Apple unveiled two M2-powered MacBooks during its annual WWDC conference earlier this month. The first is the redesigned MacBook Air, and the second is the old 13-inch MacBook Pro with the old chassis, TouchBar, and no MagSafe. The latter will be available for pre-order on June 17, 2022.
Apple positions the M2-based 13-inch MacBook Pro at those who need slightly better long-term performance during CPU or GPU-taxing workloads. Active cooling allows the computer to keep its processor running faster for longer without thermal throttling.
The new M2 processor in the 13-inch MacBook Pro is the only thing that differentiates it from its predecessor. Apple says the M2 and its 8 CPU and 10 GPU cores provide about 40% better performance when working with RAW images in apps like Affinity photo. Also, those upgrading from older Intel models can expect performance uplifts up to 3.4 times.
You can spec the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with up to 24GB of unified memory with 50% more bandwidth and up to 2TB of solid-state storage. Besides, the updated media engine in the M2 CPU provides support for up to 11 streams of 4K video or up to 2 streams of 8K ProRes video.
Other parts of the laptop remain unchanged. It offers four Thunderbolt USB-C ports, hated by many TouchBar, and a battery life of up to 20 hours of video playback.
The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro will arrive on June 24, 2022. The base config costs $1,299 or $1,199 for students.