Weird timing - 8pm ET. All bets are on updated iMacs and potentially an updated iPad Air with the M2.
Hmmm, might be time to replace my OG MBP 16 M1 Pro! We’ll see…
This will be the M3 launch, based on previous years. M3 pro/max/ultra will come later on. From rumors probably the M3 iPad Pro will be next year too, this is just the macbook air and maybe the mini and iMac.
Edit: Rumors are now that the M3 pro/max will be released simultaneously, so that’ll be a positive change. Also the M3 iMac is looking very likely.
Kudos to Marketing for that event name and holiday tie-in.
iMac models are going out of stock or have longer delivery times on 3rd party websites, so at least a spec update is probable for the iMac. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just bump it to an M2 and save the M3s for “Pro” lines, because Apple.
From rumors, they’re skipping the M2 iMac entirely. The new M3 iMac is redesigned with a new stand.
The eye-bleeding yellow iMac is probably the best looking desktop you can buy in the entire industry, if you care about looks (some people do), but most of my family just want laptops now, they hate dedicating space to a computer if they can avoid it.
Is the 27" iMac completely killed off now? The sites I’ve seen are talking about 24" again.
Are people supposed to go with a studio, and a display now instead?
All signs point to yes.
Though the new rumours are saying that a 32” iMac Pro could be in the works. So who knows for sure?
Tl;dr
MacBook Pro and iMac with the new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips.
Sounded like the 14” MacBook Pro actually got a price cut, but I’m not sure I heard that right.
22 hours of battery life is impressive, not to mention the speed bump over M1 Pro. I’m curious about benchmarks now. And all black and no fingerprints I have to see to believe.
A $400 price cut to $1599.
I don’t understand the design language of iMac. Why do they keep that fat chin? They could easily have removed the chin and put everything in a slightly thicker chassis, and make it a even sleeker All-in-one.
Vanilla M3 Macbook Pro is exactly what I want: a road warrior laptop with huge battery life and a decent screen. But the price is a bit deceptive: it starts at 8 gb of RAM and 512 Gb SSD (which may or may not be gimped in speed compared with higher capacity SSD). Once you spec it back to “pro” specs (16 Gb RAM), it is not too far away from M3 Pro variant in price.
Feeling zero regrets about my 15" M2 MacBook Air with these announcements. Not going down to 14 inches (my eyes were manufactured during the Johnson administration) and the 16" with equivalent storage/RAM (2GB more RAM) is $2699.
My M2 Air is fast enough that it works smoothly with Final Cut and runs Baldur’s Gate 3 like butter. So while the more MBP has the M3 Pro, I wouldn’t even take advantage of it.
Phew!
I’m surprised the 15" Air hasn’t done better. It’s my favorite laptop I’ve ever owned. Solid, fast, beautiful screen, stellar battery life. I would like the new no-fingerprint black, though.
I made my decision and ordered a Thinkpad P16 gen 2 with an i9 13980HX with 4K screen, RTX 3500 Ada, 32 GB RAM (will upgrade to 128) and 1 TB SSD (will add a 4TB SSD) for around $2500 (big discount) with a three-year onsite warranty. I don’t even want to know how much that would cost me in MBP 16 prices. This will be a pure workstation that I lug to my office every day to be plugged in.
Selling my OG MBP 16 and will keep the MBA 15 and 13 around for a while.
Just out of curiosity, are you unhappy with the Apple Silicon line? I have an M1 MBA and it’s been great. I’m thinking to upgrade. For the work I do, I find it much easier to use a Mac or Linux than Windows, which contributes to my opinion, of course.
For work, since I have decades of programs written in Windows I’d have to go through and do some serious editing to get them to work with MacOS. And just recently I found myself having to dig through some older work that forced me back onto a Windows laptop. I had to make a decision to dive all in on a large project to convert or just increase my Windows use. That, plus my need for a lot of RAM and the cost on mac, made it an easier decision. Also there are Windows programs that I need to use that aren’t available for local computer use on Mac (like SAS for example) without some sort of Parallels-like solution.
I love Macs for my personal use, writing, and photography, I continue to have a Mac setup, but using a PC is much easier for work.
Edit: There’s also peer pressure involved since all of my colleagues use massive Thinkpads or Think Stations, laugh at my MacOS use and (more importantly) use linux and if I need help with programming they (again) laugh and tell me to dual boot linux on a PC (or just get a linux PC).
It’s still $2200 to get an iMac with 16gb ram and a 1tb drive. Apple does do well that trick of “the price equals more than the sum of its parts.”
I don’t need a new laptop, thankfully. I am not sure what I would get. I need a custom config no matter what – at least 16g/1tb. Once you start adding on, the price difference between an Air and a Pro feels smaller.
Like, the base 14 Pro is still kinda unusable. 8g/256 for a “Pro” laptop isn’t worth it. You’re better off upgrading the M2 Air.