Everything Apple Announced In Its Exciting Week of Mac Launches

Apple has wrapped up its exciting week of Mac launches, releasing a slew of products that include new iMacs, a redesigned Mac mini, and updated 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. These announcements were packed with Apple Intelligence jargon, so let’s cut through it and see what’s new. There’s a lot to cover, so buckle up, and let’s dive in.

iMac - new colors and more power

Let’s start with iMacs. The new iMacs come in a set of new pastel colors, and might I say, they look gorgeous. The iMac is powered by the latest Apple M4 chipset. The base model M4 chipset comes with four performance and six efficiency cores. The CPU performance is 1.3X than the outgoing M3 iMac, while the GPU gets a 10% performance boost over M3.

For the first time, the iMac offers a nano-texture glass option to enhance the viewing experience in bright ambient light. The nano-texture coating option was first introduced with the Pro Display XDR, and it quickly became popular. However, this upgrade adds $200 to the price—a hard pill to swallow.

Included for free is a new 12MP camera that supports both Center Stage and Desk View. For those unfamiliar, Center Stage keeps you centered during video calls, so you’ll stay in frame even if you move around.

Desk View lets you showcase whatever is on your desk without using a top-down camera. It’s a cool feature you have to experience first-hand to understand, and I am happy it’s here.

Apple has also updated the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse. They come with a USB-C port instead of a lightning port, so finally you can charge all your Apple gear—other than the Apple Watch—with only one cable. The accessories are color matched to the iMac color which is a nice touch. The keyboard has a wireless TouchID button which users will appreciate.

I also like that the base model iMac now packs 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB. That upgrade alone used to cost $200. Even with these upgrades, the iMac starts at its $1299 price.

What’s not good is that the base $1299 model is still stuck with 256GB of storage and only two Thunderbolt 4 ports. It gets the binned version of the M4 chipset with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU. It supports only one external 6K display and doesn’t get the Gigabit Ethernet port in the power adapter. You also don’t get the nano-texture glass and 32GB RAM options with the base model.

To access all those features, you’ll need to upgrade to the $1,499 model, which basically makes the default choice for most prospective buyers.

Mac mini becomes even more mini

While the iMac upgrades are good, it’s the Mac mini that has received the most love from Apple in 2024. The Mac mini has been redesigned with a smaller footprint, additional ports, and more powerful chipsets. If you’re looking for a desktop Mac experience at an affordable price, the new Mac mini could be the perfect fit.

Let’s start with the design. The new Mac mini is even more mini with its body dimensions of only 5 by 5 inches and a height of 1.96 inches. That gives it a squatter appearance, which is closer to Mac Studio than a Mac mini.

With the new design, the Mac mini also gets more ports. The back has the power in, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and three Thunderbolt 4 ports.

For the first time, there are also two USB-C and a headphone jack port at the front. I love the front-mounted USB-C ports, as now you easily plug in your accessories like external Mac SSDs without fumbling around.

The Mac mini also skips the M3 generation and gets the latest M4 and M4 Pro chipsets. The best part is that the base model has the proper 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU chip. Like the iMac, the base model starts at 16GB of RAM which you can extend up to 32GB. You can upgrade the Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet for $100. Sadly the base model still starts at 256GB which is upgradable to up to 2TB at a hefty price.

The new Mac mini also gets the M4 Pro chipset option, making it the cheapest Mac for pro-user workflow. The M4 Pro chip base model packs a 12-core CPU and a 16-core GPU, upgradable to a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU model for an extra $200. The M4 Pro also brings a massive 75% increase in memory bandwidth over the M3 Pro, resulting in faster AI and neural workloads.

The M4 Pro version has 24GB RAM and 512GB of storage. You can get up to 64GB of RAM and 8TB of storage, provided you have the cash to spend. M4 Pro also upgrades the three USB-C ports at the back to Thunderbolt 5, delivering a whopping 120GB/s transfer speeds.

MacBook Pro - small upgrades that matter

Apple has updated its MacBook Pro lineup with the latest M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chipsets. The refresh also brings several new improvements. Let’s start with the baseline M4 MacBook Pro that starts at $1599.

It gets the full-fledged M4 chipset with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU and comes in Space Black, previously reserved for higher-priced models. Unlike the past year’s baseline MacBook Pros, which only had two USB-C ports, this year, the base model also gets three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports. It supports two external displays and has the usual HDMI and full-size SD card slot.

It also gets 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, which you can upgrade to 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD.

For the first time, the MacBook Pro also gets the nano-texture glass option, which will cost an additional $150. The display can now show SDR content at 1,000 nits, which is up from 600 nits. That makes a huge difference when it comes to daytime viewing. Combine that with the nano-texture display and you won’t have any legibility issues even in direct sunlight.

The 14-inch M4 Pro MacBook Pro starts at $1999 with a 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB RAM, and 512GB SSD. For $2,399, you can upgrade the chipset to a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU.

But that’s not all. You can upgrade to the M4 Max, featuring a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, starting at $3,199.

The 16-inch version comes in M4 Pro and M4 Max versions. You can also get the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Max version with a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU. The base model 16-inch MacBook Pro comes with 24GB of memory and 512GB SSD starts at the same $2499 price tag, while the M4 Max version with 36GB memory and 1TB storage starts at $3499.

The base 14-inch M4 and M4 MacBook Pro models come with a 70W power adapter, while the upgraded M4 Pro and all M4 Max models come with a 96W power adapter. The 16-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 140W power adapter irrespective of the model you get.

All the M4 Pro and M4 Max models also get Thunderbolt 5 ports that support up to 120Gb/s transfer speeds.

Apple has also drastically increased battery life. The 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro, M4 Pro MacBook Pro, and M4 Max MacBook Pro can deliver up to 24 hours, 22 hours, and 18 hours of battery life respectively. On the 16-inch model, the base M4 Pro version can deliver 24 hours, while the M4 Max can deliver up to 21 hours of battery life.

Finally, All the MacBook Pros get a brand-new 12MP camera that supports Desk View and Center Stage.

Overall, I’d say it’s not groundbreaking, but it’s still a solid upgrade. If you already have an M2 or M3 MacBook Pro, there’s little reason to upgrade—unless you specifically want the nano-texture display and improved battery life.

In its announcement videos, Apple mainly compared the new MacBook Pros to the M1 models, which suggests they also believe upgrading from an M2 or M3 isn’t necessary. If you are coming from an older device, however, you will get solid new features for the price.

MacBook Air - double the RAM

Apple made a surprise announcement for MacBook Air models. While the MacBook Air didn’t get the chip upgrade, it also got the 16GB RAM for the base model as standard. Even if you don’t use Apple Intelligence, you should thank it for doubling the base memory on all Macs.

Apple week of Mac announcements: final thoughts

I think this week of Mac announcements wins a solid point. All the new Macs get 16GB of RAM, a performance boost, and sprinkles of quality-of-life improvement features.

I hope this video can help you choose a Mac and make an informed purchase decision. Before you go, click here to learn about the 10 settings you should change in macOS Sequoia as soon as you get a new Mac.