According to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the company that makes Apple’s chips, 3nm chip development can improve speed by 15 percent and reduce power use by 30 percent when compared to 5nm chips.
In an unlikely turn of events, two unreleased Macs have appeared in Steam’s database via the platform’s November 2022 survey that gathers anonymous information from users.
In the survey, two unidentified Macs with the name “Mac14,6″ and Mac15,4” appear at the bottom of the list, alongside the names Mac Studio, 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, M2 MacBook Air and more. The only M2-powered Mac Apple has released so far is the MacBook Air. Interestingly, both Mac14,6 and Mac15,4 are listed with zero percent usage on Steam.
Though we know more M2-powered Macs are on the way, rumours surrounding the devices have died down recently. Apple is expected to launch an M2 Pro and M2 Max chip for its MacBook Pro and Mac Studio at some point early in the coming year.
Apple’s M1 Pro and Max-powered MacBook Pro (2021) released last October, so the laptop is due for an update. While the M2 offers a marginal jump in performance over the M1, Apple’s M2 Pro and M2 Max are expected to be a more significant leap forward in power. Beyond the performance boost, Apple’s M2 MacBook Pro is expected to look identical to its 2021 redesign.
Following months of rumours, Apple has revealed its M2-powered 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
The new tablets offer the same M2 chips featured in the MacBook Air (2022) and 13-inch MacBook Pro (2022). Alongside the new chip, Apple’s high-end tablet can now detect the Apple Pencil when it’s hovering up to 12mm over the tablet’s display, opening up the possibility for new iPadOS features. Apple says that the functionality will also be available in third-party apps.
The MacBook Air is the perfect laptop for most people. The M2-powered MacBook Air (2022) is the perfect laptop for most people. The M2 MacBook Pro is the perfect laptop for most people.
Do you see the conundrum with Apple’s current laptop lineup yet?
I’m hard-pressed to call it an issue since every laptop Apple sells for under $2,000 is great. But, it still doesn’t make walking into an Apple Store and buying the right computer for you any more straightforward.
There are a few perks that make the refreshed M2 Air feel new, and realistically, a $200 price bump over last year’s M1 Air isn’t that much, but when it comes down to it, the new laptop doesn’t do very much to stand out from the crowd.
In 2020 when Apple introduced the M1 series of chips, it was an incredible achievement to see the tech giant’s ARM-based chipsets running laps around Intel-equipped Macs. This year, the M2 chip is just as impressive, but the context surrounding it has changed. No longer are we comparing it to Intel-based computers. Instead, now we get to compare it to the M1, and the improvements aren’t as exciting.
The world’s best-selling MacBook
This photo is staged to show off the blue hue. Under most lighting conditions it looks black.
The MacBook Air has been slowly taking over the wonderful world of MacBooks since Steve Jobs first pulled it out of that iconic manila envelope in 2008. What started as a premium alternative to the white plastic MacBook, has grown into a stellar entry-level MacBook and now even into a base-level MacBook Pro replacement.
The latest iteration is the most potent Air yet, and it can handle way more than a laptop of its size should be able to do. The M2 Chipset is ridiculously quick and the tiny computer’s battery life shocked me. I was easily able to get more than 12 hours out of it and opening apps was never a problem. It only slowed down once I started to edit a three-layered 4K unboxing video. I’ll mention here that my review unit only features 8GB of RAM, so it maxed out pretty quickly. If I was buying a new Air to edit videos, I’d step up to 24GB.
The new model also comes in two new colours – ‘Midnight,’ the same dark blue from the Apple Watch Series 6, and ‘Starlight’ which has become Apple’s latest gold hue. Of course, the classic ‘Silver’ and ‘Space Grey’ options return.
The screen in the new MacBook Air is also an improvement. It now supports 10-bits of colour, and it features a peak brightness of 500 nits, making it slightly brighter and more colourful than the older Air. On top of that, the display has been pushed out 0.3-inches and features a notch like the redesigned MacBook Pro (2021) The notch isn’t overly noticeable, and the larger screen feels like an improvement over its predecessor’s display. Overall the screen is a subtle upgrade, but there’s no denying it looks excellent and features great colour accuracy.
Other improvements include an impressive new 1080p webcam. Compared to the softness of the Studio Display’s webcam and the graininess of the MacBook Pro’s 1080p camera, it’s a nice step up and likely more than enough for most people’s video chatting needs. Apple says a new signal-to-noise processor in the M2 chip helps the camera look its best all the time. The three built-in microphones are also clear and work as expected.
To help hear your video calls, there’s a new four-speaker array that features Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio when you’re sitting right in front of the new Air. MacBooks have always offered impressive speakers and the M2 Air is no different. Its speakers aren’t as deep or as rich as the 14-inch MacBook Pro, but detailed, loud and clear without much tinny distortion like other laptops often fall victim to.
A compelling package but not without flaws
As much as I was excited about the new MacBook Air’s redesign, there’s a part of me that’s disappointed Apple didn’t push the aesthetic a little further. For instance, unlike the new MacBook Pro, the Air didn’t get its name etched into the bottom of the chassis. My best guess is that Apple did this to save space to add as much battery as possible, but it would have been nice to see these little details on the new laptop. The new design looks exactly like a thinner/smaller 14-inch Pro but with fewer ports. It’s actually one millimetre thinner than the previous MacBook Air, but without the iconic wedge shape. It still feels small and light, and the weight even feels a little more evenly distributed in the new model.
My main pain point is mostly to do with the port selection. The new Air only features four ports: one MagSafe charger, two USB-C ports and a single high impedance headphone jack. While this is enough, the two USB-C inputs are a little too close together for my liking, and an extra one on the right side of the laptop would have been helpful. Hopefully, Apple will remedy this in the future, but looking at its current sub-$2,000 laptop lineup, I wouldn’t hold my breath. This means that many people will still be living the dongle life if they opt for the new MacBook Air.
On top of that, the MacBook Air with M2 only supports a single external display. The new chip supports 6K screens, which is nice, but it would’ve been impressive to see Apple extend this to at least two1080p displays or even one 4K and one 1080p option, without requiring a workaround.
Looking past the above issues my gripes fall less with the new Air and more with how Apple has positioned it within its current laptop lineup. I assume that the company is throwing every MacBook at the wall to help account for supply chain delays, but maybe the tech giant is just trying to see if selling a wider range of products results in more sales. Either way, the new MacBook Air would fit much better in the product lineup at $1,299, with the older M1 Air being killed off and replaced with a more cost-effective device (perhaps the rumoured M-series chip equipped 12-inch MacBook successor?)
The benchmarks
As I mentioned above, the new Air is an M2 MacBook Pro killer since they both run the same chipset and the M-series of chips don’t need a fan unless you’re pushing it to the extreme. I’d argue that if you plan to push your computer that hard, you should jump up to the M1 Pro or Max chips for extra performance.
While I did see remarkably similar performance between the two machines in our tests, none of the benchmarks we run stress the machine for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. For tasks that would take a lot longer than that, like exporting a long video, the added fans of the M2 Pro might give it more of an edge over the M2 Air. The longest running test was Cinebench and the Air did appear to start slowing down significantly near the end.
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That said, from what we’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be any significant reasons to justify the existence of the M2 Pro for most circumstances, and in day-to-day tasks, both computers likely perform the same.
When it comes to gaming, the Air can handle most indie games without too much of a hassle, but AAA games are still a little much for the tiny machine unless you’re playing on low settings. Not that there are many games to play on Mac, but if you’re a gamer, be warned. Having said that, I’m a casual gamer and I’m pretty impressed with the new Air’s capabilities.
My first MacBook was a 2014 MacBook Air, and it could barely run the indie game Kentucky Route Zero. With that in mind, the fact that I can run Hitman even if it has to be at low settings, the new Air is a pretty exciting jump forward for me. Combine that power with the Metal 3 framework that Apple talked about at WWDC, and perhaps we’ll finally start to see more games trickle over to macOS during the next few years.
Apple’s fancy new M2-powered MacBook Air will reportedly go on sale starting July 15th.
MacRumorsreports that a “retail source” confirmed the date. Apple first announced the new MacBook Air at its Word Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, noting that the laptop would go on sale in July. However, the company didn’t confirm an exact date.
With the July 15th date in mind, it’s likely we’ll see pre-orders for the M2 MacBook Air go live on July 8th.
The new MacBook Air measures in at just 2.7lbs and is 11.3mm thin. It sports a 3.5mm headphone jack, two Thunderbolt ports, and Apple’s revamped MagSafe charger. The Air also features a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display and 1080p webcam housed in a notch.
Thanks to the M2 chip, Apple says the Air offers up to 18 hours of battery life. Moreover, the M2 chip includes an 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of RAM.
The MacBook Air comes in four colours, ‘Silver,’ ‘Space Grey,’ ‘Starlight,’ and ‘Midnight.’ In Canada, the Air will start at $1,499.
Those interested in the MacBook Air should check out MobileSyrup’s hands-on with the laptop here.
In his latest report, the often-reliable reporter outlines what he describes as the “deluge” of Apple products set to arrive this fall, including four iPhone 14 devices, new iPad Pros, three Apple Watches, several M2 Macs, new AirPods Pro and possibly even a more powerful Apple TV and a new HomePod.
While most of these devices are rumoured to arrive this fall, it’s unlikely Apple will show them all off at the same event. Similar to years past, the tech giant will probably hold several hardware keynotes over the next few months.
With that out of the way, let’s get into it:
Gurman says that Apple has plans to reveal an M2 Mac mini, M2 Pro Mac mini, an M2 Pro/M2 Max 14/16-inch MacBook Pro and a new M2 Ultra/M2 Extreme Mac Pro. Apple is also reportedly already working on next year’s M3 chip that will launch alongside next year’s new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air.
On the iPhone 14 side, Gurman says that only the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will feature Apple’s new A16 chip and an always-on display. Other new iPhone 14 Pro features include a 48-megapixel camera sensor and a pill-shaped Face ID camera cutout, backing up previous rumours. On the other hand, the iPhone 14 is expected to feature an A15 chip — the same processor included in the iPhone 13 — and a new 6.7-inch version that will replace the Mini.
New 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models that feature Apple’s M2 chip are also on the way. Looking to the future, 14-inch and 15-inch iPad models coming at some point in the “next year or two,” and even a new entry-level iPad with Apple’s A14 chip and USB-C could drop soon.
Gurman says that Apple’s often-rumoured rugged Apple Watch will launch alongside the Series 8 and a refreshed SE this fall. Similar to past rumours, the watch will reportedly be geared towards “extreme sports.” Apple is sticking with the same performance level as its S7/S6 chip for the Series 8’s rumoured S8 chip.
A new Apple TV that features the company’s A14 chip and extra RAM could arrive this fall, says Gurman. Apple’s AirPods Pro could also receive an upgrade that offers a faster chip and improved sound this year.
And last but not least, a new HomePod is on the way, but it likely won’t appear this fall. Gurman says the new smart speaker features the same size and audio quality as its predecessor but has a new display, multi-touch functionality and a more powerful S8 chip.
The recently released M2 MacBook Pro continues to be confusing.
Overall, Apple’s new entry-level M2-powered MacBook Pro offers notable power improvements over its M1 counterpart — until it comes to storage speed.
According to YouTube channels Max Tech and Created Tech (via MacRumors), Apple’s base model M2 MacBook Pro with 256GB of storage features slower SSD speeds compared to the last-gen M1 MacBook Pro. Both YouTube channels tested storage speeds with the Blackmagic Disk Speed test, an app that allows users to test the transfer speed of internal and external storage.
In total, the M2’s SSD is 34 percent slower than the M1 regarding write speed, with read speed offering a 50 percent difference.
Interestingly, this downgrade only seems to be featured in the M2 MacBook Pro with lower storage, with higher storage options offering speeds very similar to the M1, according to YouTuber Aaron Zollo.
The slower speed seems to be related to the fact that the 13-inch MacBook Pro with 256GB of storage only features one NAND flash storage chip, while the previous generation offered two NAND chips with 128GB each.
Will the average user likely notice a difference in performance? Probably not. That said, it’s still a disappointing move on Apple’s part and something those interested in picking up the M2 MacBook Pro should be aware of.
In my experience, the M2 MacBook Pro performed great and benchmarked extremely well, though the tech giant should have made it clear this downgrade exists.
Apple has just recently begun listing its new 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro for sale. Although many of the new units are slated to be delivered near the end of the month, many SKUs are delayed until August.
The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro is available to purchase now. Depending on the configurations, delivery estimates for the $1,699 device are as early as June 24th. This is especially true when looking at the models with 8GB unified memory.
However, in Canada and other regions like the U.S., some models are facing delays. For instance, 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro models with the upgraded 16GB unified memory are expected to ship by July 7. Though, the delays are more emphasized when looking at the units with 24GB of unified memory. Currently, Apple’s website state they may ship between August 4th and August 11th.
Additionally, certain SSD configurations also face slight delays. Models with a requested 512GB or 1TB SSD of storage also face delays into July.
Apple has been continually dealing with product delays throughout the pandemic. Certain models and configurations have been affected more than others. In this case, the M2 MacBook Pro with 24GB unified memory is being heavily affected. Of course, this delay can more than likely be an effect of the ongoing component shortages and manufacturing issues.
In addition to new products being delayed, analysts and reports peg further delays this year. It’s said that there may be some delays regarding iPhone 14. While Apple is expected to launch four new models, some may be affected by component shortages and China’s strict COVID-19-related lockdowns.
Additionally, reports claim that Apple’s long-rumoured mixed reality headset has also faced delays due to manufacturing and other hurdles. As such, a release is more likely to now fall in early 2023.
As the tech industry continues to grapple with the impacts of COVID-19 and subsequent component shortages, delays such as these are only to be expected.
Apple’s new 13-inch Macbook Pro equipped with its M2 chip is now available to order in Canada.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro features the same design as its predecessor, including the beleaguered Touch Bar, two Thunderbolt 3 ports and Butterfly keyboard. It’s only the laptop’s processor that has received an upgrade to the new 8-core CPU/10-core GPU M2 chip that Apple claims features 18 percent faster CPU performance and a 35 percent faster GPU when compared to the M1 chip.
The M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM/256GB of storage starts at $1,699 in Canada. The laptop also has 16GB/24GB of RAM and 512GB, 1TB and 2TB storage variants.
Apple’s Canadian website lists delivery as of June 24th. MobileSyrup will have more on Apple’s M2-powered MacBook Pro in the coming days.
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Apple has finally revealed that the M2 MacBook Pro is hitting store shelves on June 24th. Pre-orders go live on June 17th at 5 AM PT (8 AM ET).
The computer starts at $1,699 CAD, but you can snag it for $1,574 with the Apple education discount.
The MacBook Pro 13-inch is a strange device since the only thing that Apple has done to the design in years is remove USB-C ports, but it’s also keeping it modern with the M2 chipset.
Unlike the new MacBook Air, both versions of the MacBook Pro that Apple sells start with the M2 that includes the 10-core GPU, which combined with the fan design of the Pro, should offer longer sustained top performance than the Air.
However, many shoppers might want to wait for the new Air since it features the same chip, a separate charging port and is significantly lighter. Either way, the competition between Apple’s sub $2,000 laptops is fierce this year, so make sure to keep your eyes on MobileSyrup for more detailed product reviews on both computers in the coming weeks.
During WWDC, Apple said that the new MacBook Air would go on sale in July, but we still don’t know what day.
