The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is a unique Mac laptop. It has the distinction of being the first Mac with the M2 system-on-a-chip, the second generation of Apple silicon for the Mac. And considering that the M1 made such a tremendous impression, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro has a little bit of a burden in following such a successful debut.
It does leave an impression, but it’s not a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring one. Maybe that’s unfair because, after all, following the originator of the Mac rebirth is a tough task. And the new 13-inch MacBook Pro does offer better performance than its M1 predecessor.
What tempers the enthusiasm for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is everything else about it—besides the M2, it’s the same laptop as its predecessor. It’s a good laptop, but when you look at the other MacBooks in Apple’s lineup that have gotten new enclosures and fancy eye-popping new displays to accompany their new chips, it’s befuddling to see the 13-inch MacBook Pro still sporting a years-old design.
AN M2 SPEED BOOST
This review takes a look at the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the following specifications:
> M2 system-on-a-chip with 8 CPU cores
> 10-core GPU
> 16GB of unified memory
> 1TB SSD
This configuration is priced at $1,899, $400 more than the $1,499 standard configuration that comes with 8GB of memory and 512GB of storage.
The marquee feature of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is the M2. Its CPU architecture is based on its predecessor, the M1, with an 8-core if you’re interested in diving into the details.
