The latest Apple Event has finished and the Spring edition on 8 March entitled Peek Performance contained a treasure trove of new devices including iPhone SE, iPad Air and the all-new Mac Studio and Studio Display.
Just in case you missed it or want a recap because it flew by so quickly, here’s everything Apple announced at the event – in chronological order.
We also have a predictions article that looks in more depth at Apple’s plans for 2022.
New iPhone 13 colours
Apple eased us in with a couple of new colours for the iPhone 13 so if you’ve been waiting for a green model then there’s good news.
The regular iPhone 13 now comes in Green while the iPhone 13 Pro is now available in Alpine Green. You can pre-order them from 11 March ahead of their 18 March release.
iPhone SE 3
Colours are nice but a new iPhone is more interesting, and it comes in the form of the much anticipated iPhone SE for 2022 – though Apple is just calling it the SE like before rather than something, you know, reasonable like SE 3.
Although the design remains the same (with a Touch ID Home button and IP67 rating), it gets a number of hardware upgrades starting with the A15 Bionic chip – that’s the same one as the iPhone 13.
It also supports 5G and now has a 12Mp front facing camera with support for Smart HDR 4 and Deep Fusion. You also, of course, get iOS 15 with Apple saying the SE 2022 will get “updates for years to come.”
Prices start at £419/US$429 (the same as the 2020 model) with pre-orders starting 11 March ahead of its 18 March release.
Read our full guide to Apple’s third-gen iPhone SE.
iPad Air 2022
Fans of the iPad can rejoice as the new iPad Air for 2022 (aka the iPad Air 5) and now comes with the M1 chip with its 8-core CPU that’s 60% faster than than the A14. Apple also says the tablet is two times faster than the bestselling Windows laptop in the same price category.
The display offers True Tone technology and a 500 nit brightness and the front camera is now a 12Mp Ultrawide lens complete with support for Center Stage – Apple’s technology that can pan and zoom to keep you in the frame or add other people in.
A 5G cellular version is now an option alongside the regular Wi-Fi model and the new iPad Air comes in five colours: space grey, starlight, pink, purple, and a new blue.
The tablet starts at £569/US$599 (64GB) with pre-order and release dates the same as the iPhone SE.
Read our guide to the iPad Air 2022.
M1 Ultra
Onto completely new products now and on the silicon side, the M2 chip was rumoured for launch today but Apple had other plans.
Instead, we got the M1 Ultra which is now the top-of-the-line M1 SoC. Instead of being a brand new piece of silicon, Apple has literally joined two M1 Max chips together with a connection feature that was kept a secret until now.
In a nutshell, it’s an insanely powerful chip with headline figures of 2.5TB/s interprocessor bandwidth, 800GB/s memory bandwidth, a 64-core GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory.
This 5nm chip has no less than 114 billion transistors in an UltraFusion architecture.
Read all about the M1 line up including the M1 Ultra here: M1 Ultra joins M1 Pro and M1 Max in M1 line up.
Mac Studio
You’ll likely be pleased to know that the M1 Ultra is available in the all-new Mac Studio – this is essentially a Mac mini, but it’s been to the gym for some serious sessions and maybe taken some steroids too.
It’s mainly akin to the mini in design because when it comes to performance, with the M1 Ultra, Apple says it’s 80% faster than the Mac Pro. It can handle up to 18 streams of 8K Pro Res video, which is something no other computer can do.
Though it does come with an M1 Max option if you don’t need that ultimate performance. Either way, it has four Thunderbolt 4 ports at the back along with 10Gb ethernet, two USB-A, HDMI and a pro audio jack.
You can connect up to four Pro XDR displays as well as a 4K TV.
At the front are two more USB-C ports and an SD card reader. The design – 7.7in square and 3.7in – is designed to sit under a display and has a unique double-sided blower cooling system that sucks air in through the base and out the rear. Apple says you’ll barely hear it.
The Mac Studio starts at £1,999/US$1,999 for an M1 Max model or £3,999/US$3,999 for the M1 Ultra. Y ou can order today ahead of its 18 March release date.
Read our full guide to the Mac Studio.
Studio Display
The monitor Apple wants you to neatly sit the new Mac Studio underneath is the accompanying Studio Display.
This is a 27in display with a 5K Retina resolution totalling 14.7 million pixels along with True Tone technology and an anti-reflective coating. It goes to 600 nits brightness, offers P3 colour coverage and one billion colours.
The stand can tilt the display back up to 30 degrees and there’s even a 12Mp webcam with Center Stage support. Furthermore, there’s an impressive looking 6-speaker audio system with Spatial Audio support and there are three studio-quality mics.
The Studio Display also offers 96W power delivery over Thunderbolt which means you can charge your MacBook easily via it.
You can order the Studio Display from today ahead of its 18 March release starting at $1,599. Optional extras include a height-adjustable stand with a counterweight and a nano-texture glass for even fewer reflections.
Read our full guide to the Studio Display.
What wasn’t announced…
Of course, there are plenty of products that weren’t announced at the Spring Event so they remain upcoming or simply rumoured depending on your perspective.
They include the iMac 2022, new MacBook Pro for 2022, AirPods Pro 2022, 2022 iPad Pro, a cheaper Apple TV, Apple games console and a HomePod with screen.
