Wired
Following the previous iPhone 13 launch event, Apple held a new product launch event again on October 19th. This time the protagonist is the new version of MacBook Pro equipped with M1 Pro and M1 Max. The newly launched MacBook Pro comes in 14-inch and 16-inch versions. The processors all use the newly announced M1 Pro processor and can be upgraded to an M1 Max processor at an additional price. In addition, MacBook Pro also canceled the previously mixed Touch Bar and returned to the physical button design, and added HDMI output, SDXC card reader and other I/O. As for the price, the 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at 59,900 yuan, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at 74,900 yuan. In addition to MacBook Pro, AirPods also launched the third generation, priced at 5990 yuan.
MacBook Pro: MacBook Pro equipped with M1 Pro and M1 Max has no Touch Bar and comes in 14-inch and 16-inch dual versions
This should be the most satisfactory MacBook Pro product with specifications and design in recent years. First of all, all the advantages of the MacBook Pro that were removed in the past have returned, including the MegSafe magnetic charging cable, HDMI, SDXC memory card interface and the top row. There are physical buttons, and the mixed Touch Bar has been cancelled, and the USB Typc-C has been adjusted to three. Next is the upgrade of the ultra-high-performance M1 processor to the ten-core M1 Pro and M1 Max, which are installed in 14-inch and 16-inch versions, respectively. Last year, the memory capacity problem of the M1 version of MacBook Pro was criticized, and this year has also risen to 64GB. .
The processor M1 Pro can be up to ten-core CPU and sixteen-core GPU, memory up to 32GB, and memory bandwidth up to 200GB/s. M1 Max can be up to ten-core CPU and 32-core GPU, memory up to 64GB, and memory bandwidth up to 400GB/s. The 14-inch version of Macbook Pro can also be equipped with the highest specification M1 Max processor.
As for the screen, the Liquid Retina XDR, which had the highest image quality, was also applied to the new MacBook Pro after the highest-end screen Pro Display and 13-inch iPad Pro. It includes 1000nits brightness, 10,000 mini-LEDs, a million to one contrast ratio and 10 colors, and it is the thinnest among the 3 screens.
In terms of battery life, 14-inch MacBook Pro audio and video playback can last for 17 hours, and Internet browsing can be up to 11 hours. 16-inch MacBook Pro audio and video playback lasts for 21 hours, and Internet browsing can be up to 14 hours.
There are other enhanced functions such as camera lens, SSD speed, screen frame, sound performance, etc. The following are introduced with pictures:
▲When the MegSafe magnetic power connector came back, I just wanted to shout that the big brother is back.
▲HDMI and memory card slots are also back.
▲Also abandoned the dazzling but low-practical Touch Bar touch bar, and replaced it with physical buttons.
▲The 16-inch version weighs 2.13 kg, and the 14-inch version weighs about 1.58 kg.
▲The fan and ventilation structure of the MacBook Pro
▲Apple is a bit cruel. In order to make the frame the smallest, it brought the bangs that everyone disliked the iPhone to the MacBook Pro.
▲The Pro XDR screen specification is finally carried on the MacBook Pro, and the frequency is still 120GHz.
▲The resolution of the front camera lens is 1080p, and the aperture can reach F2.0.
▲The 6 surround speakers make the bass and stereo effect very good.
▲Stereo-quality array microphones can effectively reduce ambient noise recording.
▲Look at this frame, it’s really much narrower than the 13-inch model.
▲The fast charge function is introduced this time, and it can be fully charged by 50% in 30 minutes.
▲Finally, the key points are sorted out.
M1 Pro, M1 Max professional processors: Emphasizes energy efficiency and completely defeats x86
Before introducing today’s major revamp of MacBook Pro, Apple took the lead in introducing two Apple Silicon for Pro professional product line: M1 Pro and M1 Max, inheriting M1’s Arm instruction level architecture and unified memory design, and produced by TSMC 5nm ，Using ten-core CPU with eight-core GPU and sixteen-core GPU, emphasizing that it has both professional-level performance and the industry’s best energy efficiency ratio, even if it is powered by battery, it can still be comparable to x86 with independent graphics card CPU and GPU performance of the laptop. M1 Pro and M1 Max will be used in the new generation MacBook Pro product line and iMac.
▲ The number of M1 Pro transistors is about twice that of M1, and the number of M1 Max transistors that is twice that of GPU is more.
▲ Both M1 Pro and M1 Max are designed with ten-core CPUs with eight-core performance cores and dual-core energy-saving cores.
M1 Pro and M1 Max are like M1. They integrate CPU, GPU, I/O management, neural network accelerator, multimedia hardware edge/decoding acceleration engine in a single SoC, and at the same time restore and integrate Thunederbolt 4 interface, and directly package RAM ( Presumably it should be DDR4X) on the processor substrate; M1 Pro and M1 Max both use an eight-core performance core with dual-core energy-saving cores, a ten-core design with a sixteen-core neural network accelerator, and the performance core has a 24MB L2 cache. The energy-saving core has a 4MB L2 cache. If estimated by the Arm reference architecture, it is likely that the eight-core performance core is a cluster, and the dual-core energy-saving core is a dual-cluster design, but the group design of the Apple mobile phone The method also cannot rule out the possibility of 5+5 peer-to-peer clusters.
▲ M1 Pro is equipped with 2 RAM particles, up to 32GB unified RAM.
▲M1 Max is equipped with 4 RAM particles, up to 64GB unified RAM.
Unlike M1 with storage and memory integrated packaging particles, the storage of M1 Pro and M1 Max is not packaged on the processor, only high-speed memory particles, while the storage performance of M1 Pro and M1 Max can reach up to 7.4GB/ s, it is speculated that dual-channel PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD or single-channel PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD storage architecture may be used; M1 Pro uses a sixteen-core GPU with 2 external RAM particles, which can provide up to 32GB of unified RAM and 200Gbps memory bandwidth ; The M1 Max uses a 32-core GPU with 4 external memories, which can provide up to 64GB of unified RAM and up to 400Gbps memory bandwidth.
▲M1 Pro and M1 Max are both unified memory architectures, CPU and GPU can directly access and share memory data.
With a unified memory architecture, the CPU and GPU of the M1 Pro and M1 Max can directly share the temporary data in the memory. In heterogeneous computing, there is no need to transfer data between the CPU and GPU memory as in the x86 architecture. Repeated transmission makes the calculation faster, and is not limited by the GPU memory capacity like the x86 independent display card model. The system memory is the maximum memory that the CPU and GPU can use.
▲ In addition to providing 4K and 8K H.264 and HEVC encoding, M1 Pro and M1 Max also support Apple’s own ProRes and ProRes Raw.
▲The multimedia architecture of M1 Max doubles the image encoding and ProRes codec engine
In addition, as Apple’s processor for professional applications, the multimedia encoding and decoding functions of M1 Pro and M1 Max are also unambiguous. In addition to mainstream H.264 and HEVC encoding, it is more important to support iPhone 13 Pro series of ProRes and ProRes RAW format, and can support 4K and 8K resolution multi-stream processing; it is worth noting that the image engine of M1 Max doubles the encoding engine of H.264 and HEVC, and provides dual ProRes encoding and decoding engines, so it is not For professional image creators, M1 Max is 1 times faster than M1 Pro in image processing.
▲Apple emphasized that its CPU architecture is not only higher than the M1 performance, but also 1.7 times higher than the energy efficiency of the eight-core x86 notebook.
▲The performance of M1 Max is 2.5 times higher than the similar performance x86 notebook independent GPU even in battery mode.
▲M1 Max is a higher-end independent graphics card with 3.3 times the performance in battery mode.
The energy efficiency ratio has always been Apple Silicon’s specialty. With the CPU architecture of M1 Pro and M1 Max, it not only exerts higher performance than octa-core x86 notebook CPUs, but at the same time, it is also an octa-core x86 CPU under the same 30W energy consumption limit. 3.3 times the performance; and the GPUs of M1 Pro and M1 Max not only have enough performance to compete with light and thin laptop independent GPUs and high-end laptop independent GPUs, but also the performance in plug-in or battery mode is not affected at all. It will not lose the graphics performance in battery mode as normal notebooks with discrete GPUs. At the same time, even in high-performance output, it can produce lower heat generation and quieter cooling operation sound than x86 processors with discrete GPUs.
▲ Features of M1 Pro.
▲ Features of M1 Max.
In other parts, M1 Pro and M1 Max are both manufactured in 5nm process. Among them, M1 Pro offers two specifications of fourteen-core GPU and sixteen-core GPU, the memory is available in 16GB or 32GB, and two external display outputs are provided. M1 Max is a 32-core GPU, 16GB or optional 32GB of memory, and 4 external display outputs.
AirPods 3: 6 hours of battery life priced at 5990 yuan
Apple finally released the third generation of AirPods, which looks similar to AirPods Pro, but maintains the semi-open design of AirPods, equipped with Spatial Audio, Adaptive EQ, and also supports MagSafe wireless charging pad charging, and force sensing on headphones Button design, the new third-generation AirPods have sweat-proof function, and the power endurance is also much greater than the old one.
The third-generation AirPods still have a powerful sensor button on the top, which can directly control music and make calls. The increase in power allows you to listen to up to 6 hours with a single use of the headset. If you only charge for 5 minutes, the power is enough to listen for 1 hour. The charging box It can be charged 4 times in total, and can be used for a total of 30 hours. From today, you can go to the official website to order. It will be listed in the store on October 26. The price is US$179. The official price in Taiwan is 5990 yuan.
▲The third-generation AirPods have many software upgrades.
▲Spatial Audio and Adaptive EQ allow users to enjoy the excellent sound quality of Dolby Atmos when listening to music and watching movies.
▲The force sensing button can easily control music and answer calls.
▲The price is 179 US dollars, which is about 5008 yuan in New Taiwan dollars.
▲Users can choose their own products in the AirPods family.
HomePod mini: No response is 3 new colors
Today’s Apple press conference also announced that the HomePod mini, which will be a full year old, will add 3 more colorful new colors, including orange, yellow and blue, plus the original white and space gray, providing a total of 5 colors for consumers to choose. ; The orange, yellow and blue Home Pod mini is expected to be launched in November. The suggested price is the same as the original two-color, which is US$99 and Taiwan’s price is 3,000 yuan. HomePod mini is equipped with Apple S5 processor and continues HomePod’s acoustic structure and digital acoustic technology. It is composed of a full-range unit and a passive radiating unit. It can optimize the sound performance based on the tuning model and supports AirPlay 2 multi-room streaming. , Apple Siri, control smart home devices and 360-degree audio technology, and can also be paired with Apple TV 4K to further enhance the video appreciation experience; in addition to the Apple Music streaming service, it can also be used with Kkbox, and the appearance is meshed Fabric covered.
▲Don’t worry about monotonous black or white. Now you can choose from orange, yellow and blue.
Voice Plan, the new Apple Music subscription plan: $4.99 per month
Apple is the first to release a new Apple Music subscription plan “Voice Plan” at this autumn conference, which will be able to work with Siri for voice operations, similar to a streamlined version of the Apple Music personal subscription plan. The subscription price of Voice Plan is US$4.99 per person per month, and it will be launched in 17 countries including Taiwan in the near future.
This time, Apple took the lead in introducing the new Apple Music subscription plan “Voice Plan” in the press conference. Subscribers can use voice and voice assistant Siri for cross-device operations. At the same time, the Voice Plan also provides different categories of music playlists, such as playlists for dinner, party playlists, etc. However, it lacks some of the functions of the general personal Apple Music subscription plan and is restricted to Apple devices.
The subscription price of Voice Plan is US$4.99 per person per month. Therefore, in the future, Apple users will have three subscription plans: Voice Plan, Apple Music Individual and Family. The Voice Plan is expected to be officially launched in 17 countries in the future, and Taiwan is also on the first list.
▲In the future, Apple Music subscribers can have 3 options. The Voice Plan launched this time is similar to a simplified version of the personal plan, which is restricted to Apple devices.
▲Voice Plan will be officially launched in 17 countries.