Apple debuts new MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley breaks down what you need to know about the new MacBook Pros and 3rd-generation AirPods.

Video transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, Apple is mailing new MacBook Pros. We saw that at its event yesterday. The new devices are bringing back a lot of the old features many of you may be familiar with. Let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley. Dan, this morning, we were talking about the new features. I know our producer's very excited about no more touch bar on the laptop. What are some other features they unveiled?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, obviously, the death of the touch bar. R.I.P. I guess if you cared. Frankly, I used it sometimes literally just to pause and play music when I was listening while working. But the big additions here, obviously, are the new M1 chips that Apple rolled out, the M1 Pro and the M1 Max.

And what's interesting is that in addition to the M1 that Apple previously released, basically saying, look, we don't need Intel, we don't need AMD, we've got our own chips now, these now are rolling out. And it's essentially Apple saying, we also don't need AMD or, really, Nvidia. We've got enough graphics oomph from these to put them on notice. And I think that's very interesting.

In fact, in some of the announcements that Apple made, they don't point to Nvidia specifically, but when you look at the fine print, what they're testing and when they say that they're beating out certain benchmarks with Nvidia or with their new chips, they're specifically pointing to Nvidia-powered systems in the fine print, which is really, really interesting, the highest end Nvidia chips that are available, by the way, on laptops. So, an interesting thing to look for there.

The other additions, which are, as you said earlier, what's old is new again, HDMI ports, SD ports-- ports in general. They're basically making it so that you don't need 18 million different dongles to try to connect what you want to your device. They will still have Thunderbolt ports so you can connect things like multiple monitors. They also are bringing back MagSafe charging, so unlike the current MacBook, which I'm using right now, you don't necessarily need to charge it via USB-C, but you can if you want. So the option is there for both MagSafe and that USB-C charging.

So I really look at these as a dramatic improvement. Obviously, the display, another issue that they've updated. They have many LEDs on those now, so it should offer crisper and clearer colors. And I think that's something that really speaks to the way that they want to appeal to video editors, photo editors, 3D modelers, things along those lines.

So these are meant to be pro systems. I don't think that the average person should go out and buy them, especially considering their pricing. But it is a way for Apple to basically say, look, we know that we were falling a little bit behind as far as our Pros go. Now we're back.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I mean, clearly, a lot changing there. And also, if you want to feel old here, too, we were talking about Xbox celebrating their 20-year anniversary. We're already at the third gen of AirPods? What's going on here?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, these are the third gen AirPods. I know it feels-- now it feels like I'm ancient because it's the third generation. It makes no sense. But these are significantly upgraded versus the previous generation, the two or the one. They're still going to sell the other AirPods for 129. These are going to start at 179.

They have a new charging case that looks similar to the Pros. It also used MagSafe charging as well as wireless charging, but the big thing here is the new design. As you can see, they have shorter stems. And those have force touch controls on them, rather than having to tap on the outside of the older AirPods. They also have what's called, basically, 3D audio, essentially. So you'll be able to hear audio coming from multiple directions with the headphones.

They're also sweat and water resistant, which is something that the others weren't. And I just got to point out, you know, I'm a [INAUDIBLE] sweater. I sweat a lot. But I still never managed to damage my prior AirPods. The fact that they didn't break when I was wearing them means that, you know, maybe the sweat and water resistance isn't exactly necessary, but it's good to have there as kind of peace of mind. But a big improvement there, I think, over the prior generation of AirPods.