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| Pic Credit: Apple |
After nearly a year of speculation, Apple finally
revealed the new MacBook Pro 2021 lineup at its "Unleashed" virtual
press conference on Monday. The new laptops, as expected, have a major overhaul
that will appeal to many admirers. Several ports that Apple removed in 2016
have been reinstated, including a new MagSafe charging port.
The speculations were true, with both 14- and
16-inch MacBook Pro models being added to the lineup. Both models include a
notch on the screen, which now supports ProMotion at refresh rates of up to
120Hz. They're also mini LED and XDR, with a brightness of 1000 nits and a peak
brightness of 1600 nits. A 1080p camera with a bigger image sensor and 2x
improved low light performance is housed in that notch. Most notably, Apple's
new CPUs are included with the MacBook Pro notebooks. That's true, there are
two new chips from Apple: the strong M1 Pro and the much more powerful M1 Max.
Apple's biggest hardware change for the MacBook Pro
2021 range is the new M1 Pro SoC. If the M1 MacBook Pro was a nightmare for
Intel, the M1 Pro should make it even worse. This year, Apple significantly
improved the CPU and GPU. A 10-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 2
efficiency cores is what we're looking at. We have a 16-core or 32-core GPU on
the GPU side. The M1 SoC had an eight-core CPU with four performance cores as
well as an eight-core GPU. To deal with the added heat, both MacBook Pro
versions will have two fans inside. The M1 MacBook Pro models have a maximum
RAM capacity of 16GB. However, the 2021 models will support up to 32GB (M1 Pro)
or 64GB (M1 Pro) of memory (M1 Max). For both variants, SSD storage starts at
512GB.
With the new chips, you can power an incredible
array of external monitors. Final Cut Pro now supports up to 30 streams of 4K
ProRes video or seven streams of 8K ProRes video, thanks to Apple's addition of
hardware acceleration for the ProRes codec. This, coupled with HDR color
grading on 8K ProRes 4444 video, can be done while on charge, according to the
company, which is no small feat. With Xcode, developers will be able to build
projects 3.7 times faster, and engineers will be able to execute computational
fluid dynamics 2.8 times faster in NASA TetrUSS.
Apple has also included a six-speaker sound system
with two tweeters and four woofers that enables spatial audio, as well as a
studio-quality three-mic array. The Touch Bar has been replaced by physical
F-buttons, and Apple has added ports this time. Three Thunderbolt 4
connections, a MagSafe port, an SD card slot, and HDMI are now included. Oh,
and there's still a 3.5mm headphone jack, which can now accommodate
high-impedance headphones.
Finally, battery life is up to 17 hours of video
playback (14-inch) or 21 hours of video playback (16-inch). The MagSafe 3
connector on the laptops also allows for quick charging. With just 30 minutes
of charge, you can get up to 50% battery capacity.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, but with
the M1 Max CPU and 32GB of RAM, it costs $2,899. The bigger, 16-inch MacBook
Pro starts at $2,499 with the M1 Pro CPU and $3,499 with the M1 Max chip.
