In a quiet announcement, Apple has said that a new 13-inch MacBook Pro featuring the Apple M2 silicon will be coming out for order on June 17. Online orders will open up at 5 a.m. PT, on that day, and those who wish to buy in person can pick one up at the Apple Store on June 24.
This new M2 MacBook Pro 13-inch looks the same as the last generation as it keeps the Touch Bar and doesn’t have a notch in the display like the 14-inch and 16-inch models. It also only has two Thunderbolt 4 ports and no MagSafe connection.
The biggest difference between generations is the M2 chip under the hood and the two additional GPU cores that it offers. Pricing is also around the same over the last generation, coming in starting at $1,300 for a base model with 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Education customers, meanwhile, can get this same model for $1,200. Yet interestingly enough, a 24GB RAM option is available this year, for an additional $400 across models.
According to Apple, this new M2 MacBook Pro is nearly 40% faster than the previous generation when using creative apps like Affinity Photo. Beyond that, it can be up to 3.4 times faster than an Intel Core i7 MacBook model without Apple silicon.
“The 13-inch MacBook Pro is supercharged by the new M2 chip, which begins the next generation of Apple silicon and takes the breakthrough capabilities of M1 even further. It features incredible performance, up to 24GB of unified memory, ProRes acceleration, and up to 20 hours of battery life, all in a compact design,” said Apple in a press release.
This 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 joins the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max to round out the Apple MacBook Pro lineup.
Apple, though, has not yet shared shipping information or order dates for the new MacBook Air with an M2 chip. Likely due to the supply issues and the pandemic, the Apple Online store shows those M2 MacBook Air orders will be coming “next month” with no specific date range as of yet.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.