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Also, MaxTech is such a clown after the whole Mac Studio, “upgradable SSD” nonsense him and Luke Miani were running with on YouTube. They have zero grasp on engineering and rarely rate things for real world users, the use cases are their own.
Luke Miani is a great and very objective reviewer, he always takes everything into consideration and often explains, how benchmarks and real world usage are two different things. The "upgradable SSD nonsense" was pure experimentation with the intent of informing viewers - and it's a good thing somebody tries doing something like that, for the sake of consumers.
 
Wow that's a little scandalous, doesn't matter if people will see the difference or not - charging more for an updated version and dropping speeds is a little disappointing.
And interestingly enough, no respond from Apple, and I don't think any of the journalists would be brave enough to ask Apple, in fear that they won't be getting future free review units.
 
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Appalling. Apple's greed under Tim cook knows no bounds. This is just under-handed sneaky move. Apple laptops are premium prices, and this is an old design to boot. I can't believe people are giving them a free pass saying they have to make up for inflation, there are not enough chips. That is all rubbish. Tim's and the executive have all increased this year. And Tim is on $100 million this year.
 
This is not acceptable for a Pro model, even the base one. Write and read speed should always improve or at the very least stay the same from the previous generation.

I'm definitely not defending the downgrade to a single chip (though I bet it's almost certainly to do with budget restraints) however this fallacy that "Pro model" means anything other than "slightly better than the cheaper model in the line" is daft.

It doesn't mean a "minimum standard" it doesn't mean "only used by professionals" (in fact what 'professional' only needs a 256gb SSD these days?). You've got an iPhone Pro, a Playstation Pro, Air Pods Pro and countless other companies who slap "Pro" onto the end of things, none of those consumer devices are for "professionals" it just means "a bit better than the product below" it's nothing more than a simple way for a consumer to know which is supposed to be a better model.

Now I think in this case, this model should just be called a "MacBook" but as this exact model as been a MacBook Pro for years now it doesn't make sense to regress on the naming scheme either. But for all intents and purposes it's just a standard entry level MacBook. Your MacBook Air with fans.
 
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MacBookProM2.jpg
 
What’s the Touch Bar got to do with SSD speed?
Nothing, I’m just describing this model. If Apple does eventually retire the 13” Pro, then that might also be the end for the Touchbar given that it won’t be coming to the 14” or 16”.
 
Nothing, I’m just describing this model. If Apple does eventually retire the 13” Pro, then that might also be the end for the Touchbar given that it won’t be coming to the 14” or 16”.
With the ridiculous offence some people take to the Touch Bar , its probably worthwhile ditching it. I always thought however it would be beneficial creating a keyboard with Touch Bar for those that did enjoy it, or perhaps including a customisable touch strip beneath the traditional function keys of a MacBook. With haptic feedback of course.
 
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This will most likely be an unpopular opinion, but if they are not running benchmarks this isn't going to be very noticeable to most folks who buy this machine. Sure, it may be slower in some tasks, but a few seconds here and there won't harm anybody at all.

If you're pushing a 13" MacBook Pro (M1 or M2) to where it slows down and/or costs significant time or money, you need to be shopping higher up the MacBook Pro range.
Apple is in no uncertain terms selling the product in question as the new and better 13" Pro and has phrases like "level up", "Faster than ever.", etc., and various charts and metrics in bold letters on the marketing pages showing how this 13" M2 MBP is 1.4x faster than the M1 version of the same product.

There's not a single statement or even implied that you need to get the 512GB version or better unless you want a performance decrease SSD read/write speeds.

If there's a spec or feature that underperforms on the least expensive version, like we saw with ProRes video on the 128GB versions of the iPhones 13 Pro, then Apple needs to write this out as boldly as all the other stuff.

I wouldn't expect them to explain specs that are equivalent to the last iteration of the product. It's a given that they are not upgraded if they aren't mentioned.

But if some specs are less than last year's then they have to mention it.

This is highly misleading, no discussion.
 
I'm definitely not defending the downgrade to a single chip (though I bet it's almost certainly to do with budget restraints) however this fallacy that "Pro model" means anything other than "slightly better than the cheaper model in the line" is daft.

If Apple doesn’t want people comparing the model against high-end ones, they can rename it.
 
The answer is simple. Industry is evolving and there are very few 256gb ssds around. 512gb its the minimum nowadays. U can still find 256gb on entry level cheap windows based pcs and... (paradox) on expensive macs 😂

If this trend will continue as now, soon we will have iphones with more storage than macs. More storage for stupid selfies and vertical videos and less storage for important files. Apple its becoming a brand for lobotomized idiots endlessly scrolling socials...
 
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If Apple doesn’t want people comparing the model against high-end ones, they can rename it.

What? What's that got to do with what I said?

My point was people seem obsessed with the term "Pro" only when it's used on MacBooks. As I said it means NOTHING more then "slightly better than the model below" which is exactly what it means on every other product Apple and every other company that uses "Pro" for the naming conventions of their product mean (Almost every consumer tech company going). Stop pretending it means anything more on a MacBook.
 
Apple is in no uncertain terms selling the product in question as the new and better 13" Pro and has phrases like "level up", "Faster than ever.", etc., and various charts and metrics in bold letters on the marketing pages showing how this 13" M2 MBP is 1.4x faster than the M1 version of the same product.

There's not a single statement or even implied that you need to get the 512GB version or better unless you want a performance decrease SSD read/write speeds.

If there's a spec or feature that underperforms on the least expensive version, like we saw with ProRes video on the 128GB versions of the iPhones 13 Pro, then Apple needs to write this out as boldly as all the other stuff.

I wouldn't expect them to explain specs that are equivalent to the last iteration of the product. It's a given that they are not upgraded if they aren't mentioned.

But if some specs are less than last year's then they have to mention it.

This is highly misleading, no discussion.

Ha yeah, please find me one company that does this.
 
YouTube channels such as Max Tech and Created Tech tested the 256GB model with Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test app and found that the SSD's read and write speeds are both around 1,450 MB/s, which is around 50% slower reading and around 30% slower writing compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and 256GB of storage.
This is good news for marketing ... meaning ... with the next upgrade they can say SSD r/w speeds went up by 100%. This will distract from a marginally incremental CPU improvements when M2-pro comes out.

In the mean while: My trash can Mac Pro 2013 still outperforms most laptops in day-to-day usage :)
 
The fact it thermal throttles makes me laugh the most. All those smug posts on this site by users saying how Apple Silicon won’t ever thermal throttle haha
 
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If this were the M2 Air, I'd be pissed. On this cynical cash grab of a machine though? People should've expected this (given the age of the design & lackluster components/specs).
 
Genuine question ... was there this level of "giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other" when Steve was running the show?
 
I do find this model a bit confusing. I’m definitely not a professional user and the more advanced models like the 14” and 16” would be total overkill for my needs (Perhaps with the exception for the “need” for a bigger screen). What would be the real reason to go for a 13” MBP over the Air? I would be very surprised if any user who do not need the power of the 14” or 16” really would notice the decreased speed of the SSD of the 13”.
 
8GB/256GB as the starting configuration needs to die anyway. This is just insult to the injury. Speed should never progress backwards regardless of whether people would notice it.

But Intel released processors that were slower than previous models, and provided slanted 'benchmarks' to prove that their new processor actually was faster. Looking at the results was interesting. What defines a complicated device like a microprocessor as 'faster'. On widespread and detailed benchmarks, some of their processors were actually quite a bit slower in *some tasks* that the previous incarnations. I remember they released a 4-core at some point that was noticeably slower than the previous one with less cores. They could bury that fact in the huge amount of self-congratulatory carefully constructed 'proof'. But, yes, things *should* progress to a faster basis, but it's a wild industry.

Anyone remember when Apple stuck a standard hard drive in a system to apparently deliberately hobble it? It happens. They have apparently gotten past the idea that steve jobs professed that Apple wasn't afraid of cannibalizing their own products. Artfully restricting the power of one model to not step on another model is ridiculous. Especially in light of the iMacs blowing away their 'pro model' Mac Pro. Significantly hobbling a new product is outrageous, and comical.
 
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