Everything Apple Announced at Its “Peek Performance” Event

Today is Apple day! The company took to the virtual stage and unveiled a slew of new products, including a powerful iPad Air, a revised iPhone SE with 5G, and more.

Apple kicked off its Spring “Peek Performance” event by immediately talking about a few exciting new Apple TV shows and movies, then jumped right into hardware with a new iPhone SE for 2022 and a crazy expensive Mac Studio computer.

If you didn’t have time to follow along, we gathered up all the details for you. So, here’s everything Apple announced today at its first hardware launch event of 2022.

A New iPhone SE with 5G

As expected, Apple kicked off the event by announcing the highly anticipated iPhone SE upgrade we’ve all been waiting for. It’s still the same small wallet-friendly iPhone from yesteryear, with the physical home button and all, but now it’s substantially faster in every aspect.

The latest iPhone SE sports a 4.7-inch retina display, IP67 dust and water resistance, 5G, and a durable yet familiar design. Apple added aerospace-grade aluminum and ultra-tough glass on the front and back of the phone. That’s the same tough glass on the rear of the iPhone 13.

Speaking of similarities to the iPhone 13, Apple’s new iPhone SE also packs the same powerful A15 Bionic processor as its current flagship phone. This means it’s faster than ever before, can handle all the latest software and camera features, 5G support, and Apple promised it’ll offer “better” battery life but didn’t mention much else in that regard.

You can get one for $429 starting on March 18th, and Pre-orders open at 5 AM PST on March 11th.

Green Phone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro

A popular trend the last few years is for Apple to release a fun new color for its latest phone at these events. If you miss the green hues from the iPhone 11 or iPhone 12, you’ll be happy with this newest addition.

The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro each get a different new green color variant this year. The iPhone 13 lineup will be available in green, while the bigger iPhone 13 Pro will come in an “alpine green” that’s not quite as vibrant. Both new colorways are available to order on March 11th and ship by March 18th.

The M1-Powered iPad Air

We all knew it was coming, but now it’s finally official. Apple has upgraded the popular iPad Air in a big way, throwing the powerful desktop-class M1 processor inside. While the 2022 model iPad Air retains the same design and screen size as previous generations, it’ll be extremely powerful and an excellent portable computer thanks to the M1 chip offering 60% faster CPU performance and double the performance on gaming.

Making its way to the Air is 5G support, an upgraded 12MP camera with Center Stage support, and several new colors for the same original $599 starting price.

Like almost everything announced today, the new iPad Air will be available on March 18th, with pre-orders on the 11th.

M1 Ultra Silicon

Think again if you thought Apple was running out of names for its new M1 processor line. Instead of a new M2, today, the company announced an insanely powerful Apple M1 “Ultra” to join the family along with the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max.

Sporting the “Ultra” name, you know this thing will be powerful. Up on stage, Apple talked about all the crazy capabilities of this chip and all it has to offer. It sounds like they combined two M1 Max chips into one super ultra chip. So now, those who need ridiculous power, insane performance, and lots of efficiencies can spend a pretty penny on the M1 Ultra.

The Ultra is a 20-core processor capable of 2.5TB/s of bandwidth, up to 128GB of RAM, a 32-core Neural Engine, and a 64-core GPU architecture. Now, this is “Peek Performance.”

The Mac Studio

If you’re interested in that insanely powerful new M1 Ultra silicon, you’ll be able to get it inside Apple’s tiny new Mac Studio. It’s a little bigger than the old Mac Mini, coming in at 7.7×7.7×3.7-inches, but packs a serious punch. In addition, Apple made sure it’s short enough to fit under most displays. That way, it can sit on your desk for easy access.

The Mac Studio starts at $1,999 with the M1 Max chip, which gets you excellent performance along with four Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports, a 10-gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI, two USB-A ports, and an audio jack. You’ll find two more USB-C ports and an SD slot on the front for additional connectivity and peripherals. As you can imagine, the price jumps up to $4,000 with the new M1 Ultra inside, and Apple’s absolute highest-end Mac Studio is an eye-watering $7,999.

You can get the new Mac Studio and M1 Ultra starting March 18th.

Apple Studio Display

Apple has a new display you can pair to your Mac Pro or that new Mac Studio, and it sounds impressive. The all-new Apple Studio Display features a 27-inch 5K screen with all the bells and whistles. There’s a built-in 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with Center Stage support, three mics for content creators and video calls, and a booming six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio support.

This new screen has three USB-C ports on the back and one Thunderbolt port for connections capable of outputting 96 watts of power for even the most power-hungry products. Plus, Apple said it’ll support multiple different mounting options, support tilting stands, VESA mounts, and more. Thankfully, it doesn’t have the same high price tag as the Pro Display XDR from a few years ago.

Instead, the Studio Display is “only” $1,599, and you can get one on March 18th.

Other Tidbits

While everything mentioned above is pretty fantastic, that’s not all Apple had to share today. Additionally, Apple announced its first live sports streaming deal, starting with Friday Night Major League Baseball games. Those with Apple TV+ will get exclusive access to two MLB games each Friday during the regular season, and that includes a pregame and postgame show. That’s if we get a season, of course.

Speaking of Apple TV+, Tim Cook also talked about several exciting new TV shows, series, and original movies coming to the platform with some of the biggest names in entertainment.

And finally, Apple briefly mentioned a new version of iMovie for iPad OS would ship next month, but sadly, we didn’t get a release date for iOS 15.4 or any other software status updates.

So there you have it, that’s everything Apple announced at its event today.