Apple goes beast mode with high-power MacBook Pro lineup, colourful new iMacs

Apple has launched a series of new MacBook models with some serious processing power, thanks to the tech giant’s flashy M3 chips, and also launched brightly coloured iMacs “supercharged” with the same chips.

The tech giant made an announcement on Monday night, with the 14-inch M3 Pro and the 16-inch M3 Max featured front and centre.

“With a next-generation GPU architecture and a faster CPU, the M3 family brings even more performance and remarkable new capabilities to MacBook Pro,” Apple said in a release.

As reliable as MacBooks are, a 14-inch MacBook Pro may not be the first thing to come to mind when it comes to gaming, but the M3 lineup claims to deliver “phenomenal sustained performance” in pro apps and games. A 22-hour battery life is the cherry on top.

This time, Apple is bringing an iPhone-style flair to its 14- and 16-inch laptops, at least as far as naming them goes.

The MacBook Pro comes with M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips to make simultaneously running heavy-duty apps a breeze without lags.

MacBooks with the latter two chips will be available in an “unmistakably pro” space black colour with a fingerprint-resistant finish. All the models will also come in the classic space grey and silver colours.

The Liquid Retina XDR display Mac users know and love will be more brilliant with brighter SDR content. There’s also a built-in camera with a 1080p resolution and a wide array of connectivity options, and music and audio are more immersive than ever, with six speakers per MacBook.

“With the next generation of M3 chips, we’re raising the bar yet again for what a pro laptop can do,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. “We’re excited to bring MacBook Pro and its best-in-class capabilities to the broadest set of users yet, and for those upgrading from an Intel-based MacBook Pro, it’s a game-changing experience in every way.”

The MacBooks can be ordered now but will become available on November 7, starting at $2,099.

MacBook Pro with M3 — 14″

Apple

Whether you’re a student, a business owner, a filmmaker, or all three, this model aims to deliver everything you’ll need. It’s 60% faster than the 13-inch Pro with M1 and starts at $2,099.

With this model, rendering videos in Final Cut Pro, coding in Xcode, and populating spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel are all much faster than older Pro models with M1 and Core i7.

MacBook Pro with M3 Pro — 14″ and 16″

Apple

Apple is marketing models with the M3 Pro chip to “users with more demanding workflows like coders, creatives, and researchers.”

“MacBook Pro with M3 Pro provides even greater performance, supports more unified memory, and is now up to 40 percent faster than the 16‑inch model with M1 Pro,” it said in a release.

This means Adobe Photoshop is three times faster than the fastest Intel-based MB Pro and up to 40% faster than the 2021’s 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.

Adobe Premiere Pro should also run buttery smooth and is up to 30% faster than the 2021 model mentioned above.

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MacBook Pro with M3 Max — 14″ and 16″

Apple

This is the right fit for more extreme users, such as machine learning programmers, 3D artists, and video editors.

MATLAB simulations should be 5.5 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro, and rendering in Maxon Redshift is also noticeably faster.

If you use Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio, expect noise reduction to be 65% faster than the 16-inch MacBook Pro with a M1 Max chip.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 starts at $2,099 ($1,969 for education); the 14‑inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro starts at $2,699 ($2,499 for education); and the 16‑inch MacBook Pro starts at $3,299 ($3,029 for education).

Apple

Even though it isn’t as portable as a MacBook, the appeal of the iMac is hard to beat. And now, the display and performance are even better.

“We’re excited to give iMac a big boost in performance with the M3 chip,” said Ternus. “Millions of users absolutely love iMac for its stunning design and expansive 24-inch, 4.5K Retina display that’s the perfect size to spread out with all their favourite apps and get things done.”

Ternus said that adding the M3 chip brings even better speeds for multitasking, playing games, and doing image and video editing, among other things.

“The new iMac with M3 is incredible for anyone, especially those who haven’t yet upgraded from Intel, providing a giant leap in performance and capabilities only possible with Apple silicon,” he added.

Aside from the incredible performance-related features, the new iMac can also visually brighten your office or study area. It comes in exciting colours — green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver — and is a stylish device with sleek dimensions. It’s only 11.5 mm thick!

Enjoy the MacBook Pro-style 1080p camera and six-speaker sound system on a bigger scale.