Traditionally, when Apple debuts new or upgraded products, the first deliveries are always made in Australia and New Zealand, thanks to global time zone differences. Since it is officially Tuesday, June 13 in those countries, customers have started receiving deliveries of their pre-ordered new 15-inch MacBook Air, M2 Ultra Mac Studio, or Mac Pro.
The new Macs debuted June 5 at WWDC 2023 and Apple started accepting pre-orders on that same day. June 13 is also the day that the new Macs are available in-store. While New Zealand currently lacks any Apple retail store locations, there are retail stores in Australia, so customers of those stores have the first shot at buying one of the new Macs directly off the shelf.
Mac Studio
The Mac Studio is up to 6x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac and is up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio, which used the M1 Ultra chip.
Apple says the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra and Mac Pro both have far more memory than the most advanced workstation graphics cards, featuring up to 192GB of unified memory.
Mac Studio with M2 Max features a 12-core CPU, up to a 38-core GPU, and up to 96GB of unified memory with 400GB/s of memory bandwidth. The new Mac Studio is up to 50% faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio and is up to 4x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.
Mac Pro
The new Mac Pro boasts Apple’s most powerful 24-core CPU, an up to 76-core GPU, and starts with twice the memory and SSD storage. It can also be configured with up to 192GB of memory with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. Both the Mac Studio and Mac Pro can play up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes video.
The new Mac Pro provides PCIe expansion, with seven PCle expansion slots, with six open expansion slots that support gen 4, which is 2x faster than before.
The Mac Pro offers eight built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports — six on the back and two on the top — twice as many as before. It supports up to six Pro Display XDRs, along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The Mac Pro also includes three USB-A ports, two higher-bandwidth HDMI ports that support up to 8K resolution and up to 240Hz frame rates, two 10Gb Ethernet ports, and a headphone jack.
15.3-inch MacBook Air
The new 15-inch MacBook Air, which features a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, is powered by an M2 SoC, offers up to 18 hours of battery life, and features a silent, fanless design.
The new MacBook Air weighs just 3.3 pounds and measures only 11.5mm thick, which Apple says makes it the world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop. It sports an all-new six-speaker sound system, which delivers immersive Spatial Audio. The new Air also has a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and uses MagSafe charging.
The new MacBook Air also boasts two Thunderbolt ports, which come in handy for peripherals, as well as an up to a 6K external display, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It will be available in four finishes — midnight, starlight, space gray, and silver.
Pricing
Pricing on the 15-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,299, while the Mac Studio is priced starting at $2,000 for the base M2 Max version and $4,000 for the base M2 Ultra model. The Mac Pro is priced starting at $6,999, and all models ship with the M2 Ultra chip.
Sales and deliveries of the updated Macs will next kick off in Asia, Europe, and North America, respectively.
Mac Pro “Product of Thailand?”
In related news, Apple’s new Mac Pro carries a “Product of Thailand” label, even though the final assembly of the “Pro” desktop Mac still takes place in the United States. (FCC filing)
The previous-generation Mac Pro was released in 2019 and at the time Apple said the computer included components manufactured by over one dozen American companies for units to be sold to U.S. customers. However, it is unclear how many “made in America” components are in the new Mac Pro, considering the computer’s “Product of Thailand” label.
Fine print on 2023 Mac Pro models sold in the U.S. reads:
Designed by Apple in California. Product of Thailand. Final assembly in the USA.
The 2013 and 2019 models of the Mac Pro were both assembled by Flex in Austin, Texas. The label on the new Mac Pro indicates that final assembly of the Mac Pro will continue to be based in the U.S. All other Macs are manufactured and assembled in Asian countries.
