Biggest takeaways of Apple's M1 Pro, M1 Max chips and third-generation AirPods

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley breaks down Apple’s latest product releases.

Video transcript

KARINA MITCHELL: Welcome back. For all you techies, the wait is finally over. Apple unveiling some highly anticipated new products today ahead of the holiday season. Here with details on what might show up under the tree is Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley. Dan, talk about those microchips, first of all. It's a big story, right?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, so what Apple did today was had its second hardware event since the launch of the iPhone 13. And really, what this was focused on was its new processors, its new chips. We already know that Apple makes the chips in the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, and its M1 chip for its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13-inch. But now it's launching its M1 Max and M1 Pro chips. And those are going to be found in the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch. These chips are supposedly, according to Apple, incredibly powerful and easily put Intel and AMD on notice, as well as potentially Nvidia with its graphics capabilities.

Now, from the presentation, Apple said that the new M1-powered M1 Pro and M1 Max-powered MacBook Pros are 3.7 times faster than the prior core I7-powered MacBook Pro, the core I7 being an Intel chip, obviously. And then as far as graphics performance goes, they say that the 16-inch M1 Pro is 2.5 times faster than the prior generation MacBook Pro with an AMD Radeon Pro chip-- Vizio Graphics, by the way. And then the M1 Max is 4 times faster than that AMD graphics chip. And that's just mind boggling, the fact that they're this powerful coming out of the gate.

So I think these are going to be some of the top performers from Apple for some time in terms of overall performance. And like I said, it really does put Intel and AMD a bit on notice, because they're showing that they are able to produce these high end chips that Apple didn't have before.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: So Dan, I want to ask about some other things that were revealed today. I know they've got that next generation of the Airpod out. What do you think about it, and do you think it's going to be a big on-demand-- in-demand kind of item for the holidays?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, these are definitely going to be something that a lot of people are going to be asking for around the holidays. They start at 179. They're the third generation of the AirPods. They're not the AirPods Pro. The AirPods Pro have those interchangeable tips. And they also have active noise cancelation. These are the standard AirPods, but they do have a new design similar to the AirPods Pro. But they have just a regular kind of design to them, no changeable ear tips at all. They do have spatial audio, though.

And they're also now, thankfully, sweat and rainproof. So if you end up sweating a lot-- it's basically like I jump in the shower every time I go for a run-- you don't have to worry. And that's not something that you need to necessarily worry about before. I use AirPods all the time, and I never had an issue. But it's nice to know that they won't break if I happen to get caught outside or I do just take them in the shower probably. That's something weird to do.

But they're also going to have six hours of battery life per charge. So that means any time you use them, you'll get six hours of listening. And then you'll get 30 hours of additional battery life out of that charge. They start at 179, so they're more expensive than the base AirPods. But they do have that added feature of spatial audio, the new design, as well as that water resistance and the extra battery life. So I definitely do think for 179, a lot of people are going to be looking for this, this year.

KARINA MITCHELL: OK, Dan Howley, thank you for that input.