Evidence of M2 Apple Silicon Chip Spotted Ahead of Apple Event on Tuesday

[NT1440]

Yes, I'm comparing two products released within a few days of interval. The upcoming MBA vs the MateBook X. Tell me, how is it not a fair comparison?

(Disclaimer : I'm just talking about the notch. I would never buy a MateBook X, but the notch could really annoy me if the MBA ends up having it).

Ok so we’re talking theoretically, until tomorrow. Got it.

I thought you were talking about the MBP’s.

Anywho, I’d love to see a real demo of the 720p Matebook camera. I think it would be lackluster compared to the 1080p one that’s boosted by the ISP of the M series chips.

People say that apple focuses too much on aesthetics, but given the notch and the much improved camera it houses it seems like Huawei has done it this time.

 

[icerabbit]

... why would the MBP & MBA suddenly get an M2 and get to surpass the new flagship 14 & 16 MBPs from last nov ... I'd think those guys would get to last more than a few months at the top of the mobile charts.

 

[PsykX]

Ok so we’re talking theoretically, until tomorrow. Got it.

I thought you were talking about the MBP’s.

Anywho, I’d love to see a real demo of the 720p Matebook camera. I think it would be lackluster compared to the 1080p one that’s boosted by the ISP of the M series chips.

People say that apple focuses too much on aesthetics, but given the notch and the much improved camera it houses it seems like Huawei has done it this time.

The performance specs of the MateBook X are way inferior to Apple, thanks to M1. Huawei just can't market this thing with performance features. M2 will just put the the MateBook to shame even more, even with 20% more performance.

I hope we'll have a 1080p webcam tomorrow, because it was one of the main cons of the MBA.

 

[CWallace]

... why would the MBP & MBA suddenly get an M2 and get to surpass the new flagship 14 & 16 MBPs from last nov ... I'd think those guys would get to last more than a few months at the top of the mobile charts.

Because in terms of CPU, GPU and memory performance, an M2 Macbook Air or M2 MacBook Pro 13.3" won't come close to a 14/16" MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro 10/16 or M1 Max 10/32 so the MBP 14/16 will still be "the big dogs".

 

[chucker23n1]

... why would the MBP & MBA suddenly get an M2

Nothing sudden about it. The M1 is already 16 months old.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

When has apple ever “advertised” the M1 (or M2) as “not pro?” Let alone “pretty clearly” advertised? They spent an hour at the unveiling of M1 explaining how it competed with the best from intel.

It’s clear that some people will have to re-learn from what they’ve been taught from AMD and Intel for years. There is no “consumer” Apple Silicon They all perform well above most of the processors sold by AMD and Intel. It will take awhile for folks to realize that there is no myriad i3’s and no range of i5 equivalents in Apple’s lineups and there never will be.

They may put Apple Silicon in “consumer” machines, but the performance curve will always be within the range of the competitions “professional” chips.

 

[PsykX]

Why would the notch annoy you? What’s ever in that space other than empty menu bar, anyway?

The only thing I can accept if a screen is not a perfect rectangle is rounded corners. Having something directly in the middle is really not good design-wise.

In macOS nothing's really there, except apps with lots of menus, but in games and fullscreen photos, etc, it's really not a good experience. Same goes with phones. I can't wait for the notch to disappear in iPhones.

 

[chucker23n1]

It’s clear that some people will have to re-learn from what they’ve been taught from AMD and Intel for years. There is no “consumer” Apple Silicon They all perform well above most of the processors sold by AMD and Intel. It will take awhile for folks to realize that there is no myriad i3’s and no range of i5 equivalents in Apple’s lineups and there never will be.

I mean… a ceiling of 16 GB RAM is quite consumer-y.

As for the competition, we’ll see. Things can change.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I mean… a ceiling of 16 GB RAM is quite consumer-y.

As for the competition, we’ll see. Things can change.

One thing that won’t change is the competition selling a wide variety of low performance processors that any future Apple Silicon will handily beat. I’m actually counting the years until a newly released i3 beats Apple’s FIRST M1.

 

[NT1440]

... why would the MBP & MBA suddenly get an M2 and get to surpass the new flagship 14 & 16 MBPs from last nov ... I'd think those guys would get to last more than a few months at the top of the mobile charts.

The basic M2 will beat the M1, it will NOT beat the M1 M1 Pro or Max.

 

[chucker23n1]

The basic M2 will beat the M1, it will NOT beat the M1 M1 Pro or Max.

It will, in some areas, such as web browsing.

 

[icerabbit]

The only thing I can accept if a screen is not a perfect rectangle is rounded corners. Having something directly in the middle is really not good design-wise.

In macOS nothing's really there, except apps with lots of menus, but in games and fullscreen photos, etc, it's really not a good experience. Same goes with phones. I can't wait for the notch to disappear in iPhones.

I have devices with a notch ... doesn't bother me one bit. You get used to the new normal within a couple days.
Screens are fully functional as usual. I have yet to have an issue with menu bars. Only issue on the phone, you don't get enough bar space in that top right side, and VPN will be invisible / hidden behind the notch? They could drop the carrier name on the left side for me.

 

[chucker23n1]

I have devices with a notch ... doesn't bother me one bit. You get used to the new normal within a couple days.
Screens are fully functional as usual. I have yet to have an issue with menu bars. Only issue on the phone, you don't get enough bar space in that top right side, and VPN will be invisible / hidden behind the notch? They could drop the carrier name on the left side for me.

Yeah, one of my biggest complaints about the iPhone notch is the limited, non-customizable status bar.

But mostly, I just don’t think of it at all. Overblown issue.

 

[Fomalhaut]

The only thing I can accept if a screen is not a perfect rectangle is rounded corners. Having something directly in the middle is really not good design-wise.

In macOS nothing's really there, except apps with lots of menus, but in games and fullscreen photos, etc, it's really not a good experience. Same goes with phones. I can't wait for the notch to disappear in iPhones.

The notch doesn't work that way; in the vast majority of apps, full screen mode renders full-screen mode below the menu bar and notch, looking exactly the same as it used to on the older MacBook Pros.

Visually, I never notice the notch because it's either in a dark menu bar (and not visible) or hidden in full-screen mode.

The only down-side is that some apps (and some menu bar icons) do not adapt to the notch and get hidden underneath it, which is quite irritating. Hopefully future releases of these apps will be "notch-aware" to prevent this.

 

[BigMac?]

Reviewing the past M/A/Ax chip family it comes to my mind:

M2 will be based on A16

2020: A14 -> M1 family
2022: A16 -> M2 family

- this would mean a 2 year cycle
- 2022 chips probably implementing arm v9

 

[BigMac?]

Reviewing the past M/A/Ax chip family it comes to my mind:

M2 will be based on A16

2020: A14 -> M1 family
2022: A16 -> M2 family

- this would mean a 2 year cycle
- 2022 chips probably implementing arm v9

 

[chucker23n1]

I’m not sure Apple has an ARMv9 license, nor am I sure they care.

If many more months pass by, I agree it’ll be A16-derived. It may not follow that that’ll always be the cycle; it could be an outlier. 24 months is quite a bit. Maybe they’ll do 18 after.

 

[cmaier]

... why would the MBP & MBA suddenly get an M2 and get to surpass the new flagship 14 & 16 MBPs from last nov ... I'd think those guys would get to last more than a few months at the top of the mobile charts.

Because the M2 would be slower for most things than the flagship M1 processors?

 

[cmaier]

I’m not sure Apple has an ARMv9 license, nor am I sure they care.

If many more months pass by, I agree it’ll be A16-derived. It may not follow that that’ll always be the cycle; it could be an outlier. 24 months is quite a bit. Maybe they’ll do 18 after.

I’m sure they have one, and I’m sure they don’t care.

 

[CWallace]

I’m not sure Apple has an ARMv9 license, nor am I sure they care.

I cannot think of any reason why they would not have such a license. I am not familiar with how ARM licensing works, but it might be Apple gets access to all future ARM architectures with their existing license.

And I am with cmaier about them not really caring, considering they have been pushing the architecture in their own unique direction since A4.

 

[cmaier]

I cannot think of any reason why they would not have such a license. I am not familiar with how ARM licensing works, but it might be Apple gets access to all future ARM architectures with their existing license.

And I am with cmaier about them not really caring, considering they have been pushing the architecture in their own unique direction since A4.

I’m sure they’ll add elements of v9 over time, but there isn’t very much there that they don’t already have covered. V9 was a notoriously small set of additions to the architecture. I imagine they’re busy working with Arm on v10.