By Mark Gurman | Bloomberg
Apple Inc. rolled out updated MacBook Air laptops and Mac Studio desktops, seeking to maintain a sales resurgence for the company’s computer line.
The new MacBook Air gets the speedier, AI-focused M4 processor, an upgrade from the M3. The models come in the same 13-inch and 15-inch sizes and start at $999 and $1,199, a $100 price cut from the M3 versions. The updated laptops have an improved 12-megapixel videoconferencing camera and can connect to two external monitors. They’re also being offered in a new sky blue option.
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In addition, Apple updated the Mac Studio, a desktop computer that’s positioned between the Mac mini and Mac Pro. The latest edition comes in M4 Max and M3 Ultra configurations — an unusual approach that offers consumers a choice between a new chip architecture and an older one with more horsepower. The Mac Studio is priced from $1,999 and $3,999, matching the prior M2 Max and M2 Ultra versions.
Both machines became available for preorder Wednesday and arrive in stores on March 12, the company said.
Apple’s Mac line performed better than expected during the holiday season, helping offset sluggish demand for the iPhone. The segment grew 16% to $8.99 billion, topping the $7.94 billion estimated by Wall Street. On the company’s quarterly earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook cited the MacBook Air as one of the reasons.
The M4 chip comes to the MacBook Air after first launching in the iPad Pro last May. The processor was also at the heart of the MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini models unveiled last year. The chip’s central processing unit, or CPU, has 10 cores — a measure of computing power — up from eight in the M3 MacBook Air. Both versions include a graphics processing unit, or GPU, with 10 cores.
The Cupertino, California-based company said the M4 Air is twice as fast as the M1 MacBook Air, though that machine was released in 2020 and included Apple’s first crack at a Mac processor. AI processing on the latest machine is three times faster, according to the company.
The new camera on the MacBook Air is an upgrade from the prior system, which was advertised as a 1080p sensor. The component allows for Center Stage, a feature that lets the camera automatically focus on and follow someone in the frame. It also enables Desk View, which can show someone on a video call what’s on the MacBook Air user’s desk.
Battery life remains at 18 hours for both screen sizes. For the first time in a MacBook Air, Apple is offering the option to configure it with as much as 32 gigabytes of memory, or RAM. The previous limit was 24 gigabytes.
The Mac Studio updates are the line’s first upgrades in nearly two years, and they bring some potential dissonance to the broader lineup. The $5,999 Mac Pro wasn’t updated as part of the unveiling and is now less powerful than another, much less expensive Apple product. The M2 MacBook Air, Apple’s prior $999 laptop offering, has been discontinued.
After putting the M3 Ultra in the Mac Studio, Apple could theoretically use a newer-generation chip in the next generation of the Mac Pro, helping justify the cost of its top-of-the-line configuration. Apple said the M4 Max Mac Studio is three and a half times faster than the M1 Max version from 2022, while the M3 Ultra model is 2.6 times quicker than one with the M1 Ultra.
The M4 Max chip in the standard configuration of the Mac Studio arrives after first coming to high-end MacBook Pros. That component has a 16-core CPU and a 40-core GPU, up from the 12-core CPU and 38-core GPU in the M2 Max Mac Studio. The M3 Ultra chip has a 32-core CPU and 80-core GPU, compared with the 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU in the M2 Ultra it replaces.
The move to the M3 and M4 in the Mac Studio also enables ray tracing, a technology that improves graphics in gaming. And the upgrades better position the device as an AI development machine, a category that the personal computer industry has embraced recently.
The Mac Studio also now has Thunderbolt 5 connectors and can now be configured with as much as 512 gigabytes of memory and as much as 16 terabytes of storage option.
A fully loaded Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra and top memory and storage configurations tops out at $14,099, while the most expensive new MacBook Air costs $2,399.
Wednesday’s Mac upgrades follow a slew of other new Apple products. On Tuesday, the company introduced an iPad Air with an M3 chip and a low-end Magic Keyboard, as well as an updated entry-level iPad that adds an A16 processor. Last week, it started selling the iPhone 16e.