Everything we know about the M2 Pro, M2 Max 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro

Apple is expected to release the first revision of the 2021 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro in 2023. Here’s everything we can expect to see with the M2 Pro chip and the M2 Max MacBook Pro devices so far.

When are the M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pros coming out?

Mark Gorman in bloomberg Setting expectations after the iPhone 14 event that Apple is unlikely to hold a second fall event in 2022.

Alternatively, Apple could simply brief selected members of the tech media about the new devices and issue a press release. In part, that’s because the big upgrade for these Macs is largely just better-performing versions.

Apple later indicated that their holiday lineup was set for this year. However, we have continued to see more and more evidence that unreleased Macs will soon be released as Macs.

2022 MacBook Pro colors?

Expecting the MacBook Pro to be space gray and silver again is a safe bet. Something new has happened since the last round of the MacBook Pro. In June, Apple made a darker aluminum coating called Midnight. The MacBook Air is the only device to feature this metallic shade of navy blue to date.

If the MacBook Pro comes in the new color, it will look newer and be the first midnight notebook with an all-black keyboard. While many are still waiting for an all-black MacBook Pro, this would be a great alternative to silver and space gray.

Last year’s MacBook Pro customers were also disappointed that the USB-C MagSafe 3 cable only came in white/silver. Its color matches the silver MacBook Pro, but it doesn’t match the space gray customers. Apple has since released USB-C color-matching MagSafe 3 cables for Space Gray, Starlight, and Midnight. Sure enough, Apple will bundle the Space Gray Edition with the Space Gray MacBook Pro with this review.

However, the M2 iPad Pro update does not include midnight. This does not bode well for the Midnight MacBook Pro.

M2 Pro and M2 Max

Finally, the real reason to upgrade is internal.

Apple introduced the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors in October 2021 along with the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The company kept Apple’s silicon upgrade train rolling all this past spring with the more powerful M1 Ultra.

Then Apple kicked off the M2 cycle in June with the MacBook Air. We can likely expect the same boost in performance from the M1 to the M2, as it was just expanded to the Pro and Max versions of the new MacBook Pro. Yes, that could mean more fan activity to prevent throttling. This has not been decided yet.

Unless you’re making the best out of your MacBook Pro, this probably won’t be the annual update that M1 Max customers require. If you bought an M1 Pro before and are ready for a flavor of Max instead, the M2 Max is your chance.

Mark Gorman in bloomberg He confirmed that graphics performance will be the focus of these new chips. We’ve also seen several rounds of benchmark tests that claim to show the performance of the M2 Max:

According to the platform, the M2 Max chip used in the benchmark has a 12-core CPU with 3.54GHz and 96GB of RAM. Scored 1853 on single core and 13855 on multiple core. For comparison, the M1 Max chip that powers the entry-level MacBook Pro and Mac Studio has 10 cores with a clock speed of 3.2GHz and a score of 1,746 in single-core and 12,154 in multi-core.

Based on these tests, the M2 Max chip is only about 14% faster than the M1 Max chip. Given that the results are from a real device, it’s unclear if Geekbench 5 failed to measure the full performance of the new CPU or if the M2 Max actually wouldn’t be a huge upgrade over the M1 Max, which doesn’t seem out of the question.

Read the full report on the benchmark leaks from late November here. A second set of benchmarks also claimed to show the performance of the M2 Max chip in early December:

The results of the benchmark test, also conducted using Geekbench 5, show a single-core score of 2027 and a multi-core score of 14888. In comparison, the previously leaked M2 Max benchmark score scored 1853 on single core and 13855 on multi core. The M1 Max chip that powers the entry-level Mac Studio has 10 cores with a clock speed of 3.2GHz and a score of 1746 in single-core and 12154 in multi-core.

Comparing the latest benchmark test of the M2 Max chip with the M1 Max, we have up to 22% better performance in multi-core, while previous results showed that the new chip will be 14% faster. It is uncertain if the results are in fact legitimate, and if so, why are they so different from one another.

Read the full story on the M2 Max add-on chipset benchmarks here.

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Here are some other possibilities we hope to see with the new MacBook Pro:

• the 16-inch MacBook Pro fast charging via USB-C; This wasn’t quite possible with the M1 Pro/Max version.
• More RAM? Apple has increased the RAM limit for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with the M2.
• Center Stage webcam? Probably not, especially after the onslaught of the studio show.
• M2 Ultra version? do not hold your breath. The Ultra is essentially two slices of the Max, and that kind of performance is likely to chew up your battery life.
• Speaking of battery life and performance, the high power mode on the MacBook Pro 16-inch M1 Max ramps up graphics-intensive tasks. Maybe we’ll see this feature come to more versions of the new MacBook Pro

TL; The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro is expected to be refreshed in the first quarter of 2023 at the earliest. Hold off until these new Macs are announced to make a purchase? Let us know in the comments!

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