Yahoo Finance Apple debuts MacBook Air 15-inch, M2 Ultra chip, and Mac Pro at WWDC 2023
Apple (AAPL) on Monday debuted a host of new Macs including a larger MacBook Air and more powerful desktops as part of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2023 on Monday.
The biggest news comes in the form of Apple's new $1,299 MacBook Air 15-inch. A larger version of the existing MacBook Air 13-inch, Apple says the new MacBook Air is the world's thinnest 15-inch laptop.
Powered by Apple's own M2 chip, the MacBook Air 15-inch features a Liquid Retina display that supports up to 1 billion colors and 500 nits of brightness. The MacBook Air 15-inch also gets a 1080p camera for video calls and a three-microphone array. As far as speakers, Apple says the MacBook Air gets six speakers including force-canceling woofers.
Apple says that the MacBook Air 15-inch gets 18 hours of battery life and packs two Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe charger, and a headphone jack.
As far as performance, Apple says the MacBook Air 15-inch is two times faster than the best-selling Intel laptop and offers 50% better battery life. It's also 40% thinner and half a pound lighter than those competing devices.
With the new MacBook Air 15-inch, Apple is also lowering the price of the MacBook Air 13-inch with the M2 chip by $100 to $1,099.
The Mac Studio also gets a new update with the M2 Max chip. The desktop is 25% faster than the M1 Max-powered Studio and four times faster than the most powerful Intel-based iMac.
In addition to the MacBook Book Air 15-inch and Mac Studio, Apple also debuted a new high-end M2 Ultra chip. Essentially two M2 Max chips married together, Apple says the M2 Ultra is the world's most powerful chip ever put into a personal computer.
Apple says the chip offers 20% faster performance CPU, 30% faster GPU, and 40% faster neural engine than M1 Ultra. The chip includes a 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU, and will allow video editors to play back 22 streams of 8k ProRes video, something Apple says no other computer can do. Overall, Apple says the M2 Ultra is six times faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.
The M2 Ultra will be found in the Mac Studio, as well as the newly updated Mac Pro. That computer, Apple says, will be available with an incredible 192GB of memory.
As far as connectivity, the Pro gets eight built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports, supports six Pro Display XDRs, and includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. You'll also get three USB-A ports, two HDMI ports with support for up to 8K resolution and 240Hz frame rates, two 10Gb Ethernet ports, and a headphone jack.
The Mac Pro starts at $6,999.
As far as software goes, Apple has debuted macOS Sonoma. The update brings along the ability to add widgets, including things like the weather, shortcuts, and photos to your desktop. You can add widgets from the new widget gallery and bring them over from your iPhone via Apple's continuity feature.
Apple is also pushing gaming as part of macOS Sonoma, bringing legendary game creator Hideo Kojima out to discuss the release of "Death Stranding" on the Mac.
Apple's Mac segment, like the rest of the PC market, is in the midst of a significant slowdown as consumers forgo purchasing new computers after buying them up during the pandemic. According to Gartner, global PC shipments fell 30% in the first quarter of the year to 55.2 million units.
For Apple, that has meant a roughly $3 billion decline in Mac revenue in both the first and second quarters of the year.
Daniel Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. He's been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.
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