During Apple’s third major event titled “One More Thing,” the company announced the latest additions to its computer line, and it’s the first to feature Apple Silicon.
Defined as the “next generation of Mac,” Apple promises better power efficiency and industry-leading power. The new computers are powered by Apple M1, a new chip designed specifically for Apple’s new computers.
M1 delivers a giant leap in performance per watt and is the first system on chip, or SOC, for Mac. Until now, Macs needed multiple chips to deliver all of its processes. The M1 combines those into one and dramatically improves performance and power efficiency. Apple claims its CPU core is the world’s fastest, and the M1 has four of them.
Apple said that its new Mac operating system, Big Sur, was designed specifically with Apple’s new chip in mind. The OS is capable of instant-wake on Apple silicon, similar to how fast an iPhone or iPad wakes. Apple also promises 3D animation and video editing will be significantly faster on its new chipset and Big Sur.
Apple’s first computer featuring M1 is the new Macbook Air.
MacBook Air
Apple’s most popular MacBook features 3.5x faster processing than the previous Air and promises “unheard of” speeds editing large RAW file libraries specifically in Lightroom. It delivers up to five times faster graphics performance as well.
Apple claims it is faster than 98% of PC laptops sold in the last year.
The MacBook Air also claims two times faster SSD speeds for faster access to data. The new Air delivers higher performance with no fan and is completely silent. Additionally, it can achieve 18 hours of video playback and 15 hours of general use. This is the longest battery life ever in a MacBook air.
Apple has also updated the front-facing camera, integrating the company’s latest image signal processor to make users look “more natural” on facetime calls. Apple did not say if the camera itself would see a resolution bump, however.
The Air will retail starting at $999.
Mac Mini
Apple is bringing back the Mac Mini, this time featuring Apple silicon. It promises up to 3 times faster CPU performance than the previous quad-core version, a six-fold increase in faster performance.
Apple claims it’s up to five times faster than the top-selling PC desktop.
It starts at $699, $100 lower than the previous generation.
This story is developing.