Apple M2 MacBook Professional 13-Inch Assessment: Acquainted Design, New M2 Chip

“What a strange-looking MacBook.” That was my first thought after I first noticed the 13-inch MacBook Professional with the brand new M2 chip at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino throughout WWDC 2022. 

There wasn’t something notably unusual about it — it seemed just like the final a number of fashions of 13-inch Apple laptops, each Professional and Air. However within the Apple Silicon period, I’ve develop into way more used to the corporate’s new design language, which is constructed round flat, constructivist designs with sharper angles and a studied minimalism. That very same design has since been utilized to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional laptops, the 24-inch iMac and shortly, the brand new 13-inch MacBook Air. 

The M2 Air, with a much bigger display screen, higher webcam and newer design is claimed to be arriving someday within the subsequent month. As each 13-inch laptops have the identical M2 chip and the same value, I will not contemplate this a whole evaluate till I can take a look at and examine the 2 methods aspect by aspect. 

This M2 MacBook Professional, regardless of being the latest MacBook you should buy proper now (till the revamped MacBook Air goes on sale subsequent month), has a gently rounded edge that tapers ever so barely on the entrance aspect. It is a throwback design that may be traced again greater than a decade, beginning with the primary Retina-display MacBook Professional I reviewed in 2012 to the present Contact Bar design, which I first reviewed in 2016. 

Apple M2 vs. M1 vs. M1 Professional vs. M1 Max vs. M1 Extremely

	Apple M1	Apple M2	Apple M1 Professional	Apple M1 Max	Apple M1 Extremely
Complete CPU cores	8	8	8 or 10	10	20
Efficiency cores	4	4	6 or 8	8	16
Effectivity cores	4	4	2	2	4
GPU cores	7 or 8	8 or 10	14 or 16	24 or 32	48 or 64
Neural engine cores	16	16	16	16	32
Most reminiscence supported (UMA)	16GB	24GB	32GB	64GB	128GB
Peak reminiscence bandwidth (GBps)	n/a	100	200	400	800
ProRes accelerators	None	1	1	2	4
Accessible in	MacBook Air (2021), iPad Professional (fifth gen), iMac 24 (2021), Mac Mini	MacBook Air (2022), MacBook Professional 13 (2022)	MacBook Professional 14, MacBook Professional 16 (2021)	MacBook Professional 14, MacBook Professional 16 (2021), Mac Studio	Mac Studio

The truth is, it appears to be like similar to the 13-inch MacBook Professional that was a part of Apple’s first wave of M1-chip Macs in late 2020. Identical physique, similar digital camera, similar restricted ports, similar Contact Bar. Sure, this stays the final holdout of the Apple Contact Bar, a clever-but-underused second display screen that is fallen out of favor. 

And that is precisely what this method is: The 2020 13-inch MacBook Professional, with the preliminary M1 chip swapped out for the brand new M2 chip. That makes it Apple’s strongest 13-inch laptop computer, and it’ll most likely edge out the in any other case comparable new M2 MacBook Air as a result of its lively cooling permits it to run at increased temperatures. 

Learn extra: MacBook Air M2: We Tried Out Apple’s New Laptop computer

The place the M2 suits within the lineup

However regardless of the hype, the M2 sits in a complicated spot within the Apple silicon hierarchy. It sits above the unique M1 chip (which was accessible in two variations with completely different numbers of graphics cores), however beneath the M1 Professional, M1 Max and M1 Extremely. The M1 Professional and M1 Max can be found within the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional. The M1 Extremely, basically two M1 Max chips aspect by aspect, is simply accessible in the meanwhile within the new Mac Studio desktop. 

Which of those chips will present up in an eventual revamp of the Mac Professional desktop, or a brand new big-screen iMac, is unknown. 

Within the authentic M1 Mac lineup, I had the toughest time reconciling the 13-inch MacBook Professional with a target market. It was dearer than the virtually equivalent M1 MacBook Air, whereas providing the Contact Bar, lively cooling and a barely brighter display screen. For most individuals, the Air—even with a number of upgrades—was a better option. There is a motive I name the MacBook Air essentially the most universally helpful laptop computer you should buy. 

With the brand new M2 MacBook Air proper across the nook, the 13-inch MacBook Professional is a good harder promote. The M2 Air has the newer design (plus cool colours), a barely bigger liquid retina show, now simply as brilliant because the Professional, and a much-needed full HD webcam. This leaves the 13-inch MacBook Professional as the one Mac left with a substandard 720-pixel decision webcam. 

However there are some causes you should still need the 13-inch MacBook Professional over both the brand new MacBook Air or the much-more-expensive 14- or 16-inch MacBook Professional. We outlined the obvious causes right here, they usually embrace:

• It is the final alternative to get a Contact Bar MacBook.
• It is the smallest MacBook with the longest battery life (no less than till we take a look at the brand new Air mannequin).
• It offers platform continuity in your firm or inventive store.

MacBook math: M2 Mac value comparisons 

The M2 MacBook Air is presently $1,299 (£1,349, AU$1,999) to start out, in contrast with $1,199 (£1,249, AU$1,899) for the MacBook Professional. Each base fashions embrace 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. That is a a lot cheaper technique to get right into a MacBook Professional than the 14-inch or 16-inch Professional fashions, which begin at $1,999 and $2,499.

We examined the brand new M2 MacBook Professional and in contrast it to the practically equivalent M1 13-inch MacBook Professional, in addition to the 14-inch MacBook Professional with an M1 Professional chip. As proven within the charts beneath, the M2 is a notable bump over the M1, however not as highly effective as the following chip up on the chain, the M1 Professional. The final technology of Intel MacBook Professional was far behind, whereas a brand new (and costly) premium Home windows laptop computer from Razer with a Twelfth-gen Intel Core i7 and an Nvidia 3070Ti GPU was additionally quicker. 

Whereas we cannot know for certain till we will take a look at the M2 Air, based mostly on our earlier testing, I anticipate solely minor efficiency variations between the M2 laptops. Each M2 laptops prime out at 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. 

In my hands-on expertise, it felt like precisely what it’s — a modest inside bump to the M1 model. When the M1 chips launched, I used to be excited that I may simply edit and play again 4K video clips, solely operating into somewhat stuttering after I utilized real-time results and shade correction in Premiere. The M2 model was even higher, however not so good as the video modifying we tried on our MacBook Professional and Mac Studio methods, utilizing the M1 Professional and M1 Max chips. 

I really like the brand new MacBook Air design and its upgrades to the show and webcam. I believe the 13-inch Professional will attraction to solely a really particular subset of buyers, resembling those that need the higher cooling and who wish to bounce into the Professional line with out spending $2,000 or extra. 

For everybody else, I would recommend ready to see what the M2 model of the MacBook Air can do when it arrives someday in July. 

M2 MacBook Professional efficiency testing outcomes 

Geekbench 5 (multicore)

Apple MacBook Professional (14-inch M1 Professional 2021)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch M1, 2021)

Apple MacBook Professional (13-inch, Intel, 2020)

Geekbench Steel

Apple MacBook Professional (14-inch M1 Professional 2021)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch, M1, 2020)

Apple MacBook Professional (13-inch, Intel, 2020)

Cinebench R23 (multicore)

Apple MacBook Professional (14-inch M1 Professional 2021)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch, M1, 2020)

Apple MacBook Professional (13-inch, Intel, 2020)

3DMark Wild Life Excessive

Apple MacBook Professional (14-inch M1 Professional 2021)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch M2, 2022)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch, M1, 2020)

JetStream2 (Safari)

Apple MacBook Professional (14-inch M1 Professional 2021)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch M2, 2022)

Apple Macbook Professional (13-inch, M1, 2020)

Apple MacBook Professional (13-inch, Intel, 2020)

System configurations

Apple MacBook Professional (13-inch M2, 2022)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M1 8-core chip; 16GB RAM; Apple 10-core GPU; 1TB SSD
Razer Blade 15 (2022)	Microsoft Home windows 11 House; 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-12800H; 16GB DDR5 4,800MH; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070Ti; 1TB SSD
Apple MacBook Professional (14-inch, M1 Professional 2021)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M1 Professional 10-core chip; 32GB RAM; Apple 16-core GPU; 1TB SSD
Apple MacBook Professional (13-inch, M1, 2020)	MacOS Monterey 12.4 Apple M1 8-core chip; 16GB RAM; 8-core GPU; 1TB SSD
Apple MacBook Professional (13-inch, Intel, 2020)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; 2GHz Intel Core i5-1038NG7; 16GB RAM; 1,536MB Intel Iris Plus Graphics; 512GB SSD