Today, Apple debuted the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini models with the new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, in its traditional January launch event.
The M2 Pro and M2 Max SoCs (systems on a chip) seek to scale up the architecture of the current M2 and M1 chips to deliver more powerful and power-efficient performance to the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini.
In 2020, Apple gave up Intel’s semiconductor technology to ramp up the production of more in-house designed chips.
“Only Apple is building SoCs like M2 Pro and M2 Max. They deliver incredible pro performance along with industry-leading power efficiency,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies.
M2 Pro is capable of delivering up to a 12-core CPU and up to a 19-core GPU, together with 32GB of fast unified memory. M2 Max builds on the capabilities of M2 Pro to deliver up to a 38-core GPU, double the unified memory bandwidth, and up to 96GB of unified memory.
While M2 Pro can power faster performance to run heavier workloads on Adobe, for example, or compile in Xcode, the M2 Max can tackle graphics-intensive projects like powering visual effects, training machine learning models, or stitching together gigapixel images, Apple says.
The new chips helps the MacBook Pro achieve “the longest battery life ever in a Mac”, up to 22 hours, resulting in less time needed to charge and reduced energy consumption, according to Apple
The MacBook Pro starts at C$2599, comes in 14″ and 16″ models, and customers can choose either the M2 Pro or M2 Max, based on their performance needs.
The Mac Mini, with M2 Pro or M2 Max, starts at C$799, and makes “everyday tasks blazing fast — from launching and multitasking between apps to browsing the web”, said Apple.
Both computers can be ordered today and will be available in Apple stores and authorized resellers on January 24th.