Hey friends, Andrew here – hope you're well! Historically Apple tends to launch new Mac models around the end of
the year almost every single year since 2008 but thanks to chip shortages and supply chain
issues the brand new Macbook Pro M2 lineup has finally launched at the start of the year and I
decided to buy one although we're not getting the transformative changes we saw in 2021 I
wouldn't be so quick to rule out this upgrade and it's not just the chips that have changed
there's more to the M2 Pro and Apple has done some useful tinkering this year after spending
over a week with it since launch let's go over what's new if the spec bombs are worth the price
tag how it Stacks up to my other MacBooks I use on a daily basis and my overall honest
opinion of whether this new Macbook is worth it and who should upgrade so I decided to buy
the M2 Max variant in the 14 inch size for a few reasons here for starters I've said this plenty
in previous reviews and I'll say it again in my opinion the 14 inch size is the Goldilocks Sweet
Spot between screen usability and on-the-go portability for most users if you work at a
desk and do any sort of travel or remote work the 14 inch size is such a pleasure to work with so
18-inch laptops are a little too small for any serious work while the 15 inch is slightly
inconvenient to regularly travel with let alone the 16 inch or larger by the way I'll drop a link
to this new wallpaper bundle in the link below if you're interested I opted for the M2 Max chip
because I'll be using this machine to power my entire creative workflow and for me personally
this configuration has the benefit of being a one device fits all approach in that I use it
both docked at a desk and portably so I don't need a separate desktop machine a Mac Pro or a
Mac Mini for example there is no denying though that the price is absolutely eye-watering with
this configuration setting me back 3099 US Dollars without any additional upgrades or add-ons most
people are going to need a good reason to justify this sort of purchase before I jump
into the chip performance there's a few other new additions to this year's MacBook Pro lineup
they're minor but worthwhile improvements that should be pointed out arguably the most important
change outside of the M2 chips is the updated HDMI 2.1 Port which now supports one 8K monitor
up to 60 hertz refresh rate or a 4k monitor up to a super fast 240 hertz refresh rate previously on
the 2021 MacBook Pro Models I noticed some viewers weren't too impressed with the HDMI 2.0 Port which
supported a single 4K display with a refresh rate of up to 60 hertz so the inclusion of HDMI 2.1 is
welcome and genuinely useful I mean it beats out my new Cal digit ts4 dock which is capable of up
to 144 Hertz on 4K resolution so this HDMI 2.1 upgrade is generally useful to power users who
need the best of the best and I believe vrr variable refresh rate is Now supported as
part of the HDMI port upgrade but I'll report back on this in my long term review we also
get the inclusion of Wi-Fi 6E which enables faster speeds if you have the infrastructure
to support it and in addition Bluetooth 5.3 which basically adds stability security and efficiency
to your Bluetooth connection nice to have but no noticeable difference day to day it's also worth
highlighting that the 16 inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips have an improved battery
life of up to 22 hours of media playback which is the longest battery life yet the 14 inch here gets
18 hours of battery life and the 13 inch actually gets a further 20 hours on a cosmetic level this
year we get the inclusion of a color matched magsafe cable similar to what we've seen with
the new Macbook airs so if you get the space gray color like I have here you'll now get a space Gray
magsafe cable to match it's a nice small touch and space gray Still Remains the best color convince
me otherwise moving on to the most important and biggest change here which is the M2 Pro
and Max processors the M2 Max has a transistor count of 67 billion whereas the M2 pro has 40
billion mind-boggling numbers and most of the extra transistors are dedicated to increased
graphics performance but here's what I noticed from immediate Impressions after setting up my
new Macbook Pro M2 it's obviously really fast but there's no noticeable improvement over my
M1 Pro when it comes to opening apps website tabs and general day-to-day use both the M1 Pro and M2
air have an adequate amount of punch to handle daily tasks no problem at all the increase in
Ram though is a game changer so in the M2 Apple addressed one of the biggest failings of the M1
processor limited Ram capacity of 16GB gigabytes which saw Ram hogging apps like you know Google
Chrome and Spotify noticeably sluggish at times the reason for this is because apps like Chrome
and Spotify run a framework called electron a popular cross-platform system that is appealing
to Developers for its versatility and ease of use I often find myself having to pay attention
to how many apps I have running at any given time in closing unused apps which is probably a good
habit to get into anyway so Apple has increased Ram capacity to 32 gigabytes and also increased
memory bandwidth to 200 gigabytes per second meaning the fast processor now has an equally
fast way of talking to the other components making the new M2 Pro and Max chips more efficient it
seems to have helped relieve pressure on the system over the last couple weeks if I have
more than six apps and loads of chrome tabs open which is very often the case it's pretty smooth
smoother than usual of course you could also just use non-electron apps such as Safari instead of
chrome and apple music instead of Spotify as these apps unsurprisingly perform more efficiently on
Macs and even a more noticeable Improvement on this MacBook Pro M2 Max machine is seen when I use
more demanding apps in my workflow which include Final Cut Pro figma Lightroom and Photoshop I've
yet to see a single hiccup even when I'm working on a video projects that fill up my entire four
terabyte SSD or working on large 100 megabyte Plus photos on Lightroom or photoshop things that would
usually make my M2 Air Stutter or even sometimes my M1 Pro and it's these exact moments that make
the investment worthwhile for power users it saved to me seconds if not minutes every day potentially
dealing with a sluggish machine and for anyone that requires this type of power such as you
know developers using xcode video editors using the Vinci resolve or a 3D animator using blender
you're the target segment the M2 Max is designed for and to maintain top tier performance clean my
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moving on here is how the Apple M2 Max stacked up against my M2 air and M1 Pro in geekbench 5. the
M2 Max chip scored 1965 single core and pumped out a very impressive 14 929 multi-core the GPU
test scored 63 811 which is awfully close to the M1 ultra's GPU performance meanwhile the M2 air
scored 7651 multi-core CPU and 23 011 for the GPU and the M1 Pro scored 12 151 for the CPU and 37
863 for the GPU so unsurprisingly the M2 Mac leads the pack by far for top end performance especially
when it comes to multi-core usage it just holds so much more power arguably too much power to know
what to do with both the M1 Pro and M2 air still hold their ground though and support the fact that
these laptops are still Stellar buys and unless you're planning to push your laptop to its Brink
the M1 Pro m2r are just devices with enough juice for most people when it comes to its design you
can see here that it's exactly identical to the 14-inch 2021 MacBook Pro that's fine by me it's a
design that currently works and was only recently updated we still have the gorgeous mini LED
display with the controversial Notch which houses the 1080p camera a beautiful black inset keyboard
that is still a joy to type on and of course features the useful Touch ID button built in then
the Epic speakers are still epic its six speaker sound system which includes four Force canceling
woofers and two tweeters is powerful enough to fill a medium-sized room with quality sound so all
the Hallmarks of what made the redesigned M1 Pro are still here and that's a that's a good thing
but truth be told the new upper range MacBook Pros are simply too expensive and too powerful for the
everyday user to get their money's worth out of yes it is one of if not the most powerful laptops
on the market right now but unless you've got you know a good reason to take advantage of it then
you're simply left with bragging rights only so I think naturally there are better alternatives to
the M2 Pro and Max for most people a refurbished MacBook M1 Max from Apple's certified refurbished
store can be bought for a fraction of the price of a new M2 Max at 2 379 right here so even if you
are a power user an M1 Max represents great value for money because there's not much more the M1
Max can't handle at this moment in time if you're more of a casual user using your laptop for only
you know documents web browsing light editing or coding then the MacBook M2 error is still one of
my favorite laptops at a little over one thousand dollars only I still love reaching for it whenever
I have the luxury of an easier workday that doesn't include intensive apps the bottom line
is and what I can say for sure is whatever you throw at the MacBook Pro M2 Max it will slice
through with the ease if you want the best of the best portable power in the Apple ecosystem this is
it the only thing that's more powerful currently using Apple silicon is the Mac studio desk setups
with the M1 Ultra chip which is basically two M1 Max chips in one and there's likely going to be
a new dual M2 Max chip in the Mac Studio this year which I'll likely buy and review too make
sure you subscribe to be the first one to see my review on it and yeah overall this Pro M2 Max it's
a very nice top tier performance bump but Apple will need to make bigger moves in the future to
stay ahead of the competition because Intel and AMD will catch up unless Apple surprises us with
a revolutionary M3 chip and I'm looking forward to what Apple does next but whether you genuinely
need all this power is a question for you and if you're on the fence then I'll leave my review of
the already incredibly powerful MacBook Pro M1 Pro right here for you to check out and if you
made it to the end of this video Drop the code word comment MacBook maximum and I'll give it
a like don't forget to like if you enjoy this video and sub if you want to see more Tech and
lifestyle content from me as always thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video