Apple has released a new 13-inch MacBook Pro model with an M2 chip, bringing the next-generation Apple Silicon to the company's pro notebooks.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro includes the updated M2 chipset, which Apple says provides much faster performance without sacrificing power efficiency. The M2 is a 5nm-based chipset with 20 billion transistors and 100 GBps of unified memory bandwidth, 50% more than the M1.
Users can opt for an 8-core or 10-core variant with up to 24GB of memory and up to 2TB of SSD storage. The M2 also packs a 10-core GPU that provides up to 25% better graphics performance at the same power level as M1.
Additionally, the M2 also sports an upgraded Secure Enclave and Neural Engine that Apple says is up to 40% faster than the M1.
According to Apple's own benchmarks, working in apps like Affinity Photo is nearly 40% faster than the previous generation MacBook Pro and up to 3.4 times faster for users upgrading from an Intel-based machine.
Apple says that the new MacBook Pro also has an advanced camera image signal processor and studio-quality microphones, which should provide better Zoom and FaceTime calling capabilities.
ProRes encode and decode should provide up to 3 times faster video processing. The MacBook Pro is also able to support playback of up to 11 streams of 4K and up to two streams of 8K ProRes video. As with M1-based Mac models, the 13-inch MacBook Pro can only support a single external display with up to a 6K resolution at 60Hz.
Apple has given the battery life an upgrade as well, with the 13-inch MacBook Pro able to last up to 20 hours on a single charge when playing videos.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,299 or $1,199 for education customers. They're set to begin arriving on customer doorsteps in July.
