Apple today updated the MacBook Air and Mac Studio product lines, bringing the M4 chip and an upgraded camera to the MacBook Air, and M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips, Thunderbolt 5 support, and support for up to 512GB of ram to the Mac Studio.
MacBook Air
The MacBook Air has been updated with the M4 chip, an upgraded camera, a new "Sky Blue" finish, and a lower starting price of US$999.
With M4, the new MacBook Air is 2X faster than the MacBook Air with M1, and up to 23X faster than the "Fastest Intel-based MacBook Air," according to Apple's press release for the MacBook Air. Apple lists the following additional comparisons to the MacBook Air with M1, "Fastest Intel-based MacBook Air," and a PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor:
- Spreadsheet calculation performance in Microsoft Excel is up to 4.7x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 1.6x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.
- Video editing in iMovie is up to 8x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 2x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.
- Photo editing in Adobe Photoshop is up to 3.6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 2x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.
- Web browsing is up to 60 percent faster when compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, and more demanding tasks get up to 2x faster performance.
Besides the upgraded chip, the new MacBook Air gets the same 12MP Center Stage camera with support for Desk View that was introduced with the M4 MacBook Pro last year, allowing users to show more of their surroundings during video calls. In addition, you can now use the MacBook Air with up to two external displays, even with the lid open.
The new MacBook Air can be preordered from Apple starting today for a starting price of US$999, and will begin shipping on Wednesday, March 12.
Mac Studio
Apple has also updated the Mac Studio, bringing the M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips, Thunderbolt 5 support, and support for up to 512 GB of ram to one of its professional-focused desktops.
The new Mac Studio is reportedly capable of running large language models (LLMs) with over 600 billion parameters entirely in memory, according to Apple's press release for the Mac Studio. Apple lists the following additional claims in comparison to the Mac Studio with M1 Max and the 27-inch iMac with core i9:
- Up to 1.6x faster image processing in Adobe Photoshop when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.9x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3.1x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.2x faster ProRes transcode performance in Compressor when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.8x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.6x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 5x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
Apple additionally claims that the Mac Studio with M3 Ultra delivers nearly 2X faster performance than M4 Max in resource-intensive workloads, is up to 3.6X faster than the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and is up to 6.4x faster than the 16-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro. Apple lists the following claims in comparison to the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra and the 16 core Intel-based Mac Pro:
- Up to 16.9x faster token generation using an LLM with hundreds of billions of parameters in LM Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, thanks to its massive amounts of unified memory.
- Up to 2.6x faster scene rendering performance in Maxon Redshift when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.1x faster basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 21.1x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.4x faster 8K video rendering performance in Final Cut Pro when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
Besides the upgraded chips, the new Mac Studio includes support for Thunderbolt 5, with data transfer speeds of up to 120GBPS, up to 3X faster than the previous generation.
The new Mac Studio can be preordered from Apple starting today for a starting price of US$1,999, and will begin shipping on Wednesday, March 12.
Comments
I was scared after yesterday…
I was scared after yesterday, but in all fairness I love and understand what they've done here especially with the studio. Just not that we need the m3 ultra for 16tb ssd but the rest m4 max and then m3 ultra? Makes sense to me somehow.
the one thing that would…
the one thing that would have made me upgrade from my macbook air m2, and it's probably a daft thing, was including an extra thunderbolt port on the right side of the machine. Obviously, they didn't do this. I still find it very frustrating that if my power source is on the right I have to have the power cable going back and around it from a left side port. I'm sure there are many design reasons for it, namely it's easier to have the buses over that side and all together but, it was the one, and probably the only reason, I liked the MacBook pro more.
As for the rest of the upgrades... Meh. I very much doubt I'd feel any of them. I might take a look if I'm passing. I still think the new MacBook air, aside from teh port issue, is an excellent machine aside from the keyboard. To me, if feels cheap, the plastic too light and, annoyingly, my space bar no longer sits flush with the right command key. Small things, but it's an expensive machine. I wonder if they have upgraded the keyboard in any way between the M2 and M4.
The other thing I was wondering about, aside from the size of the screen, are there other benefits to the 15 inch model for us?
Yes! I am not the only one…
Yes! I am not the only one disliking this design with mac book airs!
But that aside I am genuinely concerned with the future of the mac pro, especially now. I especially worry the end of intel macos support and how businesses and users who have bought mac pro or equivalent models before 2020 will be facing forced planned obsolescence? ... Louis Rossmann will have years worth of pre planned content with this :)
$1,399
The new macbook air 13 inch is $1,399 in canada, i think the same as the M2 one