Apple bolsters Mac mini, MacBook Pro with new M2 chips as broader PC market falters

Apple's new MacBook Pro. Photo / Supplied

Apple has revealed new Mac mini and MacBook Pro models that underline its shift to making its own chips.

Its inhouse-designed M series processors are billed as more powerful and battery-efficient. The firm will be hoping they help it maintain the resilience it displayed in December quarter sales as brands fell off a cliff (see table below).

The Mac mini, previously available with Apple’s entry-level M1 chip or an Intel chip, now features the M2 (in a model starting from $1099) and the new M2 Pro (from $2399 - though pricing doubles, and then some, if you choose the most powerful options).

The Intel version has been killed off. Various upgrades are all under the hood, and the mini maintains its now decade-old design.

The new Mac mini. The M2 model supports up to two external displays, the M2 Pro up to three screens. Photo / Supplied

And new 14 and 16-inch models of the MacBook Pro get the M2 Pro and another new chip - or system-on-a-chip, as Apple frames it - the M2 Max. Apple says it has the best-ever battery life on a Mac: 22 hours.

The new models retain the more squared-off design introduced in 2021 (which also saw the Touch Bar jettisoned).

The M2 Pro is up to 40 per cent faster than the M1 Pro at Photoshop image processing, Apple says, while the M2 Max is a third faster than the M1 Max for chunky video rendering and colour grading.

The MacBook Pro and Mac mini lines both support 8K video playbook and 8K HDMI, output and Wi-Fi 6E.

The M2 Pro model of the new mini or MacBook Pro can be purchased with up to 12 CPU and 19 GPU cores and 32GB of memory. The M2 Max version of the MacBook Pro blows the lid off with an upper limit of 38 GPU cores, and double the memory bandwidth of the Pro (from 200 to 400GB/s), and up to 96GB of unified memory.

The new models are available for online order today, with delivery from February 3. See full tech specs and pricing here.

Apple’s event came on the heels of IDC figures that showed PC shipments slumped by a third in the final quarter of 2022 - the industry’s sharpest fall since the mid-1990s as the home office upgrade craze faded, and inflation and economic downturns bit.

Apple was the only major brand to come through the year relatively unscathed. Its shipments were off just 2 per cent.

In part, the firm’s relative success is down to a plan by CEO Tim Cook, initiated well before the pandemic; “to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make”.

Producing its own chips has been the most visible result of this strategy. That has contributed to longer battery life and better overall performance of the iPhone. The M1, the first Apple-designed processor for the Mac and iPad, “stunned the chip industry with its high performance when it was unveiled in late 2020″, by the FT’s account.

Following the models announced today, the Mac Pro is now the only Mac in Apple’s current product lineup that still uses an Intel processor.

Apple is reportedly now shaping up to replace iPhone wireless communications chips made by Broadcom and Qualcomm, and to make its own displays, according to a Bloomberg report.