Apple today announced the new MacBook Pro featuring the M2 Pro and M2 Max silicone. The announcement came complete with Malaysian pricing and availability information.

Tested Capabilities

The new 14-and 16-inch MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max — the world’s most powerful and efficient chip for a pro laptop according to Apple— boasts effects rendering up to 6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and colour grading up to 2x faster.

This is based on a comparison to previous-generation 2.4GHz 8-core Intel Core i9-based 16-inch MacBook Pro systems with Radeon Pro 5600M graphics with 8GB HBM2, 64GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD.

It is also said to pack up to 22 hours of battery life — the longest battery life ever in a Mac.

The battery testing was conducted by Apple in November and December 2022 using preproduction 16-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M2 Pro, 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. It uses the Apple TV app movie playback test to measure the battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to eight clicks from the bottom. Of course battery life varies by use and configuration.

It also has up to 96GB of unified memory in the M2 Max model. This, according to Apple, lets the Mac Book Pro work on scenes so large that PC laptops can’t.

This conclusion came from testing conducted by Apple in November and December 2022 using preproduction 16-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M2 Max, 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU, 96GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD, as well as a production Intel Core i9-based PC system with NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 graphics with 24GB GDDR6 and the latest version of Windows 11 Pro available at the time of testing, and a production Intel Core i9-based PC system with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics with 16GB GDDR6 and the latest version of Windows 11 Home available at the time of testing.

OTOY Octane X 2022.1 on preproduction 16-inch MacBook Pro systems and OTOY OctaneRender 2022.1 on Windows systems were tested using a scene that requires over 40GB of graphics memory when rendered. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of the MacBook Pro.

Included Features

MacBook Pro now features a Liquid Retina XDR display, an extensive array of connectivity, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a six-speaker sound system, and studio-quality mics.

It also has Wi-Fi 6E3 for faster wireless connectivity, as well as more advanced HDMI, to support 8K displays up to 60Hz and 4K displays up to 240Hz. These new capabilities build on the versatile connectivity options already in MacBook Pro, including three Thunderbolt 4 ports for high-speed connection to peripherals, an SDXC card slot, and MagSafe 3 charging.

Based on my experience using the iPad Air with the M1 silicone and my main work computer, I do not doubt that when combined with macOS Ventura, the MacBook Pro user experience is unrivalled.

Pricing and Availability

The new MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro and M2 Max are coming soon to apple.com/my/store and the Apple Store app.

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at RM8,799, and RM8,139 for education; and the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at RM10,799 and RM9,929 for education. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options, and accessories are available at apple.com/my/mac.

You can read the full Apple announcement here: apple.com/sg/newsroom/2023/01/apple-unveils-macbook-pro-featuring-m2-pro-and-m2-max/.