Apple today announced the 2023 editions of the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch and Mac mini with the new Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max processors. The MacBooks also get updated connectivity options, and the Mac mini has a lower starting price.
MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch can now be configured with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, which claim to offer up to 20% faster CPU performance and 30% faster GPU performance compared to the previous generation M1 variants. You can either go with Apple’s preset configuration options—three each for the two sizes—or you can configure any of the options to have essentially any processor, memory, and storage configuration you like.
Two options are offered here for the M2 Pro and M2 Max respectively. You can get the M2 Pro with 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU or 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU. The M2 Max can be configured in either 12-core CPU and 30-core GPU or 12-core CPU and 38-core GPU options.
M2 Pro and M2 Max
The new processors also bring updated unified memory configurations, with the M2 Pro offering 16GB and 32GB options, while the M2 Max offers 32GB, 64GB and 96GB options. You can also configure the built-in flash storage from 512 GB all the way to 8 TB. 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage are standard on the cheapest variant.
The new processors have also increased the battery life of the 2023 models, with the 14-inch model enabling 18 hours of video playback and 12 hours of wireless internet browsing, while the 16-inch model can handle 22 hours of video playback and 15 hours of video playback. hours of wireless internet browsing.
Also new on the MacBook Pro models are improved connectivity options. You now get Wi-Fi 6E for faster wireless connectivity, and HDMI has been updated to the 2.1 standard, supporting up to 8K at 60Hz and 4K at 240Hz.
The MacBook Pro 14-inch is available in $1999, $2499 and $3099 variants, while the 16-inch is available in $2499, $2699 and $3499 variants. All models can be configured with all options through Apple’s online store.
Moving on to the desktop side, the new Mac mini now comes with the M2 and M2 Pro processors. It also now has a lower starting price of $599 as the old Intel variant has finally been discontinued.
The Mac mini has the M2 processor for the $599 and $799 models, which have an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. Both of these have a paltry 8GB of total memory as standard, but can be manually configured with either 16GB or 24GB.
The $1299 model comes with the M2 Pro with a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU as standard, but can be configured with a 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU variant. It includes 16 GB of total memory and can be upgraded to 32 GB. The M2 models can be configured up to 2 TB of storage, while the M2 Pro model can be configured up to 8 TB. There is no M2 Max option for the Mac mini.
All new Mac mini models come with Wi-Fi 6E, but the M2 Pro model also includes the new HDMI 2.1 port as well as four Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of two on the M2 models.
As mentioned before, the older Intel variant has finally been discontinued, leaving the Mac Pro as the only Intel-based option in Apple’s lineup. Speaking of which, there’s still no word on the arrival of the Apple Silicon-based Mac Pro, which is now officially past Apple’s original 2022 transition period. But if we had to guess, it’s likely to arrive later this year with the inevitable M2 Ultra in tow.
