$6,099.
That’s the price of Apple’s latest 16″ MacBook Pro with the new M1 Max chip — if you max out all of the hardware specifications, too.
That’s quite a different price than the already hefty $2,499 starting price Apple advertised at its Apple Event on Monday.
What do you get with this more than six thousand dollar computer?
First let’s talk about the basics. At Monday’s Apple Event, Tim Cook and company unveiled its latest in the line of its in-house processing chip, the M1. The new chips, the M1 Pro and M1 Max, are faster, more powerful and energy efficient than ever before. And, now, they come in 14″ and 16″ models of the MacBook Pro for the first time. (The M1 was previously only available in 13″ MacBook Pros. The other models were still stuck with Intel chips.)
During the announcement, it took forever for Apple to get to the pricing on these new devices. Here at Mashable we braced for the eventual impact of the new cost of the new MacBook Pros. The starting prices did hit at somewhat expected price points: $1,999 for the 14″ Pro and $2,499 for the 16″.
But, of course, I knew the real fun with the pricing was to be had when the online Apple Store reopened and you upgrade the hardware well-beyond the stock options.
The 16″ $6,099 laptop comes with the most powerful of its new M1 chips, which Apple unveiled at the event: the M1 Max.
The base 16″ MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip, 32GB of memory, and a 1TB SSD is $3,499. If you want that M1 Max chip, that’s the lowest price.
The M1 Max is only available with 32GB or 64GB of memory. That’s a lot and no regular, everyday computer user needs that much power. So even though the M1 Pro is called the “Pro,” the “Max” is really the professional level chip here.
But, we’re maxing out here, remember? Once 64GB is thrown in for an extra $400, we move to storage. The minimum you can go with a 16″ MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip is 1TB. The maximum? A monstrous 8TB.
If you want an 8TB internal solid-state drive, that’s going to cost you an additional $2,200 over the base 1TB SSD.
These computers are not upgradable once you purchase one. You can’t open these up and add more internal storage or upgrade the RAM. However, realistically, you don’t need that much internal storage. You can always carry a small, portable SSD drive if you need more space.
So, if you just add the 64GB memory upgrade and keep the internal 1TB drive, we’re looking at $3,899. (And we are sticking with the 16″ model because the creative professionals these computers are built for need the extra screen space.)
Yes, it’s still a lot of money, but not as much as the absolute maximum priced $6,099 16″ MacBook Pro.
Either way, it’s a lot of money. Better hope you’re approved for that Apple Card.
