Apple has quietly refreshed its 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros with new M2 Pro and M2 Max processors, promising longer battery life and, on the M2 Max versions, up to 96GB of RAM. The new laptops are available for pre-order today, and will launch on January 24.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro will start at $1,999, while the 16-incher will begin at $2,499. Those prices are with the M2 Pro, and prices will scale as you go up to the M2 Max and add more RAM and storage.
Apple didn't announce the laptops in a planned event, but rather subtly dropped a new video and a press release.
While the chassis isn't changing at all, there are some serious changes beneath the hood. The M2 Pro model will start at a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU (it will go up to 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU), 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage. The M2 Max laptops will start with a 12-core CPU and 30-core GPU (it goes up to a 38-core GPU), 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage.
The M2 Pro models have 200 GB/s memory bandwidth, twice of what the normal M2 allows. Apple claims The MacBook Pro with M2 Pro is 20% faster than the previous generation device at rendering in Motion, 25% faster in compiling in XCode and up to 40% in processing images in Photoshop.
Meanwhile, the M1 Max gets 400 GB/s of unified memory, doubling what M2 Pro offers, and goes up to 96GB of unified RAM, which Apple says makes it a graphics powerhouse. Apple claims color grading in DaVinci Resolve is 30% faster than last generation, and that rendering effects in Cinema 4D is as much as 30% faster.
Apple has moved wireless from 6 to 6E, and its "more advanced" HDMI port can support one display at 8K (at 60 Hz) or 4K (at 240 Hz). The laptops can support up to four external displays (one through each Thunderbolt 4 port and HDMI).
Among the parts that aren't changing are the Liquid Retina XDR display, 1080p FaceTime HD camera, six-speaker audio and MagSafe 3.
In addition to the MacBook Pro laptops, Apple is launching the Mac Mini with M2 and M2 Pro, starting at $599 with M2 and $1,299 with M2 Pro. The latter gets four Thunderbolt 5 ports and can support an 8K display. It's also getting Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
