Apple’s most recent products include faster iterations of the Mac mini desktop and its premium MacBook Pro laptops.
The 14-inch and 16-inch Macs that have just been released are comparable to the ones that were first introduced in 2021. Though the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors have been replaced by the newer, more potent M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, they are still there. They will support a product line that contributed $40.2 billion to the tech giant’s sales last year or more than 10% of it.
Apple is developing new MacBook Air models, including a 15-inch variant. The company’s high-end Mac Pro desktop computer will use a variant of the M2 processor in its latest models.
The new notebooks represent Apple’s first expansion of the M2 chip, which debuted last year in the MacBook Air and a lower-end MacBook Pro.
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New Apple features
Mac minis were last updated in 2020. The previous version looked the same. In the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the M2 chip is in the Mac Mini. This chip is in the M2 Pro.
Apple didn’t upgrade its specs with the M1 Pro and M1 Pro Max until late 2021. The MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro introduced the M2 chip in June 2022, followed by the iPad Pro. It debuts on the desktop.
New 12-core computers
Apple’s move away from Intel Corp. CPUs in Macs continues with the latest chips’ performance enhancements. The M2 Pro has 12 primary processor cores, up from 10.
The business discontinued marketing a premium Mac mini with a non-Apple processor. The Mac Pro desktop is now the sole Intel device in Apple’s lineup. The Mac Mini is the most recent Apple product to get the M2 chip upgrade, and this time it also includes the company’s CPU in its Pro configuration.
Apple has never before included pro-level processors in the Mini. The MacBook Air’s M1 processor was the only one available for purchase in the past with the Mini. This time, it includes an Apple chip series that is more powerful.
From a previous high of 16, the graphics capabilities will increase to up to 19 cores. The M2 Max increases graphics performance by doubling the number of cores from the previous maximum of 32 to as many as 38.
Battery and Storage
Apple is also boosting the capacity of its devices. Additionally, the maximum amount of RAM on laptops with the most modern M2 Max chip has been increased to 96 gigabytes. Both had a previous limit of 32 gigabytes. The maximum storage capacity remains unchanged at 8 terabytes.
Standard Mac Mini configuration includes an M2 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage space. In addition to two USB-A ports and two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) connections, which is an improvement over the previous model’s Thunderbolt 3 connectors, it contains an HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet, and a standard headphone jack.
The M2 Pro option of the new Mac Mini includes 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and two additional Thunderbolt 4 connectors in addition to the basic M2 model’s ports.
The 14-inch model now has an 18-hour battery life, up from 17 hours, and the 16-inch model now has a 22-hour battery life, up from 21 hours.
New Prices
The upgraded 14-inch MacBook Pro is priced at $1999 (N1,479,2660) at the current exchange rate of N740, while the 16-inch model is still $2499 (N740) (N1,849,260).
The price of the Mac mini is $599, $100 less than the previous model. Apple stated that all of the new Macs would start shipping on January 24.
Apple’s last year’s plans for the new MacBook Pros and Mac minis included the anticipation that they would be on sale in the first quarter of 2023. The delay is anticipated to have an impact on Apple’s most recent quarterly earnings, as the company had initially planned to release the new machines in 2022.
Apple will release its Christmas sales data on February 2; the company cautioned investors that the absence of a MacBook Pro update might hurt those figures.
In addition to these latest developments, the company had previously said that it would deliver VR headsets this year and touch-screen Macs in the coming years, maybe as early as 2025. It’s expected to compete with touchscreen competitors.