Compared: M2 MacBook Pro 13″ vs M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14″ [VIDEO]

Apple unveiled a new 13-inch MacBook Pro at WWDC 2022 earlier this month. The new MacBook Pro is powered by second-generation Apple Silicon, dubbed ‘M2.’

To see how the next generation of Apple Silicon stacks up against its beefed-up predecessor, the M1 Pro, YouTuber Max Tech pit the base configurations of the 2022 13-inch MacBook Pro and 2021 14-inch MacBook Pro against each other in a detailed comparison.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro from last year starts at $2,499 for the base model with an M1 Pro with 8 CPU cores, 14 GPU cores, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. The M2 MacBook Pro starts at $1,699, but a configuration with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage will cost you $2,199.

Check out Max Tech‘s full video comparison below:

YouTube video

The M2 MacBook Pro reuses the same chassis as the M1-equipped 2020 MacBook Pro, which itself recycled the shell of the 2016 MacBook Pro. However, that also means that the 2022 MacBook Pro inherits the polarizing Touch Bar from its predecessors.

The speakers on the new M2 MacBook Pro are good, but the 14-inch MacBook Pro’s speakers simply blow you away. What’s more, the M1 Pro-toting competitor features a mini-LED display that offers a 120Hz refresh rate, deeper blacks, 1,600 nits peak brightness, and 1,000 nits sustained brightness.

Max Tech was among the first to discover the entry-level M2 MacBook Pro suffered from worryingly slow SSD speeds. The YouTuber made a point of highlighting the difference in the comparison video.

Storage speeds on the new base model 13-inch MacBook Pro are 3x slower for writes and 3.6x slower for reads as compared to the M1 Pro model. SSD speeds are better if you upgrade to the 512GB configuration, but still materially slower than the 14-inch M1 Pro model.

In Geekbench 5’s CPU tests, the M2 chip inside the new MacBook Pro managed better single-threaded performance than the M1 Pro.

Multi-threaded performance, however, was the M1 Pro MacBook Pro’s domain.

Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro and the M2 chip underneath set a new web browsing record, scoring 402 runs per minute in Speedometer 2.0. It performed 39% faster than the M1 Pro.

For graphics performance, the M1 Pro MacBook Pro scored 29% higher in the Geekbench 5 Metal GPU benchmark. Not surprising, considering the base configuration 2021 MacBook Pro has four more GPU cores.

3DMark’s real-world gaming benchmark told a similar tale, with the M1 Pro being 35% faster than the new M2.

CPU performance in a 10-minute Cinebench R23 stress test was much closer, however, with a lead of merely 9.5% separating the M1 Pro MacBook Pro from the new M2 MacBook Pro.

For creative workflows, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro proved faster in light HEVC video editing. However, it was slower than the 14-inch competitor in Lightroom photo editing, 4K ProRes video editing, and 8K Canon RAW video exports.

After around four and a half hours of testing, the M2 MacBook Pro was left with 24% battery while the M1 Pro MacBook Pro had only 17% remaining. That said, the larger MacBook Pro boasts a MagSafe connector that charges almost twice as quickly.

If you want the best battery life or for whatever reason are a fan of Apple’s Touch Bar, the new M2 MacBook Pro is available to purchase now on Apple.ca and at retail stores.

Anyone just looking for the latest and greatest from Apple, though, might be better off waiting until the new M2 MacBook Air comes out next month. That one’s even going to have the new MagSafe connector.

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