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MATT BOLTON says the M1 confirms that Apple’s definition of “pro” for the future is more about features than power
FOR THE LAST few years the word “pro” has sat uneasily as a label across a range of Apple’s products. In times past the simplest explanation of what “pro” meant for Apple’s laptops or desktops was: more power. Faster processors or more cores, and usually some extra expandability. But more recently it’s been fuzzier, and 2020’s releases have made it more so. The iPhone 12 Pro is no more powerful than the iPhone 12, the iPad Pro is on roughly the same level as the iPad Air, and both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air now share one extremely powerful chip. Making such incredible processor advancements means Apple has effectively commodified “pro” performance. It’s normal now to be able to edit 100–megapixel, multi–layer images on a MacBook Air. So what does it really mean to create a “pro” machine?