Apple has once again showcased exciting new devices

It has become customary for Apple to showcase major product news in the autumn and introduce slightly less attention-grabbing but still important devices in the spring. The same was true for this spring’s product event titled Peek Performance where Apple introduced both expected and surprising new devices.

The upgraded iPhone SE received the anticipated 5G support and the newest Apple processor A15. This means, of course, that the fairly affordably priced phone will get the same cutting-edge contents also used in more expensive iPhone models. Unfortunately, Apple did not update the design of iPhone SE. Here we have to settle for the same, now quite an old design, and we will not be seeing an affordable iPhone with a screen covering the entire front of the phone until next year.

Like the phone, Apple also updated the contents of iPad Air. The new Air with a design identical to the previous model will get the M1 chip familiar from iPad Pro. It is 60% faster and has twice the graphics performance. The front camera on iPad Air is also new and has a resolution of 12 megapixels. The new camera also supports the Apple Centre Stage solution, which automatically keeps the user in frame during video calls.

The biggest and probably the most surprising news is a brand-new desktop computer for professionals – Mac Studio. Its design is very reminiscent of the Mac Mini, but it is nearly three times taller. Given the very powerful contents, Mac Studio is extremely compact. This makes it fit better in contemporary home office nooks. However, the height of the Mac Studio allows it to fit perfectly next to the Apple monitor stand below the screen.

As is always the case with Apple’s professional computers, the specs of Mac Studio are also hugely impressive. The new computer comes with two processors. The selection includes the M1 Max familiar from MacBook Pro and the brand-new M1 Ultra processor. The interfaces are also state-of-the-art. At the rear of the computer, we can see four Thunderbolt 4 sockets, a 10 Gb network socket, and two USB-A ports. There is also an HDMI output and a headphone jack. The front features an SD-card slot and two USB-C ports, the speed of which is 10 Gbps on the M1 Max version and the absolute top-of-the-line 40 Gbps with Thunderbolt 4 support on the M1 Ultra version. Of course, the new Mac also comes with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 support. According to Apple, the Mac Studio supports connecting four Pro Display XDR monitors and one 4K TV at the same time.

In the M1 Ultra processor introduced alongside the Mac Studio, Apple has combined two M1 chips into one. The means that nearly all of M1 Ultra’s specs are twice as good as those of M1 Max. M1 Ultra has 20 cores, 16 of which are more powerful and four are energy-efficient versions. Additionally, a 64-core graphics solution and a 32-core AI engine are integrated into the processor. The processor supports up to 128 GM RAM.

All this complicated technical talk simply means that this is, without doubt, Apple’s most powerful processor and probably one of the fastest processors available. It is also worth mentioning that Apple’s M1 series processors consume surprisingly little energy for their high performance.

In addition to the desktop computer, Apple also showcased a more affordable 27“ 5K Studio Display monitor. The new monitor is designed to be the perfect companion to Apple’s Mac series desktop computers and is Apple’s first reasonably priced monitor in years. This is exactly the kind of monitor that many content creators and smaller companies using Apple’s devices have been waiting for.

The monitor has a brightness of up to 600 Nits, and it support P3 colour space and macOS TrueTone solution. A 12-megapixel wide-angle camera is integrated into the top edge of the monitor. However, a slight let-down is that the monitor’s refresh rate is still only 60 Hz, while iPad Pro and iPhone Pro have screens with a rate of 120 Hz and the refresh rates of the competitors’ monitors are also higher. The monitor is also available in a slightly more expensive version with a nano-texture glass display, and various stands and desk accessories are also on offer.