admin Having used plenty of both new MacBook Pros in recent years, we’d say it’s worth spending the extra this time around. Not least because those new M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max chips carry some serious heft. Although they scale up in computing oomph from “monumental” to “frankly a bit much,” even the base level M3 chip that comes in the MacBook Pro 14-inch carries all the muscle of Arnie Schwarzenegger in his heyday. It’s capable of delivering the same CPU performance as 2020’s M1 chip while using half the power, and still offering up to 22 hours of battery life.
How this performance actually shows up in practice will depend on how you use these Pros, but keen gamers will be pleased by support for PS5-esque support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. This is a nice touch given the recent influx of titles such as Resident Evil 4 Remake, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, and Baldur’s Gate 3 for Mac. Another neat addition for Apple die-hards? The new Space Black colorway that looks delightfully sleek and has been formulated so it doesn’t pick up anywhere near as many fingerprints as before.
Both the new MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch models are available to order today, and will begin shipping from next week onwards.
iMac. Upgraded.
Since its sumptuous, pastel-colored redesign two years ago the iMac has been left in a casual sort of stasis befitting its status as “the fun one” in Apple’s computing roster. Much like that cousin you’ll see at Christmas, weddings, and the local dive bar, it’s here for a good time, not necessarily a work-filled one. Still, the addition of the all-new M3 means it’s more than capable of getting its hands dirty should the occasion arise. With a performance that’s twice as fast as the M1-powered iMac—and 2.5-times faster than Apple’s most popular Intel iMac of old, it’ll make mincemeat of Excel spreadsheets, presentation work, and the odd bit of social video editing.
In most other respects, this is the same computer you may have seen a couple of years ago. Its 24-inch screen is ample, bright, and packed full of color. Its six-speaker sound system is surprisingly immersive when used to fill out your workspace with the lilting tones of the latest Sufjan Stevens LP, and you get a mouse and Touch ID-enabled keyboard in the box that both match up to your chosen iMac colourway (the mint green is best, IMO). Annoyingly, Apple hasn’t taken the opportunity to redesign its oft-maligned Magic Mouse, which you’ll still have to charge via a Lightning port that’s on its belly. As such, you can’t charge and use the thing at the same time. In most other respects, the iMac with M3 silicon is as easygoing as you could reasonably hope for.
The new iMac is available to order today from $1,499 and starts shipping next week.
This story was originally published on British GQ with the headline, “Apple’s new MacBook Pro gets a superfast upgrade (and a major price cut)”.
