Apple Spring Peek Performance Event: An ULTRA Leap Forward!

What started as a rumor for only two devices to launch on Apple’s Spring Peek Performance Event, which is the 2022 iPhone SE 5G and the latest edition of the iPad Air with an M1 Chipset, has blown up to be an event to introduce two other major product announcements, the Studio Display and the Mac Studio which can be equipped with the new and even faster M1 UItra Chipset, so let’s go through each of these devices and what are prices here in Malaysia!

 

So before introducing the products, similar to last year, there was a new color for the iPhone 13 lineup, which is in Green for the nonpro variants, and it is called Alpine Green for the Pro and the Pro Max variants. Based on my first impressions looking at these images, I truly love this army green color finish, as it is something that Apple has yet to put in their smartphones. So I am indeed looking forward to having a hands-on experience with this new color variant.

 

2022 iPhone SE 5G

 

Next, for the new product announcements, starting from the 2022 iPhone SE, What’s new in the iPhone SE is, of course, the latest and greatest A15 Bionic chipset with 5G support, the same Chipset that is in the latest iPhone 13 lineup, which obviously has all the great photography software features that the iPhone 13 lineup came with including Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles, Deep Fusion™, the similar Portrait modes and Portrait Lighting for the rear 12 Megapixel camera lens. Now with this new chipset, we are looking at the fastest chipset compared to other competitors at any price, which means that other than photography, the phone is expected to perform really well for gaming and any heavy task that you through at it. As for the phone’s design, one may argue that there is no design change, but one thing that everyone needs to keep in mind is the fact that this is the most popular iPhone model. Therefore, it is considered the perfect phone for someone who wants to go into the iPhone Ecosystem at a great price.

It has a 4.7-inch Retina display and features an aerospace-grade aluminum and glass design, the same as at the back of the iPhone 13 and the 13 Pro, which is IP67 Dust And Water Resistant Rated as well. Apple has also retained the Home button with the touch ID over there as well. It comes shipped iOS 15, which rest assured there will be tons of software support for years to come. The 2022  iPhone SE 5G comes in colors such as Midnight, Starlight, and (Product) Red and starts at only RM2,099, 

iPad Air

 

Taking a look at the second product announcement, the new 2022 iPad Air has a huge performance bump, as it now has the M1 Chip inside with 5G support as well, joining the iPad Pro line up of tablets making this iPad Air the most powerful AND versatile iPad Air Ever because the 8-core CPU delivers up to 60 percent faster performance. In addition, the 8-core GPU delivers up to 2x faster graphics performance than the previous iPad Air.

 

Speaking of performance, since the iPad Pro with the M1 Chipset was hand down the best Genshin Impact gaming performance I had compared to any other tablet; now, with this lighter form factor, it is indeed a huge welcome! And do expect a performance boost for different areas of creative work, like video editing, photo editing, and more.

 

It comes with 10.9-inch Liquid Retina Display, with 3.8 million pixels, 500 nits of brightness, and a P4 wide color gamut.

 

What’s extra sweet is that the 12-megapixel front camera also supports Center Stage. In addition, it has a USB C port, which is obviously 2 times faster than the previous generation lighting port with data transfers up to 10Gbps and tons of USB C accessories, like the magic keyboard, smart keyboard folio, and the 2nd Generation Apple Pencil and even the ability to support an external display up to 6k resolution.

 

It comes shipped with iPad OS 15, so you can expect all of the latest and greatest features of iPad OS15 here, and the super nice thing about this new generation iPad Air is, of course, the vast array of colors available like space grey, starlight, pink, purple, and blue.

The starting price for this new iPad Air is RM2,699 for the Wi-Fi model and RM3,349 for the Wi-Fi and cellular model.

 

M1 Ultra

 

 

Before introducing the two new products from Apple, they have decided to up the ante for their Apple Silicon chip by presenting the latest M1 Ultra.

 

So what’s interesting is that apparently, even when the M1 Pro and the M1 Max were introduced, there was a “secret” future feature that gives the ability to connect the die of two M1 Max to create an even more powerful chipset than the M1 Max.Now instead of taking two M1 Max physically, Apple did this using the UltraFusion packaging Architecture uses a silicon interposer that connects the chips to make them behave and recognize by software as a single chip! How brilliant is that!???

 

So yes, this means that we are looking at a Memory bandwidth increasing to 800GB/s and up to freaking 128 gigabytes of unified memory! Then when it comes to CPU, it has an extraordinarily powerful 20 core CPU, 64 Core GPU, which is 8 times more than the M1 chipset, 32 neural engine cores. With the new media engine capabilities, this M1 Ultra can play back up to 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video, which no other computer in the world can do, this is surely a HUGE leap forward in the transition to Apple Silicon from the M1, M1 Pro, the M1 Max, and now the M1 Ultra!

 

Mac Studio

 

So with the introduction of the new M1 Ultra comes the new Mac Studio! Keep in mind that this new Mac Studio will come with the M1 Max configuration so that you can choose either the M1 Max or the M1 Ultra. So this new form factor is built from single aluminum extrusion with a size of 7.7 inches square by 3.7 inches height, making this beast of a machine perfectly fitting under displays or anywhere around the desk. Underneath, there are 4,000 perforations on the back and bottom of the enclosure that guide air through the internal components and help to cool the high-performance chips. In terms of connectivity, this new Mac Studio has tons of options at the back four Thunderbolt 4 ports to connect displays and high-performance devices, a 10Gb Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a pro audio jack for high-impedance headphones or external amplified speakers and there is Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.0 are built-in as well. 

There are two USB-C ports in front, which on M1 Max supports 10Gb/s USB 3, and on M1 Ultra supports 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 4, and there is also an SD card slot.

 

 

And worth mentioning is the fact that this Mac Studio has extensive display support up to four Pro Display XDRs, plus a 4K TV.

 

And while we already knew who extremely well the M1 Max did when it comes to overall performance compared to previous generation devices, with this M1 Ultra, we are looking at up to 60 percent faster CPU performance than the previous 28-core Mac Pro, up to 80 percent faster than the fastest Mac graphics card available today, up to 5.6x faster than 28-core Mac Pro when transcoding video. In terms of pricing, it will be available really soon where the Mac Studio starts at RM8,799, and there are also configure to order options available on the Apple Online store as well.

 

Studio Display

 

Then finally, after YEARS and YEARS of waiting, we finally got the update of Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, which is is the Studio Display. Fun Fact, my first ever Desk Setup video that I did in this channel way back in 2018, had the Apple Thunderbolt Display, so I REALLY was looking forward to this. Now this gorgeous all-screen design with narrow borders has an all-aluminum design. The built-in stand can tilt up to 30 degrees; there is also an additional option for tilt and height adjustments, together with a VESA mount adapter option. The display is a 27 inch 5k resolution display with 14.7 million pixels, 600 nits of brightness. It has a P3 wide color gamut, so we are looking at a very color-accurate high-resolution monitor, which I REALLY need right now, especially since I shoot in 6k resolution; I cant wait to see my footage other than a typical 4k monitor that I also edited on.

In terms of the viewing environment of the monitor, it has True Tone, and like the Pro Display XDR, there is the Nano Texture glass option, too, if you need it. The resolution is, and screen size is not all because this monitor is also powered with the A13 Bionic chipset, it has a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera which also has center stage, 3 microphone studio-quality microphones, 6 high fidelity speaker system, 4 canceling woofers and 2 high-performance tweeters which supports Spatial Audio as well. That’s not it, because there are additional connectivity options on the Studio Display, where there are three USB-C ports that deliver speeds up to 10Gb/s to connect high-speed. A Thunderbolt port enables you to connect the Studio Display. In addition, any connected peripherals to their Mac with a single cable and the same cable also deliver 96W of power to a Mac notebook, allowing Studio Display to even fast-charge a 14-inch MacBook Pro where you can connect up to three Studio Displays with a MacBook Pro.

Also worth mentioning is that there is now a silver-and-black color option for Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse as well, which you can make a purchase separately. As for the price and availability here in Malaysia, it will be available soon where it will start at a price of RM6,999.

 

So there you have it, all of the product announcements of Apple’s Spring Peek Performance Event, with this, do let me know which one of these devices are you excited with the most and hopefully, I can get my hands on them and go in-depth in my video review.