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In the summer of 2022, the public was shown a 13-inch MacBook Pro running on the new M2 processor. The laptop turned out to be interesting – at least for those who need the small size of the MacBook Air and the performance of the MacBook Pro. In our material, we will tell you what the third laptop of the Apple Pro-line will be like.
Prices for MacBook Pro 2022 in Our Country
The small 13-inch MacBook Pro is meant to be a low-cost alternative to the MacBook Air, so the price point for these laptops is pretty much the same. The base 2022 MacBook Pro starts at $1, just $299 more than the cheapest MacBook Air.
Officially, Apple products are not brought to Our Country due to the policy of the company itself. However, the place of “white” suppliers was taken by resellers. Also, the equipment of the American company can be bought as part of parallel imports.
Due to methods for bypassing sales locks, the price of a MacBook Pro 2022 in Our Country may increase by 10-20%. Most likely, it will not exceed $1 for a base laptop model. As performance improves, the price of the MacBook Pro 500 will increase.
MacBook Pro 2022 release date in Our Country
Similar in appearance and characteristics, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 2022 were shown simultaneously at the WWDC conference on June 6. As is usually the case with Apple, sales of equipment began a few weeks after the first presentation – on June 24th.
The release date of the MacBook Pro 2022 in Our Country may be delayed due to the lack of official supplies from the American company. However, those who wish to purchase a new product from Apple will be able to get it from resellers or after the laptops are delivered, bypassing official supplies. This should happen by the end of the summer.
MacBook Pro 2022 Specifications
Despite a wide variety of rumors, the specifications of the most affordable and compact MacBook Pro turned out to be at the level of the MacBook Air 2022. Moreover, the “airy” design of the latter has almost completely disappeared, making the Air even more like a “plug”.
Processor
As expected, the new MacBook Pro 2022 runs its own M2 system. It is inferior in performance to the “pumped” versions of the M1 with Pro and Max prefixes, but surpasses the basic version of the M1. The small 13-inch MacBook Pro 2022 is supposed to be somewhere between the Air and the full-fledged Pro models, which is why the new but basic M2 was installed in it.
In general, the system on a chip (System on Chip) M2 is a combination of three types of processors – a central processor (8 cores), a graphics processor (10 cores) and a processor for processing artificial intelligence algorithms (16 cores). According to Apple marketers, this set of processors improves the performance of the M2 by 18% compared to the M1.
Also during the presentation, they noted the high energy efficiency of the M2 processor – it allegedly consumes half the energy than a regular 10-core laptop CPU from Intel or AMD.
Due to the additional two cores of the M2 video processor, the MacBook Pro 2022 looks more attractive than the MacBook Air 2022 in terms of games and rendering. In Air, this revision of the GPU is already sold for $ 1 instead of $ 499 in the MacBook Pro.
Curiously, unlike the MacBook Air 2022, the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2022 has an active cooling system for the M2 processor. It is likely that in the case of the “firmware”, the M2 cores operate at a higher clock frequency, which requires additional cooling.
Screen
The use of mini-LED displays in the 2021 MacBook Pro has taken Apple’s laptop sales to a new level. According to a report by Display Supply Chain Consultants1, at the end of 2021, the American company sold more laptop models with mini-LED backlight technology (Macbook Pro 14 and 16 only) than all its other laptops. That’s just the new 13-inch MacBook Pro 2022 did not receive an update to the screen backlight to mini-LED.
In general, there were no cardinal changes in the IPS screen of the MacBook Pro 2022. The diagonal remained at around 13,3 inches, the notch for the camera, as in the case of the MacBook Air 2022, did not grow there, and the resolution remained the same (2560 by 1660 pixels). The developers only increased the brightness of the screen by 20% – but this clearly does not reach the level of mini-LED backlighting. Externally, the screen looks like 2 years ago.
Case and keyboard
Well-known insiders spread the information that the controversial Touch Bar above the keyboard will disappear in the MacBook Pro 20222, but this did not happen in the end. It looks strange – Apple software developers are reluctant to integrate the Touch Bar into their programs, and users refer to the panel ambiguously. Moreover, in the 14 and 16-inch versions, the Touch Bar was abandoned, explaining this by the fact that “professionals” like to press full-fledged keys, and not the touch panel.3.
The number of keys, their location and Touch ID in the laptop are left over from the 2020 MacBook Pro model. The laptop’s 720P webcam was also left without updates. Very strange, given the “professional” direction of the laptop and the role of communication in the network.
At a cursory glance at the case of the MacBook Pro 2022, it is difficult to distinguish it from the previous model. The frames around the display and the thickness of the body remained the same massive, which is somewhat surprising. Visually, the laptop looks much more similar in terms of technical characteristics to the MacBook Air.
New body colors, as expected, did not appear in the laptop. Apple remain strict – only Space Gray (dark gray) and Silver (gray).
Memory, interfaces
With the use of the M2 processor in the MacBook Pro 2022, the maximum amount of RAM has increased to 24 GB (the minimum is still 8). This will please those who work with “heavy” applications and a large number of open browser tabs. The RAM class has also been updated – now it is a faster LDDR 5 instead of LDDR 4.
The MacBook Pro 2022 uses an SSD for storage. In the base laptop model, “ridiculous” 2022 GB are installed in 256, and the storage can be expanded to the maximum up to 2 TB.
The main disappointment among the interfaces of the new MacBook Pro 2022 was the lack of MagSafe magnetic charging. Thus, you will have to charge the laptop via USB-C / Thunderbolt. To connect peripherals, there will be only one free port – minimalism, uncharacteristic of the latest trends in Apple Pro laptops. There’s full HDMI, MagSafe, and three separate USB-C/Thunderbolt ports.
The set of wireless interfaces in the MacBook Pro 2022 remains the same as in the two-year-old model (Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5).
Autonomy
The transition to a more energy-efficient M2 processor, according to the developers, added an additional two hours of work in the “light” online video viewing mode to the MacBook Pro 2022. Of course, with more complex tasks, autonomy will decrease. With a complete power supply unit, up to 100% when turned on, the laptop will charge in 2,5 hours.
Results
The new MacBook Pro 2022 turned out to be a controversial device, the owner of which will have to constantly face compromises. On the one hand, this “firmware” has compact dimensions and a very good price for its technical characteristics. At the same time, the device still has an angular design from the last decade, a frankly outdated webcam and a minimum of interfaces.
It is likely that Apple deliberately created such an ambiguous device – after all, the company has two dominant laptop models – a full-fledged MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
However, the small MacBook Pro 2022 is suitable for those who travel a lot and work on “heavy” things in terms of calculation. For everyone else, the more attractive MacBook Air will suffice.
Insider photos of the MacBook Pro 2022 before its release
Sources of
- https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/21/report-new-miniled-macbook-pros-outsell-all-oled-laptops-combined/
- https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/06/gurman-apple-event-march-8-and-m2-macs/
- https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-inside-apple-silicon/?utm_source=WIR_REG_GATE&utm_source=ixbtcom