Apple Unveils 15-inch MacBook Air with M2, New Mac Studio, and M2 Ultra Processor

Apple is currently holding the WWDC developer conference, an event that, according to all rumors, will feature the company’s first augmented reality viewer. But it will not come alone. Tim Cook wanted to wrap up what is undoubtedly his most anticipated product of the year with new hardware launches, among which the 15-inch MacBook Air stands out, long requested by customers, and professional equipment updated with more powerful hardware.

Starting with the 15-inch MacBook Air (15.3-inch, if we’re to be exact), Apple claims it’s the thinnest laptop in its class, only 11.5mm thick in profile. Details such as the screen resolution will be public when Apple updates its official page, not yet visible, but we know that it will provide a respectable 500 nits of brightness and will integrate a Full HD camera into the top frame (5mm). The multimedia section is completed with six speakers.

The 15-inch MacBook Air will be offered with an M2 processor and up to 24GB of unified memory. If you need to add peripherals like external displays or expand internal storage, you can use either of the two available Thunderbolt ports. There is also a MagSafe connector for charging and a 3.5mm minijack.

In the absence of knowing the price for Europe, in the United States it will be available from $1,299.

On the other hand, Apple has also updated the Mac Studio and Mac Pro with more powerful processors: the M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra. This new chip automatically becomes the most powerful consumer ARM design on the market, uniting the ten of two M2 Max processors into one using a bridging technology that Apple has dubbed UIltraFusion. It not only provides a near 20% CPU performance improvement, but also a 30% more powerful GPU and a Neural Engine that outperforms the M1 Ultra by as much as 40%.

Likewise, the M2 Ultra chip has a memory architecture with a capacity for a maximum of 192 GB to be distributed dynamically between the CPU and GPU, with a bandwidth of 800GB/s.

Manufactured using a 5nm process, the M2 Ultra’s CPU is endowed with a total of 24 cores, 16 of which are high-performance. The GPU, for its part, can be chosen in versions with 60 or 76 cores depending on the workload they are going to support. Apple ensures that the effects performance in Octane is much faster, being able to triple the times of the M1 Ultra. This GPU plugs into a new display controller with support for up to six Pro Displays. R, which coupled with native acceleration of professional codecs will likely guarantee it a place in many video production rooms.

The prices of the Mac Studio and Mac Pro for the United States start at $1,999 and $1,799, respectively, but if we go to the better equipped M2 Ultra versions, the prices will undoubtedly cross the territory of mortals and enter that of budget allocations.