The whole tech side of the internet is going crazy over the leaks and rumors for next year’s MacBook
lineup, since the current lineup makes absolutely ZERO SENSE.. with a KILLER value MacBook Air
for $999, then a terrible $1300 MacBook Pro which many people agree shouldn’t even exist,
and then a massive $700 price gap going up to the new 14” MacBook Pro for $2000.
But to make things worse, Mark Gurman just came out with an extremely controversial
report claiming that Apple is not only adding another new M2 MacBook Air to the lineup,
but they’re upgrading the entry-level MacBook Pro again with the same M2 chip, basically making
it seem like the most confusing report ever, with many saying that Mark is flat out WRONG!
But don’t worry, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought
and I think I’ve finally figured it all out, so let’s get right into it!
First off, Mark Gurman’s report says that 5 brand new Macs are coming in 2022,
including a high-end iMac, an updated Mac Mini, and a new Mac Pro with Apple Silicon,
all of which we’ve already made full deep dive videos on, so definitely check them out!
But for this video, we’ve gotta discuss the 2022 MacBook lineup
because everything else seems to make sense, compared to the MacBook side
which seems like it’s about to get more extensive and confusing than ever before.
Mark Gurman says there is gonna be a new version of the entry-level MacBook Pro,
which is something that many people weren’t expecting because the current entry-level M1
model doesn’t really have a place in the lineup, and I agree. It doesn’t!
It’s $300 more expensive than the MacBook Air and it’s not much faster at all.
In fact, there are only a few benefits, like a touch bar which nobody likes,
a slightly brighter 500 nits display, slightly better microphones,
a faster 61W power adapter and cooling fans which don’t really improve performance that much.
So for the past few months, especially after the new M1 Pro MacBook Pros were released,
we’ve been literally telling people to just buy the M1 MacBook Air instead of the M1 MacBook Pro,
since you can get it on sale right now on Amazon for $900 and get it shipped before Christmas using
the link below, and then if you really want a MacBook Pro, we’ve been telling you guys
to go straight to the 14” for $2000, completely skipping the M1 MacBook Pro altogether.
So the big question is: Why is Mark Gurman saying that there is gonna be a refreshed MacBook Pro,
and how is it gonna fit into the 2022 MacBook lineup, especially alongside the
brand new redesigned M2 MacBook Air which everyone is so excited about?
So let’s go ahead and try to break it all down, and thankfully,
Mark Gurman has some older reports that help piece this puzzle together.
A few months back, Mark told us that the entry-level MacBook Pro is actually gonna be
getting the same new M2 chip that’s gonna be going into the MacBook Air, which makes total sense.
And then on top of that, Mark Gurman said that the new M2 MacBook Air would be sold
alongside the current M1 MacBook Air, so that means that it will NOT be replacing it.
So It’s simply gonna be a new, more expensive M2 MacBook Air,
while the M1 model will likely stick around at the same $999 price point for another year.
And this actually makes a lot of sense for Apple to do because it’s exactly what they did in 2018
when they revealed the new redesigned MacBook Air for $1199 and still kept
the old thick silver bezel model around for a full year at a $999 price point.
And then in 2019, Apple dropped the price of the newly designed 2019 MacBook Air by $100,
so it started at $1099, while discontinuing the $999 old model.
And then finally, in 2020, they released a new Intel-based MacBook Air at the $999 price point.
So over the course of two years, Apple essentially phased out the old $999 MacBook Air
and brought the newly designed model down to that same $999 pricepoint over the course of two years.
And I think that’s exactly what Apple is gonna be doing with the new M2 MacBook Air,
releasing it at a higher price while keeping the same old M1 MacBook Air at $999.
So the big question is.. How is Apple gonna price both the new M2 MacBook Air
and the Pro to make them make sense in terms of a decent lineup,
because it’s currently a bit confusing with the M1 MacBook Pro not really being worth it.
So what is Apple gonna change this time around to actually make the M2 MacBook Pro worth the
extra cash over the M2 Air? Because in my opinion, the Pro absolutely has to cost more than the Air,
contrary to the beliefs of some people who think Apple will release
a more expensive 15” MacBook Air, which is based on some old rumors.
But Mark Gurman has already said that Apple was thinking of creating a 15” Air,
but they completely scrapped those plans and they won’t do it.
And if you think about it, a new MacBook Pro has always been more expensive than a Macbook Air,
it just makes sense from a naming point of view.
So the main thing we’ve gotta answer is how much the new M2 MacBook Pro is gonna cost,
and why would somebody pay the extra cash for it over the Air?
Because recent reports are already showing the new Air to be a killer upgrade, with a full redesign
that looks absolutely beautiful, and Ming-Chi Kuo fully believes that it getting a new Mini-LED
display which is actually pretty surprising, putting more pressure on the M2 MacBook Pro.
Well, Apple could add in the same benefits that the current M1 MacBook Pro has over the M1 Air,
like battery life, cooling fans to stop thermal throttling, a slightly
brighter display, slightly better speakers and microphones, and a faster-charging adapter.
But in reality, those differences aren’t enough
because we’ve been telling everyone to avoid the current M1 MacBook Pro,
so the new lineup obviously needs more differences for it to make sense.
So let’s get into the changes that I personally think are enough to make
the future M2 MacBook Pro model actually worth it over the Air.
First off, I fully believe that the new model is gonna be getting a full redesign,
just like the M2 MacBook Air, because if it sticks to the current design,
absolutely no one would buy it over the Air. It simply makes no sense.
So with a new design, I think it totally makes sense for the new M2 MacBook Pro
to get the exact same design as the 14” M1 Pro MacBook Pro.
The only difference would be the lack of some of the ports, like for example,
maybe one less Thunderbolt port or maybe the removal of the HDMI port or something like that.
Yes, that obviously would suck, but it would push people to spend more cash
on the $2000 M1 Pro MacBook Pro, which Apple loves to do.
On top of that, I think this new entry-level M2 MacBook Pro would stick with that
beautiful 14” display with 120hz ProMotion technology, while the new M2 MacBook Air
would likely only have a 13” display without super-thin bezels and without 120hz ProMotion.
So that display difference alone
might be enough to make people spend the extra cash on the M2 MacBook Pro.
And then finally, we’ve gotta talk about that
M2 chip and the differences we’ll see between the Air and the Pro MacBooks.
Mark Gurman has already said that the M2 chip will essentially be the replacement to the M1,
with the same 8-core CPU with four high-performance cores and 4 efficiency cores,
but it’ll have a faster GPU with either 9 or 10 GPU cores instead of the M1 that goes up to 8,
with only 7 on the base model MacBook Air.
So I think Apple is gonna do exactly that, give the M2 Air a 9-core GPU,
while giving the M2 MacBook Pro the full 10 cores.
And if you didn’t already know, the current fanless MacBook Air actually does
throttle the performance of the M1 chip, so with the M2 chip having more GPU cores,
the MacBook Pro might actually have a noticeable jump in performance.
And on top of that, if the M2 MacBook Airs gets
off-white bezels like all of the rumors are pointing at,
some people would gladly pay the extra cash just to get black bezels that they prefer.
So with all of that said, there are actually gonna be some very good reasons to go for the
MacBook Pro over the Air, with the biggest one being the 14” display with ProMotion.
And just like that, it now finally makes sense for Apple to keep the entry-level MacBook Pro around
as a stepping stone going up to the $2000 M1 Pro MacBook Pro since the current $700
gap is way too large to make any sense at all.
So with that said, let’s get into my predictions for the
pricing of Apple’s entire 2022 MacBook lineup.
We of course have the M1 MacBook Air which I think is gonna stick to the same $999
starting price because it’s still a great deal and I think that’s Apple’s magical number.
And then, I think the brand-new redesigned M2 13” MacBook Air will be priced at either
$1199 like what they did in 2018, or potentially up to $1299 if they want
to raise their price points because of supply chain and inflationary issues.
And then, of course, you’ve got the M2 14” MacBook Pro, which I think will be priced at either $1399
and $1499, and yes, I know that’s $100 to $200 more expensive than the current
M1 model, but if you think about it, you’re gonna be able to get that awesome new design
with the 14” Mini-LED display with 120hz ProMotion
at 5 to $600 less than the $2000 M1 Pro MacBook Pro, which I bet a lot of people would pay for!
So this would essentially create a smaller gap between the lower-end M2 MacBook Pro
and the $2000 M1 Pro MacBook Pro,
just like in the past when the base model was $1300 and the high-end model was $1800.
And yes, I fully believe that Apple won’t upgrade
the 14 and 16” M1 Pro MacBook Pro models until 2023, so those will stay in the lineup next year.
But I do want to emphasize that Apple is gonna make it super tempting to just buy the $2000
model, because I fully expect the M2 MacBook Pro to start with only 256GB of slower storage,
not the crazy 5000 to 7000 MB/s SSDs that the M1 Pro models have, and it’s only gonna have 8GB of
slower RAM, not the insane 6200MHz LPDDR5X that the M1 Pro chip has.
So just by upgrading to a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM, you’ll essentially be only $100 to $200
off the price of the high-end M1 Pro MacBook Pro depending on what they price the M2 model at,
which is exactly what Apple did in the past with Intel Macs.
So if you look at everything from this perspective, which is based on what Apple
did in the past, this new 2022 MacBook lineup totally makes sense, and this time around,
it makes even more sense for Apple to have an entry-level MacBook Pro,
so there you go, those are my thoughts on the new 2022 MacBook lineup.
If you disagree with me, go ahead and comment your thoughts down below, but if you enjoyed it,
click that circle above to subscribe for more videos like this one and check out
one of those two videos right over there. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next one!