One of the rumors we have heard over the last few weeks is that Apple could present the second generation of Apple Silicon, the expected Apple M2, during WWDC 2022, And what would you do with a MacBook Air?. The rumor, now we can confirm it, was quite correct, but it lacked a detail, and that is that a MacBook Pro was also going to be addedmaking the two lines of Apple laptops the first company computers with the new generation of the Cupertino SoC.
This, I admit, catches my attention a bit, I think it would have made more sense to combine a laptop with a desktop PC, although of course, it is true that Mac Studio was released only a few months ago, so presenting today a system with M2, and especially a Mac Mini with an Apple M2, could have been detrimental to the hypervitaminized version of the Mini. yes, pIt seems that for any Pro desktop option with Apple Silicon we will still have to wait a little longer.
Apple M2
First things first, and in this case the first is the first evolutionary leap of Apple Silicon, the second generation of its integrated, after having cultivated excellent reviews for the good work done with the M1 and its higher performance variants. Does the Apple M2 represent a great qualitative leap with respect to the M1? The answer to this question reminds me of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, maybe yes, maybe no, although yes seems to predominate. Let’s see the numbers.
The first metric we look at to assess the performance of a chip like the Apple M2 is the number of cores it integrates, and in this regard we see that it remains at eight cores for the CPU (four for performance and four for efficiency) and up to 10 for the GPU, with 5 nanometer photolithography. This, in the first place, would invite us to think that there has been no evolution with respect to the previous generation, but in reality this is not the case. And it is that, according to the company, there have been significant improvements in the design, which has allowed increase the number of transistors in the Apple M2 to no less than 20,000 millioncompared to the 16,000 million of the M1.
Another important improvement of Apple M2 with respect to its predecessor is found in terms of memory. Recall that Apple Silicon uses unified memory (that is, the CPU and GPU share the same memory pool). With M1 the maximum amount it could manage was 16 gigabytes, which in this generation up to 24 gigabytes of LPDDR5 RAM are increased an extra 50%, and that you will also enjoy a bandwidth of 100 GB/s, again an increase of 50% relative to its predecessor.
This improvement in CPU and RAM will surely be noticeable in very memory-intensive tasks, such as massive data analysis processes and processes related to artificial reality. And precisely speaking of artificial intelligence, in this field we find another of the improvements of the Apple M2, which with its 16 Neural Engine cores dedicated to AI, is capable of performing up to 15.8 trillion operations per secondin a 40% improvement over the Apple M1.
With all these improvements, Apple points an 18% CPU performance boostwhich grows up to 25% if we talk about your GPU, with the same consumption of the M1. But that’s not all, and it is said that motorized equipment with an Apple M2 will be able, putting performance before efficiency, to obtain up to 35% more performance than the first generation of Apple Silicon provided. Without a doubt, we are talking about an important qualitative leap.
MacBook Air M2 2022
Among the doubtful rumors, one of the most repeated regarding WWDC 2022 and the possible announcement of the expected Apple M2, was that it would debut with a new MacBook Air 2022, and finally it has been. As soon as we finished the quick review of the features and novelties of the new Apple SoC, we have jumped to the first computer that equips it, the lightest and most portable of the Cupertino laptops, and the one that it seems that it has undergone a major redesign taking advantage of the incorporation of the Apple M2.
Starting with its appearance, in this case we can talk about a full-fledged redesign, with which Apple has managed to reduce its thickness to so only 11 millimeters and its weight less than 1.3 kilos, quite an achievement in a laptop that, generation after generation, continues to set the standard in terms of thickness and weight reduction. And that the Apple M2 adds 4,000 million transistors compared to its predecessor, there is nothing. Personally, I really like the new design, more sober and elegant, but hey, that depends on taste.
The most visible face of the MacBook Air M2 2022 is, of course, its screen. And in this aspect we find a 13.6-inch Retina Liquid Display panel with a shine of 500 nitswith a 2560 x 1664 native resolution and density of 224 pixels per inch, which is accompanied by four speakers compatible with Spatial Audio, Apple’s implementation of the positional sound that they presented last year, simultaneously with Apple Music HiFi. The screen is completed with a notch at the top center, which houses a FaceTime camera with 1080p resolution.
Already inside, and obviously in addition to the Apple M2 SoC, we will find configurations of up to 24 gigabytes of LPDDR5 RAM and up to two terabytes of SSD storage, all this inside a unibody chassis in which sWe will only find passive dissipation elementsthat is, no fans, so, as is tradition in the MacBook Air family, this model will be as quiet as its predecessors.
As for its autonomy, Apple wanted to focus both on the Apple M2 and on the equipment presented today, on energy efficiency. In this way, we find a lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 52.6 watts / hour, which the company claims is capable of providing up to 18 hours of video playback in the Apple TV app and up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing through its 802.11ax Wi-Fi connectivity, which is complemented by Bluetooth 5.0.
And if we talk about connections, although in this case wired, we will find four ports on the MacBook Pro M2 2022: two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports compatible with DisplayPort, a minijack connector for headphones, which also shares the spatial audio functions of its speakers and, something that makes me quite nostalgic (for the good one), the return of MagSafe for your load, in my opinion the best charging connection system that has ever existed. In addition, to further improve the experience, for the first time the MacBook Air has a fast charge function, at 67 watts, which according to the company will allow a 50% charge in half an hour.
The new MacBook Air M2 2022 will arrive will go on sale next july, with the two variants of the Apple M2 SoC, whose difference is to have an eight or ten core GPU. The cheapest option will be the MacBook Air M2 2022 with the Apple M2 with octa-core GPU, eight gigabytes of unified memory and 256 GB of storage, which is priced at €1,519.00. And at the opposite extreme, the most expensive model is the one that equips the Apple M2 chip with a 10-core GPU, 24 gigabytes of unified memory and two terabytes of storage, which amounts to €3,019.00.
MacBook Pro M2 2022
Interesting surprise, because from the hand of the Apple M2 we expected a MacBook Air and, perhaps, a desktop computer, but the option of a MacBook Pro M2 2022 seemed less likely based on rumours. It is true, however, that in this case we are not facing a redesign like the one experienced by the MacBook Air and, in fact, the time that Apple has dedicated to the presentation has been very little, in comparison.
Be careful, with this I do not want to imply that it is a minor update, because only by jumping to Apple M2 from its predecessor, we will already find a remarkable increase in its performance, although it is true that good part of the news that it receives, are those that we have already seen in the MacBook Air, and that a large part of them are directly related to the new Apple SoC. Still, let’s see what exclusive features we find in this MacBook Pro M2 2022.
First of all, to clarify that we are talking about a MacBook Pro with a 13.3-inch screen, the 14 and 16-inch models remain, for the moment, in the previous generation of the SoC, so we can expect them to jump to Apple M2 in sometime between October of this year and summer of 2023. And as for it, the screen, in this case it is a 13.3-inch Retina with True Tonewith a native resolution of 2.560 1,600 points and a density of 227 points per inch and a glow of 500 nits.
Unlike the MacBook Air, in this MacBook Pro M2 2022 we do find elements of active dissipation, an obvious sign that we are talking about a computer designed to withstand very demanding workloads continuously. Sensation that is confirmed knowing that, in this case, we can only opt for the SoC model with the 10-core GPU, that is, the current top of the range of Apple M2, and that it has hardware acceleration for H.264 , HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW, video encoding and decoding engine and ProRes encoding and decoding engine for video editing up to 8K.
Another notable difference that we find in the MacBook Pro M2 2022 compared to the Air is its autonomy, which in this case rises to 20 hours of video playback in the Apple TV app and up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing, thanks to the efficiency of the Apple M2 and its 58.2 watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. As in the MacBook Air, in this case we also have a 67-watt fast charge function.
Regarding its connectors, no surprise, since we are talking more about an update than a redesign, this MacBook Pro M2 2022 maintains the two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports compatible with DisplayPort and the audio minijack connector. I cross my fingers for the return of MagSafe to the MacBook Pro, which should never have left, in a future design of it.
With configurations based on the Apple M2 with 10-core GPU, the new MacBook Pro M2 2022 lwill hit the market next July with configurations of 8, 16 and 24 gigabytes of unified memory, and 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 and 2 terabytes of RAM. The cheapest version, with 8 gigabytes of memory and 256 gigabytes of storage, will cost €1,619.00while the top of the range, with 24 gigabytes of memory and two terabytes of storage, will scale up to €2,999.00.
More information: Apple
