When the Apple iPad Air first launched, we thought: “hmmm, this is a very interesting device”. We must admit too, we wanted one. It is the first Apple iPad that features a modern and generally accepted USB Type-C connectivity. It also brought the Apple iPad ecosystem, save for the iPad Pro, to the modern world with the most powerful Apple System on a Chip (SoC) at its time. The new A14 bionic matched the Apple iPad experience to the most modern Apple iPhone you can find at the time.
The M1 on Air
Source: Apple
Still, at its price, it became one of the most desirable Apple tablets you can find. It would be also our recommendation of you had money to spare for a tablet. To be fair, Apple’s tablet game has been unrivaled for quite some time now, why would the Apple iPad Air be any different with what it could offer, before the iPad Pro leapfrogged it with the M1 chip.
Now though, the Apple iPad Air for 2022 has become the most desirable Apple iPad again. It now packs the power of the M1 SoC, the same one you can find on a MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. That is not all they did to improve the Apple iPad.
Built for Video Calls
Source: Apple
You now get Centre Stage 12-Megapixel FaceTime HD camera. The previous iPad Air did not get this feature because the front camera is not wide enough for the feature. Out the back is a the regular 12-Megapixel camera that you get from before. Thanks to the new chipset, the Apple iPad Air also gets 5G connectivity out-of-the-box for a quick workflow anywhere, and anytime. Of course, you still could opt for a Wi-Fi only version. That is about it for the improvements on the Apple iPad Air though.
The display is still a 10.9-inch, like before. The 2,360 by 1,640 Liquid Retina display with wide colour gamut (DCI P3) is unchanged. There is no home button out front too, like the older device. The Touch ID enabled power button still sits in the same place and the same as before. The iPad OS 15 though, is an expected update.
Price and Availability
The Apple iPad Air for 2022 will be available in the United States starting from the 18th of March 2022 onward. There is no confirmed local (Malaysia) availability for it at this time, but we are guessing that it will be available later in March, or somewhere in April 2022. It will be available in Space Grey, Pink, Purple, Blue, and Starlight colour options. It is also available in only 64GB and 256GB configurations. Of course, you can choose between a Wi-Fi only or a 5G capable options. Prices start from MYR 2,699 and MYR 3,349 respectively. More information on the Apple iPad Air can be found on their website.
In the day and age where laptops are becoming a staple in the world of content creation and professional work requirements, there are two camps. On one camp is the one that supports the PC, on the other, the side that glorifies the MacBook Pro. There are a lot of obvious bonuses with the PC market before this. Get that, before this.
Apple introduced their Apple Silicon product, the M1 chip last year in 2020 and it broke the internet. Well, not really, but it did become a headline. It is Apple’s first step in stepping away from chip manufacturers like Intel, and obviously, AMD as well. The M1 chip in the MacBook line-up, especially the MacBook Pro was a popular choice though. Content creators that rely on their MacBook Pro with M1 chips swore by the performance of the chip on their tools. They managed to make the M1 chip equipped MacBook Pro even cheaper than what they could offer with and Intel badge.
The no brainer decision buys you into a platform that is still being tested though. It was an experimental platform at best with many developers still trying to adapt their apps to run natively on the M1 chip. You sometimes forget that the M1 chip architecture is so completely different compared to other processor’s construction that apps have to work with different command lines and codes to run natively on the M1 Chip.
A year on, and there are enough apps that runs on the M1 architecture. There are more apps being added in. There are also the new kids on the block, perfect timing.
Apple M1 Max/Pro
Source: Apple
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Before we move on, this is a deeper coverage on the MacBook Pro devices. We will be separately talk about the new M1 chips in detail in the coming days.
The new chiplets are supposed to be bigger than the original M1 chip from last year though. That also means that the new chips pack more CPU and GPU cores. The M1 Max packs 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. The M1 Pro packs the same 10 cores on its CPU end but only makes do with 16 cores in its GPU module.
The integrated architecture allows the M1 Max’s GPU and CPU to have direct access and enjoy 64GB of integrated RAM. The M1 Pro will only come with up to 32GB of integrated memory. All of these leads to a huge performance leap from the original M1 from 2020.
The Apple MacBook Pro
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The Apple MacBook Pro is now available in two sizes, the 16-inch and 14-inch models. Both comes with either the M1 Pro or the M1 Max options of course. Both laptops feature a Full HD 1080p FaceTime HD camera. You also see the MagSafe 3 charging port making a comeback for magnetically attached chargers on a MacBook Pro. To be fair, it was one of the best features on a MacBook.
The MacBook Pro also packs an advanced six-speaker system with dual subwoofers for an audio experience on a laptop like no other. When people say Apple does not listen to its customers, the Apple MacBook Pro for the 2021 market proves them wrong. The annoying Touch Bar is now gone and replaced with tactile keys from a full-height magic keyboard that we are more used to.
Of course, there needs to be a lot of ports on what Apple calls a “pro notebook”. You have three Thunderbolt 4 pots on the Apple MacBook Pro. Two of them are USB Type-C ports. You also have one HDMI port on the MacBook Pro. That allows you to connect to up to four displays at a time for a five-monitor set up, as long as you have the space. You still have an SDXC card reader on the MacBook Pro too. If you have the money and space, the MacBook Pro is your best workflow powerhouse in this case.
Source: Apple
You get Retina XDR Mini LED panels on both the 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro. Of course, the MacBook Pro in 16-inch clad will feature more pixels than the 14-inch, Apple style. Both displays can project up to 10-billion colours (10-bit) on the panels though.
The added power of the new variants of the M1 chip allows the MacOS on the MacBook Pro to easily work with 4K ProRes videos or even 8K ProRes videos in Final Cut Pro with no hiccups. They say it is more powerful than the Mac Pro even with Afterburner. For the first time ever as well, users can colour grade in HDR on 8K ProRes 444 video formats, even on battery.
The Apple MacBook Pro is supposed to feature improved battery too. At 21 hours of video playback, the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch trumps any pro-level notebook PC that you can find the market, on paper at least. The 14-inch is quoted to have up to 17 hours of video playback time too. If that is not enough, you can charge the MacBook Pro via MagSafe 3 and fast charge it up to 50% in just 30 minutes.
Price and Availability
If you asked us a year ago about the MacBook Pro vs the PC laptops, we would have asked you to get the PC laptop. Right now, we are not so sure, we are tempted to get our hands on the M1 Max or M1 Pro versions of the MacBook Pro. If you are excited about it, you will be happy to know that the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inc and 14-inch will hit the shelves on the 26th of October 2021 onward. That is only the United States and selected countries though, so that is some bad news for some of us. The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at US$ 1,999 (MYR 8,799*) while the 16-inch variant starts at US$ 2,499 (MYR 19,799*). There are no word on when the MacBook Pro will officially make its way to Malaysia, but we are guessing that it is pretty soon. More information on the MacBook Pro can be found on their website.
When Apple introduced the wonder that is the Apple M1 chip to the world, we had a question. We wondered what would Apple’s iPadOS would look like and feels like with the Apple M1 chip behind it. We could only hope for Apple to inevitably launch their new iPad Pro line-up with the Apple M1 processor; it only makes sense.
We wonder no more when Apple got through its Spring Loaded event this morning (Malaysia time). They announced the highly anticipated updated Apple iPad Pro with the Apple M1 processing chip. Traditionally, the Apple iPad Pro has always come with Apple’s mobile platform. The 2020 variant, for example packs Apples A12Z bionic System on a Chip (SoC). In which case, we always thought of the iPad Pro to be a larger version of the iPad made for light workloads in workplaces.
The Apple M1 chip changes everything we know and thought of the Apple iPad Pro though. The Apple iPad Pro, with the power of a powerful Apple M1 chip that is also found in the Mac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and even the new iMac should be a completely new beast altogether. It also makes the most powerful iPad Pro ever leaps and bounds better than the older iPad Pro it replaces. The 2021 iPad Pro now makes more sense than ever.
Source: Apple
Do not get us wrong, the iPad Pro still looks like the regular blown-up Apple iPad. You choose between an 11-inch display and a 12.9-inch display. Put the new iPad Pro against the new iPad and the iPad Pro still dwarfs the iPad.
Thanks to Apple’s M1 chip though, the iPad Pro can be more computer than tablet in a lot of areas. For one, you get up to 2TB in high-speed storage instead of a measly 1TB (up to). It is also now a USB Type-C device with Thunderbolt support, finally. That also means you can work off multiple displays with the iPad Pro if you have a Thunderbolt ready display or expansion dock. But most of all, along with 16GB of RAM, the iPad Pro now delivers desktop level performance in a package no larger than a small stack of A4 paper.
The M1 chip has proven itself to be a highly capable chip in the Mac platform and it should prove to be a little bit of an overkill for the likes of iPad OS. But that does not mean that you cannot harness the benefit of the M1 chip on a tablet form factor. The added power also means that you can now process videos quicker and at higher resolutions on top of the iPad Pro itself. The M1 chip also allows the iPad Pro to go through photos and edit them quickly. Very important when you are constantly on-the-go.
Source: Apple
On top of all of that, the Apple iPad Pro with 12.9-inch display features a new Liquid Retina XDR display that features a new age mini-LED design with over 10,000 LEDs backlighting the display to allow brightness at up to 1,600 in peak brightness and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. That also means you can rely on this single display when you really need to get your work going on the go. Its True Tone and P3 colour gamut coverage also means that you can even use this display to colour correct all your video footages or even photos. The combination of those two technologies with ProMotion also means you can really enjoy HDR and Dolby Vision contents on the large display.
The Apple iPad Pro also comes packing a 12-Megapixel mean rear camera and a 10-Megapixel ultra-wide camera supported by a LiDAR scanner. While that is nothing really new on an iPad Pro, they are still great cameras for quick video productions even. But the iPad Pro also now supports Centre Stage via its 12-Megapixel front-facing ultra-wide angle camera that automatically keeps you centered in the frame and automatically shifts and zooms as other people joins the call or when you move around. Of course, the 12-Megapixel sensor allows you to have a Full HD video call experience via FaceTime along with Face ID features.
Source: Apple
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The Apple iPad Pro will be available for orders 30th April 2021 onward and ship May 2021 onward in selected markets. You can choose between two colour variants and two screen sizes, Space Grey or Silver, and 11-inch (Liquid Retina) or 12.9-inch (Liquid Retina XDR). Storage options start from 128GB all the way to 2TB. The WiFi only variant of the iPad Pro (11-inch) starts at US$ 749(MYR 3,499*) while the cellular (5G capable) variant starts at US$ 999 (MYR4,149*). The 12.9-inch starts at US$ 1,099 (MYR 4,799*) for the WiFi only variant and the cellular (5G capable) variant starts at US$ 1,299 (MYR 5,499*).
Apple’s Spring Loaded event for 2021 has just ended this morning (Malaysia time), and it is packed. We expected a new iMac all-in-one Mac for your desk. We did not expect the iMac to look quite so good though.
To start with, Apple opens the new iMac launch with seven different colours. Technically, there are six new different colours and one good ol’ silver colour. What really stuck us though was how thin the iMac looks.
They say that the iMac is now only 11.5mm thick. This is achievable thanks to the redesigned motherboard and cooling hardware for the Apple iMac. The redesign is also mostly thanks to the integrated chip that is the Apple M1 silicon. That is the same M1 chip you will find on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac, and now the new iPad Pro too.
Source: Apple
The new powerful integrated chip allows the motherboard to be one-third its previous design. It also allows much smaller cooling fans. Both of those combined, not only allows the iMac to be thinner than ever. It also allows the iMac to be more efficient and even quieter than before in terms of actual noise and space.
Of course, you can opt to make it loud with its colour seven colour options. But it can also be loud by playing music or watching movies and other types of video contents. The iMac now has six speakers instead of four for an even more powerful audio experience. Apple says that the six speakers should really enhance the Dolby Atmos experience from the 24-incher all-in-one desktop.
The six speakers is placed below the 24-inch display that blasts 4.5K Retina resolution with P3 wide colour gamut at up to 500 nits in brightness. That also means that you can really enjoy movies on the display at 4K HDR even, so this can really be your all-in-one entertainment machine too. Of course, 4.5K can also benefit your workflow, especially when you work with a lot of video and photographs. But it also helps you look at your friends or colleagues clearly when you make video calls.
Source: Apple
In terms of video calls, Apple has also included the best-in-class Full HD video camera. To be fair, you hardly get a Full HD webcam on any modern PC still, so having a higher resolution with better image quality does really help especially in the majority of work-from-home situations currently. That is not all though. Apple has tuned its mic to focus on the voices that are directly in front of it instead of picking up sounds from other parts of the room so that your video conference can go on nicely without the interference of the other things happening at your environment.
Of course, minimalist designs have to come with minimalist accessories. That is also why the Apple iMac comes with an innovative single power connector that is attached magnetically to the back of the device. That also means you do not have to feel around of the pins and hope to be lucky when you slot in your cable. To ensure that it lasts and looks as good as the iMac, it is a woven cable that runs down the back of the iMac to a square power adapter you can put on the floor or hide behind your desk. The power adapter also has an ethernet port for you to connect the iMac to the internet via LAN cable instead of via WiFi for a more stable networking.
Other updated accessories include two new Magic Keyboard that comes in colour matching aluminium shells, colour matching Magic Mouse, and colour matching Magic Trackpad. While the Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse has not changed much, the new keyboards are a little different though; at least for one of the variants you can get.
You can now opt for a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID. This is the first time we see a fingerprint sensor implemented on a desktop PC, and wirelessly for that matter. You can choose between a Touch ID Magic Keyboard with or without the numeric keypad.
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The new 2021 24-inch iMac will be available 30th April onward in selected markets. It comes in two GPU options with multiple storage options starting from a 7-core GPU + 256GB combination at a starting price of US$ 1,299 (MYR 5,599*). The other one is an 8-core GPU + 256GB combination at US$ 1,499 (MYR 6,499*). For Malaysia, the spec tops out at 8-core GPU + 512GB combination at MYR 7,249*. For more information, you can head over to Apple’s website.
