 30 hours.

In terms of price, AirPods 3 is priced at 1,399 yuan.

Along with the release of AirPods 3, Apple Music also ushered in an update and launched a new level of Apple Music subscription service - Apple Music voice control solution.

It is reported that the Apple Music voice control solution allows subscribers to enjoy a music library of tens of millions of songs, including hundreds of new mood and activity playlists, personalized recommendations and style radio stations, as well as award-winning Apple Music radio programs.

Users only need to say "Hey Siri, start trying Apple Music voice control" to Siri, or complete the registration in the Apple Music App to subscribe to the Apple Music voice control plan. The subscription fee is 5 yuan per month.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that three new color schemes of HomePod mini were introduced at the press conference, namely yellow, blue and orange. The price is the same as the original version, which is 749 yuan.

For Apple MacBook Pro, this launch event is undoubtedly a major one.

After all, through continuous breakthroughs in chip technology, M1 Pro and M1 Max, based on the M1, once again demonstrated Apple’s new understanding of a notebook chip, and thereby pushed the MacBook Pro to a new level of professionalism.

At the same time, the return of the MagSafe magnetic fast charging port, SD port, and HDMI port reflects Apple's listening and feedback to user needs on its own product road - but at the same time, the removal of the Touch Bar means that this product feature known as "useless" is likely to completely disappear from the stage of history.

In addition, from a market and business perspective, based on existing technology and product advantages, the higher positioning and resulting higher price of the new MacBook Pro also reflects Apple's ambition to increase prices and gain profits.

This is understandable, after all, Apple is a commercial company.

However, while everyone is impressed by Apple's powerful chip technology, the new product's notch screen has become a point of criticism - one netizen told Leifeng.com after watching the press conference: I even suspect that the reason why Jony Ive left is because there were disagreements within Apple about the design. This thing would never have come out when Ive was there.

It seems to be true.

I can only sigh: Apple is becoming more and more powerful, but people are increasingly missing the days when Steve Jobs and Jony Ive were around.

This article is originally written by Leifeng.com, and the author is Xiao Man. Please reply "reprint" to apply for authorization. Reprinting without authorization is prohibited.