13-inch MacBook Pro 2022
With a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, working with RAW images in apps like Affinity Photo is nearly 40 percent faster than the previous generation, and up to 3.4x faster for users who are upgrading from a model without Apple silicon.
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With an active cooling system, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is designed to sustain its pro performance.
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Thanks to M2, the 13-inch MacBook Pro also supports up to 24GB of unified memory — along with 50 percent more memory bandwidth — making multitasking and working with large assets super fluid.
It still has 2 Thunderbolt ports and, oddly, still has a Touch Bar and no MagSafe. It also doesn’t get the new camera.
Previously:
Update (2022-06-09): Stephen Hackett:
I understand why the M1 MacBook Air is sticking around at $999. That’s a critical price point for Apple, but having the M2 Air and M2 Pro just $100 apart doesn’t make much sense to me, especially given that the Air is a better machine for the vast majority of people.
This graphic by MKBHD does a great job comparing the two M2 models, after speccing them both to cost the same $1,499.
Update (2022-06-16): Jason Snell:
So while the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro is going to get attention because of the M2, it’s also worth asking the question that was on everyone’s lips last week after it was announced: Why does this computer exist at all?
Update (2022-06-24): See also: Jason Snell and Monica Chin.
Update (2022-06-27): Joe Rossignol:
YouTube channels such as Max Tech and Created Tech tested the 256GB model with Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test app and found that the SSD’s read and write speeds are both around 1,450 MB/s, which is around 50% slower reading and around 30% slower writing compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and 256GB of storage.
Update (2022-06-30): Steve Troughton-Smith:
I wish I knew what tangible benefit we were getting from Apple’s SSDs, because even the ‘fast’ ones are less than half the speed of what you can put in a several-year-old PC.
This drop in SSD performance is quite dramatic in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
PCIe4 SSDs in 2022 Windows laptops are on a different level. Even for PCIe3 MBP performance is on the low end as Laptop Go 2 is faster.
Previously:
Update (2022-07-05): Vadim Yuryev (video):
Apple REALLY messed up with the M2 MacBook Pro and in this thread, I am going to prove it.
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With only 10 Chrome tabs open, the base M2 MBP exported a common 5min 4K HEVC clip SLOWER than the previous base M1 MBP.
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The reason why the performance of the 256GB SSD model is lower: Slower SSD transfer speeds lead to slower virtual memory swap performance, which is vital for Apple Silicon Macs, especially 8GB RAM models which fill up the RAM quickly.
Update (2022-07-06): Meek Geek:
The SSD in the $600 64GB M1 iPad Air is faster than the $1300 256GB M2 MacBook Pro 13".
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Good call out to the Stage Manager restriction too.
Previously:
Update (2022-07-12): Mark Ellis:
Max Tech has responded to the criticism that has been thrown their way by publishing another bunch of tests for the M2 MacBook Pro.
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Max Tech once again pits the M1 MacBook Air against the M2 MacBook Pro. Both are base model machines with 256GB of storage and 8GB of unified memory. Rather than pelting both machines with colossal 8K workloads and relentless benchmarks, Max Tech instead demonstrates a bunch of very reasonable tasks. These ranged from Xcode programming, to light photo editing and exporting, multi-tasking, and some 4K video editing.
I’ll let their video do the talking, but the net result is that the 256GB version of the M2 MacBook Pro is only quicker than its predecessor if you’re running one app at a time. If you multitask, it performs much slower than the outgoing model.
Previously:
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Yeah that MBP is gross. Hopefully nobody would ever buy it for themselves. I wonder if it has some requirement that a huge purchasing organization needs in order to buy a fleet of them!
I'm going to differ from everyone else I guess. I am actually considering picking up one of these models when they launch. My Intel Mac mini SSD recently flaked out, which forced me on to my base model M1 Air which I had only really gotten for traveling conveniences. I'm trying to be diligent about memory/quitting applications and not having a bunch of browser tabs open, but still have the memory pegged. And the heat coming off this can't be good for it's lifespan.
That you can get > 16 GB of RAM in this, active cooling, and it's all priced less than the base model of the 14" or the Mac Studio makes this look like a great machine imo.
@Ben Do you miss having active cooling with the M1 Air?
@Michael
I think I do miss having active cooling... especially so about 20% of the time. I have been surprised how warm the base of the computer will get when doing archive builds to send to app store connect, and when exporting projects from iMovie. The other 80% of the time, it's palpably warm but not as excessive. This is one of the binned 7-core versions of the MBA.
I can be a bit more helpful and offer you a relative comparison. I was sent a 16" M1 MBP by my employer. I'll be forthcoming and say that it's running a local copy of vimeo.com all day, which should give you an idea of the size of it's workload, PLUS all of my dev tools and collab tools, and the machine barely breaks room temperature. Even if it is a web project (and not FCP or Blender), there's a bunch of subsystems that make the magic happen, and I see the proc getting hit often in Activity Monitor. It's almost always cooler than the MacBook Air it's sitting next to, which is just kind of mostly idling with last nights browser tabs and playing music.
I suspect active cooling would make my Air run more like the MBP - barely above room temperature.
My old Intel Mac mini was a molten brick of aluminum most of the time, even idling. I wouldn't want to go back.
@Ben Interesting, thanks. My Intel MBP is really uncomfortable on my lap due to heat. The M1 Pro 14-inch is barely warm, and I rarely hear the fans, so wasn’t sure how necessary they are. I haven’t heard many other people talk about heat and the M1 Air, only performance.
@Michael
I wouldn't say this is "really uncomfortable" (as much as an Intel machine would be), but if it's this warm sitting on a hard surface/my desk, I'm not sure I would want it on my lap (as it would make it worse).
Current mid-day temps, without heavy usage, coconut battery reports the battery temp at 109.1-deg F/42.8-deg C. It's not the proc/die temp, but if that's any indication...
> oddly, still has a Touch Bar and no MagSafe
Well, it's clearly another spec bump to the 2019 model (https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/9/20687402/apple-macbook-pro-air-updates-true-tone-processor-touch-bar).
They seem to _really_ want to a "Pro" laptop well below $2k, but then they also don't want that Pro laptop to feel competitive with the real Pro, which starts way above at $2k.
With both the Air and the 14-inch Pro significantly redesigned, and this one very clearly not, it's becoming a less and less useful product. Suppose you do need the active cooling. In that case, you probably also need other options the $1300 doesn't offer: you probably want 16 GiB RAM, not 8 (is there even still such a thing as a "Pro" workflow that works well on 8?). You probably want a 512 GB SSD, not 256. At that point, you're at $1699, just $300 below the 14-inch, which is all around a much better product.
It's arguably the worst-positioned Mac.
(I'm also surprised they bother to mention it at a keynote. It's a spec bump. I'm happy they gave it a spec bump rather than let it linger at the M1, which would've been even less useful at this point, but why even give it much of a spotlight?)
I guess I understand why this product exists, but it really muddles the product line up. It’s odd seeing a design they’ve otherwise abandoned occupy the spot between the Air and the 14" MBP. I imagine we’ll eventually see a lower-cost 14" MBP fill that spot, and it’s simply not ready yet (either cost wise or production capacity).