MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip

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MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip

Legendary laptop gets updated innards, but still feels out of time

There’s a lot to love about the new 13–inch MacBook Pro. It’s the first laptop of the Apple silicon era to come with the new M2 chip (our in–depth review of the M2 MacBook Air will follow next issue) while retaining the same long battery life as before (up to 20 hours) thanks in part to the M2’s incredible energy efficiency. And yet...

Let’s get the good stuff out of the way. Firstly, the MacBook Pro 13–inch is the latest in a long line of laptop Macs that successfully teams powerhouse features with ultimate portability that started with the 12–inch PowerBook G4 in 2003 (see the “Evolution of the MacBook” feature on p28) and continues today. Almost everything you could want in an ultra–portable Mac is here: a 13.3–inch LED– backlit Retina display offering True Tone (for ambient backlight colour adjustment) and 500 nits brightness, up to 2TB of SSD storage, and the M2 — the next–gen successor to 2020’s Apple silicon M1 chip — which sports 8 CPU cores, 10 graphics cores, a 16–core Neural Engine and support for up to 24GB of unified memory. Plus the aforementioned 20–hour battery life. None of which are to be sniffed at. Throw in improved memory bandwidth of 100GB/sec (50% more than the M1) and this next–gen slice of Apple silicon feels even more future–proof than before — Apple says the M2 MacBook Pro 13–inch is 1.4x faster than the previous–gen M1 and up to 6x times faster than the old Intel model — and we believe it. You’ll able to see some of the evidence for that in our benchmarks over the page.

MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip

The M2–equipped MacBook Pro 13–inch also benefits from Wi–Fi 6 (aka 802 11ax Wi–Fi) and Bluetooth 5.0, and comes with two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on the left–hand side and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right. It’s also the only portable Mac in 2022 to retain the Touch Bar — which replaces the function keys at the top of the keyboard with a touch–sensitive control strip that displays different options and buttons dependent on context — and it still has the MacBook’s trademark oversized glass trackpad with Force Touch and Touch ID built in to the Power button. There’s also a physical Escape key and a neatly spaced backlit scissor–switch keyboard, delivering more tactile feedback, while being easier to type on (and more reliable) than the old butterfly–switch versions.

And that’s kind of it — aside from the M2 chip, there is nothing new in this year’s MBP 13–inch, it even keeps the previous gen’s 720p FaceTime camera. All of which raises several questions that we’ll look at next...

Good as the M2 MacBook Pro 13–inch undoubtedly is, it finds itself increasingly squeezed on both sides by other Apple products. On the one side there’s the existing MacBook Pro 14–inch, which offers a choice of M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, has narrower bezels around its 14.2–inch Liquid Retina XDR display, offers up to 64GB of memory and up to 8TB of storage, and benefits from three Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, and has MagSafe, HDMI 2.0 and an SD card slot, with prices starting at $1,999.

MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip
MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip

On the other, there’s the new MacBook Air. It too has M2 Apple silicon on board, but also includes a new MacBook Pro–like design, a bigger and better 13.6–inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime camera (rather than the MacBook Pro 13–inch’s 720p version) and MagSafe, with prices starting at $1,199.

MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip performance

Rumours suggest that one of the reasons Apple is still selling the MacBook Pro 13–inch at all is because it has a surfeit of chassis it wants to be shot of before killing the design off altogether, and that makes some sort of sense. Other rumours suggest that — in the base model configurations at least — the MacBook Pro 13–inch is slower than before, thanks to the use of a single 256GB NAND flash SSD, rather than the 2x 128GB SSDs running in parallel that it had before. At the time of writing, MacBook Pro 13–inch models had also been hit by supply constraints, with some configurations unavailable until August due to the global chip shortage.

With that in mind, let’s explore the MacBook Pro 13–inch’s performance — and this year’s model certainly marks a significant upgrade over the previous generation.

In our Geekbench 5 test, the M2 MacBook Pro 13–inch scored 1,903 in single–core performance compared to the 1,729 of the previous generation, while it transcoded a one–hour 4K video in Handbrake in just over 23 minutes, compared to the 45 minutes achieved by the 2020 M1 model.

In Rise of the Tomb Raider, too, our 1,980x1,200 benchmark test was butter–smooth, with the game averaging around 30 frames–per–second; and in DaVinci Resolve, the M2–equipped MacBook Pro 13–inch’s 10 graphics cores consistently rendered our 25–minute effects–laden video in just 19 minutes, 38 seconds compared to the 28 minutes, 43 seconds it took on the old 8–core GPU M1. After hearing the reports of the slow SSD speeds in the base models, we double–checked those on our test machine too, with the 1TB version (costing $200–400 extra depending on configuration) we had on test, it averaged 3,051MB/sec (write) and 2,806MB/sec (read) speeds, so in 1TB guise, the speed of the SSD is definitely not an issue.

In day–to–day use, the MacBook Pro 13-inch is incredibly capable — it starts up and logs in quickly with apps typically launching in a bounce or two of their icons in the Dock. Photo–editing in apps like Pixelmator Pro are also fast and reliable, as is video editing in iMovie. At the end of the working day, watching movies in the Apple TV app also showed off the beauty and fidelity of its Retina display and high–quality sound. We’d be more than happy to have this as our day–to–day machine than the 16–inch Intel–powered MacBook Pro we normally use. It’s lighter, faster and easier to cart around, plus it’s the ideal size for use on space–constrained trains and planes, where you’d struggle to fully open the lid of a bigger MacBook. And even after a hard day’s use, this MacBook Pro still had plenty of gas in the tank.

MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip benchmarks

Geekbench 5 Single–Core Teat

This tests the capability of a single processor core. Many more common tasks on a Mac will only use a single core at a time. Geekbench 5 is a universal app running on Monterey.

Index score (higher is better).

  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.49GHz M2 (2022) – 1903
  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.0GHz M1 (2020) – 1729
  • MacBook Pro 16in 3.22GHz M1 Pro (2021) – 1757

Handbrake Video Encoding

We transcode a Blu–ray–quality video file into H.264 format using HandBrake to test the multicore processor performance. Handbrake is available as a universal binary.

Duration (lower is better).

  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.49GHz M2 (2022) – 23 mins 12 secs
  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.0GHz M1 (2020) – 44 mins 45 secs
  • MacBook Pro 16in 3.22GHz M1 Pro (2021) – 8 mins 40 secs

Tomb Raider(1920X1080)

For a real–world gaming test, we use the benchmarking tool in this game, with the graphics quality set to High, and the resolution set to 1920x1080. Not yet optimized for M1.

Frames per sec (higher is better).

  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.49GHz M2 (2022) – 30
  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.0GHz M1 (2020) – 30
  • MacBook Pro 16in 3.22GHz M1 Pro (2021) – 83

DaVinci Resolve

In Blackmagic Design’s editing tool for video professionals, we exported an effects–laden, 2.5–minute project to the H.264 format. The latest version of the app (Version 17.1) now runs natively on M1 Macs.

Duration (lower is better).

  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.49GHz M2 (2022) – 19 mins 38 secs
  • MacBook Pro 13in 3.0GHz M1 (2020) – 28 mins 43 secs
  • MacBook Pro 16in 3.22GHz M1 Pro (2021) – 10 mins 57 secs
MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip Space Gray
MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip Silver

The Long Goodbye

The M2 MacBook Pro 13–inch sits in an increasingly uncomfortable space in Apple’s MacBook line–up. The new MacBook Air is arguably just as capable for day–to–day use and is lighter (1.24kg vs 1.4kg for the MacBook Pro 13–inch) with build–to–order options such as a 10–core GPU and up to 2TB of storage matching the MacBook Pro’s. It’s also better specced from the get–go, and identically kitting out the two machines is instructive, with an 8–core CPU, 10–core GPU, 2TB M2 MacBook Air with 24GB of unified memory costing the same $2,499 as an identically specified MacBook Pro 13–inch. Then there’s the MacBook Pro 14–inch. Again, better specced, even the base model comes with an M1 Pro chip with a 10–core CPU, 16–core GPU, 16GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage, plus a Liquid Retina display, more ports and a wider range of build–to–order options. Like a ageing rockstar, this feels like it could be the MacBook Pro 13–inch’s farewell tour. It’s as talented as it ever was, but it’s time it made way for something new. Catch it while you can.

Features: Apple M2 chip (8–core CPU, 10–core GPU, 1TB storage, 16GB of unified memory, 13.3–inch Retina display (2560x1600 pixels resolution), 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax Wi-Fi), Bluetooth 5.0, Touch Bar

MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip price

  • $1299 (8-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU, 8GB Unified Memory, 256GB SSD)
  • $1499 (8-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU, 8GB Unified Memory, 512GB SSD)

Upgrades:

  • 16GB Unified Memory + $200
  • 24GB Unified Memory + $400
  • 512GB SSD + $200
  • 1TB SSD + $400
  • 2TB SSD + $800
The MacBook Pro 13–inch is better than ever, but it also feels like it’s running out of time.
MacBook Pro 13 2022 with M2 chip

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