Apple is expected to announce new 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and 16-inch MacBook Pro with its custom Apple Silicon during its November 5th event. This will mark the beginning of the end for Intel processors in Apple’s Macs.
The company announced its long-awaited ‘One more thing‘ event which will take place on November 10. Although the company has not confirmed it in the invite, as per tradition, Apple will be announcing its first Apple Silicon Macs. The company will be replacing Intel processors in its new Mac line-up, along with other improvements to put them head-to-head against Intel-based offerings from competitors.
Apple Silicon Macs to be announced on November 10
Apple had originally shared its plans to move Macs to its own custom Apple Silicon at WWDC 2020. The company said that it will ship its first ARM-based Macs before the end of the year, while it will transition the whole line-up to its own chips by 2022.
As per Bloomberg, Foxconn is working on the new 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, while Quanta Computer is working on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. All these new Macs will have the same designs as current-generation Macs, and Bloomberg expects two out of these three models to be showcased during the ‘One more thing’ event. These Macs will feature the new A14 chip that Apple just shipped in iPad Air and iPhone 12, but we expect it to perform much faster and be more efficient than its Intel predecessors.
This is not the first time that Apple will be transitioning Mac to a new architecture. Before it switched to Intel processors, Apple used PowerPC processors before 2005. The company switched to Intel because it offered better performance and efficiency at that time. It is obvious that the reason for Apple to switch from Intel is again power and efficiency. Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has been unable to stay ahead when it comes to efficiency, while ARM-chips, especially Apple’s own, have steadily improved in both performance and efficient power usage. Both these factors are extremely important when it comes to portable computers, which make a chunk of the sales for the PC industry.
Not only will Apple be used its own processors, but it will also be using its own graphics and machine learning chips, as per Bloomberg. Since the chips will be power efficient, they will also help in reducing the size of Apple computers such as Mac Pro, iMac, and MacBooks. This could allow Apple to package larger batteries and other components in its portable Macs, while a smaller Mac Pro could have room for additional storage and graphics cards.
Apple engineers are currently developing a new Mac Pro that looks like the current design at about half the size. It’s unclear if that Mac will replace the current Mac Pro or if it’s an additional model. Apple’s chip designs could help the company reduce the size of its computers due to increased power efficiency, but the current Mac Pro is large, in part, to fit components like additional storage drives and graphics chips.
Although Apple had shipped a Mac mini as part of a developer transition kit with its own ARM-chip, it uses an A12z processor, which it had earlier shipped with the 2020 iPad Pro. iPad Pro already performs faster than most portable computers in the market, despite its thin profile. Using an A14X chip in an actively cooled portable computer might result in performance that only Intel’s most expensive processors can offer. Reports have suggested that these MacBooks will offer 15-20 hours of battery life.
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