Apple had an eventful start to the year 2023. The tech giant Apple unveiled a line of products within the very first week of 2023. Apple introduced a more powerful version of the Apple MacBook Pro with never been heard or seen before SoCs, with naming conventions M2 Pro and the M2 Max chipsets. But it’s challenging to differentiate between all the variants of the MacBook. After all, Apple is following the naming conventions like all other brands, and now it has gone out of hand. The names have made it very tricky to understand the difference between the all-new M2 Pro MacBook Pro and the M1 Pro and M2 MacBooks from last year.
The significant difference between M2 Pro MacBook Pro, M1 Pro MacBook Pro, and M2 MacBook Pro
We have listed down the powerful specs difference in all three variants of Apple MacBook Pro.
Design
Taking a closer look at the design of all three MacBooks. All the variants of MacBooks look very familiar. The Apple MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro chip seems very similar to the MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip launched in 2021. The laptops come with the exact dimensions. Both laptops weigh the same at around 3.5 pounds with a size of about 0.6 x 12.31 x 8.71 inches. These laptops are one of the most portable powerhouses in the market.
The device is similar to the M2 MacBook Air. The M2 MacBook Pro has a 13.3-inch display, and the laptop is much more compact than its 14-inch display. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro with an M2 chip is a very different workstation.
To create a better picture, the laptop measures 11.9 inches in width and is sleeker at 8 inches. It weighs much less than 3 pounds, making it an amazingly portable workhorse. All three notebooks are built with a hundred percent recycled aluminum, and one hundred percent recycled rare earth factor in all the magnets. As such, the laptops are reasonably eco-friendly and do not simply experience intense and high prices.
With that stated, the M2 MacBook Pro will leave you looking greater within the I/O department. In contrast to the 14-inch variations, the M2 MacBook Pro best has two Thunderbolt 4 connectors. On the turn aspect, the M2 Pro and the M1 Pro MacBooks characteristic 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, a full-sized HDMI connector, and an SDXC card slot.
So, if you connect multiple accessories to your machine, you might need to cop the bigger-sized, 14-inch MacBook Pros. Otherwise, we’d recommend spending money on a dongle while you vicinity your order for the thirteen-inch M2 MacBook Pro.
Touch ID, Keyboard, and Trackpad
The Apple MacBook Pros with the M1 Pro and the M2 Pro chipsets have the same keyboard layout. The keyboard deck comes with 78 keys, including 12 full-height function keys. On the other hand, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip trades with an extra function row of a touch bar.
Depending on the usage, one might find the arrangement better. The touch bar lets you toggle around by quickly moving your fingers on a slider. Users who are used to dedicated function rows, like the 14-inch MacBooks.
The TouchID is available on all three laptops with TouchID for seamless biometric authentication; the 13-inch MacBook Pro has a sensor that sticks out. Conversely, the 14-inch models have it integrated within the power button. All three MacBooks ship with arrow keys which are in an inverted T-arrangement. Because of their size and dimensions, the arrow keys are challenging to use if you have chubby fingers.
The Trackpad gestures functionality is available on all three machines. Force Touch trackpad with pressure-sensing is also available on all laptops. The webcam modules on the M2 MacBook Pro come with a 720p Facetime HD camera, and the M1 Pro and M2 Pro feature a 1080p FaceTime HD camera. If your work requires many video calls, consider MacBooks with a more pixel-dense camera.
Display
The new Apple MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro chip is built with the same display as its predecessor. The M1 Pro and M2 Pro screens come with 14.2 inches display with mini-LED technology. The M2 Pro MacBook Pro has a more pixel-dense display at 3,024 x 1,964 pixels. The M2 MacBook Pro’s display caps out at 2,560 x 1,600 pixels.
The display quality on all MacBooks is sharp and crisp. It delivers high-quality images and videos on the go. The M2 Pro and M1 Pro display maxes at 1.000 nits for everyday use and 1,600 for HDR content. Compared to the M2 MacBook Pro’s display, it maxes out at just 500 nits.
The viewing angles on the M1 Pro and M2 Pro MacBook Pro’s display under the sun are pretty good. The users won’t have to stress their eyes to see the content on display. On the other hand, M2 MacBook Pro does not support Apple’s ProMotion. The display on the 14-ich models has a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Buyers considering the M2 MacBook Pro must settle down with a 60Hz screen.
The display on the M1 Pro and M2 Pro MacBooks ship with a notch, which might attract few buyers, but if you want a notch-free display, the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro is the best option to go ahead
Performance
Understanding the fundamental performance differences between Apple’s latest MacBooks is challenging. To reduce the confusion between all the MacBooks, we have listed some of the should know about the Pro-grade processors from Apple.
The M1 Pro and M2 Pro can be configured in three different ways. The M1 Pro ships with 8 CPU cores and 14 GPU cores. Six of the 8 CPU cores are dedicated to performance, and the remaining two are for efficiency.
The M2 Pro, on the other hand, comes shipped with ten core CPU and a 16-core GPU for the starting model. Of the 10 CPU cores, 8 are P-cores, and 2 are E-cores. As you set up the ladder, the CPU and GPU cores add additional cores. The M1 Pro MacBook features a 10-core CPU and a 16-core GPU. The upgraded version of the M2 Pro ships with a 12-core CPU and 8 P-core, and 19-core GPU.
The M1 and M2 chipsets Max variant ships with the same CPU cores as its predecessor. However, the M1 Max and M2 Max ship with many more GPU cores. The older variant comes with a 31-core GPU, and the new version ships with a 38-core GPU. Conversely, the M2 SoC-powered MacBook Pro 13-inch has an 8-core chipset with four performance cores and four efficiency cores loaded with a 10-core GPU.
Apple has featured some of the benchmark figures, which gives a better picture. The M2 Pro MacBook is the fastest MacBook on paper. The M2 MacBook Pro has a memory bandwidth of 100GB/s, While the M1 Pro and M2 Pro MacBooks offer higher memory bandwidth of 200GB/s.
Between the M1 Pro and M2 Pro, the M2 Pro is faster. The reason behind the speed is the chipset which comes with 40 billion transistors, which is 20% more than the M1 Pro, which comes with MacBook Pro. The M2 Pro can perform tasks much more quickly.
Coming to the review based on performance while using Adobe Photoshop, The M2 Pro MacBooks process images 40% faster than the M1 Pro MacBook, and M2 Pro MacBook has higher capabilities of transcoding videos faster and quicker than an M1 Max chipset. They result in faster-rendering animations or compiling code.
The processor offers up to 20 % better CPU performance and 30 % better GPU than an M1 Pro chipset. Gathering every detail, it is safe to say that the M1 Pro MacBook is capable, and an M2 Pro MacBook is faster than other lines of MacBook processors.
Is it worth Buying the M2 Pro MacBook Pro?
The M1 Pro-backed, 14-inch MacBook Pro is the same as the 14-inch model with the M2 Pro chipset. Regarding pricing, the M1 Pro model is available on e-commerce portals not listed on Apple’s official website. The listed price for the ten-core CPU is around $2,300.
The M2 Pro MacBook Pro with 12-cores comes with a price tag of $2,499 on Apple’s official website. But considering all the aspects, if the users have an M1 Pro MacBook is no need to upgrade, or buying the M1 Pro-backed device would be an excellent way to save some money for the extra purchase of accessories.
Apple’s latest MacBook offering brings in a bunch of upgrades which is under the hood making the performance of the MacBook bit better. The M2 MacBook Pro is more similar to the M2 MacBook Air. The significant difference between the M2 Air and the M2 Pro is the addition of a cooling fan which comes into action when you are stressing the MacBook with heavy workloads.
The M2 MacBook Pro should perform better than all its predecessors. Please let us know which MacBook Pro you would buy in the comments below.
