The new MacBook Pro and Mac mini are now available in a new generation, mainly with the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, and support for 8K HDMI, Wi-Fi 6E (not yet supported in China) and other new features, providing up to 22 hours of battery life. The new generation of MacBook Pro 14/16 is available for RMB 15,999 and RMB 19,999 respectively, up to RMB 49,999.
Apple currently offers three benchmark configuration options for the new 14-inch MacBook Pro on its official website.
- M2 Pro (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU), 16GB unified memory + 512GB solid-state drive for RMB 15,999
- M2 Pro (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU), 16GB unified memory + 1TB solid-state drive RMB 19,999
- M2 Max (12-core CPU, 30-core GPU), 32GB unified memory + 1TB solid-state drive RMB 24,999
The 16-inch MacBook Pro is also available in three benchmark configuration options.
- M2 Pro (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU) 16GB unified memory + 512GB solid-state drive RMB 19,999
- M2 Pro (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU) with 16GB unified memory + 1TB solid state drive RMB 21,499
- M2 Max (12-core CPU, 38-core GPU), 32GB unified memory + 1TB solid-state drive RMB 27,499
The first thing we’ll look at is the two new Apple chips.
- The M2 Pro chip continues the original architecture of the M2 chip with a second-generation 5nm process, bringing a 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU, as well as up to 32GB of high-speed unified memory.
- The M2 Max chip builds on the M2 Pro with up to 38 core GPUs, double the memory bandwidth, and up to 96GB of unified memory.
In addition, both chips are backed by enhanced custom technologies, including a more powerful 16-core neural network engine and media processing engine.
"Only Apple is building SoC chips like the M2 Pro and M2 Max. They bring users unmatched Pro-level performance and industry-leading power efficiency." With more powerful central processing units and graphics processors, greater unified memory system support, and advanced media processing engines, M2 Pro and M2 Max represent amazing advances for Apple chips," said Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technology."
M2 Max: The World’s Most Powerful and Efficient Professional Laptop Chip
M2 Max has 67 billion transistors – 10 billion more than M1 Max and even more than three times as many as M2 – and delivers a unified memory bandwidth of 400GB/s, which is twice that of M2 Pro and four times that of M2, and supports up to 96GB of memory.
M2 Max uses the same 12-core CPU as M2 Pro, but with a more powerful GPU and larger L2 cache, and a 30% faster GPU than M1 Max.
Meanwhile, the new MacBook Pro features M2 Max with 96GB of memory to handle graphics-intensive projects that competing systems can’t even run, whether it’s a visual effects processor or training a machine learning model.
Custom technology brings expanded functionality
- Both the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips include Apple’s new 16-core neural network engine that can perform up to 15.8 trillion operations per second, up to 40 percent faster than its predecessor.
- The M2 Pro chip features a powerful, energy-efficient media processing engine that provides hardware acceleration for encoding and decoding video, including H.264, HEVC and ProRes, and supports simultaneous playback of multiple 4K or 8K ProRes videos, while maintaining extremely low power consumption. Up to two times faster than the M2 Pro chip.
- Apple’s latest image signal processor further reduces image noise and uses computational video technology to enhance the camera’s image quality, powered by a neural network engine.
- A new generation of security compartments is a key part of Apple’s top security features.
macOS Ventura with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips
Apple says macOS is designed specifically for Apple chips, and macOS Ventura combined with the industry-leading new chips will bring users unmatched performance and productivity.
"Powered by Apple chips, users now have access to more than 15,000 native apps and plug-ins on their Macs, bringing the full power of the M Series chips to bear. macOS Ventura brings new features such as front-of-house scheduling and even more powerful new capabilities through continuous interoperable cameras and FaceTime call relay. macOS Ventura also brings new capabilities to The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips bring greater responsiveness and efficiency to apps and features like Safari, Mail, Messages and more, as well as focused search."
Energy Efficiency
The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips enable the new MacBook Pro and Mac mini to meet Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency. Less overall power consumption.
After talking about the chip, let’s take a look at the new Macbook Pro. The new product will be available for order at 9 am on January 19th, and it will be released on February 3rd, starting at 15,999 yuan.
The M2 Pro chip in the MacBook Pro features a 10-core or 12-core CPU with up to eight high-performance cores and four power-efficient cores for up to a 20 percent performance boost over the M1 Pro chip.
MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro chip delivers the following performance.
- Render titles and animations in Motion up to 80 percent faster than the MacBook Pro with the fastest Intel chip and up to 20 percent faster than previous generations.
- Compile code in Xcode up to 2.5 times faster than the MacBook Pro with the fastest Intel chip and nearly 25 percent faster than the previous generation.
- Image processing in Adobe Photoshop is up to 80 percent faster than the MacBook Pro with the fastest Intel chip and up to 40 percent faster than its predecessor.
The MacBook Pro with the M2 Max chip delivers the following performance.
- Render effects in Cinema 4D up to six times faster than the MacBook Pro with the fastest Intel chip and up to 30 percent faster than its predecessor.
- Color grading in DaVinci Resolve is up to 2x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30% faster than its predecessor.
Enhanced connectivity.
- The MacBook Pro now supports high-speed Wi-Fi 6E (not yet supported in China) and a more advanced HDMI interface that supports displays up to 8K@60Hz and can also connect to 4K displays at refresh rates up to 240Hz.
- These new features further enhance the MacBook Pro’s already versatile connectivity options, including three Thunderbolt 4 ports for high-speed connectivity to external devices, an SDXC card slot, and a MagSafe charging port.
macOS Ventura
Combined with macOS Ventura, MacBook Pro brings users even better performance and productivity, including continuous interoperable cameras, desk view, person centering, studio lighting and more.
And there’s Apple’s proud Front Desk Scheduler, which automatically manages apps and windows to let users focus on the task at hand while keeping them in control at a glance.
Apple also said the Messages App and Mail App are better than ever; Safari, the world’s fastest Mac browser, is password-free with Passcode Keys; with iCloud Shared Photo Gallery, users can create and share a separate photo gallery with up to five family members; and the new Infinity Notes App offers a flexible and versatile canvas to help The new Infinity Notes App provides a flexible and versatile canvas that helps users be more efficient and comfortable when planning and brainstorming alone or in collaboration with others, and the powerful and popular Apple chip and Metal 3’s new developer tools take the Mac gaming experience to a whole new level.
MacBook Pro with M2 Pro running Xcode. MacBook Pro demonstrates macOS Ventura’s front-of-house scheduling capabilities.
- The new MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro and M2 Max chipsets is available for order starting January 19. Customers in mainland China can order through Apple’s website.
- The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro chip starts at RMB 15,999 with an education discount starting at RMB 14,799, and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro chip starts at RMB 19,999 with an education discount starting at RMB 18,399.
