Apple 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro review: Our first taste of M2

Just how fast is Apple’s M2 chip? Let’s find out.

Note: This review was first published on 22 June 2022.

The newest 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn't look any different but it's powered by Apple's latest M2 chip.

The newest 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn't look any different but it's powered by Apple's latest M2 chip.

Not just any spec-bump update

Let’s cut to the chase. Other than the new M2 chip that resides within, this “new” 13-inch MacBook Pro is identical to the one before it. The display, chassis, dimensions, and weight are all unchanged. So if you want to know more about the design and features of the notebook in greater detail, I urge you to read my review of the 2020 version here

But for the sake of brevity and because I know there will be readers who refuse to click on links, here’s a quick summary of the design and features of this notebook.

The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro has a 13.3-inch Retina IPS display. It’s not OLED, it’s not mini-LED, and it doesn’t have a notch. It’s around 15.6mm thick and weighs 1.4kg. It has two USB-C USB4/Thunderbolt 3 ports, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, a Magic Keyboard with traditional scissors-style switches and the Touch Bar, and a 720p FaceTime camera. 

The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro is now the only MacBook that still has a Touch Bar.

The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro is now the only MacBook that still has a Touch Bar.

From a design and features perspective, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro is certainly decent even if it's starting to look stale. Though the design is a couple of years old now, it still looks quite sleek and modern. Crucially, the build quality is peerless, and the display is fantastic even though it may not have an OLED or mini-LED panel. Sure, one could definitely make the case that it should have thinner bezels, a lighter body, or more ports and an SD card reader, but those will have to wait until Apple decides to give it a thorough update. What's really incongruous to me is that it still has the Touch Bar. 

So yes, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is getting a spec-bump update. This isn’t a bad thing entirely because this isn't just any spec-bump update. It’s getting the M2 chip – the first chip in Apple’s second-generation of M-series chips. Apple says M2 will deliver substantially more performance than M1 while using more or less the same amount of power. Let’s see what’s new with the M2 chip now.

 

Say hi to M2

M2 is the first of Apple's second-generation M-series chips. (Image source: Apple)

M2 is the first of Apple's second-generation M-series chips. (Image source: Apple)

In typical Apple fashion, the company is quite vague on what’s new with the M2 chip. Here’s what they said:

  • It’s built using a second-generation 5nm process
  • Over 20 billion transistors (25% more than M1)
  • Faster unified memory subsystem (up to 100GB/s)
  • Support for up to 24GB of memory (up from 16GB)
  • 18% faster multi-thread performance at the same power level
  • 35% faster graphics thanks to 10 GPU cores (up from 8)
  • Improved Neural Engine (15.8 TOPS vs 11 TOPS)
  • Media engine with ProRes encode/decode

One thing to note is that, like M1, there will be variants of the M2. There's a variant that comes with an 8-core GPU and another that comes with a 10-core GPU. The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro will only be offered with 10-core GPUs so that's one less headache for buyers. The 8-core GPU variant will only be found in the new MacBook Air, which will also come with 10-core GPU variants.

From speaking with people with deep knowledge of the M2 chip, I learned that M2 is running at slightly higher clock speeds – 3.49GHz vs the 3.2GHz of M1 – and that M2 can execute a higher number of instructions per cycle than M1. These two key reasons are why M2 is able to deliver a substantial improvement in performance over M1. 

Is this Apple conceding that Intel's Alder Lake-P processors are faster? (Image source: Apple)

Is this Apple conceding that Intel's Alder Lake-P processors are faster? (Image source: Apple)

Unsurprisingly, Apple made comparisons to current-generation offerings from Intel. Compared to the “latest 10-core PC laptop chip,” M2 is said to deliver nearly double the performance at the same power level. However, if you study the footnotes, you’ll see that this 10-core chip that Apple is referring to is the relatively low-power Core i7-1255U. 

Apple also drew comparisons with the “latest 12-core PC laptop chip” and said that M2 can deliver 90% of its performance while drawing just a quarter of the power. This chip is a much fairer comparison as it’s actually the Core i7-1260P, a chip that is being used in many ultraportable-class notebooks. 

If all of this sounds somewhat familiar, that’s because it’s the same theme we heard when Apple unveiled M1. Like its predecessor, the new M2 chip is resolutely focused on maximising performance while minimising power consumption.

But as the old saying goes "talk is cheap," so let's go to the next page to see how M2 performs in benchmarks and real-world tasks.

CPU performance analysis

To start, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro that I'm testing is a custom-configured model with 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. If you configure a similar system, it will set you back S$2,779.

There’s evidence to suggest that Apple’s claims of up to 18% multi-threaded performance is right. On Geekbench 5, the M2 MacBook Pro’s single and multi-core scores were 9% and 20% better respectively. And on WebXPRT 3, the M2 MacBook Pro’s score was 20% better. The improvements on Cinebench were less dramatic. Single-core score was up by 7% and multi-core score increased by 5%. Still, the higher single-core scores suggest that M2 is indeed capable of executing greater instructions per cycle. 

What’s interesting also is how the M2 MacBook Pro performed against a PC notebook that’s powered by Intel’s new Core i7-1260P Alder Lake processor. Though the M2 has a definite advantage in single-core performance, the Core i7-1260P managed higher multi-core scores on Geekbench. However, that advantage was lost on Cinebench, where it’s multi-core scores trailed not only the M2 MacBook Pro but also the older M1 MacBook Pro.

In our video transcoding test, which involves transcoding a one-hour-long 1080p video, the M2 MacBook Pro took a little over 16 minutes, which is a remarkable 16% improvement over the M1 MacBook Pro and 23% faster than a PC notebook with the Core i7-1260P. However, it’s still quite a long way off from a M1 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro and a M1 Ultra Mac Studio.

What’s really remarkable is how much faster it is compared to the last Intel 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2020. It took only about half the time. The M2 MacBook Pro was also markedly faster than a PC notebook with Intel’s new Core i7-1260P processor. In fact, it couldn’t even match an M1 MacBook Pro, which really demonstrates the prowess of Apple’s custom silicon.

 

GPU performance analysis

To recap a little, the M2 chip comes in two variants: one with 8 GPU cores and another with 10. However, only the MacBook Air will have the option of an M2 with 8 GPU cores – all 13-inch MacBook Pros will have M2 chips with 10 GPU cores. 

Apple claims up to 35% better graphics performance, but because the new MacBook Pro has two extra GPU cores, it’s hard to say how much of it is because there are two extra cores or if the individual GPU cores are faster. Nevertheless, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro has significantly better graphics performance.

On Geekbench 5’s Compute benchmark, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro managed a score that was 41% better than an M1 MacBook Pro. And on GFXBench, it managed a score that was 36% better. On Unigine’s Valley benchmark, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro was 44% faster. These are significant improvements.

The updated MacBook Pro also scored favourably against a PC notebook with a Core i7-1260P. On Geekbench, the M2 MacBook Pro was 43% faster. On GFXBench, the M2 MacBook Pro was a whopping 2.2 times faster. And finally, on Unigine’s Valley benchmark, the M2 MacBook Pro was over 2 times as fast. 

 

Gaming performance

On games, the updated M2 MacBook Pro posted credible gains over the M1 MacBook Pro too. Even though we ran the games on the highest graphics settings, it was 45% faster on the Shadow of Tomb Raider, and 44% faster on Deus Ex. Although the frame rates were still too low to be considered playable, at least Apple’s claims were mostly accurate. And to be fair, you could quite easily bump the frame rates up to playable levels if you turn the graphics settings down.

The M2 MacBook Pro also performed favourably against the PC notebook with a Core i7-1260P. On Tomb Raider, the PC notebook managed just 16fps which is over 40% down on the M2 MacBook Pro. And on Deus Ex, it did 16.4fps, which is over 30% down on the M2 MacBook Pro.  

The fantastic M2

Apple wasn’t kidding when they said M2 is faster. The new chip is measurably better than its predecessor, particularly in multi-threaded applications. In single-core tests, the improvements are less dramatic – only by single-digit percentage points – but still significant.

Though the improvements are substantial, how it translates into real-world use depends greatly on what you’re doing, which is why I said it was "measurably" better. In normal day-to-day use, I think users will struggle to notice the difference. Apps launch just about as quick, web pages load in roughly the same amount of time, and the entire system generally feels more or less just as fast and responsive. However, you’ll see a noticeable boost in performance if you are doing something more demanding like video and photo editing, CPU-intensive workloads, or games. 

M2 improves on the performance of M1 substantially but with seemingly little or no drawbacks.

M2 improves on the performance of M1 substantially but with seemingly little or no drawbacks.

Battery life doesn’t seem to have been negatively impacted either. Apple claims up to 20 hours of web-browsing battery life and that seems entirely reasonable. Even with the screen’s display set to around 60% brightness (which is plenty bright), I could very easily get through an entire day of work on battery life alone and still have around 35% of charge left at the end of the day. 12 to 14 hours of non-stop use shouldn't be an issue at all.

The other remarkable thing about the M2 is just how quiet it runs. Even though the MacBook Pro has a fan, it hardly ever spins up. In fact, the only time I noticed it spinning was when I was running benchmarks and games. Unless you are really taxing the system, you will never hear it. It runs cool as well. Again, unless you are really taxing it, the MacBook Pro never feels hot.

In short, M2 is more of M1. And what’s really remarkable to me is how this increase in performance has come with very little or perhaps imperceptible drawbacks. This updated 13-inch MacBook Pro lasts just as long on battery and doesn’t run any noisier or warmer than its predecessor. If this is what we can expect from second-generation M-series chips, then the Macs that Apple still has up its sleeves will be very interesting, indeed.

It's the MacBook you need, but maybe not the MacBook you want

It's not a very exciting update, but this new 13-inch MacBook Pro mostly deliver the goods.

It's not a very exciting update, but this new 13-inch MacBook Pro mostly deliver the goods.

There are two ways to look at this new updated 13-inch MacBook Pro. One is that it’s an affordable way to get into a “pro-level” MacBook. The other more cynical view is that it’s not a very terribly exciting update. There’s loads of evidence to support both viewpoints. 

An M2 MacBook Air with 10 GPU cores and a similar amount of memory and storage is only S$30 less. So one way to look at things is that for just S$30 more, you could get the top-performing off-the-shelf MacBook with Apple's newest M2 chip. And if you can get by with less storage, the 256GB version of this new updated MacBook Pro is just S$1,879. That means you can get all the performance of the new M2 chip for well under S$2,000. Surely that has to be considered a bargain.

Specs
M2 MacBook Air
M2 13-inch MacBook Pro
14-inch MacBook Pro
CPU
10 cores
10 cores
8 cores / 10 cores
GPU
8 cores / 10 cores
10 cores
14 cores / 16 cores
Memory
8GB
8GB
16GB
Storage
256GB / 512GB
256GB / 512GB
512GB / 1TB
Price
S$1,699 / S$2,149
S$1,879 / S$2,179
S$2,999 / S$3,749

On the other hand, this updated MacBook Pro is missing features found on the newer MacBooks such as the MagSafe port, higher resolution web camera, and improved keyboard with full-height function keys. These are by no means dealbreakers but they are definitely nice things to have. Ultimately, this is a well-made, fast, and quiet notebook with very good battery life that is priced reasonably. So what’s not to like?

This updated 13-inch MacBook Pro is missing features found on newer MacBooks like the MagSafe port.

This updated 13-inch MacBook Pro is missing features found on newer MacBooks like the MagSafe port.

All things considered, this updated 13-inch MacBook Pro really is the notebook to get if you want the highest-performing MacBook but can’t stretch your budget to a 14-inch MacBook Pro (which, I'll admit, is very pricey). For everyone else, I think they might be better off waiting for the new MacBook Air, which Apple says will be available sometime next month.

Note: The updated 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro is available for pre-order now from the Apple Online Store and the Apple Flagship Store on Lazada. It will be available in stores this Friday on 24 June 2022.

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