Let's talk M1 Macs, iPhone 12 mini and Pro Max, new consoles, and more

It's been one heck of a week, folks!

Welcome back to another week where the world did not burn down. In fact, things are looking just a tad, dare I say, better? Anyway, let's dive in, because a lot has happened in the past week.

Last Tuesday, Apple unveiled its own silicon, dubbed M1. Apple's M1 chip debuts on three new Macs: the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. With the M1 chip, it's a system-on-chip (SoC), so you get the CPU, GPU, T2, and RAM, all in a single, tiny chip. It features eight cores, with four of them used to maximize performance, and the other four for power efficiency. When Macs are armed with the M1, they'll be more powerful and efficient, outperforming previous generation Intel Macs. In fact, an early benchmark test shows that the new M1 MacBook Air outperforms the Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro. If the MacBook Air can do that, then imagine how the 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini will perform? I'm eager to see some real-life tests though, and not just go off benchmarks.

However, one of the more disappointing aspects of Apple M1 Macs is the fact that they cap out at 16GB of RAM, and you won't be able to upgrade that later on. When you go to purchase one, you'll discover that they all start out at 8GB of RAM, but can only go up to 16GB. And since the RAM is on the M1 SoC, and not traditional RAM, it will be impossible to upgrade. This is very disappointing for a lot of people who need more than 16GB of RAM. Then again, this is the infancy of M1 Macs, and to be honest, what Apple unveiled is considered the "low-end" Macs. I predict that Apple will bump up the amount of RAM for the M1 versions of the 16-inch MacBook Pro and iMac, and perhaps the iMac Pro and Mac Pro someday.

In other Apple-related content, our own Lory Gil reviewed both the iPad Air 4 and iPhone 12 mini! While I won't be getting an iPad Air 4 (I just got the 11-inch iPad Pro earlier in the year), I'm excited that Apple has brought more Pro-level features down to affordable iPads. Plus, those colors look fantastic (I'm jelly of anyone who has Rose Gold or Green), and I like the idea of having no Home button, but still having Touch ID in the power button. Hope Apple can bring that over to the iPhone someday.

And while I love the size of the iPhone 12 mini (I was really thinking about getting it), I just can't downgrade from the iPhone 12 Pro features. Seriously Apple, just let me have a small phone with powerful, Pro-level features, is that too much to ask for? Maybe it'll be possible in a few years. But I'm glad that the iPhone 12 mini exists because it is definitely a great phone for those who want a small phone that's still a flagship.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the iPhone 12 Pro Max also came out, and it's a total beast with the cameras. As much as I want to have the best cameras on an iPhone, I simply cannot deal with that ginormous size. I hope Apple goes back to having the two Pro models be the same, just different screen sizes like the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Tomorrow, the HomePod mini will officially be available, and from early reviews, it's looking pretty good. I didn't purchase any just yet, but I eventually want to replace all of my Echo Dots in the house with HomePod minis. In gaming news, this week was huge with the release of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, so make sure to hit up our sister sites, Windows Central and Android Central, for their great reviews of both systems. And if you're in the market for a cute headset for music or gaming, then I recommend checking out the Razer Kraken BT Kitty Edition, which I reviewed — it's so kawaii!

Until next week, folks!

-Christine Romero-Chan

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