The Macbooks Pro presented last October as part of the “Unleashed” event with their striking new design (we only say: “Notch”) are far from being scraps a year after their market launch. On the contrary, they are among the best you can buy if you are looking for a notebook for professional use. But Apple’s development does not stand still, the second generation of Apple Silicon is ready to replace the M1 Pro and M1 Max.
Current best price: Macbook Pro 14 inch M1 Pro with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD in silver
When the new Macbooks Pro 2022 will come
While there are doubts that Apple will hold an October event again this year. Since 2011, when the iPhone 4S didn’t arrive until October (and there was no event in September), Apple hasn’t hosted an October keynote in only three of eleven years, as a list by our Macworld colleagues shows.
Not only would Apple have mere updates to its pro laptops to show, there will also be refurbished iPad Pros, a redesigned iPad and a Mac Mini with a slightly different concept and audience – so a stage show in Cupertino could well be the case. If Apple decides to do so, we assume Tuesday, October 18th. This would result in the following schedule for new Macbooks Pro:
- October 18, 2022 from 7 p.m.: Presentation of Macbook Pro M2 Pro/Max 14 inch and Macbook M2 Pro/Max 16 inch
- October 21, 2022 from 2 p.m.: Start of the pre-order phase
- October 28, 2022: Official market launch
Macbook Pro M2 Pro/Max: This will be new
Externally, the Macbook Pro years will not differ, which is a tradition at Apple. The 2016 MacBook Pro (the one with the touch bar) was followed by two other visually similar generations, each with slightly different features like an improved keyboard or newer Intel processors. So Apple is sticking with the design introduced a year ago for the 14 and 16 inchers, the notch called “camera housing” in Apple-speak remains. After all, this allows narrower edges and thus a larger screen diagonal with the same external dimensions – and is at least not perceived as annoying as the notch of the iPhones X and newer.
Anyone hoping for a return of the touch bar will be disappointed, Apple has apparently sent this interactive OLED strip above the keyboard to the sidelines, it is only installed in the Macbook Pro M2 13 inch. The Touch ID on the keyboard, on the other hand, remains, to the right of the returning fixed function keys.
What is new, however, is the heart of the Macbook Pro, the system-on-a-chip (SoC) of the second generation of Apple silicon. Already in the summer of this year, Apple showed the M2 in the previously mentioned Macbook Pro 13 inch, which has hardly been revised, and in the redesigned Macbook Air M2. The difference to the previous generation are the two additional graphics cores and an improved 5 nm process. In all likelihood, the expected SoCs M2 Pro and M2 Max will not only double and quadruple the number of cores compared to the M2, but will also be manufactured by TSMC in the 3 nm process. The increase in performance and efficiency of the M2 Pro/Max compared to its predecessors should be greater than that of the M2 compared to the M1. While that was significant, it wasn’t a significant leap like Apple’s when it switched Intel’s to its own silicon.
Macbook Pro M2 Pro/Max: Prices
The currently quite high discounts for Apple products from third-party retailers (Apple is sticking to the prices it set a year ago) show that successors are in the starting blocks and the shelves have to be emptied for them. If the current performance of the Macbook Pro 14 inch and 16 inch is completely sufficient, you can still grab a bargain.
Because the bad news: Following the example of the iPhone 14, Apple will increase prices in the euro zone. Due to the strong US dollar, the group will have little choice if it does not want to jeopardize its margin. We have explained in detail elsewhere how high the price increase could be, we assume that 2,249 and 2,749 euros in October will become 2,599 and 3,199 euros for the entry-level models with M2 Pro of the 14 and 16 inches.
Current best price: Macbook Pro M1 Pro 16 inch with 16 GB RAM and 512 MB SSD in space gray
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