From a budget-friendly MacBook to a new iPhone, Apple announced a slew of new products this month.
The tech giant kicked things off on March 2 with the new iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air. A day later, Apple announced the M5 MacBook Air, new MacBook Pro models, new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and a new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR. On March 4, Apple announced a cheaper MacBook called the MacBook Neo that runs on a chip similar to the iPad and iPhone.
A week and a half later, Apple announced a surprise: the AirPods Max 2, the long-awaited successor to its premium headphones released in 2020.
If you haven’t had time to see all the new products, we’ve gathered all the announcements for you here.
iPhone 17e
Apple has unveiled the latest version of its budget-friendly iPhone lineup, the iPhone 17e, which costs $599 and will be available on March 11.
The smartphone comes with the A19 chip found in the base iPhone 17. The base model has 256GB of storage, which is double the entry-level storage from the iPhone 16e.
One of the most notable changes from the previous budget iPhone is the addition of MagSafe and Qi2, which supports wireless charging up to 15W. Camera-wise, the iPhone 17e has the same 48-megapixel camera as the iPhone 16e.
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iPhone 17e also features C1X, Apple’s latest generation cellular modem, which is up to 2x faster than C1 in iPhone 16e, according to Apple. The tech giant says the C1X uses 30% less power than an iPhone 16 Pro’s modem, which allows for better battery life.
The smartphone is available in black, white and a new light pink color.
iPad Air M4
Apple announced the new iPad Air, powered by the M4 chip, making it 30% faster than the M3 iPad Air and 2.3 times faster than the M1 version. The new device still retails at the same price of $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model. For educational customers, there is a $50 discount.
iPad Air is designed to be faster, thanks to an updated neural engine and more memory, making it better for AI uses.
The iPad Air also has an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU, making it a decent choice for gaming or photo editing. It also comes with 12GB of integrated memory, a 50% increase from the previous model, and memory bandwidth is now up to 120GB/s. Apple says these upgrades allow users to run AI models faster than in previous generations.
The device is available in four colors: blue, purple, star and space gray. Storage options are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.
MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max
Along with the launch of the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, Apple unveiled updated MacBook Pro models featuring the latest chipsets. Apple said these new chips were specifically designed to make its laptops better at handling AI-intensive tasks. The new Pro laptops can handle AI tasks up to 4x faster than their M4 predecessors.
The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are up to 4x faster in direct LLM processing than the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and up to 8x faster in AI imaging than the M1 Pro and M1 Max.
MacBook Pro features up to 2x faster read/write performance than the previous generation and will start at 1 TB of storage for MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and 2 TB for MacBook Pro with M5 Max. The laptops have a battery life of up to 24 hours, and with a 96W USB-C adapter or higher, users can charge up to 50% battery in 30 minutes. The laptops support Thunderbolt 5 and have a six-speaker sound system.
The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the M5 Pro chip start at $2,199 and $2,699, respectively, while the models with the M5 Max chip start at $3,599 and $3,899 and are available in black or silver.
M5 MacBook Air
As with the new MacBook Pro models, Apple’s new MacBook Air was designed to better handle artificial intelligence tasks.
The new MacBook Air comes with 18 hours of battery life, which is a six-hour improvement over Apple’s 2020 Intel-based laptops, and features a 12MP Center Stage camera for video calls, a triple-microphone array, and a sound system with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos support. It also has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a MagSafe charging port and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,099 and the 15-inch model starts at $1,299. Available in sky blue, midnight, starlight and silver. The Air now also starts with 512GB of storage, doubling the base capacity of the previous model.
MacBook Neo
Apple has introduced a low-cost, entry-level laptop called the MacBook Neo, its answer to Google’s Chromebook. Starting at $599, the MacBook Neo is designed for students and users whose jobs don’t require intensive workflows like video editing or 3D rendering.
The 13-inch laptop is available in four colors: silver, blush, citrus and indigo. The base model has 256GB of storage, while the $699 model has 512GB of storage, plus Touch ID.
The laptop is powered by the A18 Pro chip, which powers the iPhone 16 Pro models, instead of the more powerful, expensive M5 chip used in the latest MacBook Air.
The MacBook Neo has a FaceTime HD 1080p camera and dual microphones, along with speakers on each side that support Spatial Audio. The battery can last up to 16 hours on a single charge, delivered via one of its two USB-C ports.
The MacBook Neo features a five-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, supporting similar levels of on-device gaming and AI tasks as a recent iPhone.
The laptop is also the most repairable MacBook in “about fourteen years,” according to a demolition from the iFixit website with instructions.
AirPods Max 2
Apple’s new over-the-ear headphones, the AirPods Max 2, cost $549 and feature active noise cancellation, Apple’s audio-specific H2 chip, live translation support, better sound quality, and more. The headphones are available in Midnight, Stellar, Orange, Purple and Blue.
Apple says the active noise cancellation (ANC) of the new headphones is up to 1.5 times more effective than its predecessor. And the Adaptive Audio feature allows the headphones to automatically adjust ANC and Transparency levels based on the user’s environment to optimize the listening experience.
The company says transparency mode is now more natural, thanks to a new digital signal processing algorithm optimized for the H2 chip and AirPods Max microphone array, so users can be aware of their surroundings and the people around them.
The headphones also support Camera Remote, a feature that lets you trigger the iPhone or iPad camera shutter remotely, along with a Loud Sound Reduction feature that helps protect users from loud environmental noise while preserving the sound signature of what they’re hearing.
Studio Display and Studio Display XDR
Apple unveiled a new $1,599 Studio Display and a $3,299 Studio Display XDR. The 27-inch screens feature upgraded cameras and improved connectivity. Both have a 12MP Center Stage camera, which Apple says offers improved image quality, and support Desk View, a feature that simultaneously shows your face and an aerial view of your desk.
The displays feature Thunderbolt 5 ports so they can be attached to accessories and used to connect up to four displays (Thunderbolt 5 Pro cable included).
Studio Display’s 5K Retina display has over 14 million pixels, 600 nits of brightness and supports the P3 wide-gamut color standard that covers a wider range of the visible color spectrum than standards like sRGB.
The Studio Display XDR features a Retina XDR 5K display (5120 x 2880 resolution) featuring mini-LED backlighting and more than 2,000 local brightness zones. It can reach up to 1,000 nits of SDR brightness and 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness and has a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. It also supports the Adobe RGB color standard.
M5 Pro and M5 Max chips
The new chips are designed around Apple’s new Fusion Architecture, an advanced design that includes a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, integrated memory controller, Neural Engine and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities.
Both chips feature an 18-core CPU, which marks an upgrade from the 14-core configuration in the M4 Pro and 16-core in the M4 Max.
The CPU now features six “super cores,” which is Apple’s term for the highest performance cores, along with 12 new performance cores. Collectively, the CPU boosts performance by up to 30% for professional workloads.
The M5 Pro supports up to 64 GB of integrated memory, up from 48 GB in the M4 Pro, with a bandwidth of 307 GB/s. The M5 Max continues to support up to 128GB of integrated memory, with increased bandwidth to 614GB/s.
New accessories
Apple has introduced new spring colors for its iPhone cases, Apple Watch bands and Crossbody Strap. Apple’s silicone case for the standard iPhone 17 now comes in three new colors: Bright Guava, Vanilla and Electric Lavender. Bright Guava and Vanilla are also available for iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.
The Apple Watch Sport Band is now available in Bright Guava, Clementine, and Soft Pink, while the Sport Loop adds Bright Guava, Blue Mist, and Cantaloupe to its color lineup.
The Crossbody Strap is now available in Bright Guava and Soft Pink.
