MacBook Pro M2: Apple’s New Chip Put to The Test – Video

Speaker 1: The very first MacBook with Apple’s new M two chip is here. That is of course the 13 inch MacBook pro first guy with the M two. There’s also gonna be a MacBook air with the M two coming soon. And of course you’ve still got the M one MacBook air. You’ve got the M one pro in some systems, the M one max, the M one ultra. But this is our first look at that M two.

Speaker 1: Now, when I first saw the new 13 inch MacBook pro, I said to myself, it’s kind of a strange looking MacBook, [00:00:30] but actually wasn’t strange at all. I’m just very used to Apple’s new design language, which is much more constructivist, much more minimalist. You see it in the 14 inch and the 16 inch MacBook pros. They’re very squared off. You also see it in the 24 inch iMac, the new 13 inch MacBook pro. However, it looks a lot like the last 13 inch MacBook pro, which I tested in 2020. And that was one of the first wave of systems with the M one ship. Uh, it’s the slightly Mac design tapers, a little bit gently rounded edges. [00:01:00] And of course this MacBook is the last one that you can find with the apple touch bar. I’m sure there are some touch bar diehards out there.

Speaker 1: It was that underutilized little second screen strip just above the keyboard. It was never as great as its proponent said, never as useless and terrible as its detractors set. So except for swapping out that M one chip for the M two chip, this is actually exactly the same as that last 13 inch MacBook pro same keyboard, same touch bar, same ports, same screen, same [00:01:30] lower resolution webcam, which is disappointing because all of the new max have traded up to 10 80 full HD webcams. And that includes the new MacBook air that’s coming soon. And frankly, for people who spend a lot of their times in online video meetings these days, that’s actually very important now from the original M one Mac lineup, uh, back in 2020, there was the air, the Mac mini and the 13 inch MacBook pro virtually identical. Well, this one I had the hardest time reconciling the M one MacBook pro the 13 inch pro.

Speaker 1: [00:02:00] Uh, it was not really that much faster than the MacBook air. It was more expensive and it was a tougher sell really now with the latest generation of max, both these ones and the current 14 and 16 inch models. It’s still kind of a tough sell. There are some reasons you might want this 13 inch MacBook pro with the older design, but it’s gotta be something pretty specific. Now, why might you want this 13 inch MacBook pro? Well, maybe you’re a touch bar, die hard. You really want that. Uh, maybe you want something that’s kind of like the MacBook air, but [00:02:30] has active cooling in it because of fans. And you could run it a little bit more aggressively. Maybe you have a creative shop where you have a whole lot of 13 ish MacBook pros, and you want platform continuity. And except for swapping out the chips, this is gonna be identical to the ones that you’ve bought over the last two years.

Speaker 1: These are all very valid reasons. I’m not sure if they applied to too many people. So the new 13 inch MacBook air that’s coming next month, which I’ve seen, but I don’t have yet, uh, looks really great, especially on paper. And it starts at 1199, this 13 inch MacBook pro again with the older [00:03:00] design, the lower res webcam that starts at 1299. So they’re pretty much in the same ballpark. Now, if I were shopping for a new laptop right now, I’d be really, really tempted to go with the new MacBook air because slightly bigger screen, better webcam, cooler design, cool colors, same chip. Uh, so I suspect that the performance differences between these two are gonna be minimal. Uh, this one still might edge it out a little bit though, because of the act of cooling. Another reason you might want to consider this is because you want to get into the MacBook pro line in general, but you don’t wanna [00:03:30] spend the $2,000.

Speaker 1: You need to start with a 14 inch MacBook. I think the 16 inch starts at 2,500 bucks. It’s a really big price chip. The biggest thing you want to hear about probably is that new M two chip and how it compares to the other chips in the apple Silicon lineup. Now we tested some M one systems. Now we’ve tested an M two, we’ve tested M one pro and M one max systems. So here’s kind of what the lineup is. And this follows along with how apple describes it. Uh, the M one chip still much better than older Intel MacBooks, uh, is at the bottom. This [00:04:00] M two chip actually had a pretty significant jump in most of our benchmarks. And you can see that in the charts that we’re gonna publish. Uh, however, the M one pro just the next step up that I tested in a 14 inch MacBook pro just blows that away as well.

Speaker 1: It’s just a huge jump. And Annapolis said this, they said, it’s the N one, the M two, and then the M one pro and max and all these other guys. So just because it’s called the M two, it’s not the top of the current lineup. So you can find our full review of the new N two 13 inch MacBook pro on CNET, check out the link in the description [00:04:30] below. So at the end of the day, this new 13 inch MacBook pro is pretty much exactly what you think it is. It’s a modest internal spec bump to an existing product. One with frankly, an older design, uh, definitely had some specific reasons that you, as a specific laptop shopper might be interested in it, but for most people, I suggest you hold out for the new M two MacBook air, which is coming soon and give that some strong consideration as well.