At the Scary Fast event that was held last night, Apple launched the updated versions of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and 24-inch iMac, featuring the company’s latest chipset series, the Apple M3. Along with that, the tech giant introduced new variants of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which brings down its starting price, improved the displays on both laptops among other changes, made several improvements to the 24-inch iMac, and discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Read below for more details.
What improvements does the Apple M3 processor offer?
As we reported yesterday, the event’s highlight was the Apple M3 chipset, which is a successor to the Apple M2 that was launched last year. It comes in three variants: M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. The first one powers the 24-inch iMac and the base variant of the 14-inch MacBook Pro and the other two power the remaining variants of the 14-inch MacBook Pro and the 16-inch MacBook Pro. These chipsets are available in different configurations, offering up to 16 CPU cores, 40 GPU cores, and 128GB of unified memory.
The Apple M3 is made on TSMC’s 3nm fabrication process, the same as the Apple A17 Pro SoC used in the iPhone 15 Pro. According to the company, the GPU in the M3 chip features “next-generation architecture”, which brings Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The company, however, didn’t reveal any details about architectural improvements to the CPU. Depending upon the configuration, the new chipset offers up to 20% faster GPU and 50% faster CPU than M2.
14-inch MacBook Pro now starts at a lower price but there’s a catch
Previously, the base variants of the 14-inch MacBook Pro came with the Pro lineup of the Apple M-series chipsets, which were more powerful than the non-Pro M-series SoCs. That’s not the case anymore. The base variant of the new 14-inch MacBook Pro features the Apple M3, which is a chipset from a tier below. It offers a lesser number of CPU and GPU cores and lower memory capacity (8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 8GB RAM).
That has helped Apple to bring down the price of the base variant of the 14-inch MacBook Pro from $1,999 to $1,599. The non-Pro chipset alone didn’t bring down the price though. Apple had to make cost-cutting in other places to achieve that price figure. To that extent, the company has equipped the entry-level model with only two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of three on higher variants. Other features, however, remain unchanged between the base variant and other models of the laptop.
Both new laptops get improved displays and higher memory capacity
Along with the M3 chipsets, the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro also feature brighter displays. According to the company, the new screens offer 600 nits brightness in SDR mode, which is 20% higher than the previous model. The new laptops also offer a longer battery life, up to 22 hours. Other changes include the introduction of 18GB, 48GB and 128GB memory options on both models (previously the company offered these laptops with 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 96GB memory options).
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499 and it is now available in a new color option, Space Black, which, according to the company, attracts less fingerprints. The M3 and M3 Pro-powered MacBook Pro models are available to order from Apple's website and will start shipping on November 7, 2023. The M3 Max-powered models, on the other hand, will start shipping at a later date but the company hasn’t specified when.
Apple discontinues 13-inch MacBook Pro
With the introduction of the new base variant of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which is powered by the Apple M3 SoC, the company has discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Pro that has been on sale for many years now. In other words, the base variant of the new 14-inch MacBook Pro replaces the 13-inch MacBook Pro. This puts an end to one of the most popular but also one of the most controversial MacBook models of all time.
24-inch iMac gets faster connectivity options
Similar to the two new laptops, Apple has updated the 24-inch iMac with the M3 family of processors. It is available with the M3 chipset in two configurations: 8-core CPU + 8-core GPU and 8-core CPU + 10-core GPU. You can also configure the new iMac with up to 24GB unified memory, which is higher than that of the previous model, which could be configured with up to 16GB RAM.
Along with the new processor and higher memory capacity, the new 24-inch iMac gets Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth v5.3, offering faster connectivity compared to the previous model. The iMac 24-inch (2023) starts at $1,299. It is available to purchase through Apple’s official website and the company will start shipping it from November 7, 2023.
