Apple releases its ‘greenest Mac ever’ in new MacBook Air
The latest $1,199 laptop is made from recycled tin and aluminium
Dubai: Apple unveiled a new MacBook Air, a revived Mac mini, and an upgraded iPad Pro at its Brooklyn event on Tuesday, with
Billing its latest laptop as “the greenest Mac ever”, the MacBook Air is made from recycled aluminium with a recycled tin motherboard, while 35 per cent of the plastic is post-consumer. This, Apple says, reduces the carbon footprint by 50 per cent.
Despite being tipped as a potentially more affordable laptop, the new Air will start at $1,199, several hundred dollars more expensive than the $849 model sold previously. Apple will start taking orders from Tuesday, with both new Macs expected to ship on November 7.
The Mac mini, dormant for four years, is back with a new and improved processor, five times more powerful than its 2014 predecessor.
Coming in Space Grey, the base specification of 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD starts at $799, a price hike on the previous entry level model, which sold for $499.
The casing of the Mac mini will also be made up of 100 per cent recycled aluminium.
Apple also unveiled its latest iPad Pro alongside the two computers on Tuesday, complete with hard edges harking back to the original iPad, and a thin bezel and liquid retina display similar to the latest iPhones.
Also much like the latest phones in Apple’s portfolio, the new iPad Pro will not have a home button.
Users will be able to unlock the tablet through the same facial recognition technology that Apple has used since last year’s iPhone X, FaceID.
With an upgraded chip, “these iPad Pros are faster than 92 per cent of all portable PCs sold in the last 12 months,” said the Apple executive tasked with unveiling the new device.
Apple claims to have sold a total of more than 400 million iPads.
The company also said it would be swapping out its lightning chargers on the new iPad Pro, instead opting to use the USB-C cable instead. Experts say this will make the tablet more usable as a computer, while allowing outward charging of devices such as iPhones.
Starting at $799 for an 11 inch model with 64GB of space, the 12.9 inch iPad Pro will cost $999 for the same storage. The old 10.5 inch Pro will see its price cut to $649 as a result.
In a community announcement away from the hardware, Apple said it would add another 60 classes to its stores, including a video creation class and a kids photography lesson. And, as expected, iOS 12.1 went live on Tuesday afternoon, allowing group FaceTime, new emojis, and dual SIM support for eSIMs.