Apple Unveils 15-Inch MacBook Air, Mac Pro With M2 Ultra Chip

Apple is expanding the MacBook Air line with a 15-inch model that launches next week starting at $1,299. It’s also prepping a Mac Pro that’ll run an Apple-designed Arm chip for the first time. 

The new MacBook Air, announced today at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), is significantly larger than the 13.6-inch and 13.3-inch models; this newest version sports a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, which boasts 500 nits of brightness. 

15-inch MacBook Air
(Credit: Apple)

“The new MacBook Air measures only 11.5mm thin, making it the world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop,” the company says. Another improvement is a six-speaker audio system compared to the the four-speaker system in the 13.6-inch model. 

(Apple)

The company argues that the new MacBook Air bests rival products that feature Intel silicon. However, the new MacBook still uses the M2 chip, which Apple introduced at last year’s WWDC and is also in the 13.6-inch MacBook Air.

Other features include a 1080p web camera, up to 18 hours of battery life, a fanless design, and slim 3.3-pound weight.

Pre-orders start today ahead of a June 13 launch. Get it in midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray starting at $1,299.

The M2 13-inch MacBook Air also get a $100 price cut to $1,099, while the M1 version will be available for $999.

Mac Pro With M2 Ultra

The other notable announcement is the arrival of a new Mac Pro, Apple’s desktop PC that also happens to look like a giant cheese grater. It originally launched in 2019 using Intel silicon, but it will now be packing an Apple-developed Arm chip, specifically the M2 Ultra, which has been designed for huge workloads such as video processing or 3D simulations.  

(Credit: Apple)

Apple built the M2 Ultra by melding two M2 Max chips together for what amounts to a 24-core CPU. The same chip can be configured with a 60- or a 76-core GPU. In addition, the unified memory can support up to 192GB in capacity. 

“This is far more memory than the most advanced workstation graphics cards,” Apple says. “Now every Mac Pro has the performance of not just one but seven Afterburner cards built in.” 

(Credit: Apple)

As a desktop PC, the Mac Pro also includes six open PCIe Gen 4 expansion slots, enabling buyers to connect additional drives for storage or networking. But the new Mac Pro won’t be cheap. It also arrives on June 13th starting at a whopping $6,999, or a $1,000 more than the original starting price from 2019.

Mac Studio Refresh

(Apple)

In addition, Apple is refreshing the Mac Studio, its professional mini PC line, with both the M2 Ultra and M2 Max chips, completing the company’s transition from Intel silicon to the company’s own Arm chips. The new Mac Studio will start at $1,999.