1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,680 In the years I've been getting my hands dirty with Apple's lineup, I've learned something 2 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:10,880 about MacBooks. Take the M2 MacBook Air, for example. 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:16,980 Yes, it's only $1,200, but with just a few upgrades, it suddenly approaches the price 4 00:00:16,980 --> 00:00:20,000 of the MacBook Pro without any of the pronus. 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,240 At the other end of the spectrum, upgrades are so expensive that they're only worth 6 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:27,160 doing if you have a specific professional use case for them. 7 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:33,520 That means for the average person, there's a sweet spot, and it's this. 8 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:41,680 It's the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro. There's a brand new one, and it still starts at $2,000, a not insignificant sum, even with 9 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:50,400 all the inflation going around. But for the money, you get HDMI 2.1, better Wi-Fi, and the brand new M2 Pro chip. 10 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:56,800 But here's where it gets tricky. Apple's also currently selling another entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro. 11 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:01,640 It's the previous M1 Pro model found in the refurbished store, and it's available for 12 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:05,360 quite a discount. 13 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:10,760 That makes for an interesting dilemma right now. Which sweet spot is sweeter? 14 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:15,320 As we know, the refurbished store is a little ephemeral, so if you want any customizations, 15 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:20,120 those are not guaranteed. It has what it has, and once they're gone, they're gone. 16 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:24,480 And refurbished models could be imperfect or require an exchange if you're unlucky like 17 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:31,880 I was. Performance-wise, the M2 processor now starts with 10 CPU and 16 GPU cores. 18 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:36,680 But in the CPU, the extra cores are only of the efficiency variety. 19 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:44,440 So does that compromise performance? In the tests that I conducted, the M2 Pro is faster than the M1 Pro, but not by much. 20 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:49,560 I shaved a minute off my crazy DaVinci RAW export test, and I got one more playback stream 21 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,820 of ProRes RAW in better quality using Final Cut Pro. 22 00:01:53,820 --> 00:01:58,060 Even if you read Apple's notoriously vague graphs properly, you can see that the improvements 23 00:01:58,060 --> 00:02:04,620 are incremental there, too. One of the interesting things about the M2 generation is how it does seem to run hotter 24 00:02:04,620 --> 00:02:11,840 than its predecessor. On that DaVinci test, the fan spun quite loudly on the 14-inch M2 Pro model and M2 Max model 25 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:16,540 I tested, with the highest surface temp reading 46 degrees above the keyboard. 26 00:02:16,540 --> 00:02:22,780 Meanwhile, the M2 Pro model remained barely audible and barely at under 43 degrees. 27 00:02:22,780 --> 00:02:26,420 With everyday use, like what I do with the laptop, the extra heat doesn't really matter. 28 00:02:26,420 --> 00:02:29,540 It won't be burning any holes through your jeans anytime soon. 29 00:02:29,540 --> 00:02:33,300 And importantly, the battery life doesn't suffer, because the additional efficiency 30 00:02:33,300 --> 00:02:40,460 cores make all the difference. Last time I used the 14-inch M1 Pro battery, I got around 7 hours of on-screen time. 31 00:02:40,460 --> 00:02:44,900 With this new one, that went up to 8 and a half. 32 00:02:44,900 --> 00:02:49,260 It's faster, the battery is better, and there's no refurbished store faffing. 33 00:02:49,260 --> 00:02:52,820 It sounds like it could be worth the $460. 34 00:02:52,820 --> 00:02:56,620 But stop, Apple did their thing again, and you should know about it. 35 00:02:56,620 --> 00:02:59,780 There are fewer SSD storage chips on the board. 36 00:02:59,780 --> 00:03:04,580 This means that compared to the M1 Pro model, sequential reads and writes are half the speed. 37 00:03:04,580 --> 00:03:08,300 Random read and write speeds, however, are slightly improved. 38 00:03:08,300 --> 00:03:13,820 This will probably affect app installs or large file transfers to and from fancy Thunderbolt 39 00:03:13,820 --> 00:03:19,620 SSDs most. But I still haven't quite felt the consequence of this in day-to-day use with the M2 MacBook 40 00:03:19,620 --> 00:03:23,620 Air I've been using for the past few months, which has the same problem. 41 00:03:23,620 --> 00:03:29,380 Okay, so it's a hard choice, and here are two more things that won't change your mind. 42 00:03:29,380 --> 00:03:33,860 Huh, so the cheaper M1 Pro or this updated M2 Pro? 43 00:03:33,860 --> 00:03:38,820 It's still not that easy to decide. And well, consider the following. 44 00:03:38,820 --> 00:03:46,700 On the M2 Pro model, the HDMI port now supports 8K resolution, or 240Hz 4K, with the genuine 45 00:03:46,700 --> 00:03:53,380 2.1 spec, as well as the addition of multi-channel sound output, which I'm surprised it didn't 46 00:03:53,380 --> 00:04:00,580 have already. If you have the TV or display that supports this, you can now get retina quality on big 47 00:04:00,580 --> 00:04:05,460 screens. This is amazing, and also hilarious, I do not recommend. 48 00:04:05,460 --> 00:04:12,220 Wi-Fi now supports the 6e spec too. It's something I can't really test at the LMG office here, because it's like the iPhone 49 00:04:12,220 --> 00:04:18,020 4 keynote in here. You know, you could help me out if you're on Wi-Fi if you could just get off. 50 00:04:18,020 --> 00:04:21,860 Okay, so it's not any easier to decide. 51 00:04:21,860 --> 00:04:27,420 That price for the refurbished M1 Pro model is quite tempting, as you get 16GB of RAM 52 00:04:27,420 --> 00:04:31,780 and 1.5TB of storage, things that bring Apple's cheaper laptops out of their affordable 53 00:04:31,780 --> 00:04:39,700 purchase to similar prices. If you have the risk tolerance, and they're still available, the M1 Pro is not significantly 54 00:04:39,700 --> 00:04:44,860 slower or worse than this new updated model, and it is significantly better than anything 55 00:04:44,860 --> 00:04:50,820 below it. When those are gone, you're going to be left with this, and that's great too. 56 00:04:50,820 --> 00:04:53,820 This in many ways is the one Mac to rule them all. 57 00:04:53,820 --> 00:04:58,020 With Apple Silicon, the performance differences between laptop and desktop are largely gone. 58 00:04:58,020 --> 00:05:05,500 It's all about efficiency. So if you're the type of person who previously had both an iMac and a MacBook, don't. 59 00:05:05,500 --> 00:05:09,620 Just get one of these. Thanks for watching this slightly faster Mac Address. 60 00:05:09,620 --> 00:05:13,140 If you were waiting for the M2 Pro processor, give this video a like. 61 00:05:13,140 --> 00:05:19,860 I am curious actually, if you would choose between getting a brand new M2 Pro or taking 62 00:05:19,860 --> 00:05:24,380 the risk and saving the money for an M1 Pro in the refurbished store. 63 00:05:24,380 --> 00:05:24,940 Comment below.