Apple MacBook Pro 13 (2022) review: new chip, old threads

I don’t actually care what the M2 MacBook Pro will get on benchmarks.

I do know that feels like an odd assertion coming from somebody who runs benchmarks for a residing, however this isn’t a tool the place they matter all that a lot as a result of, in the event you’re the form of individual working benchmarks or the form of individual to whom benchmark scores are in any respect related, I’m going to inform you proper on the prime that you simply shouldn’t be shopping for this.

Let us discover the present MacBook market. This MacBook Pro has the very same chassis because the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro that was launched in 2020 (which itself used a design that dates back to 2016). It’s the identical 2560 x 1600 display, the identical Magic Keyboard, the identical two Thunderbolt ports, the identical Touch Bar, and the identical barely tapered sides. Remember all these cool new (technically old) design options, like HDMI ports, SDXC slots, and MagSafe charging Apple placed on the MacBook Pro models it released in late 2021? Yeah, none of these are right here. Neither is the flowery Mini LED show or upgraded 1080p webcam.

There has, principally, solely been one change made to the MacBook Pro from 2020: it has a new processor. (Okay, so Apple’s additionally added a 24GB reminiscence choice, the audio system now assist Spatial Audio, the jack has “advanced support for high-impedance headphones,” and the adapter is a complete six watts extra highly effective… however the processor is the principle factor.) Like the M1, the M2 makes use of Apple’s customized Arm silicon. It has extra transistors than the M1, extra reminiscence bandwidth, and an up to date media engine in addition to extra GPU cores (10 to the M1’s eight). It’s a new chip in what’s, at this level, a dated chassis.

The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro starts at $1,299. For that base value, you get an eight-core CPU with a 10-core GPU, 8GB of unified reminiscence, and 256GB of SSD storage. The very cheapest model of the 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with an M1 Pro processor (eight-core CPU, 14-core GPU) however with 16GB of unified reminiscence and 512GB of storage. That mannequin would price $1,999. Now, Apple despatched me an M2 mannequin that’s a step up from the bottom; this one has 16GB of unified reminiscence and 1TB of storage. It prices $1,899 on Apple’s web site, whereas a 14-inch M1 Pro mannequin with these RAM and storage specs could be $2,199.

Basically, the MacBook Pro with M2 is floating constantly round a number of hundred {dollars} below its extra highly effective and modern-looking 14-inch sibling. But these a number of hundred {dollars} purchase you a heck of a number of perks that shall be of specific profit to skilled customers, together with an even bigger display, MagSafe, extra ports, and all the additional cores. The M1 Pro CPU additionally has extra performance-oriented cores, whereas the M2 has extra effectivity cores aimed toward extending battery life.

Read extra: Apple MacBook Pro 14 and 16 review and Apple MacBook Pro with M1 review

We’re going to speak about benchmarks in a while, however I’ll spoil the shock proper now: as everybody anticipated, the M1 Pro smokes the M2 generally. It’s near doubling its scores on a few of our common benchmark exams — it’s performing greater than twice as properly on others. It is definitely $300 higher for skilled work.

For this purpose, the audience for this M2 MacBook Pro isn’t people who shall be exporting issues in Premiere all day. The audience is, so far as I can inform, individuals like me. I spend most of my day in Google Docs, spreadsheets, and Slack — the 14-inch MacBook Pro is overkill for what I would like, and it prices greater than I need to spend. But I do sometimes have to do issues in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Audition. I (very) sometimes prefer to sport, and I would like one thing that may maintain these masses.

This could be the proper system for somebody like me — if it weren’t for the new MacBook Air. This new MacBook Air, additionally powered by the M2, is coming very quickly. It shall be, so far as I can inform from Apple’s website, the identical value because the M2 MacBook Pro for a similar specs generally (they stage out on the $1,499 mark). But, not like the MacBook Pro, the M2 MacBook Air did get a giant redesign, and it consists of every kind of new options — together with new colours, a bigger show, a 1080p webcam, and, particularly, MagSafe — that this system doesn’t have.

(*13*)

Apple hasn’t despatched this system to us but, and it’s not up for preorder at the moment, both. But it very properly could also be a a lot better alternative for my use case. And that places the 2022 MacBook Pro — and this evaluation — in a little bit of a weird spot.

The query of whether or not you can purchase this MacBook Pro is, frankly, not one I can reply till we all know precisely how good this forthcoming MacBook Air is. What I can communicate to proper now could be how properly the M2 performs and what sort of positive factors it’s remodeled the M1.

In abstract: the M2 is quick and environment friendly. The M1 was additionally quick and environment friendly.

The 2022 MacBook Pro can maintain heavy masses for lengthy durations of time. Its 30-minute Cinebench rating was really a bit increased than its 10-minute Cinebench rating, which isn’t one thing we see on a regular basis. Results had been additionally the identical no matter whether or not the system was on energy or battery, which we very not often see with Windows laptops. And although the existence of an lively cooling system (learn: a fan) is what historically differentiates the MacBook Pro from the MacBook Air, I by no means heard the fan on this M2 system — not even after I was working video games.

We mentioned all this concerning the M1 MacBook Pro as properly. This is simply to say that these qualities stay.

How did this factor do on benchmarks? In CPU outcomes — Geekbench, Cinebench, the Xcode benchmark, and so forth. — the outcomes we’re seeing are considerably higher than the M1. In GPU exams, together with some video games, the outcomes are considerably higher. That means gaming is a lot better, as I’ll focus on in a while.

The M2 did edge out the pricier M1 Pro within the single-core benchmarks I ran. That’s spectacular in itself. (It signifies that although the M1 Pro has extra energy cores than the M2 does, these cores aren’t as sturdy because the M2’s energy cores on a person stage.) But it additionally bodes properly for the M2 Pro, Max, and Ultra variants that we’ll presumably see down the road; they’ll seemingly show single-core pace enhancements over their M1-based predecessors, reasonably than simply loading on extra cores.

So, checkmark: technological progress has been made. However, the delta between the M1 Pro and the M2 is considerably bigger than the delta between the M2 and the M1 in each check right here, which underscores how a lot of a greater purchase the M1 Pro is for customers who will frequently be stressing the system. To repeat: this isn’t surprising; it’s simply meant to exhibit that $300 can purchase you fairly much more efficiency.

What’s extra vital for the Me demographic is how the M2 performs on the forms of duties that the M1 Pro is overkill for. So, I put the M2 MacBook Pro and the M1 MacBook Pro facet by facet and did a bunch of my day by day work on each of them.

The M2 did, in some circumstances, result in a technically sooner expertise. One of those circumstances was in Google Docs. The M2 was really noticeably sooner, by a number of seconds, to open up a 350-page Google Doc. My spreadsheets with tons of of rows had been additionally noticeably sooner to scroll by way of on the M2, and the newer MacBook was faster to swap between tabs and run calculations.

The 2022 MacBook was additionally higher at gaming (although I’ll stress that this benchmark is simply meant to showcase the graphic enhancements that Apple has made — don’t purchase a MacBook to play video games). The earlier MacBook ran the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark at a mean of 20fps, whereas the M2 system averaged 29fps, which is near a 50 % improve. That is the kind of distinction I can see with my eyes whereas watching the benchmarks run (and is sort of really playable).

I noticed another small enhancements right here and there. When I used to be enjoying round in Swift Playgrounds 4, the M2 was a smidge sooner to load a few of the interfaces and animations. I used Audition so as to add some CPU-heavy results to an audio clip, and the M2 was simply barely sooner to finish them. I don’t assume both of those would actually make a distinction in my life if I hadn’t been utilizing the computer systems facet by facet, however I suppose it’s time that will add up over lengthy durations.

And there have been some circumstances the place I couldn’t see variations, even after I was actively trying. The expertise in Photoshop, the place I desaturated some photos and added some primary filters, was principally an identical. Lightroom was the identical deal. Most of what you may do in Audition, like playback and hopping by way of initiatives, was additionally the identical.

Results in Premiere Pro had been combined. The M2 did beat the M1 on the Puget Systems benchmark for Premiere Pro, which exams reside playback in addition to export efficiency. I didn’t really see a sizeable distinction in export time after I put the 2 laptops subsequent to one another, although — the M1 really completed first generally as a result of the M2 stored getting caught on sure graphics. I don’t need to learn an excessive amount of into that as a result of Premiere may be finicky with that form of stuff, so it’s all the time laborious to know precisely what’s happening. But it’s value remembering that how properly a pc does on some workloads isn’t all the time in its producer’s management.

Now, there may be a method wherein the MacBook Pro with M2 does have a big benefit over the costlier machines: battery life. This M2 MacBook Pro doesn’t die. I’ve by no means mentioned this a few laptop computer earlier than: I used to be not in a position to totally run it down throughout my testing interval. I can inform you that I’ve been in a position to run it properly previous 10 and a half hours, which is when the 14-inch M1 Pro system was dying after I reviewed that final 12 months with this similar workload.

I used to be additionally, frankly, pushing this a lot tougher than I pushed the 14-incher throughout that testing interval, partly as a result of I used to be having a lot bother getting the battery to run down — I threw Premiere, Audition, coding, and even some battery gaming on the M2 throughout these trial runs. I used to be nonetheless constantly seeing over half of the battery left after eight to 9 hours of fixed use. From the outcomes I get, I’d anticipate it to final 17 and a half to 18 hours.

I’m not gonna lie: that does make this MacBook a tempting buy for me, somebody who spends a number of time utilizing my laptop computer in numerous locations out and about. For me, battery is a extra vital consideration than uncooked efficiency. But, as I’m persevering with to remind myself and as it’s best to as properly in the event you’re in my camp — the Air is coming. The Air has the identical processor. It might very properly have an analogous lifespan, although Apple claims the Air will get “up to 18 hours” of use versus the Pro’s claimed 20 hours. I’ll simply must see after I’m in a position to evaluation the new Air.

Tech journalists usually complain that chip bumps are boring, and I feel in lots of circumstances they’re being unfair. I’m scripting this evaluation proper now on an Intel MacBook Pro that solely lasts 4 hours on battery, has followers that may always be heard across the workplace, takes a number of minutes in addition, and slows down if I’ve over 12 tabs open. New chips redefine what individuals can do; they make higher work attainable, and so they make extra work attainable.

The M2, although, isn’t fairly doing that. It is a powerful chip, and it’s sooner than the M1. And it’s definitely serving to the MacBook sustain because the Intels and AMDs of the world get higher. But I’d be stunned if it can let anybody run a program or apply a filter or use a instrument that they haven’t been in a position to earlier than. The main benefit it has over the M1 Pro (aside from its lower cost and slight edge in single-core duties) is battery life. And that’s an enormous profit but additionally one thing I need to keep away from celebrating an excessive amount of till I’ve a MacBook Air in my palms.

Which leads me to the second query: do you have to purchase it? If you will need to have an order in at this time, then sure. If you’re at the moment on an Intel MacBook (which I assume you’re in the event you’re already seeking to improve), the leap to the M2 shall be enormous. (I don’t even must run benchmarks in opposition to older Intel techniques — this machine is quicker.) You’ll get all the advantages of the M1 that we raved about in 2020 plus some further efficiency and additional battery life. And the caveats that the MacBook carried in 2020 with Rosetta efficiency penalties and numerous packages being incompatible have largely been ironed out within the two years since.

But, in the event you’re not on a deadline, then the MacBook Air is coming. And, properly, that’s a complete factor we’re going to must kind out. It’s going to convey an a variety of benefits that the Pro doesn’t have. It might also have some drawbacks — however we don’t know but what these are. I can see this being buy for some individuals if the MacBook Air’s playing cards fall in a number of very particular methods. But I have to see the playing cards. So watch this area.