Must have a stockpile of those chassis to get rid of. Hard to imagine anyone buying a dated, portless M2 Pro when the M2 Air is coming up right behind it but I guess they need to put the M2 in something before the Air launches.
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Apple to Unveil 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro With Unchanged Design Next Month, Claims Original MacBook Pro 'Notch' Leaker
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I guess no MagSafe 3, since this is a low effort M1>M2 SoC swap.
A14 introduced in the iPad Air before iPhones.
M2 introduced in the Macbook Pro “SE” before the new Airs.
Clearly the “prestige” argument for the debut of a new Apple SoC is not a thing anymore. (or external circumstances messed up the order of the releases)
A14 introduced in the iPad Air before iPhones.
M2 introduced in the Macbook Pro “SE” before the new Airs.
Clearly the “prestige” argument for the debut of a new Apple SoC is not a thing anymore. (or external circumstances messed up the order of the releases)
The average buyer of a 1200 dollars laptop tends to be rather well informed. They'll understand that M2 is better than M1 but not as good as M1 Pro or M1 Max. It's just like Intel i3, i5, i7 and their generations. An i3 11th Generation is still not as good as an i5 10th Generation.
The overlap is too huge. Apple will not make the 15" MacBook as the 14" MBP would capture a large proportion of this market.
Obviously Apple is real touchy about the touch bar. It just had to extend its life for at least one more release cycle, again, hell yeah!
The TouchBar is useful for certain applications. For musicians it’s amazing.
There was no reason to jam the TouchBar down everyone’s throat, but there is also no reason to deny everyone an ARM-based MacBook equipped with a TouchBar. There needs to be a musician-centric MacBook that offers a TouchBar, and people should be able to make a choice based on what jobs they do and what tools they prefer to do their jobs.
There was no reason to jam the TouchBar down everyone’s throat, but there is also no reason to deny everyone an ARM-based MacBook equipped with a TouchBar. There needs to be a musician-centric MacBook that offers a TouchBar, and people should be able to make a choice based on what jobs they do and what tools they prefer to do their jobs.
The chip could have better performance at the power envelope of a small laptop, or better power consumption at comparable performance. Apple tends not to clutter up their product lines, so we can safely assume that there is a reason for this product to be.
Is an M2 two M1s soldered together or is it an updated version of the M1?
Apple will next month debut its latest M2 Apple silicon processor in a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro model that will have no major design changes, according to a previously reliable source with close links to Apple's supply chain.
Based on the new information seen by MacRumors, the upcoming 13-inch MacBook Pro retains the same design as the current version, including the Touch Bar, but unlike the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, it will not have a notch or a ProMotion display, contrary to some rumors.
If so, that means the headline difference in the new entry-level MacBook Pro model will be the new M2 chip, which features the same number of CPU cores as the M1 processor, up to 10 graphics cores, and improved performance.
The above details were relayed by the original source of last year's last-minute MacBook Pro notch rumor that MacRumors was first to report on. In October 2021, the same leaker said the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models would have a redesigned display with a central notch for the webcam, but no Face ID.
That left-field claim, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and so close to Apple's fall "Unleashed" event, turned out to be completely accurate, and the new redesigned MacBook Pro models were unveiled the next week with the controversial camera housing centered at the top of the screen.
The latest 13-inch MacBook Pro rumor also lines up with a DigiTimes report that appeared last week claiming Apple will launch its first MacBook Pro with second-generation M2 chip at its spring event.
DigiTimes' supply chain sources also claimed that except for the processor, most other components used in the new MacBook Pro will feature almost the same specs as those for the existing model featuring M1 chips, seemingly corroborating the latest rumor.
Well-connected Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman recently said Apple's intention is to release an updated entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 chip in 2022, but this was generally assumed to mean that the machine would appear later in the year, after Apple finishes releasing its final Macs with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
Notably, in contrast to the latest rumor, Gurman said he believes Apple will remove the Touch Bar on the new 13-inch machine, although he too expects the notebook will lack a ProMotion display.
Either way, we should know for sure in just a few weeks' time. Apple is working on several new Mac computers to be released this year, and Gurman has suggested the rumored spring event on Tuesday, March 8 will include the launch of "at least one" new Mac. Apple is also expected to introduce new iPhone SE and iPad Air models, which are both believed to feature an A15 chip and 5G support.
Article Link: Apple to Unveil 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro With Unchanged Design Next Month, Claims Original MacBook Pro 'Notch' Leaker
Although it may seem strange apple is keeping this pro model around when you look at pricing it makes perfect sense.
The 14 inch starts at nearly 2000 and the MacBook Air is 999. That’s a huge jump. Even if the new MacBook Air is priced at 1200 (which it probably will be) that’s still a huge gap. It makes sense.
The 14 inch starts at nearly 2000 and the MacBook Air is 999. That’s a huge jump. Even if the new MacBook Air is priced at 1200 (which it probably will be) that’s still a huge gap. It makes sense.
Musician here, but have to say I haven't once considered buying a Macbook just because of the touchbar. I could see the potential but it was too small to be of benefit to me.
That would actually make sense - assuming that the M2 is a more-or-less drop-in replacement for the M1, Apple could just bump the Air, the Mini, the 13" MBP and the 24" iMac to M2 (hmmm... that would be four "new" M2 Macs)
The 24" iMac is a new design and unlikely to get another major overhaul for years, so a M2 version of that once the chips are available is inevitable. The Air and Mini... well, we've been getting excited about a new design but people aren't exactly hating on the current models... (...a M? Pro/Max version of the Mini could be a separate product marketed as a "Mac Pro Mini") - Could Apple have finally learned "if it ain't broke don't fix it"?
(Or, more cynically, 'we're selling Macs hand over fist at the moment - let's hold back the all-new designs until the surge is over and we need another boost').
Personally, I don't see the reason for the existence of the 13" MBP currently, let alone vs. an all-new Air with better screen etc. but Apple are the ones with the sales figures... and if the Air is just getting a bump to M2 as well the current advantages aren't going away.
I think the main lesson is that Apple need to fire their "group of employees who's job is making up things to call things" - "pro" may be a meaningless marketing term for "better" globally speaking, but having in mean one thing within a processor range and something different in the range of computers that exclusively use that processor range looks like carelessness (it's like having a PowerMac G5 with a G4 processor, or a MacBook i7 with an i5...)... having the processor generation up front in the name - so a M2 sounds "better" than an M1 Pro... Calling a SoC M1 Max when there are SoCs with 2x or 4x as many cores in the pipeline... Seriously, folks, did you learn nothing from OS X Lion...?
I’m in the minority here, but I will disagree with this leak. I don’t see it happening. Makes 0 sense.
Hello stranger, and welcome to Earth.
Maybe if you're talking about a $20,000 Mac Pro system, but at least the base models of the MacBook, 14/16" MBP and Mini and iMac are within many (fortunate) peoples' impulse purchase range.
...and can you really imagine your typical sales assistant at BuyMore correctly advising people that M1 Pro is "better" than M2? Let alone understanding the diminishing returns of a "Pro" fo anybody not running heavily multi-threaded/GPU-heavy workloads?
Even if you do understand the details, having informative product names makes research more pleasant, and there's only one chance to make a first impression
that's the point... it exists to provide a lowest cost option for someone who demands a Pro but doesn't want to pay the higher prices... while driving everyone else to the even higher priced newer Pros since you like you said, real function keys and the 2021 design are "appealing for a lot of Pro buyers." Apple doesn't want to make this low end too appealing and wants it to appear dated to send 90% of the buyers up market while still having a lower cost option.
I love all the random people giving tips to the richest company (or one of) on the planet. I think Apple knows what they are doing.
I really like mine, and I put off buying a Mac with a Touch Bar for the longest time because of all the complaints about it but it's super handy!
I like that zoom has a dedicated mute/un-mute button
I like that YouTube has a video scroll bar
I like that vscode has buttons for debug controls
.. and more
I suspect had it been an addition instead of a replacement of the fn-keys it would have been a softer introduction, though granted that would have taken more space so maybe wouldn't have worked.
I would be interested in an updated 13” Pro, provided there was MagSafe and 4 TB ports. The 14” is great from a spec standpoint, and isn’t really ugly, but side by side with the old 13” chassis, it definitely looks chunky. With better thermal management on Apple Silicon, I could get behind a 4-TB 13” model.
But if it sticks with the current port arrangement, it really is kind of pointless next to an Air. TouchBar would be amusing from a strategy standpoint, but I personally wouldn’t really care either way.
But if it sticks with the current port arrangement, it really is kind of pointless next to an Air. TouchBar would be amusing from a strategy standpoint, but I personally wouldn’t really care either way.