Apple Unveils 15-Inch MacBook Air, M2 Ultra Chip at WWDC 2023
Apple reveals a massive 15-inch MacBook Air, an upgraded Mac Studio, and the powerful M2 Ultra chip at its annual developer conference. The company also introduces new iOS 17 features like NameDrop and a StandBy mode.
Apple kicks off WWDC 2023 with a massive hardware and software reveal, headlined by the 15-inch MacBook Air. The new laptop stands as Apple's largest consumer laptop, weighing just three pounds and measuring 11.5 mm thin to claim the title of the thinnest 15-inch laptop available. It boasts an impressive 18 hours of battery life and includes a six-speaker sound system for an enhanced audio experience.
On the desktop front, Apple updates the Mac Studio with the new M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips, delivering significantly faster neural engine performance and increased video bandwidth for 8K displays. In a surprise announcement, the company also reveals the long-awaited Apple Silicon-powered Mac Pro. These desktop upgrades rely entirely on the new M2 Ultra chip, which fuses two dies into a single package featuring up to 134 billion transistors, 24 CPU cores, and 76 GPU cores while supporting up to 192 GB of unified memory.
In the software realm, iOS 17 brings a variety of quality-of-life improvements to iPhone users. A new AirDrop feature called NameDrop allows people to seamlessly share contact information and photos simply by bringing two devices close together. Additionally, Apple introduces a new Journal app, a StandBy mode, and removes the requirement to say "hey" before triggering Siri, streamlining the voice assistant's activation process.