The M2 processor is certainly impressive, as we covered in our recent MacBook Air review, but there is more powerful Apple silicon on the horizon. In Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, originally surfaced by 9to5Mac, Mark Gurman writes that Apple plans to launch new M2 Pro- and M2 Max-equipped MacBook Pros as soon as this fall.
In April, Gurman initially alerted us to the M2 Pro and M2 Max when he reported the company was prepping its next-generation M2 chips and testing “at least nine different Macs with four different versions of the processor.” This time, according to Gurman, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with the high-powered M2 chips are coming sooner than expected — anytime between this fall, 2022 and next spring, 2023.
Gurman also hinted that the overall design of the MacBook Pro equipped with the new processors would likely “stay roughly the same” as last year’s refresh.
The new MacBooks with supercharged M2 chips could be marketed differently from the M1 devices, which are still available to buy and continue to be lauded as strong performers for everyday tasks. Gurman says the focus of the M2 chips will be primarily “on the graphics side,” which is a strategy similar to the regular M2 processor. As we noted in our review of the 13-inch MacBook Pro outfitted with the hardware, the M2 has (an optional) two additional GPU cores compared to the regular M1, plus a faster neural engine. Apple also claims the M2 has an 18% faster CPU performance and 35% faster GPU speeds. That’s just the regular version of the chip — it’ll be interesting to see the scores of the M2 Pro and M2 Max processors.
While Gurman tells us to set our sights on fall 2022, the “internal expectation” extends up to spring 2023 to accommodate any supply-chain shortages. In the newsletter, Gurman admits that “it’s hard to predict exactly when these will hit store shelves.” But if you’re saving your money for a MacBook Pro that’s more powerful, perhaps waiting a bit will pay off in this instance.