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13-Inch MacBook Pro With M2 Chip Reviews: Faster Performance, But Consider Waiting for New MacBook Air

Everyone keeps ragging on the 13" MBP, saying that the price gap is closing between the product lines, and it's a bad buy. To me, it looks like the M2 MBA is more of a price gouge than the M2 MBP is.

2020 -> 2022 for MBP, base price stays the same.
2020 -> 2022 for MBA, base price increases by 200, else you can buy the nearly 2 year old M1 MBA.

The 13" MBP seems to be the most cost effective purchase out of the two. The price seems to have remained the same while having the newest chip, instead of inflating like the MBA did. I can't get behind the 14" or 16" MBP. I think they're just overkill (and overpriced) for most people.
 
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jarman92 said:
Apple has literally never published those specs for any product they’ve ever made, ever. Though it stands to reason that they’re using very similar, if not identical, panels for both computers. And 99.99% of people don’t know what those are and/or wouldn’t notice any difference anyway.
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No, it doesn't stand to reason. I specifically mentioned the difference between the 2019 16" and 15" screens because they have a noticeable difference. Not like 1% or 2% on some measurement, clearly noticeable to the naked eye side-by-side. If you don't believe me and have access to both, put up the same black or grey image on each or shake a window with your mouse and compare.

Apple used a larger, but lower quality panel on the 16", to cut costs I imagine. And to be fair they kept the same price point even with a storage bump, a much faster GPU, etc... so it's understandable.
 
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DavidChoux said:
One day you'll learn that it's just marketing.

Do you think Airpods Pro was designed for professional music listeners?

The iPhone 13 Pro is for professional movie makers?
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I do understand that Apple markets their 'Pro' lineup for those willing to pay a little extra for what is considered 'premium' features and that some of those customers are actually professionals using Apple products to earn income.
 
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AF_APPLETALK said:
Everyone keeps ragging on the 13" MBP, saying that the price gap is closing between the product lines, and it's a bad buy. To me, it looks like the M2 MBA is more of a price gouge than the M2 MBP is.

2020 -> 2022 for MBP, base price stays the same.
2020 -> 2022 for MBA, base price increases by 200, else you can buy the nearly 2 year old M1 MBA.

The 13" MBP seems to be the most cost effective purchase out of the two. The price seems to have remained the same while having the newest chip, instead of inflating like the MBA did. I can't get behind the 14" or 16" MBP. I think they're just overkill (and overpriced) for most people.
Click to expand...
The 2022 MBA received more than a processor bump, the 2022 MBP...not so.
 
Zaydax333 said:
Interesting, I went and looked at the compare page and couldn't really see any differences, HOWEVER, IF I do go to their individual tech spec pages I can see the following:

M2 MacBook Air:

Liquid Retina display
  • 13.6-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology;1
    2560-by-1664 native resolution at 224 pixels per inch with
    support for 1 billion colors
  • 500 nits brightness
  • Wide color (P3)
  • True Tone technology
MacBook Pro:

Retina display

  • 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors
  • 500 nits brightness
  • Wide color (P3)
  • True Tone technology
M1 MacBook Air:

Retina display

- 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors
- 400 nits brightness
- Wide color (P3)
- True Tone technology



So with the stuff that apple provides us on the tech spec pages (and on paper for now at least) it would seem that the new M2 Air's display is overall the best. It is an upgrade over the M1 Air in size, amount of colors supported, and brightness. Compared to the Pro it seems it's just a size and supported colors difference. (EDIT: Not that it's really a size advantage at all lol)
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Without actual in-depth testing there's no way to know for sure either way.
Apple typically has laxer QC on their lower priced products.

For example, the 15" display on the MBP I mentioned has a brightness, on the spec sheet, of 500 nits. But real world testing suggests it's really around 520 nits, with some manufacturing variations.

So the marketing team was very conservative in writing the specs. Likely so that even the 0.1% worst displays still meet the 500 nit spec.
 
Glad they kept this MacBook around, I have the M1 version. It is the worlds second best selling laptop so why not keep it around. I love the Touch Bar , tempted to get an M2 version with 24GB RAM and an upgraded SSD just incase I never see a Touch Bar M3.

Just wish it had MagSafe, that is one of Apples big mistakes, removing it.
 
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2ilent8cho said:
Glad they kept this MacBook around, I have the M1 version. It is the worlds second best selling laptop so why not keep it around. I love the Touch Bar , tempted to get an M2 version with 24GB RAM and an upgraded SSD just incase I never see a Touch Bar M3.

Just wish it had MagSafe, that is one of Apples big mistakes, removing it.
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MagSafe is one of those features that I can't do without. Apple needs to implement these chargers into more of their products.
 
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BeatCrazy said:
Sounds like the M2 Air is exactly what you're looking for.
Click to expand...

In hindsight, that was an option I had not considered, but now will.

My reluctance to buy an Air goes back to when they were first released. They were a bit small for my taste, but Apple's notebook lineup has changed considerably since then. So this viewpoint is probably moot.

The addition of ProMotion to the new 14" Pro's is a factor for consideration. Another is I'm consolidating from having a laptop and an iPad. I originally purchased the Ipad Pro because I was looking at a protracted hospital stay and recovery following an anticipated organ transplant that appears to be (for now) a moot point as well. It appears my needs in the foreseeable future lean towards a laptop alone. I can get about $500 for my current laptop and $560 for the iPad Pro I have from one of the major trade for cash outfits. I hardly use the iPad since I got a iPhone 13PM.

I would supposed the convincing would be on the wife side of things. I qualify for the interest free financing, and with my current gear could possibly make it work, but My wife may want a bite of my old MBP.

That would help with the convincing part, along with her handing down her older MBP to my step daughter who just had our first grandchild. I could sell the iPad Pro, put that towards the new laptop, hand down the older MBP to her, and split the difference.

Am I talking in circles, convincing myself, or trying to find a way to sell this all to my wife? I dunno.... ;)

Anyway, thanks for the insight. It is food for thought.
 
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Bottom line—I always pitch/suggest the Air over the Pro unless they love the touchbar or need the fan cooled performance, which 95% of buyers don’t need.
 
m1maverick said:
The 2022 MBA received more than a processor bump, the 2022 MBP...not so.
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Point still stands that in 2020, you got the latest and most capable MBA for 1k. In 2022, the latest and most capable MBA is 1.2k. The upgrades make it feel/hurt less, and the waters are further muddied by keeping around previous-gen hw, but the fact is that the entry-level price just increased by 20%, and everyone is celebrating it as the better buy of the two machines. 😂

They do the same maneuver with their phone line, which is how the cheapest current gen iPhone is up to $700.
 
AF_APPLETALK said:
Point still stands that in 2020, you got the latest and most capable MBA for 1k. In 2022, the latest and most capable MBA is 1.2k. The upgrades make it feel/hurt less, and the waters are further muddied by keeping around previous-gen hw, but the fact is that the entry-level price just increased by 20%, and everyone is celebrating it as the better buy of the two machines. 😂

They do the same maneuver with their phone line, which is how the cheapest current gen iPhone is up to $700.
Click to expand...
Which two machines are you referring to? The 2022 MBA versus the 2020 MBP? The 2022 MBA versus the 2022 MBP?

As for entry level isn't the 2020 generation MBA still being offered at its original price?
 
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BeatCrazy said:
Crazy battery life?

I never associate SD card reader with "Pro", but that's just me.
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I don’t use them, so it’s not an issue for me either. I have the 2020 13 inch Pro, and the only things I’m missing are native support for two external monitors, more RAM, amd MagSafe.
 
ruka.snow said:
View attachment 2022176
No matter how hard you try, you are not importing video or photos from a modern camera (nor a older one) with that slot.
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I've been wondering if Apple will, in a future iteration, upgrade this card slot to accept CF Express cards — however — the issue there is that there's Type A which Sony has implemented in its newer cameras and the rest of the industry which is using Type B. Why can't everyone get on the same damn page? :mad:
 
DHagan4755 said:
I've been wondering if Apple will, in a future iteration, upgrade this card slot to accept CF Express cards — however — the issue there is that there's Type A which Sony has implemented in its newer cameras and the rest of the industry which is using Type B. Why can't everyone get on the same damn page? :mad:
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Sonys desire to have smaller bodied cameras. Though CF Express A, B, and C all have a place. Type B is the clear winner for cameras with its balance of size, capacity, and write speed. If Sony ever put out a pro body to match the Z9 and R3/R1 I would expect that to have dual type B slots and to come with at least the announcement of more supertele lenses.

Issue is that CF Express A is now here for 8+ years and CF Express B is also here for 8+ years. Nikon and Canon aren’t going to drop type B and Sony users are now invested in Type A so you don’t want to piss off your customer base.
 
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m1maverick said:
Which two machines are you referring to? The 2022 MBA versus the 2020 MBP? The 2022 MBA versus the 2022 MBP?

As for entry level isn't the 2020 generation MBA still being offered at its original price?
Click to expand...
Let me rephrase.

The entry-level price of the 2022 MBA just increased by 20%, and everyone is celebrating the price of the 2022 MBA as the better buy between the 2022 MBA and 2022 MBP.

> As for entry level isn't the 2020 generation MBA still being offered at its original price?

That's my point. In 2020, you got the latest MBA hardware for 1k. In 2022, the latest MBA hardware is now 1.2k. They have diverted attention from that by retaining the older 2020 MBA model at the 1k price point.

Very effective strategy of boiling the frogs slowly.
 
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It’s odd they didn’t discontinue it. For whatever reason, Apples crunched numbers tell them to ship both models. I think back in the day when MacBooks got regular chip speedbumps, it really was a non-event, nothing to see here, yes a slight boost but otherwise more of the same. That’s what this is. But because of the modern marketing it’s all such a fan fair. If all we were looking at were clock speeds people probably wouldn’t rave as much. But it is what it is. It’s an odd computer and probably is hanging around one gen too long. The 13” retina did the same thing.
 
People here complaining about more options. 🤣

I’m in the “Get an MBA” camp, but the 13” has more graphics cores (for the money), better battery life.

For notch haters, this gives them a notchless option with an M2.

Someone, somewhere, wants this more than the new MBA. Not you. Not I. Someone.
 
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Abstract said:
People here complaining about more options. 🤣

I’m in the “Get an MBA” camp, but the 13” has more graphics cores (for the money), better battery life, and for lovers of SD Card slots, it has a slot for that.

For notch haters, this gives them a notchless option with an M2.
Click to expand...

It does?! Website, photos, and tech specs don't show an SD card slot!

Have I missed something? Thought that was only in the 14” and 16” MBPs.

Did you forget the /s mark?! 😎
 
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Saturn007 said:
It does?! Website, photos, and tech specs don't show an SD card slot!

Have I missed something? Thought that was only in the 14” and 16” MBPs.

Did you forget the /s mark?! 😎
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Yes I am very curious about this too, does the MBP M2 have the same SD card slot like the older 2012-2015 MBP’s (and new 14”/16” models)?
 
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TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
Solid Machine for those who prefers the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and having to not deal with the notch. Apple could have released the new MacBook Pro in new colors, atleast. 😭
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Yep, it's a machine that is absolutely for those who love the TouchBar. If I was one of them I'd be grateful, and yet dirty they haven't updated it.

The notch is invisible if you set the desktop to a pure black background, or install one of the several free 3rd party software apps to turn the menu bar background to black. Being a fan of dark mode anyway, I went for the black desktop. I couldn't even tell you where the notch starts and ends. The notch is merely an extra gain in screen height.
 
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