Apple has announced its next-generation 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, powered by the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. The M2-powered 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros were originally expected to be announced last year, but Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman revealed last October that Apple pushed the launch date by a few months to the first quarter of 2023. The latest launch comes several months after Apple released a couple of new MacBooks powered by its M2 chip, including the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the 2022 MacBook Air.
Apple, on Tuesday, announced two new MacBook Pro models with 14 and 16-inch screens. They retain the design of their predecessors, including the notched Liquid Retina XDR display. The new MacBooks can be configured with the M2 Pro or the M2 Max chips that come with oodles of performance for creators and other users. Apple says it has twice the number of transistors as the standard M2 and nearly 20 percent more than the M1 Pro. The M2 Pro SoC comes with a 10 or 12-core CPU, 16 or 19-core GPU, and up to 32GB of unified memory with 200GB/s of bandwidth.
New 14-Inch And 16-Inch MacBook Pros
As for the M2 Max, it has a 12-core CPU and up to 38 cores of GPU, with support for up to 96GB of unified memory with 400GB/s of bandwidth. The chip has 67 billion transistors, three times that of the base M2. In terms of performance, Apple claims that the new MacBooks will be the fastest ever, especially when using apps like Adobe Photoshop and Xcode. Apple says it is up to 30 percent faster than the M1 Max in graphics-intensive tasks, while the Neural Engine is 40 percent faster than its predecessor.
The M2 Pro and M2 Max are built with a 5-nanometer process, making them super-powerful and highly power efficient. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is rated for up to 18 hours of battery life, and up to 22 hours for the 16-inch model. Both last longer than their predecessors by an hour, with Apple saying that the new 16-inch MacBook Pro has the longest-ever battery life of any MacBook.
Wired connectivity options include three Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone socket, while Wi-Fi 6E is for wireless connectivity. The devices also ship with MagSafe 3 for charging, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and a six-speaker sound system.
The new MacBook Pros can be pre-ordered in Space Gray and Silver colorways from Apple’s online store starting today, with general availability beginning Jan. 24. Pricing starts at $1,999 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro and $2,499 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
