The Goods: Apple Event Roundup
Apple held their first product release event of the year on Tuesday, but here’s the stuff you’ll actually want to know.
Apple continues their push of moving all their computing devices to M1 silicon, and today they gave us a major update to the M1 lineup, an M1 Ultra (these names are getting wild) that is effectively two M1 Maxes with some new Apple connection tech. Honestly, while that Mac Studio looks cool and is potentially the best price to performance value with the base M1 Max at $1999, that M1 Max was already overkill for most users. So 2 of them together? We’re talking uber-specific use cases, like going to space or some crazy high production environment that maybe 50 people in the world will see real world impact. Obviously I’m exaggerating a bit, but am I? Who knows, I don’t really know who this is for but go big or go home I guess, people will be happy with it even if it’s not technically a consumer product.
iPhone SE (5G)
If we’re talking actual consumer products that aren’t breaking the bank, the iPhone SE is a fantastic value. Now with 5G and the A15 bionic chip that is on the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro? You’ll have some real horsepower to play with in your pocket if you’re interested in taking your TikToks to the next level. That’s geared more towards anyone with any video or photo editing aspirations, but even on the mobile gaming side of it, it’s going to perform nicely at a decent price. You’ll want to get the 128gb over the 64gb at $479, but you can bump up to 256gb for an extra $100. At that point I might start evaluating the budget to see if you could push for the 13 mini, but hey if you like TouchID, still a solid choice.
iPad Air
This is where I’m most surprised even though we’re getting into “do you really need this device?” territory. The iPad Air got a design overhaul in 2020 to match more closely to the Pro, but with TouchID and the A14 chip, it was a really good device and one that I still use for editing on the go every now and then. Great for creatives. So to get the M1 chip Apple first introduced in the 2020 MacBook Air, at the same price point, is big value for anyone in the tablet market. It’s no secret that the M1 chips are the real deal for creative professionals, so this update makes iPad Air probably the best tablet on the market, I would skip the Pro if you’re looking. Similar deal as iPhone SE, the 256gb model is really the only true viable option for prosumer use, so that’ll clock you in at $759 (big jump to $899 if you want cellular, but also, why).
Studio Display
I’m very torn on this. At first I was very excited for a new Apple display, we just need glossy monitors back on the market and this looked to be it. 27”, 5K, P3 wide color (same color range as the 2021 MacBook Pros), 12mp webcam, and 6 speakers for Spatial Audio. However, no VRR (or TruMotion as Apple calls it) and no HDR. At $1599 it is a premium monitor that technically is not found sub $2K anywhere on the market, but I can’t get over not having TruMotion and HDR. If you’re spending more than a few hundred on a monitor, you likely already have a decent speaker setup, and I’m willing to bet you’d trade that spatial audio and webcam for the VRR and HDR. Technically 600 nits can deliver HDR content but Apple doesn’t commit to it on their spec sheet, which I think is telling. Of what, I’m not sure. I’m lukewarm interested, not mad at that price point (for an Apple peripheral at least), and we’ll just have to wait and see for people to get it in their hands.
Mac Studio (M1 Ultra chip)
Overkill. Incredible value to performance on the base model ($1999). You don’t need this and I really don’t want to get into why, but I will, in a subsequent post or video (maybe both). In short, it gets incredibly expensive very fast on the upgrades, and only if you are pumping out MKBHD production level content on the daily or work in a professional video production/3D rendering environment should you even consider this. I’m sure you will anyways, dear reader, and I do think this is cool, but this is a mac mini on roids that puts the iMac to shame. I guess that’s why it has been discontinued.
