Apple has today announced the launch of both a new M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro along with a new M2 and M2 Pro Mac Mini.
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New M2 MacBook Pros
Although fully expected following on from the initial release of the M2 chip last year, the biggest news was the release of the new M2 MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips which Apple claims offers up to six times faster performance than an Intel MacBook Pro.
The new M2 Pro MacBook Pro supports up to 95GB of unified RAM with the 16-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro version capable of up to 22 hours video playback on battery power and 15 hours of web surfing.
The new M2 MacBook Pros can be ordered from today and will be shipped from January 24th 2023 onwards.
Pricing for the base model M2 MacBook Pro 14-inch model starts at $1,999 (£2,149) and the M2 MacBook Pro 16-inch MacBook starts at $2,499 (£2,699)
Apple claims the new M2 MacBook Pros will render video six times faster than an Intel MacBook Pro and perform color grading twice as fast.
The M2 MacBook Pro is squarely aimed at those that need the best portable performance in video editing, photo editing and high end graphic design and CAD.
- SUPERCHARGED BY M2 PRO OR M2 MAX — Take on demanding projects with the M2 Pro or M2 Max chip. M2 Pro has up to 12 CPU cores, up to 19 GPU cores, and up to 32GB unified memory. M2 Max has 12 CPU cores, up to 38 GPU cores, and up to 96GB unified memory.
- UP TO 18 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE — Go all day thanks to the power-efficient design of the M2 Pro or M2 Max chip. And the MacBook Pro laptop delivers exceptional performance whether it’s running on battery or plugged in.
- FULLY COMPATIBLE — All your pro apps run lightning fast — including Adobe Creative Cloud, Xcode, Affinity Designer, Microsoft 365, and many of your favorite iPhone and iPad apps.
- BEAUTIFUL PRO DISPLAY — The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display features Extreme Dynamic Range, over 1000 nits of brightness for stunning HDR content, and pro reference modes for doing your best work on the go.
- ADVANCED CAMERA AND AUDIO — Look sharp and sound great with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a studio-quality three-mic array, and a six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio.
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M1 Pro vs M2 Pro
Compared to the M1 MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip, the M2 Pro chip offers up to 20% faster performance according to Apple with 200 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth.
It also has a 19 core GPU that offers up to 30% more graphics performance compared to the M1 Pro.
There’s also a 40% faster Neural Engine for video/image processing and other graphic intensive tasks.
M2 Max chip
The M2 Max chip has a whopping 38 core GPU which promises another 30% faster graphics performance compared to the M1 Max according to Apple.
This includes 400 GB/s of unified memory and 96GB of unified memory which will handle the most demanding graphic intensive applications.
Apple claims the M2 Max 12-core CPU is 20% faster than even the M1 Max.
For video editors, there’s also twice as fast ProRes acceleration for transcoding video playback.
The new M2 MacBook Pros have also been upgraded with Wi-Fi 6E connectivity which is twice as fast as the previous WiFi standard on the MacBook Pro.
There’s also an upgraded HDMI port with support for higher resolution external monitors including 8K displays and 4K displays up to 240Hz.
There are an additional three Thunderbolt 4 ports, MagSafe charging connector and a headphone jack.
You can read more on Apple’s announcement of the M2 MacBook Pros here.
M2 Mac Mini
The Mac Mini has also received a long awaited M2 update and is available with the basic M2 or M2 Pro chips (but not M2 Max).
The Intel Mac Mini is no longer available meaning Apple’s high end Mac Pro is the only remaining Mac which can be sold from new with an Intel processor.
The M2 Mac Mini starts at $599 which is $100 less than the M1 Mac Mini or $1,299 with the new M2 Pro chip.
Like the MacBook Pro, the M2 Mac Minis are available from today and will start shipping from January 24th 2023 onwards.
You can read more about Apple’s announcement on the new M2 Mac Mini here.
You can also read our full M2 Mac Mini review.
- SUPERCHARGED BY M2 — Get more done faster with a next-generation chip. From rich presentations to immersive gaming, M2 flies through work and play. M2 has 8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores, and up to 24GB unified memory. exceptional speed and performance
- CONNECT WHAT YOU WANT — Mac mini with the M2 chip has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit Ethernet, and a headphone jack. And if you want faster networking speeds, you can configure Mac mini with 10Gb Ethernet for up to 10 times the throughout.
- SIMPLY COMPATIBLE — All your go-to apps run lightning fast on your Mac mini desktop, from Microsoft 365 to Adobe Creative Cloud to Zoom. And over 15,000 apps and plug-ins are optimized for M2.
- EFFICIENT MEMORY — Unified memory on Mac does more than traditional RAM. A single pool of high-bandwidth, low-latency memory allows Apple silicon to move data fast — so everything you do is fluid. Choose up to 24GB memory with M2. More memory means easier multitasking and handling of large files.
- FAST SSD STORAGE — Mac mini comes with all-flash storage for all your photo and video libraries, files, and apps. Choose up to 2TB SSD with M2.
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