2021 MacBook Pro Features New Everything: Body, Display, Ports

A new generation of MacBook Pros was the main highlight of Monday’s Apple event. It has a new unibody-design, powerful chips, and something familiar to iPhone users: a notch.

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros are available to purchase on October 26, starting at US$1,999 and US$2,499 respectively. There is also a 13-inch MacBook Pro with the older M1 chip available to purchase immediately starting at US$1,299.

2021 MacBook Pro

Available in 14- and 16-inch models, these computers introduce the latest in Apple Silicon: M1 Pro and M1 Max. The new MacBook Pro brings a Liquid Retina XDR display, a wide range of ports for advanced connectivity, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and a sound system with six speakers.

Highlights

• M1 Pro – Featuring a powerful up-to-10-core CPU with eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores, along with an up-to-16-core GPU, M1 Pro delivers up to 70 percent faster CPU performance than M1, and up to 2x faster GPU performance.
• M1 Max – Features the same powerful 10-core CPU as M1 Pro, and doubles the GPU with up to a massive 32 cores for up to 4x faster GPU performance than M1. It also has up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth — 2x that of M1 Pro and nearly 6x that of M1 — and up to 64GB of fast unified memory.
• Display – Featuring the mini-LED technology used in iPad Pro, the Liquid Retina XDR display delivers up to 1,000 nits of sustained, full-screen brightness, an incredible 1,600 nits of peak brightness, and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
• Port – Both models feature three Thunderbolt 4 ports to connect high-speed peripherals, an SDXC card slot for fast access to media, an HDMI port for conveniently connecting to displays and TVs, and an improved headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones.
• Charging – MagSafe 3 makes connecting a charge cable quick and easy while protecting MacBook Pro. Additionally, fast charge comes to the Mac for the first time, charging up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes.
• Camera – These computers come with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera. The system uses an image signal processor (ISP) and Neural Engine of M1 Pro and M1 Max for computational video that enhances video quality — so users appear sharper with more natural-looking skin tones.
• Audio – A high-fidelity six-speaker sound system features two tweeters for a clearer soundstage and four force-cancelling woofers, resulting in 80 percent more bass. The sound system also supports spatial audio, which creates a sophisticated, three-dimensional listening experience.

Apple also highlighted the environmentally-friendly features, These include an enclosure made with 100 percent recycled aluminum, 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of its main logic board, and, for the first time in a Mac notebook, the use of 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets. Both models are also built with 35 percent or more recycled plastic in seven components, and all of the packaging wood fibers are from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources.