Apple used to treat every public-facing announcement like an event. Even its keynotes — ostensibly for investors and press — were well-orchestrated circuses. If there’s any conclusion to be drawn from the sheer number of new products the company’s launched without any kind of event since the iPhone 16 series was introduced six months ago, the time for hanging on Apple’s every word has passed.
Some of it can be chalked up to the company’s new preference for recorded, highly-edited video presentations rather than live shows. Some of it might also have to do with the fact that since Apple started making the chips that power its smartphones, tablets and computers, most of the “new” things it introduces amount to spec bumps. Apple’s managed to announce eight new products since the iPhone 16, nine if you count a new chip that debuted in one of the company’s updated desktop computers. Here’s a look at all of that new hardware, from Apple’s most recent releases to the new computers it used to close out 2024.
M4 MacBook Air
The MacBook Air is one of Apple’s most popular laptops, so it’s only natural it should get the latest M4 chip. Luckily, that extra power didn’t come at the cost of a more expensive computer. A 13-inch MacBook Air now starts at $999, with the 15-inch model coming in at $1,199, down from the $1,099 you used to have to pay to get an M3 MacBook Air. The new laptops also come with an improved 12MP Center Stage webcam, and a new metallic color option Apple’s dubbed “Sky Blue.” It’s not the most exciting announcement, but a new laptop that’s twice as powerful as Apple’s M1 computers for a lower price is welcome all the same.
Mac Studio
Apple’s update to the Mac Studio, announced alongside the MacBook Air, is even more of a pure spec bump. No cosmetic changes were made to the Studio: The short and stout computer still has USB ports and an SD card reader on the front, with even more I/O options available on the back. What’s different are the chips powering the Mac Studio on the inside. Apple offers either an M4 Max with a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU or new M3 Ultra chip, which gives the Studio enough wiggle room to handle most professional creative workloads. With the M4 Max you can get up to 128GB of unified memory but if you opt for the M3 Ultra, that can go all the way up to 512GB. All of that power will cost you, though. The Mac Studio with the M4 Max starts at $1,999, while the M3 Ultra version starts at $3,999.
M3 Ultra
The M3 Ultra is the truly novel part of the Mac Studio update. The late-arriving chip fills the top spot in Apple’s M3 lineup, with a 32-core CPU (24 of which are performance cores), up to a 80-core GPU and a 32-core Neural Engine. Apple claims the M3 Ultra is over two times as powerful as the M1 Ultra, likely because it’s technically two M3 Max chips connected together with the company’s “Ultrafusion” architecture. The new chip also supports Thunderbolt 5 for faster connectivity and specced with up to 512GB of unified memory. Currently, the M3 Ultra is only available on the Mac Studio, which oddly leaves the Mac Pro out of the loop. It’s possible Apple’s most expensive Mac will be updated soon, or maybe there’s an even more powerful chip waiting in the wings.
M3 iPad Air
The same week Apple updated the MacBook Air and Mac Studio, it also tweaked the iPad Air, giving the 11- or 13-inch tablet a new M3 chip, and an updated version of the Magic Keyboard with a function row and a slightly larger trackpad. The iPad Air was already capable of Apple Intelligence and plenty fast with the M2 chip it received in 2024, so Apple’s announcement mainly keeps it competitive, unless you’re interested in ray-tracing, which admittedly is offered in some console games that have been ported to the iPad. The new iPad Air starts at $599, while the new Magic Keyboard starts at $260, and strangely, only comes in white.
iPad
Apple’s changes to the entry-level iPad are even smaller. It’s been upgraded from an A14 Bionic chip to an A16, which means the tablet is faster, but still not capable of Apple Intelligence. The new tablet also starts with a larger amount of storage. Rather than the frankly dismal 64GB Apple used to offer at the low-end, you now can’t get an iPad without at least 128GB of storage. That’s not bad, even for Apple’s slightly expensive $349 starting price. Still, besides acting as the go-to option for families looking to buy a tablet for their kids or grandparents, Apple’s basic iPad mainly seems like a way to drive people to a more expensive option.
iPhone 16e
The wait for a replacement to the 2022 iPhone SE was long, and as it turns out, the direction Apple wants to take the idea is a little unexpected. The company started the year by turning the SE into the iPhone 16e, a new low-end for the company’s smartphone lineup. The iPhone 16e is an odd mixture of iPhones old and new. It features the A18 chip, which means it can handle the little Apple Intelligence currently has to offer, it looks like an iPhone 14, but with a singular camera. And for some reason it doesn’t have MagSafe. For $549, the iPhone 16e doesn’t exactly feel like a deal, but is cheaper, and more importantly, interesting, as the first of Apple’s phones to feature its custom C1 modem.
M4 Mac mini
Small computers are always crowd-pleasers and the even more compact M4 Mac mini Apple released at the end of 2024 is no different. The updated Mac mini looks much more like a tall Apple TV than the flat DVD player shape of Apple’s older models and it has front-facing ports, too. For as little as $599, the Mac mini gets you access to the latest M4 chip and up to 64GB of unified memory, a pretty powerful little machine. With the option to slot in an M4 Pro, it can even be your workhorse, too. The Mac mini represents the other side of Apple’s recent focus on specs. A new chip isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but if it can lead to a radically smaller computer, it’s worth it.
M4 iMac
The iMac’s move to M4 was far less of an overhaul than the Mac mini. Apple changed some of the color options, added a 12MP webcam and introduced an optional nano-texture finish to the display, but it’s otherwise the same old 24-inch all-in-one computer. Funnily, the bigger news out of the iMac refresh might have been its accessories. After switching to USB-C ports on basically all of its devices, Apple finally got rid of the Lightning port on the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard. The mouse still charges upside down, but at least you can use the same cable for everything. That’s maybe representative of the new iMac as a whole: It has the same quirks, but it’s definitely better than before.
M4 MacBook Pro
The M4 MacBook Pros were released not long after Apple introduced the iPhone 16 and the new laptops were mainly a vehicle for the introduction of the M4 family of chips as a whole. Apple didn’t really change the design of the MacBook Pro, just gave it more RAM, more Thunderbolt ports and a slightly brighter screen. The MacBook Pro comes in both 14-inch and 16-inch varieties, with either an M4, M4 Pro or M4 Max chip. The cheaper side of things, the M4 chip has a 10-core CPU and 8-core GPU, while the high-end M4 Max has a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU. The M4 MacBook Pros started the cascading wave of spec bumps Apple’s introduced over the last few months, and also the company’s AI focus: The M4 chip has a larger NPU, or Neural Engine, for completing AI tasks, regardless of which version you get.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/everything-apple-announced-since-its-last-event-224536253.html?src=rss
