The Mac computing portfolio refresh for the year continues in earnest, with the MacBook Air as well as Mac Studio drawing on significant hardware upgrades including the new M4 chips, as Apple builds with wider language and region support for Apple Intelligence that lands next month. The MacBook Air and Mac Studio updates land without typical generational pricing inflation one would expect. Focus is on the latest generation M4 chip to drive Apple’s relentless intent for delivering maximum performance per watt, a pursuit that has set experiential as well as battery stamina benchmarks over previous Apple Silicon generations, which Intel, AMD and Qualcomm have largely struggled to match. The Mac Mini and colourful iMac were updated late last year.
Pricing, at least in case of the bigger of the MacBook Air options with the M4, is lower than before with a lighter price tag for the entry spec option too — it starts at ₹1,24,900 now compared with ₹1,34,900 previously. The new MacBook Air portfolio has its task cut out, succeeding an impressive M3 powered generation that was a resounding response to the AI PC push by the Microsoft Windows PC ecosystem at the time.. For the MacBook Air 13-inch now with the M4 chip, the entry pricing hasn’t changed, which theoretically means a much more powerful ultraportable computing device for the same ₹99,900 onwards monetary outlay as 12 months prior. The previous generation MacBook Air models, with the M3 and M2 chips may remain available at least till there are stocks with retailers, albeit those may also have some discounts on offer.
Also Read:We want Apple Intelligence to be locally relevant: Apple’s Bob Borchers
The MacBook Air, which will continue with the 13-inch and 15-inch screen sizes, now adds a new Sky Blue colour option, a metallic light blue colour in essence, which joins Midnight, Starlight and Silver. For now, Space Grey has been shelved. There are no major design changes apart from the colour palette reconfiguration. The beating heart of the MacBook Air 13-inch and the MacBook Air 15-inch is now the M4 chip, in the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU variants, with up to 32GB memory available as a configuration option. Apple says the M4 powered MacBook Air is 2x faster than the model with the M1 chip, though sequentially too when comparing last year’s iterations, it’ll still be quite a step forward in terms of performance as well as battery life.
Apple confirms that with macOS Sequoia 15.4 which releases next month (likely alongside the iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 updates), setting up and signing into the Apple Account on a Mac will have the optional convenience of an iPhone in close proximity if a user chooses that method — this is something that is used to set up iPhones and iPads too.
The Mac Studio refresh is perhaps the perfect platform for Apple to flex the M4 chip’s capabilities, and it does so with the M4 Max as an option on the new generation machines aimed at creators and processing intensive workloads. Alongside, there is also the M3 Ultra that is being introduced into the mix. It is clear Apple intends to keep the M3 generation around to an extent even though the M4 will largely take over across the Mac portfolio in the coming months. However, this may be a slight complexity on the shop floor, at least till consumers compare spec differences.
Also Read:The Apple MacBook Pro M4 is a definitive generational performance leap
The M4 Max chip will be available in variations up to 16-core CPU, up to 40-core GPU and with up to 512GB of unified memory bandwidth. The base spec will have 36GB memory, while higher variants and configuration options can increase this up to 128GB. Apple says this makes the M4 Max powered Mac Studio up to 6.1x faster than the most powerful Intel chip based 27-inch iMac. HT did not review the previous generation Mac Studio, for a comparative perspective.
Speaking of the M3 Ultra, this chip essentially is derived from combining two 3-nanometer M3 Max dies, with Apple’s UltraFusion architecture, with as many as 184 billion transistors. HT had detailed this methodology at the time of the M1 Ultra, which proved to be 8 times more powerful than the M1 chip of that time. The basics haven’t changed.
This means the M3 Ultra will be available in variations up to 32-core CPU with 24 performance cores, an up to 80-core GPU, a 32-core Neural Engine for on-device AI tasks as well as machine learning, and memory that can be configured between 96GB and 512GB. In terms of pricing, its a slight increase from ₹2,09,900 to ₹2,14,900 as the entry point for Mac Studio.
Also Read:Tech Tonic | Let’s talk about the undisputed Apple iPad and your workflow
Earlier this week, Apple also announced the updated iPad Air with the M3 chip, prices starting ₹59,900 for the 11-inch model and Rs79,900 for the 13-inch model. The M3 doing duties in the new iPad Air has an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU, as well as a 60% faster Neural Engine than the M1 chip. This underlines Apple’s push for the Apple Intelligence suite, as it rapidly evolves, taking important steps forward next month. It replaces the M2 powered iPad Air that released early last year.
Alongside, Apple updated the iPad with the A16 chi[ for faster overall performance, and that is something they underline by saying this iPad is now up to 6x faster than the most powerful Android tablets that it competes with. For perspective, the updated iPad is priced at ₹34,900 with 128GB as the base storage spec. In one fine swoop, the iPad now has more in its arsenal against the Xiaomi Pad 7 ( ₹27,999 onwards) as well as the OnePlus Pad 2 ( ₹36,999 onwards).
