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This is the new Mac Pro.
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And here’s a rear view.
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Let’s zoom in to see some of the ports in this configuration.
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There’s more to see at the bottom.
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On top, you’ll notice a couple more ports, a power button, and this handle. When you grab it, you can twist and pull the entire cover off in one motion for 360-degree access to the internals.
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This is what the frame looks like with nothing in it.
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These stands can optionally be replaced with wheels.
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The cheese-grater design serves a cooling function, but it’s also a deliberate nod to the past.
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OK, from this angle, it really does look like an ultra-shiny cheese grater.
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Apple has emailed its customers notifying them that its new Mac Pro desktop computer and accompanying Pro Display XDR will be available for order starting tomorrow, December 10. However, the company has not yet revealed when units would actually ship to buyers or any details about build-to-order configuration pricing. This news came around the same time that records of FCC approval of both tower and rack-mount configurations of the Mac Pro surfaced.
The Mac Pro is Apple’s attempt to answer six years of complaints about the 2013 Mac Pro. The 2013 version was not as customizable as some users wanted and bet on a video architecture that did not pan out for segments of the computer’s target audience, such as video production professionals. The new device is a sort of middle ground between the Mac towers of yore, which could house certain industry-standard components that users could select themselves, and the company’s current focus on proprietary hardware. Users will be able to purchase modular upgrades made specifically for the Mac Pro by Apple and its partners.
The Pro comes with eight PCIe expansion slots and offers anywhere from eight to 28 cores, plus memory up to 1.5TB and 12 DIMM slots. Pricing starts at $5,999, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how much various upgrades add to that price.
Below: Apple’s Pro Display XDR.
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Priced at $4,999, the Pro Display XDR is a niche monitor primarily aimed at creative professionals doing work like video color coding and photo editing. The high price nets buyers a display that can sustain 1,000 nits of brightness and a so-called 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
It has 576 blue LEDs, each of which is modulated at 10 times the display’s refresh rate (60Hz). We don’t expect this to sell very many units, but the Pro Display could be a boon in certain fields like film production where it has previously been prohibitively expensive (even compared to this) for multiple people in the pipeline to see assets as they will ultimately be seen by consumers with high-end TVs or in movie theaters.
Apple released its iMac Pro around this same time two years ago, but while that all-in-one solution satisfied some users, others have been asking for a traditional tower desktop. The new Mac Pro is as close as they’re likely to get. Since orders start tomorrow, we might be able to see targeted ship dates through the online store then. But we’ll have to wait and find out.
Listing image by Samuel Axon
