They might look the same, but Apple's new MacBooks are (even more) b*tchin'

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Apple seems to be on a roll this year or maybe just wanted to host a lot of events. Yesterday the iPhone-maker held its fourth and much anticipated “One More Thing” event, which brought us a dazzling new M1 chip. But as we know chips need to be put into things and that’s where the brand new MacBooks come into play.

The new M1 is the first chip Apple designed specifically for the Mac. That means optimized Apple computers that are quicker, more powerful and a lot smarter. The SoC has been introduced in a new MacBook Air, a 13-inch MacBook Pro and (surprise surprise) in a fresh Mac mini.

Ever so thin MacBook Air

The new MacBook Air is thin as ever, while offering even more power thanks to the M1 chip and Apple’s freshly launched macOs Big Sur. The octa-core CPU performs up to 3.5 times faster, while the 8-core GPU makes the graphics 5x speedier. Thank to the Neural Engine machine learning has also gotten a boost and ML workloads are up to 9x faster. That means things like facial recognition and object detection take just a split second. Then there’s the latest flash technology that delivers up to 2x faster SSD performance. Another thing the M1 chip brings to the table is efficiency and that means a longer battery life. According to Apple the MacBook Air gives us up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 18 hours of video playback. Not bad at all.

Even more Pro MacBook Pro

The Air’s bigger brother is now even more Pro, Apple tells us, offering game-changing performance. That game-changing performance is due to the M1 and Big Sur paired with the MacBook Pro’s active cooling system. It should make the laptop 2.8 times faster than the previous generation and the new GPU promises smooth graphics during pretty much everything. Machine learning is up to 11 times faster and we get up to twice the battery life of the previous generation. That means 17 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 20 hours of video playback. Sounds like a lot and yep it’s the longest battery life ever on a Mac. Something else the new MacBook helps you with is working at home. The new camera ISP enables sharper images and with the studio-quality mics you’ll sound better than ever.

Don’t forget Apple’s mini

Last but not least (well maybe) Apple also unveilled a new Mac mini for those of you who aren’t into laptops. The mini is also outfitted with the M1 chip with all of its benefits. Practically that should mean up to 3x faster performance and a boost of up to 6x the graphics performance compared to the previous generation. Machine learning is up to 15 times faster, which Roko’s basilisk will definitely like. So Tim might be alright in the distant future.

Bye bye arm and leg?

While Apple products are usually top notch, a lot of people find the prices to be a bit too steep. Even for what you get. And you might think that the new M1 chip comes with an astronomical increase in price as well. But it seems Apple managed to contain itself and the prices don’t seem shockingly different than before. The MacBook Air comes with a price tag of 999 USD and you can get the MacBook Pro for a starting price of 1.299 USD. As for the mini, it will cost you at least 699 USD. So thanks Tim.