Probably many members of this forum watched the Apple event -- as I did -- and have formed opinions on the new offerings. A tech writer for the TidBITS Newsletter, and an 'Appleholic', wrote some brief notes on his initial opinion of the event, and I thought I'd share them with you, FWIW.
Jim Hamm
"Hi folks, I watched today's Apple event and I'm in between writing and editing coverage for TidBITS, so I thought I'd give you a quick rundown and my first impressions.
New green colors for iPhone 13 and 13 Pro: These look cool if that's your thing. You'll have to wait until March 11th to order them and they should arrive on the 18th.
iPad Air: The Air now features an M1 processor at $599, which is $200 cheaper than the base iPad Pro. That's with 64 GB of storage. I'd pay $749 for the 256 GB model. The iPad Air is now a compelling upgrade to the base iPad, which is still what I recommend for most people. I'm not sure there's any point in buying an iPad Pro at this time unless you need a large screen. You can order on March 11th and it'll be available on the 18th.
iPhone SE: The third-generation SE is compelling, with the same A15 Bionic as the iPhone 13, but starting at $429. It also works with 5G. I would spend the extra $50 to upgrade to 128 GB of storage at $479, which I think is a no-brainer. The tradeoff is an older Home button design and a smaller screen. Those may be bonuses for you. The iPhone SE may become the new "best for most" pick. I'll have to think on it, as we say in the south.
Where things get really interesting is the new Mac Studio (starting at $1999) and Studio Display (starting at $1599). These two products replace the 27-inch iMac, which is no longer available (I always knew it was too good to be true). And no, this is not a new Mac Pro, Apple said there would be one in the future, though the Studio can be configured with an M1 Ultra, which is two M1 Max chips paired together.
The Mac Studio is more of a Mac Mini+. In many ways, it's the medium-end professional machine some of us have wanted for years. But at a combined minimum price of $3,598 (without a keyboard and mouse), it's a lot to spend.
I'm going to have to chew on this for a while and if you're a fellow 27-inch iMac fan, I'm sure you will too. At the moment, my Mac recommendations for most people are still the 512 GB MacBook Air for a portable machine and the 512 GB 24-inch iMac for a desktop."