New MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) announced: everything we know so far

The Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) is finally here and it's one of the most exciting laptops we've ever seen, and could quite possibly be the best laptop ever made. The new MacBook Pro 16-inch was unveiled at Apple's Unleashed event on October 18 and we can say it was well worth the wait.

After the success of the M1 chip and the new, smaller MacBooks and iMac, all eyes turned to WWDC 2021 back in June hoping for an announcement then, but it wasn't meant to be, and we all had to wait until October for the new MacBook Pro 16-inch to finally be ready to be shown off.

Powered by either the new 10-core M1 Pro or M1 Max chips, which feature eight performance cores and two efficiency cores, the new MacBook Pro 16-inch is a major step up performance wise, but it doesn't end there.

Apple says both the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are twice as fast as the Intel Core i9 in the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019). The M1 Pro maxes out at at 32GB RAM, while the M1 Max maxes out at 64GB. 

The company also says that efficiency of the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) can extend the battery life as long as 21 hours, which is well beyond what even the longest lasting Intel or AMD laptop processors are capable of.

Moving on to the GPU, the M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16-inch features a 16 core GPU, while the M1 Max MacBook Pro 16-inch sports a 32-core GPU for the fastest graphics on a MacBook Pro ever.

There is so much more to dig into with the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021), so lets break down everything we know.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The successor to the original MacBook Pro 16-inch
• When is it out? You can preorder now, with deliveries starting on October 26.
• What will it cost? The new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) will start at $2,499 (£2,399, AU$3,749) for the M1 Pro model, while the M1 Max model will start at $3,499 (£3,299, AU$5,249).

MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) release date and price

The new Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) is open for preorders now, with deliveries expected to begin on October 26. The starting price for the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) M1 Pro model is $2,499 (£2,399, AU$3,749), with the M1 Max model starting at $3,499 (£3,299, AU$5,249).

MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) design

As far as the design of the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021), there isn't a whole lot of change beyond the updated ports. The chassis comes in two colors, silver and space gray, and while we'd have liked to see some brighter colors, we can't be too picky given everything else we saw today.

Some highlights though on the port side of things. The MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) will feature three Thunderbolt 4 ports, one HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, and a MagSafe 3 port, along with a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, Force Touch trackpad, and a 140W USB-C power adapter.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) Display

The display of the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) Is another stunner from Apple, with a Liquid Retina XDR display featuring mini-LED technology that delivers up to 1,000 nits of sustained, full-screen brightness. Better still, the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) is capable of up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

The display offers P3 wide color gamut coverage and supports one billion colors for the smoother gradients. Best of all, the display also comes with the expected 120Hz refresh rate, making it the fastest MacBook Pro 16-inch display yet.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) specs

Boy howdy, where to start. Well, we guess we should start with the M1 Pro chip and the M1 Max chip.

The M1 Pro chip offers a huge boost over the first generation Apple silicon, the Apple M1 chip. Apple promises that the M1 Pro and M1 Max are twice as powerful as the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019) powered by an Intel Core i9 processor, and while we still need to see it for ourselves before accepting that claim, its definitely in the realm of possibility given that the Intel Core i9 is an eight-core chip with no efficiency cores at all.

Here are some of the stats Apple has provided for its expected performance gains of the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019):

• Up to 3.7x faster project builds using Xcode.
• Up to 3x more Amp Designer plug-ins in Logic Pro.
• Up to 2.8x faster computational fluid dynamics performance in NASA TetrUSS.
• Up to 9.2x faster 4K render in Final Cut Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 13.4x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 5.6x faster combined vector and raster GPU performance in Affinity Photo with M1 Pro, and up to 8.5x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 3.6x faster effect render in Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio with M1 Pro, and up to 5x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 8.7x faster object tracking performance in Final Cut Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 11.5x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 7.2x faster scene edit detection in 1080p ProRes 422 video in Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Up to 2.6x faster performance when selecting subjects in images in Adobe Photoshop.
• Up to 3x faster computational fluid dynamics performance in NASA TetrUSS.
• Up to 2.1x faster project builds in Xcode.
• Up to 2.1x faster publish performance in Vectorworks.
• Up to 2.9x faster combined vector and raster GPU performance in Affinity Photo with M1 Pro, and up to 4.5x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 2.5x faster render in Maxon Cinema 4D with Redshift with M1 Pro, and up to 4x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 1.7x faster 8K render in Final Cut Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 2.9x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 4.4x faster scene edit detection in 1080p ProRes 422 video in Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Up to 3.6x faster object tracking performance in Final Cut Pro with M1 Pro, and up to 4.9x faster with M1 Max.
• Up to 1.5x faster performance with M1 Pro and up to 2x faster with M1 Max when selecting subjects in images in Adobe Photoshop.

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