Over the last few days, Apple has revealed upgrades to some of their most famous devices. We previously covered the new iPad mini featuring the new A20 processor, which you can read all about here. Apple then unveiled the new iMac and 14” MacBook Pro featuring Apple’s M6 processor. Today, Apple takes one final leap, showing off the device that many have been truly waiting for: the touch-enabled MacBook Pro!
MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display
Before we dive into the latest M6 chip technology, we have to put a spotlight on the most anticipated device: the new touch-enabled MacBook Pro! Coming in both 14.2” and 16.3” sizes, the new MacBook Pro features Apple’s PROLED XDR display, which utilizes a tandem OLED panel to deliver enhanced clarity, amazing color vibrancy, and a new way to interact with your favorite applications.
This new PROLED XDR display still maintains all the amazing features from the previous Apple MacBook Pro models. This means you still get an amazing 1000-nits standard brightness and up to 2000-nits peak brightness, amazing for both HDR and SDR content! Additionally, the contrast ratio has been bumped up to 10,000,000:1 thanks to the inclusion of tandem OLED technology.
Apple stated that the new advanced display engine precisely controls the color and luminance of every pixel at a sub-millisecond level. This means faster refresh times with ProMotion technology, delivering a level of performance that unifies colorization across the board, whether you are working on various projects or enjoying some downtime. The PROLED XDR display goes from 10 Hz all the way up to 120 Hz with scalability that adapts to whatever it is that you’re doing. Reading documents, photo editing, and other still-frame workloads do not require 120 Hz fluidity, but video editing and even some games do. Having this wide range makes the MacBook Pro a solid workstation system that adjusts to your needs.
Designers can rejoice as the color space has also been expanded. Previously, P3 was the only color space supported but now we have P3 and Adobe RGB! This means designers and editors can adjust their workloads to meet various industry standards at a greater scale.
Additional color features are built into the new display, including the Apple Pro Display Calibrator, which enables you to take advantage of industry-standard reference modes for cinematic standards, photo, print, design, and the new DICOM medical imaging reference modes—great for non-diagnostic reviews, research, and educational purposes.
Once again, the new MacBook Pro’s adoption of touch technology brings everything together in a neat package! Applications are ready to go, offering refined and responsive controls whether you are adjusting sliders in various editing suites or playing the keyboard and drums in Garage Band. If you are a fan of the iPad, you’ll be glad to know that the touch experience is incredibly similar. Across the gesture-compatible touchpad and the new touch display, you’ll be more than equipped to manage any application.
The new MacBook Pro also happens to weigh just a little less this time around, coming in at around three pounds for the 14” model and four pounds for the 16” version! This means traveling users who are looking to conduct work on their commute, during work trips, and even on a flight from NY to LA can do so without feeling too weighed down.
Powering the new MacBook Pro is the Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max chip, offering scalable performance in accordance with your personal workload. Designers and editors who want fast rendering speeds, lightning-fast performance, and enhanced multitasking will absolutely love the power that the M5 Pro provides. But those who are looking to squeeze every ounce of performance out of the MacBook Pro, such as for editing high-resolution 8K footage or greater AI deployment, will find that nothing compares to Apple’s M5 Max processor, which offers nearly double the performance levels.
There are some other neat features coming to this MacBook Pro, including the Dynamic Island, which first debuted on the iPhone. The Dynamic Island feature combines hardware and software into a truly unique presentation. Spotlight, Live Activities, and Siri AI are just a few features that work within the Dynamic Island, giving you up-to-date information at a moment’s notice! You can control your music, view AirDrop requests, and even monitor how long it takes for the pizza you just ordered to come to your doorstep.
Another upgrade is the newly designed audio system that is designed to offer deeper bass and clearer audio. All-new tweeters shape sound dispersion, giving you crisp audio whether you are listening to music or listening to your favorite podcast. Dolby Atmos is also included, adding layers to the various sound profiles, immersing you into your favorite content!
There are more display features built into the MacBook Pro as well, including a color-matching function that matches color profiles when paired with an iPhone 18 Pro or Studio Display XDR. Support for genlock allows the new MacBook Pro to synchronize a display’s refresh rate with a camera’s capture to minimize image ghosting, visual tearing, and other visual artifacts.
MacBook Pro includes Thunderbolt 5 technology, giving you massive bandwidth to handle a load of peripherals, including docking stations, mice, keyboards, design controllers, and so much more! You can also attach multiple displays to the MacBook Pro, expanding your screen real estate to streamline your workload! Other ports include an HDMI output and SDXC card slot for sharing images and media. Touch ID, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6 are also available to assist with logging in, network capabilities, and wireless peripheral support.
Finally, I have to mention the 24-hour battery life, which should give you plenty of time to work on various projects without needing to be plugged in. In a pinch, the MacBook Pro can now charge up to 50 percent in as little as 30 minutes.
It is an exciting time to be a MacBook Pro fan, considering all these new features. But it isn’t the only thing Apple revealed this week! The new M6 chip has been revealed, delivering amazing levels of performance for the latest iMac computer systems as well as the 14” MacBook Pro.
M6 Chip
Let’s start with the power of the M6 chip as it is the centerpiece of these two devices. Designed to take computational power to new levels, the M6 can boast up to 18 times more power compared to previous generation M-series and Intel-based systems.
The M6 comes in two flavors: 10-core and 12-core variants, with a matching number of GPU cores. No matter the chip, both offer enhanced dual 16-core Neural Engine, Neural Accelerators, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and massive memory bandwidth to assist with multitasking and rendering capabilities. This is paired with the famous Media Engine, which can assist with various encoding and decoding techniques, giving video editors a smooth experience whether they are mid-edit or rendering their final project.
Apple Intelligence and Siri AI both leverage the M6’s power profile by enabling users to take advantage of powerful AI capabilities. Siri AI offers a more conversational and personal experience, enabling you to do more on your device! You can ask questions to find long-lost messages, emails, find the right photo, and a whole lot more, all while retaining your privacy.
iMac with M6
The new iMac with M6 features a familiar design that maintains the slim form factor. The 24” 4.5K Retina display provides enhanced clarity with deep visuals suitable for designers, artists, editors, and so much more! It also provides up to 500 nits of brightness as well as support for the P3 color space, giving you deep colors and vivid imagery.
A built-in 12MP Center Stage camera provides advanced image capture and enables you to chat with others all over the world. The built-in triple-mic array provides clear pickup pattern, so others can hear you clearly on calls. Desk View enables you to share a top-down view of your workspace, allowing viewers to get a great view of various projects you’re working on. Two pairs of force-cancelling woofers and tweeters deliver crisp audio backed by Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos, giving you an immersive audio experience.
iPhone users also get some additional control options with Continuity, a powerful tool that allows you to move seamlessly across devices, enabling the sharing of files, photos, and more. Even passwords and settings can be transferred between devices!
Coming in a slew of new expressive colors, the new iMac with M6 pushes home computing to the limit while retaining the eye-catching style and look Apple has been known for. The new iMac with M6 also includes a matching keyboard in blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, and green!
The new iMac with M6 is available in multiple configurations, including both types of M6 chips. The 10-core M6 variant can be configured up to 24GB of unified memory and up to 1TB of storage. For the 12-core variant, you can get up to 32GB of unified memory and up to 2TB of storage. Nano-texture glass on the display is also available for the 12-core M6 iMac.
MacBook Pro with M6
Providing you with more power to run the apps you need while expanding battery life, the new 14” MacBook Pro is a creator’s new best friend! Built with the new M6 chip, the MacBook Pro enables you to get into your most used applications quicker than ever.
The rest of the MacBook Pro’s design aligns with the old saying, “don’t fix what isn’t broken.” Everything from the sturdy chassis to the Liquid Retina XDR display are familiar, retaining the high 3024 x 1964 native resolution, high contrast ratio, 1600 nits peak brightness for HDR content, and more! Support for one-billion colors and the wide P3 color space is also present, giving designers and editors enhanced accuracy whether they are color correcting photos or making a fresh design from scratch.
Port wise, it is a familiar layout present here. We have three USB-C ports running on Thunderbolt 4 as well as a full SDXC card reader, and HDMI output, a 3.5mm audio jack, and the beloved MagSafe 3 charging port. This spread allows folks to experience fast data transfer speeds, support multiple displays at varying resolutions and refresh rates, and so much more!
Apple Everywhere
These last three days have been filled with a ton of surprises from Apple. From folks who love small, compact devices like the iPad mini to those who like lightweight and powerful laptops to those who prefer to use their devices at home or the office, Apple clearly has something for everyone. If you want to see them for yourself, be sure to hit the links!
