For the past half-decade, it has been difficult to be an Apple power user. The glory days of Retina MacBook Pro are long gone. Recent years have seen too many compromises in computers.
Apple's first M1-powered computers were excellent, but they are all relatively low-powered. Apple's cheapest computers are the MacBook Air, M1 MacBook Pro and Mac Mini. They are more useful for checking email and writing essays than for creating 4K video and Photoshop projects that are hundreds of layers deep.
Apple's latest laptop update may change that. The company can use the new MacBook Pros to reclaim professional users who have been disappointed and underserved by the poor laptop options it has been releasing over the past few cycles.
Apple's 2016 MacBook Pro redesign was a disaster. It removed the USB-A, HDMI and SD card ports, which are all essential tools for musicians, video editors, photographers and other professionals. Instead, it switched to USB-C. The Touch Bar was replaced by a few reliable function keys with a largely ineffective alternative. The keyboard was also extremely fragile and prone to bursting when it came in contact with dirt or dust.
Although Apple has made some improvements to their keyboards (Apple finally went back to the old style keyboard and added an escape key to its MacBook Pro models), the focus of Apple's most functional devices is still on the form. Professional Mac users have had to deal with too many dongles, buy new cables, and search endlessly for an SD card adapter in order to import files. Apple charges a premium for processors that are many years behind Windows devices. The screens haven't changed in a meaningful way since 2012.
Hardcore users have been waiting a while, especially when compared to Apple's last chip switchover. Apple announced in 2015 that it would switch its entire product line to Apple Silicon products. This was in addition to the Intel chips it used since 2005's last major architecture change. It also announced a two year goal of having all its products switched over. Only Apple's most powerful devices have been updated in the past year. You can still get a powerful desktop or laptop using the older Intel models. These models, although not compatible with Apple Silicon hardware, haven't been updated with new Intel hardware for over a year.
Apple's most powerful 16 inch MacBook Pro is now available. It features a 9th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU that was introduced in early 2019. Apple's new 11th Generation Tiger Lake chips are not only missing out on significant improvements in battery life, but they also didn't get the modest updates from Intels 2020 10th-gen processors.
This slow Apple Silicon transition is compared to the original Intel one. Apple made the announcement in June 2005 and released the first Intel-based Macs January 2006. It then switched its entire product line to the Intel-powered Mac Pro eight months later.
Apple was able to switch its entire line to Intel in less than a year from the announcement to release. Apple Silicon is already one year into the transition and there are many important, unanswered questions. The M1 chips currently only have integrated GPUs. There are no discrete graphics options for graphically demanding tasks, such as those required by graphic designers or video editors. Apple does not sell an M1 device that has more than 16GB RAM nor a laptop with more USB4/Thunderbolt 4 ports. These are areas Apple would most likely need to address on a pro-focused machine.
Intel will continue to offer support to Apple if it fails to translate the M1 chip's success to its higher-powered machines. In an interview with Axios, Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO, stated that he never gave up on the idea that anything could not run on Intel chips. Apple believed they could make a better chip than us, and they succeeded. What I need to do is make a better chip than Apple can. Im going to fight for Tim Cooks' business in this area.
One year in and there are still many unanswered questions about professional-level Apple Silicon computers
The delay has theoretical benefits: Developers have had one year to migrate their apps to Apple's M1 architecture. Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign were all natively ported to Apple's new chips. It took several months for those updates to be released.
Apples in-house chips may not only provide the speed and performance boosts customers have enjoyed on their older machines. This could also mean an end of the slow pace at which Mac processors are upgraded. Apple's computers were almost always behind Windows-based counterparts with Intel chips. It took months to upgrade to the latest Intel chips and provided power and performance benefits.
If rumors are true, Apple will use the new chips to launch a new MacBook Pro design. It will have a larger, better Mini LED display, smaller bezels and more ports. The company may also return its magnetic MagSafe chargers. This would modernize the line to be more in line with Windows competitors.
Apple demonstrated that it can make the best laptops for most people with the first wave Apple Silicon Macs. Apple's new MacBook Pros don't just appeal to power users. They also offer a chance for Apple Silicon (and its traditionally mobile-focused Arm technology) to show that it can match or exceed the performance of Intel and AMD for high-end applications.
If Apple succeeds in this, it will not only mean better laptops and desktops, but could also change the way we think about computers, at least how they are designed.
