Apple Unveils New iMac, MacBook Pro, and M3 Chipsets at Scary Fast Event – 10 Things to Know

Apple made a bold move for its final event of 2023 by opting to air it during prime-time television in the US. This departure from their usual morning events showcased Apple’s ability to captivate audiences at any time of day or night. The event, called Apple Scary Fast, centered entirely on the company’s Mac lineup and the introduction of new Apple silicon for their Mac products. Lasting approximately 30 minutes, this pre-recorded online-only showcase revealed 10 key takeaways for those who may have missed it.

10 things you need to know about the Apple Scary Fast

1. The theme of the online-only event was Halloween. There was fog in Apple Park, everyone was dressed in black, the sets had a scary theme and even the background of the product images was kept black during the set. Even the graphics and presentations on the displayed products had dark and scary themes! The ending title card also focused on a moon with dark clouds, only the moon was the Apple logo. Apple’s dedication to even the smallest details was remarkable.

2. The event began with CEO Tim Cook taking the stage with the words “We’re doing something special to celebrate a product we all love”. He explained the importance of Apple’s silicon and the need to innovate technology to deliver efficient systems. “Tonight, we’re introducing a new family of breakthrough circuits and bringing them to the world’s best laptop: the MacBook Pro,” he said, kicking off the event.

3. Three chipsets were announced first: M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. These are the first personal computer circuits built using industry-leading 3-nanometer process technology, allowing more transistors to be packed into a smaller space for improved speed and efficiency. Apple says the M3 architecture is twice as fast as the M1 CPU and GPU. And that’s just the base M3.

4. The M3 contains 25 billion transistors, the M3 Pro gets 37 billion transistors, while the M3 Max contains 92 billion transistors. For gamers, this chipset supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and hardware-based mesh removal.

5. Next up were the MacBook Pro devices, which were upgraded from last year’s M1 chipsets to the new M3 chipsets. Apple says the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 chip is 60 percent faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M1. Likewise, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Pro is 40 percent faster than its predecessor.

6. All MacBook Pro models support up to 128GB of integrated memory, a Liquid Retina XDR display, a built-in 1080p camera, an immersive six-speaker audio system, and a wide range of connectivity options. The company also claims that its battery life is 22 hours. It also comes in a new Space Black color.

7. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 starts at $1,599. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro starts at $1,999, and the 16-inch starts at $2,499. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max is priced at $3,199, while the 16-inch is priced at $3,499.

8. The main event of the exhibition was the announcement of the new 24-inch iMac, powered by the M3 chipset. The iMac gets an update after more than 900 days. Incidentally, it’s also the 25th anniversary of the Mac, the first product ever made by Apple.

9. The iMac is identical in design and appearance to its predecessor, but its performance has increased significantly. It comes in 7 different colors but only 4 of them are available in the base version. The iMac has a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display, a six-speaker sound system, WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, up to 24 GB of unified memory and up to 2 TB of storage. The iMac runs on the MacOS Sonoma operating system.

10. The 256GB storage variant that comes with the Magic Keyboard but without Touch ID is priced at $1299. The 10-core 256GB storage version, which comes with both the Magic Keyboard and Touch ID, costs $1,499. The 8-core 512GB variant costs $1699.