The MacBook Pro review was incomplete when it was dropped two weeks ago. My experience with the laptop was defined as much by the product I was reviewing as it was by the absence of one I had only briefly interacted with.
New brains controlling the same vestigial organs made the 13-inch MacBook Pro a casualty of timing. From the outside, it seemed that Apple's progress on Silicon over the past two years has made it difficult to match it. We saw it with the first round of M1 systems.
The launch of the Pro coincides with the biggest upgrade to the MacBook Air in its 14-year history. It's a new look to match the new internal strength. The 13-inch Pro doesn't have much to recommend it.
If you are an Apple user, you probably have strong feelings about that first one. That isn't likely to be a problem for most users. If you anticipate pushing the M2 to a point that requires some active on-board cooling, the new 14-inch might interest you. The next generation of MacBook designs were inspired by that device.
Brian Heater is the image's author.
The breakdown of the pluses and minuses of each is here.
It's a pro.
It is the Airs turn. Let's take a look.
There is air.
Brian Heater is the image's author.
The 13-inch Pro review shows how the Air sucked the oxygen out of the room, so it makes sense that the device gets a fair amount of mention here. It didn't take a Nostradamus to know that the Air would be the better buy in most scenarios.
Having used the Air for the past couple of weeks, I can happily report that the prediction was correct, and that this is the MacBook I would recommend to a lot of users. The form factor has had its share of trade-offs, including power and battery life, in the past. The M2 Air will still edge out the 14-inch Pro in most scenarios.
There were times when the compromises could be glaring. I work on both video and audio. In my pre-pandemic travels, the laptop was always a great companion. The Airs and Pro were larger and heavier than the system. There was a tacit understanding that you would need a more robust system to come home to.
Brian Heater is the image's author.
There is still a gulf between the M2 Air and the M1 Max, but the floor is higher than it was in the past.
The Air has a similar design to the 14-inch Pro. I am certain that heated discussions took place behind closed doors at Apple's spaceship regarding the decision to retire the Air's tapered design. It was Apple that kept it for nearly a decade and a half.
There is a scaled-down version of the 14-inch Pro. It was shrunk down to 0.44 inches thick and 2.7 pounds by adopting the same design. It has a nice weight with a solid feel that should fit nicely into a backpack and perform well on a seat-back tray table.
There are two new colors in the mix. I am a fan of the dark Midnight, though it tends to be a big fingerprint magnet, as you can see in some of our photos. The almost gold-colored press photos of the device make it seem like it is, but it is actually a finish with a greenish hue. I had to double check the box to make sure it was the correct color. The system is stacked up against other people. Matching power cables are included in the new colors.
Brian Heater is the image's author.
The company brought back a missing feature with the 14-inch Pro. There is a robot safety cable on the product. Even if the difference in charging speeds is not significant, it still frees up the twoUSB-C ports. The ports are located on the same side of the device, which is a problem for me. One on each side makes sense when it comes to negotiating cable space, even though I would prefer two per side.
A headphones jack is on the flip side. I worry that Apple will think better of it with each subsequent release, but I am grateful that it is still around. Apple added support for high-impedance headphones, which are a bit more power hungry, but provide improved audio qualify, which is a nice addition for people who use their system for music production.
The M2 MacBook Air and the M2 MacBook Pro are pictured.
The webcam has been upgraded, as well, from 720 to 1080p, a nice addition in this age of remote work. The color and clarity are improved, and there’s overall less noise. As your can see in the above photos, the 13-inch really struggles with backlighting. The ceiling lights cast glare across my face. The improvements come from new sensors, coupled with improved image processing on the new chips.The quality isn't good. For those times when I am broadcasting to the outside world, I will always use an external camera, even if I use it for a work zoom. Ventura has a new Continuity Camera feature and I either use it or use the OpalWebcam. There are some questions about the long-term viability of sticking the weight of an Apple device atop the Air's lid. We will just have to wait and see.
Brian Heater is the image's author.
A new notch is borrowed from the 14-inch system. I assumed the cutout would be more pronounced on a smaller screen, but I didn't remember it after a while. The feature allows Apple to cram more screen into the same footprint as the 13-inch Pro, which is why the Air can sneak in a few more fractions of an inch. The brightness has been bumped from 400 to 500 nits on the new 13.6 system, but the device still has the same resolution and density.
The grilles on the side of the display have been replaced with back-firing speakers. The array has been increased from two speakers to four and Apple has added Spatial Audio head tracking for connected AirPods. The sound quality is okay, but I wouldn't recommend investing in a speaker or headphones. I rarely use my laptop's built-in speakers, with the exception of hotel rooms or when I'm in bed.
A thinner logic board and a redesign of the body allow for more battery room. The Air's watt-hours were upgraded from 49.9 to 52.6. The battery life is the same. I was able to watch 17 hours of video on Apple TV, with the sound on, and it was bright. It should be enough to get you through most flights, even if you have to take a 90-minute nap. In addition to the new MagSafe colors, Apple is experimenting with a different power brick. You can get the standard model with the 8-core graphics card, or you can get the standard 30wUSB-C charging station.
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The company has a new 35W dual-usb-c port compact power accessory. It is not large enough for a MacBook charge. It is completely flat on the bottom and has a retractable plug on top. You get a pair of cables to charge two devices at the same time, but I wouldn't recommend trying to top off the Pro with it.
The keyboard is the same as previous MacBook models, which is to say it has improved from a few years ago. You don't realize how much you miss the Touch Bar until you have to leave. Touch ID, the best part of the Touch Bar, is maintained by the device.
The image was created by Apple.
Apple sent a unit with a lot of stuff. The price is over the entry price. That is more expensive than the M1 Air which starts at $1,000. The 14-inch Pro starts at $1999.
The single-core score was 1922 and the multi-core score was 8974. It's in line with the scores we got on the 13-inch M2 Pro. The 14-inch Pro had a single-core score of 1781, but the M1 Max had a score of 12,000. The results were the same for single- and multi-core on the test. That is in line with the 13-inch Pro's 1485 and 6992 for applications that need the Rosetta 2 emulator.
It is a good way to think about the new M2 chips. The M1 Max and Ultra can do laps around them if you push the limits. Most people aren't likely to encounter the fanless design of the Air on a daily basis.
The M2 Pro is slightly ahead of the 14-inch Pro, but only being bested by the mac studio. The Air isn't a gaming powerhouse just yet, but the future is looking better on that front.
Brian Heater is the image's author.
The 14-inch Pro arrived a year ago. It felt like Apple was not making unnecessary compromises. It was a new era of truly listening to consumer feedback, instead of assuming a company always knows what's best for its end users. The line was not alienating mainstream consumers.
The Air is similar to version 2.0. Improvements to key components like the webcam and charging are made in a smaller, more portable form factor. There are still compromises that may be unavoidable. I would rather have a betterWebcam and more than two ports ofusb-c. This is a good package.
At the moment, there is a good amount of variety in the MacBook line. The M1 Air is a great choice if you want good performance at a lower price point. The 14-inch Pro is great if you need more power on the go. There is always the 13-inch Pro vying for your hard-earned bucks.
The M2 Air is able to strike a balance. It is thin and light, has some of the line's best new features, and has enough power for most needs. It is the right MacBook for most consumers and a good reminder of why the Air was so popular.
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