Forget the MacBook Pro, Apple has something way better

Updated December 5th: Article was originally published December 3rd

If there’s one thing Apple fans love, it’s more power. New details on next year’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models suggest they’ll be getting just that. This fascination with performance means the best bet is to wait for the MacBooks of 2023, but for everyone else this pursuit of performance can safely be ignored… there are better options.

Update: Monday, December 5: More details on the new 2023 MacBook Pro laptops have been leaked over the weekend, and Apple is pushing the potential of the 14-inch and 16-inch macOS laptops as hard as it can. Of course, Tim Cook and his team will increase hardware memory and storage, but new reports show just how much memory is being pushed. Hartley Charlton reports:

“It is possible that the next MacBook Pro models will be equipped with Samsung’s latest LPDDR5X RAM, which would provide up to 33 percent increased memory bandwidth and up to 20 percent lower power consumption. This would result in a significant spec push of up to 300 GB/s of memory bandwidth for the “M2” Pro and up to 600 GB/s for the “M2″ Max.”

For comparison, the current 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops run on Samsung’s LPDDR5 RAM modules. On the M1 Pro models, this allows for up to 200GB/s or bandwidth into storage, while the larger M1 Max model hits 400GB/s.

With Samsung’s new RAM chipsets offering speeds of up to 600GB/s, it’s clear that Apple could significantly increase data throughput with the latest technology. Along with the improved performance of the M2 family of chips and chipsets putatively dubbed the M2 Pro and M2 Max, those looking for as much performance as possible – regardless of the cost – should steer clear of any of the current MacBook Pro laptops of the 2023 models.

What can we expect from these new overpowered laptops? The latest details come from the always reliable Geekbench. Picked up by the busy Apple commenter @ShrimpApplePro, the benchmarks show an increase in performance, but not the quantum leap we’ve seen with Apple’s move from Intel’s x86 platform to Apple’s exclusive ARM-based Silicon platform. William Gallagher reports:

“…the Geekbench numbers provide device configuration details. As reported, the device packs 96GB of RAM, which is more than a recent MacBook Pro can offer, but less than the Mac Studio. The CPU is listed as “Apple M2 Max”, and the data includes that it is a 12-core processor running at 3.54 GHz. The single-core score is 1853 and the multi-core score is 13855.”

As with any discussion of benchmarks, there are no guarantees as to which device is being measured and how far down the development path the device is; This could be a new Mac Studio rather than the MacBook Pro M2 Max, although there’s a lot of confidence the latter is the case.

A quick look at the numbers shows a performance increase of around twenty percent over the M1 Max; Oddly enough, this is the same game seen in the MacBook Air between the M1 and M2 based laptops.

Keep in mind that the M1 Max (and the lower-ranked M1 Pro) were some of the most powerful laptop chipsets when they came out. The M2 Max building on that success means those looking for a powerful machine should consider these updated MacBook Pro laptops, which are expected to launch towards the end of Q1 2023.

And these values ​​are for a single core in the CPU. What if Apple increases the core count to improve multitasking performance? Increase GPU? Or improve the speed of other components in the hardware?

For the average consumer looking for a laptop that just works, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops with the upgraded M1 chips were already seen as an excess of unnecessary power. The next generation will increase that again. This makes them even more attractive for developers and demanding creatives. It will also tempt those in the geekerati who want “the laptop with the most count,” but for those who need an affordable laptop for everyday use, the MacBook Air portfolio remains the best choice that balances price and potential .

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