Apple unveiled its next-generation chip — M2 — at its annual World Wide Developers Conference keynote on June 7th. And now, just nine days later, you can order the first Mac to feature Apple’s latest chip.
The 2022 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t strike with a brand new look, but rather the classic sleek, rounded MacBook Pro in either Silver or Space Gray with a Retina display, Magic Keyboard, and a Touch Bar. What’s new is the M2 chip on the inside, and it starts at $1,299.
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How to order the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. Report is now taking orders for the M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro, which will begin arriving to customers, likely those who order first, on June 24, 2022. There are two main configurations for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and you can also customize beyond them.
Regardless of your desired storage size and RAM setup, you’ll get the M2 Chip with an 8-core CPU, 10-Core GPU, and a Neural Engine. The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts with 256GB of solid-state storage, but you can scale that to 2TB of storage. Additionally, you can get a maximum of 24GB of unified memory, though it starts with 8GB of RAM.
13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Chip, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage in Silver or Space Gray ($1,299; amazon.com or adorama.com)13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Chip, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage in Silver or Space Gray ($1,499; amazon.com or adorama.com)What’s new with the 2022 13-inch MacBook Pro?So as I teased above, the main story with the 13-inch MacBook Pro is that it features Apple’s brand-new M2 chip. It’s beating the redesigned MacBook Air to market and represents the first Mac with the M2 chip.
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This chip builds upon the M1, the first Apple-made processor that ultimately sent shockwaves through the Mac line. It delivered new levels of performance and speed, increased efficiency, and stretched battery life far beyond what was capable with an Intel chip for laptops. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 could stretch to 20 hours of battery life and multiple days of standby time. Apple promises the M2 chip can hit that as well.
The chip is a 5-nanometer build with an 8-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU, and a 16-Core Neural Engine. It’s up to 18% faster than the M1 chip and features more than 20 billion transistors, 25% more than the previous chip. All of this means that macOS Monterey will fly on the device and that likely any task will be handled swiftly. That means basic productivity tasks will breeze on, and creative tasks like photo edits or movie edits will be easily rendered. And since the 13-inch MacBook Pro pairs the M2 chip with a cooling system, it can run hotter (and faster) for longer. I’m very eager to put the M2 chip to the test and have no doubts or concerns about performance here.
And that’s really the news here. The rest of the 13-inch MacBook Pro stays the same. It features a 13.3-inch Retina Display with support for TrueTone and P3 Wide Color, plus it can reach up to 500 nits of brightness. You’ll still find bezels around the display, and up top is still a classic 720p FaceTime lens. Apple promises an improvement with the camera quality, though, since this laptop will take advantage of the new image signal processor in the M2 chip. The camera is still paired with a three-mic array, and for ports, you’ll find two USB-C ports along with a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack.
You’ll control much of the macOS experience here with a trackpad that supports haptics and the Magic Keyboard. Thanks to the punchy keys that make typing refreshing, I’m a big fan of this keyboard. There’s also plenty of room in between each key.
This is also the last Mac in the lineup to feature the Touch Bar, basically, a slim touchscreen that digitizes the row of function keys. On it, you can use features like predictive text, select an emoji, and some apps like Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, or Photos have handy shortcuts.
For instance, when editing a movie, you can scroll through the timeline or quickly select a command. To the left will be a physical escape key; on the right, you’ll get a square Touch ID sensor for easy unlocking and authenticating.
Let’s RecapSo that’s the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro, and if you’re sold, you can lock in an order for one right now. It’s the entry-level MacBook Pro that keeps the classic design and the Touch Bar. It’s the second most popular notebook from (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. Report, and for a good reason. Folks use these 13-inch Pros all over the world, and it’s prevalent amongst creatives. The M2 chip paired with a cooling system makes this especially capable for creative tasks.
I’m looking forward to putting it to the test soon and seeing how it performs in the real world. Especially to see the gains over the previous-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro. Speaking of which, if you’re after one of those, the M1 Chip, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage is still discounted from Amazon, and it’s $100 off.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.