Apple launches MacBook Pro with new chips, larger displays, and the notch

Apple revealed new MacBook Pros, and nearly everything about them has changed.

Most importantly, the MacBook Pro laptops come with Apple's new chips. That's right, its chips, plural, because Apple launched two new chips: The powerful M1 Pro, and the even more powerful M1 Max.

The M1 Pro has either six or eight high-performance cores and two efficiency cores, giving it 70 percent better performance compared to last year's M1. It also has a 14-core or 16-core GPU, which Apple claims gives it two times better graphics performance compared to the M1. The M1 Pro supports a maximum 32GB of RAM memory.

Out with the Touch Bar, in with good old, physical function keys. Credit: apple

Then there's the M1 Max, which has more memory bandwidth, and 32 GPU cores, giving it 4x better graphics performance than the M1. It supports a maximum of 64GB of RAM memory.

But this time, the MacBook Pro hasn't only been upgraded on the inside. The devices come in new sizes — 14.2 and 16.2 inches — and have a new keyboard that has physical function keys instead of the Touch Bar.

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The new displays have very narrow bezels, but there's an iPhone-like notch on top, hosting the FaceTime camera. Credit: apple

The display has also been upgraded, and the rumors were true: The new MacBook Pro laptops have an iPhone-like notch on top, which hosts the new 1080p FaceTime camera. This is because the bezels on the displays have shrunk to just 3.5mm, which means that those display sizes were made possible in nearly the same-sized enclosure as on the previous models.

The 16.2-inch model has a resolution of 3,456 x 2,234 pixels, for a total of 7.7 million pixels, while the 14.2-inch model has a resolution of 3,024 x 1,964 pixels for a total of 5.9 million pixels. Both displays have the same mini-LED tech seen in the iPad Pro, and support an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz.

As expected, the new MacBooks now have a ton of ports: On one side, you get HDMI, Thunderbolt 4, and an SD card reader. On the other, there's a headphone jack, two more Thunderbolt ports, and yes, the MagSafe connector has returned.

Yay, ports! Credit: apple

Speakers and microphones have also been upgraded, and the new MacBooks are far more versatile when it comes to connecting additional displays; with the M1 Pro chip, you can connect two additional XDR displays, and with the M1 Max chip, you can connect up to three XDR displays and an additional 4K TV.

As for battery life, Apple claims the smaller model can handle up to 17 hours of video playback and up to 11 hours of wireless web browsing. The larger model can do up to 21 hours of video playback, and up to 14 hours of wireless web browsing.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, though the price goes up to $2,899 when configured with the M1 Max chip and 32GB of RAM. The larger, 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499 when configured with the M1 Pro chip, and it starts at a whopping $3,499 when configured with the M1 Max chip.

Related video: Everything Apple revealed at its October event