After months of revealing some of its latest and most advanced products yet, Apple took to the stage to unveil its last set of products for the year. The “One More Thing” event is one known to concentrate mostly on Macs and Apple made sure to emphasise on that.

Apple M1 Chip

The first product was Apple’s new chipset dubbed M1 that had been rumoured throughout the year. The M1 processor will be the company’s first to be installed in the new Macs as Apple looks to cut strings with Intel.

According to the iPhone-maker M1 is meant to be the most powerful chip in any Apple computer. M1 is also engineered to offer the ultimate performance while also demanding as little power as possible. This would help Macs in preserving power and lasting for long on battery.

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The processor is also integrated with advanced UI engines to help with the best graphical output. Apple claims the chip allows the Mac to instantly wake from sleep mode while offering solid performance even when running 3D programs or editing RAW photos.

It will obviously be interesting to see how the new Macs with the M1 chip perform in comparison to the latest chips from Intel and AMD.

MacBook Air

Apple went ahead to unveil its new set of computers including the new MacBook Air. This laptop alongside all the new computers revealed today will be the first to feature Apple’s new CPU, M1.

According to the company, the new MacBook Air will be up to three times faster than Windows best ultrabook thanks to the new chip integrated with macOS BigSur.

The new Air comes with a 13.3-inch retina display and up to 16GB of memory and 2TB of storage. It also supports Thunderbolt, USB 4, Wi-Fi 6, and Touch ID.

Other than the promise of better performance and power efficiency, Apple claims that the Air will be able to run iOS and iPadOS apps natively on macOS. This will enable users to operate their iPhones and iPads remotely on the Mac without having to get distracted.

All macOS apps including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote have also been updated to support its silicon, as have other major companies like Microsoft and Adobe.

The battery is also designed to last a record 18 hours making it the longest-lasting battery in any Apple laptop.

The MacBook Air is set to launch at $999 (about KES 109,000) so we would expect Kenyan stores to sell them at KES 130,000 (give or take) once they ship.

Mac Mini

Powered by the M1 chip as well will be the new compact desktop computer Mac Mini. This surely was an interesting one to see as it is designed to be small and portable while also featuring some impressive features.

Image courtesy Apple

The Mac Mini has “3x faster CPU” and “6x faster graphics,” with options for up to 16GB of RAM and up to 2TB of solid-state storage (SSD). Apple states that the machine will support up to 6K of resolution with display port options including Thunderbolt and USB 4.

It will sell internationally at $699 (about KES 76,000).

MacBook Pro

The third and last product was the bigger MacBook sibling and its set of features make it reasonable to see why. The MacBook Pro comes in 13-inch size powered by the new M1 processor.

The laptop is generally thicker than the MacBook Air in abid to make the thermals better. The MacBook Pro still keeps some of the old features including the active fan cooling system.

There’s still the famous touch bar, along with two Thunderbolt 4 ports located at the left side of the laptop.

Battery life has been upgraded lasting up to 17 hours on browsing and 20 hours on video playback. According to Apple, that’s 10 hours longer than before, and the longest battery life ever offered on a Mac.