• Price: Starting at $999
• Finish: Silver, Space Gray, or Gold
• Display: 13.3-inch Retina display (2,560 x 1,600)
• Processor: M1 chip with 8-core CPU (up to 3.5x faster than previous gen) or
• GPU: 7-core or 8-cores (up to 5x faster than previous gen)
• Storage: Up to 2TB
• RAM: Up to 16GB
• Wi-Fi 6
The new 13-inch Macbook Pro looks identical to the old MacBook Pro. It's got the new M1 chip, up to 17 hours of battery life (wireless web browsing), studio-quality microphones, and two Thunderbolt USB-C ports (there's no longer a 4-port version). Unfortunately, unlike the MacBook Air, it's not fanless. It's also still got a Touch Bar. Boo!
Apple silicon is the company's own custom-designed processor and graphics system-on-a-chip (SoC). It's based on ARM architecture. If you use an iPhone or Android device, you've been running on ARM.
Simple: vertical integration. Apple has long touted the secret to its success is that it "makes the whole widget" as Steve Jobs famously said. That is, it designs the hardware and software together. Until now, Apple has designed the aesthetic of MacBooks and relied on third-party companies like Intel and AMD to supply the processors and graphics chips.
Apple is now dropping Intel for various reasons. One: Apple designing its own chips, like it has been doing for 10 years for iPhones and iPads, means any production delays from Intel won't create a delay for Macs. Apple gets to control its own production roadmap, which should mean more frequent refreshes to specs. No more waiting years for an update!
The second key reason: performance and features. The silicon that powers the iPhone 12, iPad Air 4, and iPad Pro is not only more powerful than the Intel chips inside current MacBooks, but it's also more power-efficient.
According to Apple, its new chips really do vastly increase the battery life of the new MacBooks. The new MacBook Air touts up to 15 hours for wireless web and up to 18 hours for “Apple TV app movie playback” while the MacBook Pro gets 17 hours and 20 hours respectively in those categories. The previous iteration of MacBook Pros with Intel chips could only muster 10 hours of battery life in both use cases.
Traditionally, apps that run on x86 architecture (laptops and desktops) are not compatible with ARM architecture (phones and tablets). Developers need to rewrite them for ARM. But Apple has a secret weapon to make apps that were designed for x86 Intel chips run on its own ARM-based silicon: Rosetta 2. The emulation app built into macOS Big Sur translates x86 apps into an executable form on the new MacBooks.
Apple said at WWDC that switching to its own silicon for Macs will "establish a common architecture across all Apple products." This unified architecture will make it easier for developers to create apps that work on both iOS and Macs. It's also, of course, a big middle finger to Intel, who's now losing business from the largest tech company on the planet. In two years, the transition will be complete and the divorce complete.