The last of the Apple events are done and with it comes a taste of the new era Apple is ushering their Macs into. Many of the general points I made about Apple Silicon in last week's primer were reinforced with the product announcements, so I'm going to avoid recapping. You can read 9to5Mac's recap or check out MacRumors' round up if you want an overview of all the announcements.

There were some good signals from the event, some notable omissions, and some obvious questions left unanswered. Let's get into some of that.

M1 now, for the low end

Apple revealed three refreshed computers with the same chip powering each of them—a 13" MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini. The only performance differences between these computers will come from the kind of cooling they utilize. For example, the 13" Pro will perform better than the 13" Air because it has air vents and a dedicated fan, which means the chip can be cooled better and thus run under load longer before being throttled. It's a curious choice that makes the distinction between the Air and Pro harder to discern until they're both put through real life workloads. How big will that performance difference be? I'm very curious.

On the bright side, the overall performance gains Apple touted are significant. These new machines will outperform the ones they're replacing while also introducing new benefits and features prior hardware could not deliver.

M1X later, for the high end?

The obvious absence of any higher end spec'd machines leaves so many questions. Why does memory top out at 16GB for M1? Is this a gen 1 architecture issue or a deliberate line drawn in the sand between high and low end? How many GPU cores will be needed to get close to, or surpass, the discrete GPU-toting models they'll be replacing? Will more high performance cores be needed to challenge Pro-level CPUs? What the hell is Apple going to do with the Mac Pro? Would they actually sell a desktop PC with no expandable memory and no discrete GPU support? I hope not but Apple is Apple and I can't cross something that drastic out yet.

There's no indication from Apple what the high end Macs will be like. If we look at iPads, however, we can make a safe assumption that a modified, higher end version of the M1 (or M2, if they wait long enough) will likely power the high-end 13" Pros (or maybe the first 14" Pros), all 16" Pros, and either/both the iMac/iMac Pro. I'm expecting that chip will for sure feature more CPU performance cores, more GPU cores, and support for higher memory and more Thunderbolt ports.

I'm at a loss for what Apple will do with the Mac Pro, though. My completely unsupported guess is it will be a two-chip configuration with additional custom silicon to make sure the discrete M1X/M2Xs work together effectively. Again, pure speculation.

Power (performance) vs power (draw)

Apple is focused on performance per watt with M1 and because they've chosen to focus on delivering the best performance at the lower possible power draw, they're going to hold that crown. This is a battle Apple can win out of the gate, immediately offering differentiation for their first gen products. Even better (for Apple) is that this not a battle Intel or AMD can win, let alone fight in. The product that benefits most from this is the MacBook Air. In the same way the Air pioneered the ultrabook product category, the M1-powered Air seems to have secured a comfortably cushioned spot at the very top for what could a long time.

Apple was weirdly vague with their comparison points

Apple's often more focused on marketing-friendly language when talking about performance improvements but their spartan graphs and unidentified-but-compared-to PC baseline hardware felt shady. If there's anything that put doubt in my mind about real world performance its that they didn't come out and say with any clarity which kinds of Intel/AMD chips the M1 is swinging at. They could have done it mostly jargon-free, without getting into specific model numbers, but they chose not to. It made what they were saying friendly to a general audience but of the three events they held this Fall, this was already the least interesting to their average consumer.

Bottom line

We're moving into a new era of Apple hardware. As someone who loves tech, I'm excited. Now that I've seen what the first step into that world looks like I can be relieved (for now) that they aren't going to blow it. Despite seeing the hardware and its most flattering numbers, my opinion hasn't changed much from my Apple Silicon primer. I would speak caution to anyone considering these machines unless they are the early adopter type or are already educated on what replacing an Intel based Mac means to their computer usage. This is first generation hardware—during a significant shift in how they're making said hardware—that is also paired with big changes to the software that it runs.

I'll volunteer a caveat, though. If you want a new Mac and you don't have heavy "pro" software needs the new Air sounds very good. Of the three machines revealed today, it's the one that interests me most. If I was certain it could handle my needs I would have ordered one immediately. It will run circles around the previous Air and it seems likely to be punching above its weight.