This afternoon, Apple held an event where it announced brand-new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, with brand-new M1 processors — the M1 Pro and M1 Max. As a part of this update, the MacBook Pro also sees the SD card slot come back, after being removed from the laptop in 2016.

In addition to the SD card slot making a comeback, the new MacBook Pro also brings back MagSafe connectivity, and an HDMI port. There are also three Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a headphone jack.

Display, camera and audio upgrades

The display features a near bezel-less design, with a notch at the top, similar to the iPhone. The top border is only 3.5mm, whereas the side bezels are 24% thinner. The Touch Bar has also been removed from both laptops, being replaced with traditional function keys.

The Liquid XDR display also supports ProMotion with a 120Hz refresh rate, which automatically steps down with static content to preserve battery life. It features mini LED technology that’s currently used in the iPad Pro.

The front camera also sees an upgrade, with a 1080p resolution and f/2 aperture. It delivers 2x better low-light performance over the previous models. There’s also an upgraded audio experience, with a 60% lower noise floor for clearer recordings. It has two tweeters and four force-cancelling woofers that displace twice as much air for 80% more bass that goes an octave deeper.

Performance and battery life

Both M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are available in the 14-inch and 16-inch models. The M1 Pro and M1 Max have up to 2x performance compared to the previous Intel i9 chips. Graphics are up to 2.5x faster with the M1 Pro, and up to 4x faster with the M1 Max. With the M1 Max, you can also have up to 64GB of unified memory in either laptop. SSDs also see a performance upgrade, with up to 7.4 GB/s read, more than twice as fast as before.

Users will also see longer battery life, with up to 2x battery life when using Lightroom Classic. The 14-inch model delivers up to 17 hours of video playback on battery, while the 16-inch model delivers up to 21 hours. Both laptops support Fast Charge, charging up to 50% in 30 minutes.

Pricing and availability

Both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros will be available for order today, with delivery starting the week of October 24, 2021. The 14-inch starts at $1999, while the 16-inch starts at $2499. Both are available in silver or space gray. You can preorder yours here.

The 13-inch M1 model will remain available.