Apple Announces M3 Chipsets, MacBook Pros, and 24-Inch iMac

As expected, Apple tonight announced two new MacBook Pros and a new 24-inch iMac, all running on new Apple Silicon M3 chipsets.

“There is nothing quite like MacBook Pro,” Apple senior VP John Ternus said. “With the remarkable power-efficient performance of Apple silicon, up to 22 hours of battery life, a stunning Liquid Retina XDR display, and advanced connectivity, MacBook Pro empowers users to do their life’s best work.  With the next generation of M3 chips, we’re raising the bar yet again for what a pro laptop can do. We’re excited to bring MacBook Pro and its best-in-class capabilities to the broadest set of users yet, and for those upgrading from an Intel-based MacBook Pro, it’s a game-changing experience in every way.”

Externally, it doesn’t appear that anything has changed: The MacBook Pro lineup still ships in the same form factors and in both 14- and 16-inch display sizes, and the new iMac still utilizes the same design as before and comes in the same colors. Oddly, there is one new color, but only for MacBook Pros M3 Pro and Max: Space Black, a sort of dark aluminum with enhanced fingerprint protection.

Internally, however, a lot has changed. The M3 family of chipsets—which includes the base M3 plus the M3 Pro and M3 Max—are the first in the PC industry to be built on a 3-nm manufacturing process, and they each offer significant performance benefits over their predecessors while delivering roughly the same impressive battery life.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro now starts with the base M3 chipset and starts at $1599, $400 less than its predecessor. This product is aimed at students, creators, and entrepreneurs who use pro apps and play games, and it’s up to 40 percent faster than the M2-based MacBook Pro.

M3 Pro-based MacBook Pros in both 14- and 16-inch form factors are aimed at more demanding users like coders, creative pros, and researchers. These systems start at $1999, the same as before, and support up to two high-resolution external displays.

The M3 Max-based MacBook Pros are for AI developers and 3D professionals, and they offer up to twice the performance of their predecessors, feature a next-generation GPU architecture with two Pro Res rendering engines, and now support up to 128 GB of unified memory, but still deliver up to 22 hours of battery life.

As before, the MacBook Pros ship with Liquid Retina XDR displays, but they now support up to 1600 nits of bright for SDR content, a feature that required HDR content in previous generation devices. The M3- and M3 Pro MacBook Pros will ship next week, while the M3 Max models will arrive later in November.

As for the iMac, Apple spent only a few minutes discussing it, as it’s very similar to its predecessor, but with a base M3 chipset. It will start at $1299, the same as before.

You can learn more about these new Macs on the Apple website.