In the years I've been getting my hands dirty with Apple's lineup, I've learned something
about MacBooks. Take the M2 MacBook Air, for example.
Yes, it's only $1,200, but with just a few upgrades, it suddenly approaches the price
of the MacBook Pro without any of the pronus.
At the other end of the spectrum, upgrades are so expensive that they're only worth
doing if you have a specific professional use case for them.
That means for the average person, there's a sweet spot, and it's this.
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
all the inflation going around. But for the money, you get HDMI 2.1, better Wi-Fi, and the brand new M2 Pro chip.
But here's where it gets tricky. Apple's also currently selling another entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro.
It's the previous M1 Pro model found in the refurbished store, and it's available for
quite a discount.
That makes for an interesting dilemma right now. Which sweet spot is sweeter?
As we know, the refurbished store is a little ephemeral, so if you want any customizations,
those are not guaranteed. It has what it has, and once they're gone, they're gone.
And refurbished models could be imperfect or require an exchange if you're unlucky like
I was. Performance-wise, the M2 processor now starts with 10 CPU and 16 GPU cores.
But in the CPU, the extra cores are only of the efficiency variety.
So does that compromise performance? In the tests that I conducted, the M2 Pro is faster than the M1 Pro, but not by much.
I shaved a minute off my crazy DaVinci RAW export test, and I got one more playback stream
of ProRes RAW in better quality using Final Cut Pro.
Even if you read Apple's notoriously vague graphs properly, you can see that the improvements
are incremental there, too. One of the interesting things about the M2 generation is how it does seem to run hotter
than its predecessor. On that DaVinci test, the fan spun quite loudly on the 14-inch M2 Pro model and M2 Max model
I tested, with the highest surface temp reading 46 degrees above the keyboard.
Meanwhile, the M2 Pro model remained barely audible and barely at under 43 degrees.
With everyday use, like what I do with the laptop, the extra heat doesn't really matter.
It won't be burning any holes through your jeans anytime soon.
And importantly, the battery life doesn't suffer, because the additional efficiency
cores make all the difference. Last time I used the 14-inch M1 Pro battery, I got around 7 hours of on-screen time.
With this new one, that went up to 8 and a half.
It's faster, the battery is better, and there's no refurbished store faffing.
It sounds like it could be worth the $460.
But stop, Apple did their thing again, and you should know about it.
There are fewer SSD storage chips on the board.
This means that compared to the M1 Pro model, sequential reads and writes are half the speed.
Random read and write speeds, however, are slightly improved.
This will probably affect app installs or large file transfers to and from fancy Thunderbolt
SSDs most. But I still haven't quite felt the consequence of this in day-to-day use with the M2 MacBook
Air I've been using for the past few months, which has the same problem.
Okay, so it's a hard choice, and here are two more things that won't change your mind.
Huh, so the cheaper M1 Pro or this updated M2 Pro?
It's still not that easy to decide. And well, consider the following.
On the M2 Pro model, the HDMI port now supports 8K resolution, or 240Hz 4K, with the genuine
2.1 spec, as well as the addition of multi-channel sound output, which I'm surprised it didn't
have already. If you have the TV or display that supports this, you can now get retina quality on big
screens. This is amazing, and also hilarious, I do not recommend.
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
4 keynote in here. You know, you could help me out if you're on Wi-Fi if you could just get off.
Okay, so it's not any easier to decide.
That price for the refurbished M1 Pro model is quite tempting, as you get 16GB of RAM
and 1.5TB of storage, things that bring Apple's cheaper laptops out of their affordable
purchase to similar prices. If you have the risk tolerance, and they're still available, the M1 Pro is not significantly
slower or worse than this new updated model, and it is significantly better than anything
below it. When those are gone, you're going to be left with this, and that's great too.
This in many ways is the one Mac to rule them all.
With Apple Silicon, the performance differences between laptop and desktop are largely gone.
It's all about efficiency. So if you're the type of person who previously had both an iMac and a MacBook, don't.
Just get one of these. Thanks for watching this slightly faster Mac Address.
If you were waiting for the M2 Pro processor, give this video a like.
I am curious actually, if you would choose between getting a brand new M2 Pro or taking
the risk and saving the money for an M1 Pro in the refurbished store.
Comment below.