Apple’s 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro offers impressive performance and long battery life

The Verge‘s Monica Chin has reviewed Apple’s new/old 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro and found that offers impressive performance and long battery life in a package that’s basically the same as it’s been for years.

Apple's new 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro
Apple’s new 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro

Monica Chin for The Verge:

This MacBook Pro has the exact same chassis as the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro that was released in 2020 (which itself used a design that dates back to 2016). It’s the same 2560 x 1600 screen, the same Magic Keyboard, the same two Thunderbolt ports, the same Touch Bar, and the same slightly tapered sides. Remember all those cool new (technically old) design features, like HDMI ports, SDXC slots, and MagSafe charging Apple put on the MacBook Pro models it released in late 2021? Yeah, none of those are here. Neither is the fancy Mini LED display or upgraded 1080p webcam.

There has, basically, only been one change made to the MacBook Pro from 2020: it has a new processor.

In summary: the M2 is fast and efficient. The M1 was also fast and efficient. The 2022 MacBook Pro can sustain heavy loads for long periods of time… I never heard the fan on this M2 device — not even when I was running games… How did this thing do on benchmarks? In CPU results — Geekbench, Cinebench, the Xcode benchmark, etc. — the results we’re seeing are somewhat better than the M1. In GPU tests, including some games, the results are substantially better. That means gaming is much better

This M2 MacBook Pro does not die. I have never said this about a laptop before: I was not able to fully run it down during my testing period. I can tell you that I’ve been able to run it well past 10 and a half hours, which is when the 14-inch M1 Pro device was dying when I reviewed that last year with this same workload.

I was also, frankly, pushing this much harder than I pushed the 14-incher during that testing period, in part because I was having so much trouble getting the battery to run down — I threw Premiere, Audition, coding, and even some battery gaming at the M2 during these trial runs. I was still consistently seeing over half of the battery left after eight to nine hours of constant use. From the results I am getting, I would expect it to last 17 and a half to 18 hours.

MacDailyNews Take: While we suspect that the someday forthcoming M2 MacBook Air would be a better road machine for us, the ability for it to last a long time is very tempting.

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2 Comments

  1. The battery on my M1 13-inch MacBook Pro DOES last “forever.” Especially because I’m not really a power user. I only bought it about two months ago. OWC had an incredible deal with 1TB storage and 16GB memory, Apple Certified Refurbished. It’s fast and feels rock solid. I even find the often maligned Touch Bar to be useful in fun and surprising ways. I think it’s better for less serious (not “pro”) users; maybe Apple can make it an option for MacBook Air at some point.

    The battery life is SO good, I use it completely disconnected most of the time. It goes for days. I don’t even think about plugging it in to charge until the “go to sleep soon” warning pops up at 10%. Then, I still have about 2 more hours to finish up or get to good break point. When I plug it in to charge, I also connect my external drive to let Time Machine back up. It’s a satisfying and elegant routine. Remember to shutdown/restart periodically. I tend to forget and not restart until it needs to install a software update. I may get into a habit of sometimes shutting down and starting back up after it finishes recharging.

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