For the last few months, it's been hard to know which MacBook Pro to recommend. If you wanted the latest M2 chip, you had to make do with an older design and smaller screen. If you wanted that cutting edge new 2021 design, you had to make do with the M1 chip. But with today's new MacBook Pro announcement, the battle between form and function is no more – making the choice a lot more exciting.
Apple has just updated the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, packing the M2 Pro and M2 Max chip inside the larger laptops as well as promising the best ever battery life ever in a Mac. Seeing as we called the 2021 versions almost too good to be true, it looks like it'll be hard not to recommend these.
The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are, of course, the headline feature here. The former features a 10-core or 12-core CPU and up to 20% faster performance, while the latter is up to 6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro. In other words, these things are very, very fast. And with up to 96GB memory and 8TB of SSD storage, even the most power-hungry creatives should be able to get by.
But it isn't just the power that Apple is trumpeting this time around. At 22 hours per charge, the company claims that the 16-inch model offers the longest battery life ever in a Mac. The design remains unchanged, but that's to be expected – in 2021, the MacBook Pro enjoyed its most radical redesign in years, with tiny bezels and the addition of, yes, that controversial notch.
“MacBook Pro with Apple silicon has been a game changer, empowering pros to push the limits of their workflows while on the go and do things they never thought possible on a laptop,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, announced in a press release (opens in new tab). “Today the MacBook Pro gets even better. With faster performance, enhanced connectivity, and the longest battery life ever in a Mac, along with the best display in a laptop, there’s simply nothing else like it.”
And now for the inevitable bad news. These things aren't cheap. In the US, the price starts at $1,999 and $2,499 for the 14-inch and 16-inch models respectively, which is the same as last year. But in continuing its trend of jacking up prices overseas, Apple has brought the starting prices up to £2,149 and £2,699. Yikes.
The new MacBook Pros are available from 24 January (opens in new tab). While they might be pricey, there's pretty much no question that these are set to offer the best MacBook experience yet for creatives. But those 2021 models are by no means slouches – check out today's best deals below.
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