- At Apple’s “One More Thing” hardware event held on Tuesday, the company unveiled a range of new MacBooks that will get Apple’s new M1 chip that was designed in-house and promises breathtaking performance.
- In his remarks during the event, Apple CEO Tim Cook raved that the new M1 chip is the fastest Apple has ever designed and enables the Mac to run more software than ever.
- Apple customers can begin placing orders for products in the new Mac family starting today, with the first availability next week.
CEO Tim Cook kicked off the company’s “One More Thing” hardware-focused event today by raving, first, about the recent cadence of new product launches, with Apple having teed up a fall jam-packed with more new releases than ever — everything from new iPhones to an updated OS for the phones, today’s announcement of new ARM-based chips for Apple Macs, and much more.
Indeed, Tuesday’s showcase was Apple’s third major event held over the past two months. And in addition to announcing new products like an all-new MacBook Air that will be the first with Apple’s M1 processor, the company also just unveiled a new Mac mini that’s getting the company’s super-fast new M1 chip, as well. That continues the trend we’ve seen for several years now whereby Apple has already been using in-house designed chips on the iPhone.
This announcement of a new Mac mini certainly came as a bit of a surprise, to say the least. Among the details Apple just shared about this new desktop, it will start at $699, which is $100 cheaper than the previous version from two years ago. In terms of specs, it will boast up to 15x faster machine learning, up to 6x faster graphics, an up 3x faster CPU, up to 16GB of memory, and the machine will be up to 60% more energy-efficient.
In its announcement about the new Macs, Apple noted that the Mac Mini, now with the M1, “packs a staggering amount of performance and incredible new features in such a compact design.” Moreover, when compared to the best-selling Windows desktop in its price range, according to Apple, “the Mac mini is just one-tenth the size, yet delivers up to 5x faster performance.
“Mac mini also features an advanced thermal design to sustain its breakthrough performance while staying cool and quiet, support for up to two displays including Apple’s Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution, and Wi-Fi 6 for faster wireless performance and the Secure Enclave in M1 for best-in-class security.”
Orders for the Mac mini start today, with the first availability next week. Also coming this week, meanwhile, is Mac OS Big Sur, which will be available on Thursday — and, meanwhile, if you missed today’s event, you can watch it in full below:
“The introduction of three new Macs featuring Apple’s breakthrough M1 chip represents a bold change that was years in the making, and marks a truly historic day for the Mac and for Apple,” Cook said in a news release. “M1 is by far the most powerful chip we’ve ever created, and combined with Big Sur, delivers mind-blowing performance, extraordinary battery life, and access to more software and apps than ever before.”
