REVIEW: 13-INCH MACBOOK PRO M2 A POWERFUL TWEENER IN APPLE’S LINEUP

APPLE’S NEW LAPTOP IS STUCK BETWEEN THE LOWEND AIR AND THE HIGH-END M1 PRO/MAX MACBOOKS.

- ROMAN LOYOLA

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is a unique Mac laptop. It has the distinction of being the first Mac with the M2 system-on-achip, the second generation of Apple silicon for the Mac. And considering that the M1 made such a tremendous impression, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro has a little bit of a burden in following such a successful debut.

It does leave an impression, but it's not a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring one. Maybe that's unfair because, after all, following the originator of the Mac rebirth is a tough task. And the new 13-inch MacBook Pro does offer better performance than its M1 predecessor.

What tempers the enthusiasm for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is everything else about it-besides the M2, it's the same laptop as its predecessor. It's a good laptop, but when you look at the other MacBooks in Apple's lineup that have gotten new enclosures and fancy eyepopping new displays to accompany their new chips, it's befuddling to see the 13-inch MacBook Pro still sporting a yearsold design.

AN M2 SPEED BOOST

This review takes a look at the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the following specifications:

> M2 system-on-a-chip with 8 CPU cores

> 10-core GPU

> 16GB of unified memory

> 1TB SSD

This configuration is priced at $1,899, $400 more than the $1,499 standard configuration that comes with 8GB of memory and 512GB of storage.

The marquee feature of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is the M2. Its CPU architecture is based on its predecessor, the M1, with an 8-core CPU, but the four performance cores and four efficiency cores have improvements that enhance performance. We have an article that examines the key differences between the M1 and M2 (fave.co/ 30YkQgb) if you're interested in diving into the details.