Apple introduces the new 15‑inch MacBook Air and a new Mac Studio alongside the new M2 Ultra, now with an even faster CPU and GPU

Apple’s WWDC isn’t just about software development but hardware as well – the new software has to run on something right?  Overnight Apple has announced a new MacBook Air and Mac Studio along with an upgraded Mac Pro and their new silicon, the M2 Ultra.

The new 15-inch MacBook Air

The new 15-inch MacBook Air features a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display with up to 500 nits of brightness and support for over 1 billion colours.  

The design follows previous MacBook Air models with it measuring just 11.5mm thin making it the world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop.  Weighing just 1.51kg it is extremely portable, suitable for the professional who needs to carry their laptop wherever they go on a daily basis.

There are two Thunderbolt ports and MagSafe charging for improved connectivity along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.  Other features include a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and a new six-speaker sound system with two tweeters and two sets of force-cancelling woofers delivering an even better quality sound.

The performance of the new 15-inch MacBook Air is improved thanks to the M2 chip inside making it 12x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air.  

The 15-inch MacBook Air with M2 is available to order today on apple.com/au/store and in the Apple Store app. It will begin arriving to customers, and in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers, beginning Tuesday, 13 June. The 15-inch MacBook Air with M2, available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space grey, starts at RRP A$2,199 inc. GST and RRP A$1,999 for education. 

The new Mac Studio

Apple also announced the new Mac Studio at WWDC today featuring the M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra to deliver a massive boost in performance over the previous generation Mac Studio.  Featuring a 12-core CPU, up to a 38-core GPU and up to 96GB of unified memory with 400GB/s of memory bandwidth, the Mac Studio with M2 Max is up to 50 percent faster than the previous generation Mac Studio and four times faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.

This added power allows graphic designers and developers to render and build new versions of apps at much faster speeds.  An even greater performance boost is seen with the new M2 Ultra included in the Mac Studio thanks to Apple’s largest and “most capable” SoC ever. 

If you spec up the Mac Studio to the new M2 Ultra an even greater performance boost is witnessed thanks to Apple’s largest and “most capable” SoC ever.  

The new Mac Studio also delivers higher bandwidth HDMI enabling up to 8K resolution and 240Hz frame rates and with the M2 Ultra supports up to six Pro Display XDRs.  Other inclusions are Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10Gb Ethernet port, an enhanced HDMI port, and two USB-A ports. It also has two USB-C ports and an SD card slot on the front.

Upgrade your Mac Pro

Apple has also introduced the Mac Pro to their own silicon with the M2 Ultra delivering groundbreaking performance allowing it to be configured with up to 192GB of memory!  

The new Mac Pro also brings PCIe expansion to Apple silicon for those who want the performance of M2 Ultra and rely on the internal expansion for increased workflows.  The Mac Pro actually features seven PCIe expansion slots allowing users to customise their Mac Pro with DSP cards, serial digital interface I/O cards and more.

There are now eight built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports, twice as many as before, support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, three USB-A ports, two HDMI ports, two 10Gb Ethernet ports and a headphone jack.

The new Mac Studio and Mac Pro are available to order today on apple.com/au/store and in the Apple Store app. They will start to arrive to customers and will be available in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers, beginning Tuesday, 13 June.

Mac Studio starts at RRP A$3,299 inc. GST and RRP A$2,969 inc. GST for education. Additional configure-to-order options are available at apple.com/au/store.

Available in both tower and rack-mounted enclosures, Mac Pro (Tower Enclosure) starts at RRP A$11,999 inc. GST and RRP A$11,309 inc. GST for education. Mac Pro (Rack Enclosure) starts at RRP A$12,999 inc. GST and RRP A$12,129 inc. GST for education. Additional technical specifications and configure-to-order options are available at apple.com/au/mac-pro.