After giving us a sneak peek at the WWDC 2020 event back in June 2020, Apple has announced its first batch of macOS-based devices powered by the in-house developed M1 silicon chipset.
For those unaware, the Apple M1 is the manufacturer's first Mac chipset. It is built on a 5nm fabrication process and comprises 16 billion transistors. It is very identical to mobile chipsets in the sense that it has a unified memory architecture. This means that the same memory is accessible by the CPU, GPU, I/O controller, and other components without piping data through PCIe.
The CPU consists of four high-performance and four high-efficiency cores, while the GPU also packs in eight cores with 128 execution units. The M1 also has a 16-core Neural Engine along with support for Thunderbolt and USB 4 ports.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro, of course, comes powered by the new M1 chipset. Apple says that the new MacBook Pro is up to 2.8 times faster in terms of CPU performance, and 5 times faster in GPU performance when compared to the last generation MacBook Pro.
It also gets a slightly revised front camera, which, sadly is still stuck with 720p resolution, along with vast improvements to the battery life. Apple claims that the new 13-inch MacBook Pro features 17 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video playback.
The rest of the notebook remains unchanged in comparison to the older model, which was launched earlier this year in May. It is priced at ₹1,22,900 for the 8GB+256GB configuration. It can be ordered starting today from Apple's online store.
The MacBook Air, too, gets the same chipset as the MacBook Pro. However, in comparison to the Pro model, it misses out on a cooling fan, a touch bar, a brighter screen (500 vs 400 nits), better stereo speakers, higher quality microphones, and better battery life.
Apple says that the new MacBook Air offers up to 3.5 times the CPU performance of the older model and up to 5 times faster graphics. The SSDs used are also said to be faster than before. It also comes with improved battery life (up to 15 hours of web browsing and up to 18 hours of video playback) along with an improved FaceTime camera. On top of that, the 13.3-inch Retina display now supports the P3 colour gamut.
Rest of the MacBook Air remains identical to the older model. It is still available in three colours, namely space gray, gold, and silver. It is priced at ₹92,900 for the 8GB+256GB configuration. It, too, can be ordered starting today from Apple's online store.
Alongside the MacBooks, Apple has also updated its smallest computer with the new M1 chipset. As per Apple, the 2020 Mac Mini offers 3 times the CPU performance of the older model, along with 6 times improved GPU performance.
The new Neural Engine also translates to better machine learning performance on the Mac Mini (15 times to be precise). The Mac Mini also has active cooling unlike the Air, which means it can sustain its top performance for a relatively long period of time.
The rest of the Mac Mini remains similar to the older 2018 model. The base 8GB+256GB configuration version of the Mac Mini is priced at ₹64,900. Like the new MacBooks, the 2020 Mac Mini, too, can be ordered starting today from Apple's online store.
