Everything You Missed While You Were Working

Tim Cook promised a “big week ahead” at the start of March. He wasn’t underselling it. Over three days Apple announced seven products, updated two display lines, and somehow still found time to release a laptop powered by an iPhone chip. Here’s what actually happened and what’s worth paying attention to.

MacBook Neo
The headline act and Apple’s most affordable Mac ever. It runs a modified version of the A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro — fanless, 13-inch aluminium body, four colours, and 8GB of unified memory with no upgrade path. We’ve written a full breakdown elsewhere in this issue.

MacBook Pro M5 Pro & M5 Max
The Pro lineup gets the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, Wi-Fi 7, Thunderbolt 5, and base storage starting at 1TB. Apple claims 24 hours of battery life — independent testing puts the real number at 16–20 hours, which still comfortably beats anything else at this price point. Full story in this issue.

MacBook Air M5
Quietly the most important update for many people. The M5 Air maintains 16GB of base RAM, doubles base storage to 512GB with an SSD that’s 2x faster than the M4’s, adds Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and is now configurable up to 4TB for the first time. Apple also claims up to 18 hours of battery life. For everyday professional use, it remains the one to buy.

iPhone 17e
Apple’s affordable iPhone gets the A19 chip — the same generation powering the iPhone 17, built on TSMC’s 3nm process — along with MagSafe, 256GB base storage, and a C1X modem delivering up to 2x faster cellular performance than the iPhone 16e. Same starting price as its predecessor, meaningfully better across the board.

iPad Air M4
Steps up from M3 to M4, and the numbers that matter most aren’t the headline ones. Yes, it’s 30% faster than the M3 model — but the more significant upgrades are a jump from 8GB to 12GB RAM and a memory bandwidth increase to 120GB/s. With iPadOS 26 running heavier AI workloads, that extra headroom will matter more than CPU speed for most users. Same starting price as before.

Studio Display & Studio Display XDR
The refreshed Studio Display gains Thunderbolt 5, a 12MP Centre Stage camera with Desk View, and improved speakers. The all-new Studio Display XDR goes further — a 27-inch 5K mini-LED panel at 120Hz with 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness and 2,304 local dimming zones, aimed at creative professionals who need colour-accurate HDR work without the Pro Display XDR price tag.

Not a bad week’s work for a company that didn’t even hold a keynote. All of it arrived via press releases — which is either refreshingly efficient or suspiciously low-key, depending on your level of Apple enthusiasm.

Contact Mike Scragg 0218373727 or email: mike.scragg@imagetext.co.nz

Contact Kelly Wang 0211263895 or email: kelly.wang@imagetext.co.nz

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