So, Apple Inc. (AAPL) decided Tuesday was a good day for a hardware party. The company rolled out a wave of new products, refreshing its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lineups with new M5 chips and introducing a revamped Studio Display family. The common thread? A heavy, unmistakable push on artificial intelligence performance across its Mac ecosystem.

Think of it as Apple planting its flag firmly in the AI laptop wars. The announcements cover four main products: the MacBook Air with M5, the MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and the new Studio Display and a high-end Studio Display XDR.

MacBook Air: More Storage, Faster Speeds, and the M5

The MacBook Air gets the expected generational bump to the M5 chip. But the more interesting move might be the storage upgrade. The base configuration now ships with 512 gigabytes (GB) of storage, which is double what the previous model offered. According to Apple's testing, the new solid-state drive (SSD) delivers read and write speeds that are twice as fast as before. It also gets Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 via a new wireless chip.

Here’s the quick rundown on the new MacBook Air with M5:

• It features a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators.
• Apple claims up to 4 times faster AI performance compared to the MacBook Air with the M4 chip.
• Battery life is rated for up to 18 hours.
• It comes in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver.
• Pricing starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch model and $1,299 for the 15-inch model.

MacBook Pro: "Fusion Architecture" and Pro-Grade AI

The MacBook Pro refresh is where things get serious for professionals. It brings the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which are built on what Apple is calling a new "Fusion Architecture." This design combines two dies into a single system on a chip. The 18-core CPU includes six "super cores"—Apple's term for its highest-performance cores—alongside 12 new efficiency-focused performance cores.

"M5 Pro and M5 Max are a monumental leap forward for Apple silicon, leveraging our new Fusion Architecture to scale the capabilities of Apple silicon while preserving its core tenets of performance, power efficiency, and unified memory architecture," said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, emphasized the AI angle: "With Neural Accelerators in the GPU, the new MacBook Pro enables professionals to run advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) on device and unlock capabilities that no other laptop can do — all while maintaining exceptional battery life."

Pricing and Performance Specs for the Pros

• The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro starts at $2,199.
• The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max starts at $3,899.
• M5 Pro supports up to 64GB of unified memory.
• M5 Max supports up to 128GB of unified memory.
• SSD read speeds can reach up to 14.5GB/s on configurations with the M5 Max chip.

Studio Display Family: A New XDR Model and Thunderbolt 5

Not to be left out, Apple's displays got an update too. The company announced a new Studio Display and an all-new Studio Display XDR. The new Studio Display with a tilt-adjustable stand starts at $1,599. The new Studio Display XDR with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand starts at $3,299.

Studio Display XDR: The High-End Specs

The Studio Display XDR is clearly aimed at the professional creative and medical markets. Here’s what it offers:

• A 27-inch 5K display with a mini-LED backlight.
• 2,304 local dimming zones for precise contrast.
• Up to 2,000 nits of peak High Dynamic Range (HDR) brightness.
• A 120 hertz refresh rate with Adaptive Sync.
• Support for P3 and Adobe RGB color gamuts.
• New DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) medical imaging presets for diagnostic radiology, pending clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
• It starts at $3,299 and effectively replaces the older Pro Display XDR.

Ternus didn't hold back on praise for the new display, calling it "by far the world’s best pro display."

When Can You Get Them?

If you're ready to upgrade, all of these products will be available for pre-order starting Wednesday through the Apple Store app in 33 to 35 countries. In-store availability and the first customer deliveries are scheduled to begin on March 11.

On the trading day of the announcement, Apple shares were down 0.88% at $262.38, according to market data.