T3 - UK (2022-01)

70 T3 JANUARY 2022

Tested

when playing back live. Opening a
Logic Pro project with over 1,0 00
instruments took 30 seconds, but
scrolling through all those
instruments and then playing the
whole thing back didn’t suffer from
any delay or slow-down at all.
In Geekbench 5, you’relooking at
benchmarks of around 1,700 for
single-core performance,which is
exactly the same as the M1 MacBook
Air. In multi-core performance,
though, it scoredjust over 12,000, a
major leap over the regular M1
machines, which score just shy of
8,000in the same Geekbench 5 test.

Graphics performance is also

massively impressive when it comes

to raw capability. is 16-coreGPU is

capable oftrue pro 3D work, albeit

not at the most high andridiculous

level – it’shelpedin no small part by

the use of unifiedmemory.

is means that instead of having

to separate RAM and graphics

memory, withdatahaving tobe

shuttled between the two, the GPU

just accesses the RAM directly

instead. is means a bigpotential

bottleneck has been removed. It also

means that whereas regular GPUs

might have4GB or 6GB of VRAM at

most, the GPU here has... well,

howevermuch memoryyou

configured it with. 16GB? 32GB?

However,3D graphics is an

extremely niche need. Ina more

commontask, such as gaming,the

graphics here arebest described as

‘powerful,butstill limited’.It’s

simply because of the overall state of

gaming on Macs: things just aren’t as

highlyoptimised in the waythey are

on PC or console. Butstill, if you want

to play games on yourMac on the go,

this is thebest machine bya long way.

If you want even more power,

switch to the M1 Maxand you can

ANKER POWEREXPAND+ 11-IN-1

Unless you’ve already banished every device

that doesn’t offer USB-C from your home, you’ll

need a handy hub. This one from Anker offers

USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort, 3 USB-A ports,

Ethernet, aux, and SD and microSD card slots.

£99.99, anker.com

PRO ADD-ONS

Want to play games

on a Mac?This is

the bestmachine

for that

PORT SHORTAGES SORTED

The days of USB-C supremacy

on MacBooks have finally

come to an end! The latest

models also come with the

new incarnation of MagSafe, an

HDMI port, an SDXC card slot

and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

BRIGHT VISION

Even compared to brand new

OLED laptops, the screen here

is an absolute stunner. Thanks

to its mini-LED backlighting, it

produces the deepest blacks,

while still managing to hit

individual patches of 1, 600 nits

peak brightness.

HARBER LONDON LAPTOP BRIEFCASE

A pro bag for a Pro laptop, this full-grain

leather briefcase can fit up to a 16 - inch laptop,

contains plenty of storage for pens, cables

and notebooks and even features removable

magnetic pouches for storing chargers.

£379, harberlondon.com

AIRPODS MAX

If you’re buying a MacBook Pro to create

movies or music, these offer the perfect way

to work on 3D audio soundtracks. And their

stunning sound and excellent noise cancelling

mean they’re no slouch for casual users either.

£549, apple.com