Things that are not as they appear things are not as they appear things that are not as they seem things that are not as they appear things which are seen were not made things that should have never been invented things that are not well known about things that have not been discovered 6 things you didn t know would happen things that never happened

6 Things That Didn't Make an Appearance at the Apple Event

6 Things That Didn't Make an Appearance at the Apple Event

Apple introduced an array of new devices at its "Peek Performance" event on Tuesday: a 2022 5G iPad Air with an M1 processor, an upgraded iPhone SE with 5G (and the same A15 chip as the iPhone 13) and the desktop-and-monitor pairing of the Mac Studio and Mac Studio Display. The M1 Ultra, a new processor even more powerful than the M1 Max, also took the stage as a chip option available for the Mac Studio. 

While the newly announced products aligned with a lot of the speculation preceding the event (here's what the 2022 iPhone SE rumors did and didn't get right), not every rumored device ended up making an appearance. Here are all the Apple products that didn't get launched during Tuesday's event -- and that we're still hoping to see in 2022.

Upgraded Mac Pro

The Mac Pro, a desktop tower targeted at professionals, is due for an upgrade. It's the only remaining Mac that hasn't yet made the leap from an Intel processor to one of Apple's own chips (Apple discontinued the 27-inch iMac Tuesday instead). And we're right at Apple's self-imposed two-year deadline to stop using third-party processors, so it's more than likely we'll see a new Mac Pro, maybe with a brand-new M1 Ultra chip. It's possible this desktop will show up at Apple's next event. Check out our full roundup of Mac Pro rumors.

Faster Mac Mini

The 2020 Mac Mini with Apple's M1 processor could see an update powered by the M1 Pro, M1 Max or even the newly announced M1 Ultra chip. Reliable tech analyst Mark Gurman predicted in February that a new Mac Mini would be one of the first Macs that Apple introduced this year. While the Mac Studio technically proved him wrong at Apple's Tuesday event, Gurman did say more Macs would follow in May or June. A 2022 Mac Mini could be one of them. 

iPad Pro and entry-level iPad

The rumor mill speculated that the iPad Pro and entry-level iPad would get upgrades at Apple's March event, but Apple instead introduced the 2022 iPad Air. Considering Apple's typical product release timelines, the next possible arrival times for the iPad and iPad Pro are either in June or sometime in the fall. Speculation says a 2022 iPad Pro could include MagSafe and a battery upgrade. Here are the most up-to-date rumors about the next iPad Pro.

New MacBook Pro and MacBook Air

No MacBooks showed up at the Apple event, but new versions of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are still on the radar for this year. Rumors suggest that both the new Air and new Pro could come with a new M2 chip. Or maybe it'll be the M1 Ultra announced on Tuesday.

Other Apple products we could see in 2022

We're also expecting the iPhone 14 in the fall. Much less likely for this year is a foldable iPhone, which Apple has reportedly pushed back to 2025. Some new accessories could be on the horizon: AirPods Pro 2, an Apple Watch 8 with new health features or even the long-awaited Apple VR/AR headset. A couple of home entertainment devices are reportedly in the works as well. On the software front, look out for iOS 16 and MacOS 13, both of which could get a preview at the next Apple event. Speaking of which…

When is the next Apple event?

Now that Apple's spring event is over, we probably won't see another until June. That's Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. WWDC is a goldmine of Apple announcements, and we'll be keeping our eyes out for any confirmation of the dates for WWDC 2022. In the meantime, here's everything we learned at WWDC 2021. 

§

Despite hopes of Apple unveiling an updated 27-inch iMac, the company instead discontinued the 27-inch version of the desktop altogether. That change comes amid a day full of news out of Tuesday's Apple event, including new iPhone models and new, smaller desktop devices, which it seems are intended to replace the 27-inch iMac.

The 27-inch iMac is one of the last Macs that still run on Intel rather than Apple's own chips. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on why it discontinued the desktop.

Apple's most recent 27-inch iMac launched in 2020, and was priced at $1,799, $1,999 and $2,299. It added higher-end CPU and GPU choices over the previous iteration, also expanding RAM and storage and adding nano-texture screen coating.

You can check out CNET's live blog to see how Tuesday's Apple event unfolded, or go here for everything Apple announced.

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AMD reveals Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors at CES 2021

AMD reveals Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors at CES 2021

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

AMD announced its Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors on Tuesday, with Chief Executive Lisa Su taking to the virtual stage for her CES 2021 keynote. The new line includes a 35 watt version intended for a new generation of thin-and-light gaming laptops, directly competing with the 11th-gen Tiger Lake H35 CPUs announced by Intel the previous day. It also includes low-power U series processors which are used in mainstream lightweight laptop designs. 

The reveal follows the graphics card maker's reveal of the desktop equivalent in November, which debuted the Zen 3 processing cores, the latest version of the 7nm architecture on which the bulk of the Ryzen 5000 series is based. For the H series, which for both Intel and AMD denotes the higher-powered processors, AMD adds a new HX tier; those CPUs can be overclocked, accessing power beyond their base 45w rating for better performance. 

AMD Ryzen 5000 series mobile processors

	Cores/threads	TDP	Base clock	Single-core boost clock
Ryzen 9 5980HX	8/16	45+w	3.3	4.8
Ryzen 9 5980HS	8/16	35w	3.0	4.8
Ryzen 9 5900HX	8/16	45+w	3.3	4.6
Ryzen 9 5900HS	8/16	35w	3.0	4.6
Ryzen 7 5800H	8/16	45w	3.2	4.4
Ryzen 7 5800HS	8/16	35w	2.8	4.4
Ryzen 5 5600H	6/12	45w	3.3	4.2
Ryzen 5 5600HS	6/12	35w	3.0	4.2
Ryzen 7 5800U	8/16	15w	1.9	4.4
Ryzen 7 5700U	8/16	15w	1.8	4.3
Ryzen 5 5600U	6/12	15w	2.3	4.2
Ryzen 5 5500U	6/12	15w	2.1	4.0
Ryzen 3 5300U	4/8	15w	2.6	3.8

A host of laptop manufacturers launched new and refreshed models incorporating the 5000-series CPUs. Most notable is Asus, which incorporates the highest-end Ryzen 9 parts in multiple systems, including the novel ROG Flow X13 with the 5980HS and the ROG Zephyrus Duo SE and ROG Strix Scar, both of which top out with the 5900HX. The Acer Nitro 5 will come in a model with the 5900HX.

Not all the 5000 series CPUs take advantage of Zen 3, though. Of the U series processors announced at CES, only the Ryzen 7 5800U and Ryzen 5 5600U do; the others are based on Zen 2, the same as the last generation of Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs launched a year ago. There are several differences between Zen 2 and Zen 3, but perhaps most important in this context is Zen 3 delivers better performance per watt. In other words, better battery life.

As for actual performance in a head-to-head with Intel's equivalents, that will have to wait until we start getting models in to test. (Both AMD and Intel cite test results compared to each other, but those aren't very meaningful.)

Su also offered a demonstration of AMD's upcoming third-generation Epyc server chip, code-named Milan, running weather forecasting software. In the test, a server with dual processors, each with 32 cores, outpaced a dual-processor Intel server using Xeon Gold 6258R chips with a 68% performance advantage.

That's the kind of performance that appeals to customers like Lucasfilm, which built a special effects studio in Sydney entirely with AMD-based systems. "We just need as much firepower as possible," said François Chardavoine, Lucasfilm's vice president of technology, during the keynote.

Su also highlighted AMD's efforts to help COVID-19 research, having donated computing power to universities across the world, an effort that's used AMD's Epyc processors.

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Intel Shows Off the Chip Tech That Will Power Your PC in 2025

Intel Shows Off the Chip Tech That Will Power Your PC in 2025

Intel on Thursday showed a silicon wafer studded with chips built with a manufacturing process that's set to arrive in 2025, a signal intended to reassure customers that the company's years of chip manufacturing difficulties are behind it.

"We remain on or ahead of schedule against the timelines that we laid out," Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger said of the company's plan to improve manufacturing processes. He showed off a gleaming wafer of memory chips built with the company's upcoming Intel 18A process, which overhauls the transistors at the heart of chip circuitry and the way power is delivered to them.

Intel is trying to dramatically accelerate manufacturing progress to meet a 2025 goal of reclaiming the chip performance lead it lost to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung. If it succeeds, it'll mean PC chips progress faster after a half decade of lackluster performance improvements. And it could mean Intel becomes more relevant to your digital life by building chips inside your car, phone and gaming PC graphics card.

At the heart of the effort is moving through five new manufacturing processes in four years: Intel 7 in 2021 with the Alder Lake chips now powering PCs, Intel 4 in 2022, Intel 3 in 2023, Intel 20A in early 2024 and Intel 18A in late 2024 -- though the lag between manufacturing availability and product delivery means 18A chips won't arrive until 2025. Showing the wafer is a "proof point" that Intel is on track, Gelsinger said.

Gelsinger, a chip engineer who returned to Intel a year ago, brings tech cred to the CEO job, but it'll be tough for the company to claw its way back. Once a chip manufacturer falls behind the leading edge, as IBM and GlobalFoundries did in recent years, it's harder to justify the colossal investments needed to advance to the new technology.

Embodying Intel's difficulty is Apple's decision to eject Intel Core processors from its Macs in favor of its own M series chips built by TSMC. At the same time, AMD has been gaining market share, Nvidia has been profiting from gaming and AI, and Amazon has introduced its own server processors.

Gelsinger spoke at Intel's investor day, where he and other executives sought to convince often skeptical analysts that the company's enormous spending on new chipmaking equipment will pay off. That will come through premium products and external customers arriving to use its new foundry manufacturing capacity.

Intel 20A introduces two major changes to chip design, RibbonFET and PowerVia, and Intel 18A refines it for better performance. RibbonFET is Intel's take on a transistor technology called gate all around, in which the gate that governs whether a transistor is on or off is wrapped entirely around ribbon-like channels that carry the electrical current.

And PowerVia delivers electrical power to the underside of the transistor, freeing the top surface for more data link circuitry. Intel is playing catch-up with RibbonFET, but it's got a lead with PowerVia, which the industry calls backside power delivery.

Intel is pressing with another lead -- packaging technology that links different "chiplets" into one more powerful processor. The Sapphire Lake member of Intel's Xeon server family arriving this year employs one packaging variety, called EMIB, while the Meteor Lake PC chip arriving in 2023 employs another, called Foveros.

Intel expects to keep up with Moore's Law, which calls for a doubling in the number of transistors per processor every two years. That'll happen through smaller transistors and new packaging techniques combining multiple "chiplets" into one processor.

Intel

Intel built its first Meteor Lake prototypes in the final quarter of 2021 with the Intel 4 process and booted them up in PCs, said Ann Kelleher, the executive vice president who leads Intel's technology development division.

"This is one of the best lead product startups we have seen in the last four generations of technology," Kelleher said. "Over its lifetime, Meteor Lake will ship hundreds of millions of units, offering the clearest demonstration of leadership packaging technologies in high volume."

Packaging will play a role in future PC processors, including Arrow Lake in 2024, which will incorporate the first chiplets built with Intel 20A. After that comes Lunar Lake, which will use Intel 18A chiplets. Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake will use a new graphics chip architecture that Intel promises will be "a huge step forward," which is important given that graphics chips these days do a lot more than paint pixels on your screen -- for example AI and video image processing.

Kelleher also detailed a host of research and manufacturing changes to prevent the catastrophic problems Intel faced in recent years. For one thing, improvements are now modular, so a problem with one needn't derail others. For another, Intel is developing contingency plans for when problems do arrive. And it's paying more attention to the advice of chip equipment suppliers like ASML.

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AMD's Ryzen 7000 Gives High-End PCs a 29% Speed Boost

AMD's Ryzen 7000 Gives High-End PCs a 29% Speed Boost

What's happening

AMD will begin shipping its Ryzen 7000 family of desktop processors, bringing a 29% speed boost to PCs favored by gamers and creative types like video editors and animators.

Why it matters

The new model, packaging three "chiplets" into one processor, keeps the pressure on Intel to so high-end PCs should get more powerful without massive price increases.

What's next

AMD is working on a more powerful Ryzen 7000 model with higher performance using the company's 3D V-Cache technology.

AMD on Monday revealed its Ryzen 7000 series of processors for desktop PCs, promising a 29% speed boost over the Ryzen 5000 line it began selling in 2020. The new models, which go on sale Sept. 27, are good news for gamers, video editors and anyone else who demands top performance.

The 29% speedup shows when running a single, important task. When measuring the performance of multitasking jobs that can span the top-end version of the processor's 16 total processing cores, the performance boost is 49%, Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster said in an exclusive interview. If you're happy with the same performance as a last-generation Ryzen 5000, the Ryzen 7000 line matches it while using 62% less power, he said.

The most expensive model, the Ryzen 9 7950X, costs $699 — $100 cheaper than the Ryzen 9 5950X at its 2020 launch during the earlier days of the pandemic. AMD also offers $549 7900X, $399 7700X and $299 7600X models that run at slower clock speeds and don't have as many of the new Zen 4 processing cores. AMD also will continue selling its 2-year-old 5000 products in lower priced machines.

For anyone in the market for a high-end machine, it's good news. AMD has been carving away sales from Intel, and the new models will keep the pressure on its rival. And it could reduce the temptations some Windows PC users might feel to switch to Macs with Apple's efficient M1 and M2 processors.

"AMD is giving the gaming and content creation crowd exactly what it's asking for — better performance or lower power at the same price," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

Some of the credit for the speed boost goes to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which builds the AMD designs on a newer 5nm line that's faster and more efficient with electrical power, helping to push the top clock speed of the chip up 800MHz to a peak of 5.7GHz, Papermaster said. Also deserving is the Zen 4 technology, which churns through 13% more programming instructions for each tick of the chip's click than Zen 3. 

New chip packaging techniques

More broadly, though, AMD has benefited from the "chiplet" approach it began with the first-generation Zen design in 2017, packaging multiple smaller processing elements into a single, larger processor.

Such chip packaging technology is moving to the forefront of processor innovation, as evidenced by Apple's M1 Ultra, which joins two M1 Max chips into a single larger processor, and Intel's 2023 Meteor Lake processor, which includes four separate processing tiles, three built by TSMC.

AMD Ryzen 7000 prices range from $299 to $699.

AMD

The Ryzen 9 5950X includes two chiplets, each with eight Zen 4 cores, and one chiplet for input-output tasks like communicating with memory. AMD will marry more of these eight-core chiplets for server processors it'll sell to data center customers later this year.

"With a desktop, you're going from eight cores to 16 cores," Papermaster said. "Think of a server going all the way up through 64 cores and many more than that in the server we're going to announce this fall."

Mobile versions of Zen 4-based processors are scheduled to arrive in laptops in 2023. AMD also plans a compact Zen 4C variation for cloud computing work in data centers that'll offer up to 128 processing cores in the first quarter of 2023. It sacrifices some clock speed for the ability to run lots of independent jobs in parallel.

Zen 4 based machines also benefit from other speed boosts:

• Faster interfaces to the rest of the computer, supporting DDR5 memory and PCI Express 5.0 links to devices like storage and graphics cards
• The new AM5 socket to plug into circuit boards, which the company will support through at least 2025 to ease upgrades for PC makers and customers 
• The ability to process AVX-512 instructions, which should speed up some software like image editors that employ artificial intelligence methods

A third dimension in chiplet packaging

AMD relies chiefly on a relatively straightforward side-by-side packaging approach for its mainstream chips. But it's added a more sophisticated third dimension to its packaging options, stacking high-speed cache memory on top of the processing cores. It began this approach, called 3D V-Cache, with a rarified top-end option for the earlier Zen 3 processors. 3D V-Cache models are on the way for the Zen 4 generation, too, though Papermaster wouldn't say when they'll arrive.

Packaging flexibility has been crucial to AMD. For example, TSMC builds the Zen 4 processing chiplets on its latest 5nm manufacturing process but uses the cheaper, older 6nm process for the chiplet handling input-output functions.

The approach means AMD can spend money more judiciously, since the using the newest process raises the cost of a chip's basic circuitry element, the transistor.

"The cost per transistor is going up, and it's going to continue to go up in every generation," Papermaster said. "That's why chiplets have been so important."

AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X plugs into motherboards with a new AM5 socket, a more capable interface that AMD plans to use through at least 2025.

AMD

AMD will also use chiplets built with TSMC's 5nm technology for its next generation RDNA3 graphics, the foundation of its upcoming Radeon graphics processors, CEO Lisa Su said during AMD's Ryzen 7000 launch event Monday. Showing off a prototype, she said RDNA3 offers 50% better power efficiency, an important consideration for gamers trying to run software without overheating their PCs. The Ryzen 7000 processors have more basic RDNA2 graphics built in, useful for booting up machines and other basic tasks but expected to be supplemented by more powerful, separate graphics chips.

Don't count Intel out

AMD has succeeded in part through its chiplet strategy, but it's also benefited from Intel's major difficulties advancing its manufacturing over the better part of a decade. That advantage might not last much longer.

Intel expects its own manufacturing technology to match rivals by 2024 and surpass them by 2025, in the view of Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger. And it's been working for years on its own packaging technologies. Where AMD's 3D V-Cache is a pricey rarity, Intel will stack chip elements in its mainstream 2023 Meteor Lake PC processor using a technology called Foveros.

"Intel has more diverse and technically advanced options" when it comes to chiplet packaging, Tirias Research analyst Kevin Krewell said.

Another Intel advantage is the combination of performance cores and efficiency cores, an approach cribbed from the smartphone market that better balances speed and battery life. That's in Intel's current processor, Alder Lake.

Intel declined to comment.

Could Intel build AMD chips?

If Intel succeeds in its current ambitions, it could one day be building AMD chiplets. That's because Gelsinger launched a new foundry business which, like TSMC and Samsung, builds chips for others.

AMD once built its own processors but spun that off as the business now called GlobalFoundries. Papermaster wouldn't comment directly on what it would take to sign on with Intel Foundry Services but said it requires trustworthy foundry partners with proven capability and a good working partnership.

"We would love to see more diversity in the foundry ecosystem," Papermaster said.

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MacBook Pro 2021 vs. MacBook Air 2020: New M1 chips complicate your laptop choice

MacBook Pro 2021 vs. MacBook Air 2020: New M1 chips complicate your laptop choice

With the two new MacBook Pro laptops, a 16-inch and a 14-inch model, introduced by Apple this month, the entire MacBook laptop line has shifted to Apple's own M-series chips, and away from Intel. This shift means more options for new MacBook buyers to consider, as well as additional considerations about ports, screens, webcams and power -- especially graphics power.

The MacBook Pro started life in 2006, as a successor to Apple's PowerBook line of laptops, and part of the first wave of Intel-powered Macs. The Intel/Apple partnership lasted 15 years, and now we're down to the last couple of available Intel Macs, an older Mac Mini and the 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs. I doubt we'll see any more, as the Mac line continues to go all-in on Apple's own chips, allowing the company to control the design of the hardware, the OS and the CPU. 

The new models are available to buy now, although some configurations already show long wait times before shipping. 

Apple

Last year's initial wave of M1 Macs made for some confusing buying choices. The less expensive MacBook Air and more expensive 13-inch MacBook Pro used almost identical M1 chips (with a single extra GPU core in the Pro), despite a $300 difference in their starting prices. The $699 Mac Mini? Same chip! The upshot at the time was that the MacBook Air remained the most universally useful choice for most people. 

The new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops represent a much wider gap between the Air and Pro models. It's also a way Apple can lure in higher-end creative pros who need the graphics power -- previously only available in select Intel Macs -- for video editing, content creation and 3D work. Before now, the M1 Macs were not always powerful enough for more complex workloads. 

Read more:  M1 Max vs. M1 Pro vs. M1: Apple's MacBook Pro chips compared

By adding the M1 Pro and M1 Max system-on-chip parts (sometimes called an SOC, or more casually referred to as the MacBook's "chip"), these really become pro-level machines, and will do a better job of attracting professional buyers, who are used to spending many, many thousands on their mission-critical work rigs. 

Let's look at the current lineup and see how the new announcements have changed the buying calculations: 

Current MacBooks compared

	14-inch MacBook Pro	16-inch MacBook Pro	MacBook Air (13-inch, M1)	13-inch MacBook Pro (M1)
CPU	M1 Pro or M1 Max	M1 Pro or M1 Max	M1	M1
No. of GPU cores	14 (up to 32)	16 (up to 32)	7	8
Screen size	14.2 inches	16.2 inches	13.3 inches	13.3 inches
Screen resolution	3,024x1,964 pixels	3,456x2,234 pixels	2,560x1,600 pixels	2,560x1,600 pixels
Starting storage	512GB	512GB	256GB	256GB
Starting RAM	16GB	16GB	8GB	8GB
Webcam	1080p	1080p	720p	720p
Networking	802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0	802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0	802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0	802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
Connections	Thunderbolt USB-C x3, HDMI, SDXC card, MagSafe 3	Thunderbolt USB-C x3, HDMI, SDXC card, MagSafe 3	Thunderbolt USB-C x2	Thunderbolt USB-C x2
Weight	3.5 lbs	4.7 lbs	2.8 lbs	3.0 lbs
US starting price	$1,999	$2,499	$999	$1,299

The new models

This is the first brand-new screen size for a MacBook since the 15-inch Pro went to 16 inches in 2019 (the iMac added a 24-inch version this past summer). Along with that, it actually gets both thicker and heavier. The trade-off is that the thicker body allows for all those extras, like the resurrected HDMI and SD card ports. 

The bigger screen covers even more of the top panel, with thinner bezels. So thin, in fact, that the webcam has been reduced to a notch, cutting into the display itself, much like on an iPhone. So far, I've heard mixed reactions to that, but I think the better 1080p-resolution webcam more than makes up for it. I've used the 1080p webcams in the 27-inch iMac and newer 24-inch iMac, and it makes a huge difference in video meetings. 

Keep in mind these shopping notes are based on the on-paper specs for the new MacBooks, plus my long experience testing and reviewing MacBooks, which goes back to the very first MacBook Pro in 2006 and the first MacBook Air in 2008. For more in-depth notes, make sure to check out my review of the 14-inch MacBook Pro.

If you're more about portability than the big screen, especially if you output to a larger display, the 14-inch feels (on paper) like the sweet spot for portability and power.

Read our 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro review.

Apple

Just about everything I said about the 14-inch MacBook Pro applies here as well. The two devices are remarkably similar, and you get both with either the M1 Pro or the M1 Max. Both also share the same heat pipe cooling system. New ports? The same. Notch-based 1080 camera? Same. No more Touch Bar? Same. The main difference, spec-wise, is that the 14-inch starts with some less powerful M1 options, with a base of eight CPU and 14 GPU cores. The 16-inch starts with 10 CPU and 16 GPU cores in its version of the M1 Pro. Both support up to the 10 CPU and 32 GPU cores version of the M1 Max chip. 

To spec out a 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with the closest matching specs, you end up with that M1 Pro 10 CPU/16 GPU chip, plus 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. On the 14-inch version, that will cost $2,299. In the 16-inch, it's $2,499. So you basically pay a $200 premium for a 2-inch-larger screen. (The 16-inch maxes out at over $6,000.)

And it could certainly be worth that. The previous 16-inch MacBook Pro was pretty impressive to look at. As opposed to the power-plus-portability pitch of the 14-inch Pro, the 16-inch feels like it's for people who want a bit of the feel of a big-screen desktop, without actually having a desktop.

Read our 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro review.

The existing models

At first, I was somewhat wary of jumping into an M1 MacBook Air. I was worried about compatibility issues with things like Adobe software and about overall performance compared to the trusted old Intel MacBook Air. 

But after nearly a year, I can say the Intel-to-M1 transition has been relatively smooth. The best thing I can say about the M1 chip is that it's largely transparent to the everyday MacBook Air user, which is exactly what you want from a big under-the-hood change like this. 

Apple's Rosetta emulation, for software not yet optimized for the M1, still runs most programs just as well as it did under Intel chips. Key Adobe software and other creative apps were updated for native M1 support, with more on the way. I've run into occasional problems with gaming apps or some drivers, and support apps for things like a label printer and some 3D-printing software.

Read our Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020) review.

The first M1 MacBook Pro was a tougher sell than the Air. There was nothing wrong with it, but the line between the Pro and Air wasn't as distinct as it might have been. The main things that stood out about the 13-inch M1 Pro versus the M1 MacBook Air are the Touch Bar, a slightly brighter screen and better cooling (it had a fan). 

With the new Pro models, the 13-inch feels even further out to sea, unlikely to be updated ever again. The good news is, if you were going to buy a 13-inch Pro, the MacBook Air is pretty much just as good and can be configured with more RAM and storage to suit your needs. The bad news is, if you want to shift from 13-inch Pro to 14-inch Pro, the starting price jumps up by $600. 

My default advice remains the same, at least for now. Most mainstream laptop shoppers should start with the MacBook Air and see if that's enough laptop for them. If the ports, better camera or graphics power of the M1 Pro and M1 Max laptops feels like something you need, the decision comes down to portability versus screen size. And if you're the one Touch Bar die-hard out there, you'd better pick up the 13-inch MacBook Pro while you still can. 

More on the new MacBook Pros

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