The CHEAPEST M2 Pro MacBook Pro just got EVEN BETTER! 

I'm glad you're covering the base model 14", so many people are covering the unbinned or maxed out models, and I was always curious about the double binned base model, since I always get the base models haha

It would be nice if we get a video showing M2 PRO 10c vs 12c in terms of battery life, heat, performance, fan noise. Never seen a complete review for such tests.

Here is Australia, the base M2 Pro is $3,200 and you can get a base M1 Pro for $2,300. I think that makes the decision pretty easy for me

Stop defending them putting crappy SSD configs in these computers, this is a 2 thousand dollar laptop which already has worse CPU performance than the previous model, costs more in some places AND now has this problem. The M2 Air had dual NAND chips for its 512GB option so there is literally no reason for this, they’re cheaping out on a laptop that costs 2 GRAND. You should not be receiving THESE compromises on a computer that costs THAT much, it isn’t fair.

No one had done this comparison but it was very valuable, thank you Luke!

Very nice comparison and a great perspective into the 'slow' ssd in the m2 pro base model. One thing that could be really interesting, is the battery life, since 2 more efficiency cores are added into the base model m2 pro with exact the same 10 cores in total.

The problem with the slower SSD on the base model is that those super fast 5-6GB/s SSDs on the M1 Pro devices appeared to be a large part of the reason why it was basically impossible to make the 16GB RAM models choke or even notice any difference at all between the 16GB and 32GB models (due to the insane swap performance). I would say that it doesn't matter if not for that. I hope we get another video from Max Tech about the 16GB vs 32GB RAM stress test with these new models so that we can find out for sure if the slow SSD really makes a difference.

Hi! Thank you for your videos. Really love your work! About this comparison - it's pretty interesting to compare new gen one with the upgraded old gen that seem pretty similar, but the most popular models are base models. Specially since the custom models are harder to get outside the US, and it is specially hard in the countries without any official apple stores (any kind of official resellers doesn't count). So I really want to know is the new base model better than the old base one. Have old base one myself and just today a friend asked me what he should get and I wasn't sure what to pick (he only has access to the base models).

The fact that the SSD speeds are slower in the based model is disappointing, considering its a $2000 USD laptop, This shouldn't be happening. Very disappointing from Apple to cut corners here.

I think I’d really like the form factor of the 14. When the prices of these drop a bit I’d wholeheartedly sell or trade in that M1 Air I have.

I got the m1 pro around black friday for the same price as the m2 base model, but I honestly think that sticking with the older model is a fair trade off for double the storage

Some good updates also include WiFi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3, and HDMI 2.1. In regard to SSD R/W access speeds where access is slowed for the 512GB machine due to the use of a single NAND, applications like machine learning which may be accessing massive amounts of data off the SSD current to processing the data could be a better test of any single SSD shortcomings.

Hi it's a very detailed video.. Could you please suggest me if the base M2 Pro 14 Inch With 512/ 16, okay for editing 4k/ 60 Gopro footage about an hour long in FCP? My budget is limited so would only upgrade if utmost necessary. Thanks

Love the slider shots in your videos, everything is so buttery smooth

Luke thanks for the fantastic coverage. Quality content without the fancy video animations and transitions just facts and testings. Even though I might end up not buying the M2/M2 Max Macbook Pro’s that doesn’t mean I don’t like one. Upgrading every generation is not very cost efficient in the long run. Keep up the good work Luke.

Thanks for the comparison! This is exactly what I was looking for! I just got an M1 pro about a month ago and am still in the return window so I wanted to know if it would be worth sending my 10/16, 1tb M1 pro for a 10/16 500gb M2 pro since it would be the same price in my case. I think I’ll stick with the more perf. cores + more storage over the GPU bump.

Slower SSD will show its nature if you're pushing a lot of swap. And for someone like me who has parallels open 24/7 with "only" 16GB of ram, using 4-6GB of swap at all times, it IS important. The 1TB disk is pushing around 6.5GB/s. And it matters a whole lot.

nice travelling in the intro! Luke is putting some real effort in there!

I think it's an issue of apple not including multiple chips for the ssd's. It costs them what a couple of cents to add in an extra chip yet they decide to charge you $200 for it. It's not like this is blatantly disclosed anywhere either when spec'ing the laptops. It just seems pretty shitty to give people nearly 1/2 the read/write speed just because they decided not to buy extra storage.

In regard to ssd I'd love a nvme slot where you could add a super fast nvme of your choice in an expandle mac. Over the years I remember the incremental upgrades on the G4 towers, then the G5s, and then the dual cores. Nothing new alway, around 15 to 25% nothing too exciting. So the radial blur in photoshop take a few seconds less to completely hardly worth the outlay on a new computer.

Luke, this video is exactly what I was looking for. Congratulations for yet another job well done brother!

Thanks for your video, Excuse me, Is the SSD problem (slow speed) also in the 1 terra version compared to the 1 terra (M1 pro)?

I was thinking to buy one of these exact two models. This is the only video on YT that compared them. Thanks

Great comparison ! I was also wondering how the performance would be between the two. How is battery life difference ?

Really interesting video, keep the good work up.

Based on other tests I’ve seen, the SSD performance limit of the 512GB model is disappointing, but so far, I haven’t yet seen a test where it more than offsets the CPU/GPU/Encoder improvements. Worst case I’ve seen so far resulted in a tie. I suspect that tests copying a large amount of data (20+GB) might have the M1 Pro w 512GB beat the M2 Pro w 512GB. But moving up to 1TB should remedy that.

Likely two modules use more power than one, possibly a concern for laptops. Although I suspect the difference is pretty marginal. I am stil curious about the real world difference in power usage of a base model vs. one loaded with ram and storage. Production cost of adding a module is a thing too.

"The SSDs are a little bit slower" "About 40%"

This is really good how you explain things very helpful

I totally agree with your considerations, Luke. I found the NEW base M2 pro for €200 more than the refurbished m1 pro 8-core and the same price of 10-core (a bargain!). I was coming from an intel 2017, so I had to choose between m1 pro and m2 pro. I was initially influenced by the various negative reviews, then I realized that which made no sense to me. The slower SSD compared to the previous model is not a tragedy, both because it is still very fast and responsive, and because the faster speed of the previous model would ONLY be noticed if you transferring a very huge amounts of data to an external SSD (or from an external SSD) that is faster than the internal SSD... which NEVER happens! On the other hand, performances has definitely improved. I did a final cut export test using m1 pro 14" 10 core and m2 14" 10 core. One hour and 36 minutes of video, 4K prores: masks and various effects applied (filmconvert, luts...). Export completed about 40 minutes with m1 pro (very good result) and 26 minutes with m2 pro (amazing result)! Honestly, I don't know why this huge difference, but this was the result (maybe they improved the performance of the m2 chip even more with the updates?). For me nothing else is needed. The rest is just the bulls**t.

First time here. Nice comparison between the old and new model. I never own a MacBook Pro and am considering getting a secondhand M1 pro (base model, around $1350) or a brand new M2 pro (also base model, with educational discount around $1910). Which one do you recommend more? (I actually wanted the upcoming 3nm M3 pro but looks like its not coming any soon)

Really liking your videos (just discovered your channel). This just gives further evidence that the base model M2 Pro Mac mini is an amazing machine for the price. Since the lowest config of the Pro is using (2) 256 GB NAND Flash chips (SSD) it is accessing them in parallel . The M1 Pro was using (4) 128 GB chips, hence the faster read speed. The difference in the M1 and M2 base models was (1) 256 GB vs. (2) 128 GBs and the single chip was performing at half the speed where it actually might make a difference. My base model M1 Mini gets about 2200 GB/s which is plenty fast. Also there is a tradeoff between sequential R/Ws and random R/Ws where seek times may be actually slower with multiple paths. It all leads me to believe you don't need anything more than the base M2 Pro Mini for anything but really demanding tasks. 1300 bucks, amazing!

Thanks to this review, but I saw that all the reviews are about when you have a binder CPU that binds performance cores... I am not sure about that; I suppose that you bind the defect cores, but you have 8 performance and 4 efficiencies, so if you bind 4 like in your example could be 3 performance and 1 efficiency, or 2 performance and 2 efficiencies... or more variations, soo I think that the bind processors will have more differences on the performances with this M2

You should check parts compatibility between the two Macs just like you did last time.

I know the SSD of the baseline MBP is still fast in general but Just curious will the two 256 SSDs have better longevity in terms of TBW compared to the one 512?

Luke - thank you for onde again a great video. I really like your thourghness and attention to details. Thanks from Denmark, Europe.

About SSD issue ... its is a 2000$ pro level machine, not a entry level Macbook AIr. It literally costs Apple couple of extra cents to use dual chips. On a machine that costs that much, you should expect to have best of the best. Apple is just cheaping out. That makes the 14 M1 Pro even better choice.

Still 100% happy with my M1 (nothing) 13-inch MacBook Pro, purchased late in its cycle for nice discount with 1TB/16GB specs. I even like having Touch Bar, LOL. It’ll probably be M3 (or even M4) before I look at upgrading.

I'm wondering if the gpu scaling is fixed since the chips got extra cache.

Great job on comparison 💪

Im curious how Topaz labs AI image and video processing software runs on M2. Does min spec and max spec M2 even matter?

I‘m really struggling at the moment which new MacBook Pro I should buy (16“ and 1TB storage are a must): the Late 2019 i9 (refurbished ca 1,600 €), the M1 Pro Max Late 2021 (refurb 2,300 €), or the recent M2 Pro (3,200 €). The price difference is insane. The new M2 would be twice the price of a refurb i9 from Late 2019. I need it for screenwriting and my media library - so no 4K editing, gaming etc. I‘m really torn and as much as I like the new M2 its price tag seems over the top for my use case.

I think you did a awesome job on the review on the which one you get if you don’t have any of them

Of course onboard SSD performance is important. For Video especially with 8K coming up, why did Apple cheap out on SSD?

This is super helpful. I got the M2 Pro 14 inch the 10-Core CPU and 16-Core GPU with the 1TB and its plenty...not much of a difference to notice in speed going up to the next one and you are almost at $3,000 when you total it all up with taxes. I am getting into 4k film/video and its the perfect sweet spot. Plus saving the extra money can go towards something else for your camera gear. Overall, super helpful video!

If I hadn't already blown my computer budget on other Apple devices I would be sorely tempted to pick up that M2 Pro that you tested.

Did you test the speakers? Someone found that the speakers in the newer model are worse and I'm really curious about it. I really hope that doesn't affect de 16 inch model since I waited for it for music production and having a worse set of speakers would SUUUUUCK! 🤦💻

So for me as I have the Late 2020 Intel MacBook Air before the M1 Air came out, should consider going for the MBP Pro M1 with 16GB 1TB SSD or just go with the new MBP M2 Pro 16GB 1TB Since M2 chip is a bit better than last year?? I want to get my very first Pro model! Suggestions and tips would help a lot!

I got the base model with 1 TB HDD. Too bougie for a Air but not gonna go crazy with cores ram upgrades which puts this over 4k here in Canada

Nicee been looking for this comparison.. 1tb vs 512gb that’s something to look at too and both of them sell for the same price..

The reason for the slower SSD is the fact that it's a single NAND chip. Apple increased the capacity on the chips that it uses. I think they did it because higher capacity chips have bigger TBW (maximum supported writes/supported lifespan).When you have 2 chips instead of 1 , the SSD/NAND controller makes internal RAID 0 on them (this is where the speed comes from). M1 computers (mostly air and 13in) had big problem with excessive weir on the SSD due to swap. + considering that this is on board memory and you cant replace it , you get a very expensive e-waste when the SSD dies. This is something I don't get about Apple. I get that they want you to pay for their storage and don't upgrade it yourself but they already have a working solution. On the MAC studio they keep the NAND controller on the SOC but the NAND chips are on m.2 socket (REPLACEABLE but no upgradable). This is what I want for the laptops as well. When the SSD dies , I just want to buy a new ssd , not an entire computer !

Hey Guys, i just purchased the m1 with this excact Config. Its still in my return period, and I dont feel like i've gotten a real answer to if i should get the base m2 instead of the 10 core m1 with 1 TB Ssd. Im a college student, Who will never push this Thing to its limits, i do like to play some wow on it though. Any thoughts? The units would Cost me about the same!

What does double binned SOC mean? I don’t understand

Great comparison! Where I live now I can buy for the same price a 16” M1 Max 32gb 1tb or a 16” M2 Pro 16GB 1tb. What would be the one to pick?

This is just showing me that if I get a base level mac it'll probably be super useful for me as a working machine in real world applications.

What does double bin mean?

I'm planning to buy a efur=bished Appl;e M1 Macbook mPro 16 inch $2400 cad, 16gb and 512gb storage. But i'm looking at a used one through forsale sites for $1800 same specs with 113 battery cycles, no warranty, is it worth still getting Apple one, or save and get used?

guys will slower ssd make big difference to ram swap performance too much?

Macbook Pro price starts at $2k, and we should get premium speed regardless the storage size. Its just an excuse for Apple to force us to upgrade into higher specs. Luke, you just give them Apple a free-pass by saying that.

What about the classic m1 Air with 16/512 against one of the M2 Pro/Max models. Is THAT a worthwhile upgrade if you couple it with more RAM (24 or 32 GB)?

Great video. Regarding SSD issue, as i can see the SSD speeds of 256 GB 13 inch models were abysmally low and 512 GB 13 inch models were double that, so it was recommended that consumers should buy the 512 GB models. Here the SSD speed of 512 GB 14 inch model is actually higher than the 512 Gb 13 inch models (which everyone recommended), but since we are comparing it to crazy high speeds of 14 inch M1 Pro versions which likely used 4 chips of 128 GB each, this seems slower in comparison. So in my view, for most users who do basic productivity tasks, 512 GB storage with 16 GB memory on base 14 inch model won't be an issue at all. Am I right Luke?

The M1 Max is basically an M1 Pro with added GPU cores, memory bandwidth and encoders, that, if not needed or saturated, CPU for CPU core are identical. So the new M" beating the M1 Max is no surprise as it's the same as a M1 Pro on the CPU level. Also, Anandtech found extremely rare and very difficult to saturate the M1 Pro's full 200GB/s memory bandwidth, let alone exceed it. So for most pro applications, even under duress using all CPU/GPU cores on the Max, the 200GB/s BW of the Pro is still enough. The Max's 400GB/s (for the number of CPU/GPU cores Apple provided) is overkill for any M1 configuration (even the ULTRA as it's a dual SoC with double the mem/BW). Maybe the M2 series utilizes it more as they comes with more cores on the CPU and even more on the GPU, both slightly overclocked. One thing Apple made sure is to avoid bottlenecks on their designs. Good. Power and heat management are still the main issues to beat, regardless of silicon architecture.

“Unfortunate,” is an unfortunate word to use in describing the SSD in the M2 MacBooks. 40% is not “a little bit slower,” It”s APPLE cutting corners on a PRO machine here to save a couple $. If you get the base 16GB of unified memory and swap is being used, how is this going to effect performance?

The CPU issues may also be due to apple’s weird CPU load balancing. My work computer is an M1 max, which I use for MPI based scientific computing. Weirdly I get the best speeds using 6 threads instead of 8. My personal computer is an M1 mini, and that is even weirder, where if you run more than two threads it will periodically push them to the efficiency cores.

Can you benchmark the binned M2 Pro in Shadow of the Tombraider? Everyone is focusing on the non binned version

Thanks for your video! You are doing a good job on providing information for Apple fans.

are the numbers from testing with them plugged in or on battery?

Which conveniently has a slower SSD. but benchmarks will never show the effects of a slower page file. 16GB ram is only usable because virtual memory exists, and on M1, it was fast enough to be passable. This time, maybe not so much, especially on a higher level machine that needs lots of memory bandwidth.

The speed of the SSD is extremely important when the user are copying in and out to external storage devices

the trash SSD solution isn't just about it being slower. firstly yes you do notice it when ram is full and you're running off swap, and this can be done easily with my browser habits alone. bottom line is, there are scenarios where the whole system is bottlenecked by this undisclosed detail, hamstringing the user experience that these apple silicon chips would otherwise be capable of. but also, writing to 1 chip instead of 2 theoretically halves the longevity of the storage and since its not replaceable, that sets the end of life for your macbook. its just dishonest. normal consumers, even moderately computer literate ones, wouldn't know that this storage spec has such dramatic ramifications. you're selecting capacity but the difference in speed isn't mentioned anywhere. although they should have just done it right so as not to restrict the upper end of their apple silicon performance, it could be an opportunity to upsell the expensive storage upgrade. but instead, they're silently slipping you a bad engineering compromise that determines the limit of your experience with their whole product. sure its still fast and it'll still last ages, but its a massive compromise over an otherwise identically specced machine, its plain stingy and unnecessary and it isn't disclosed if it wasn't for reviewers and us making a fuss.

the big question is is it worth it to upgrade well for gamming it seems the M2 is the better choice but for the rest its not owrth it but that depends on a case to case kinda thing.. personaly iam watieing for M3 or M4

Thanks for covering the differences. A 3 GB/sec drive is very fast even if it is slower than the other unit. I might have missed your mention of it, but were the drive size the same on both units?

I just tested my base model M1 Pro MBP 14 inch 512GB SSD speed and am getting 5000 MB/s write and 4800 MB/s read. That's way faster than the M2 Pro you just tested. Would I notice the difference - probably not, but it's still disappointing. Particularly as where I live they put the price up.

Suggestion you might have already thought of. Since RU-vidrs do have substantial incomes how about offer the products to your followers once your done reviewing them. It would be a nice gesture to us. Thanks for this analysis of new MacBook Pro. So glad I didn’t get one last month! Still mailing my 2017 iMac! Going to try to modify it to use a display once I get my new MacBook. Looking forward to next few shows. Thanks again. Think about it🤔

Boa comparação ! Um Like do Brasil ! 👍

Any successor product that is slower than its predecessor is just a sore stick out point. Especially when the product is a "pro" line and from a company that sell premium products

Which ssds are faster ?

I bought a 13" M2 MBP in December of 2022 and if I had to do it again today, I would still buy the 13". It fits my needs and I love it.

Thank you. Everyone complains about the SSD speed numbers as they appear on paper but nobody in reality is actually noticing or complaining. They're all just FAST no matter which way you slice it.

This was the exact video I was looking for! Your videos are always on point

The cheapest m2 pro got a price increase of about 300 dollars here in Denmark, whilst remaining the same price in the US. The starting price for 14" m2 pro in Denmark is 18900DKK, which is about 2700 dollars :(

is it the same way with 16'inch models?

purchased the base m2 pro 14 yesterday, i was a little disappointed after after realizing it has a smaller heat spreader and a single module. but then again, the single module is still faster than my base m1 13" /w 2x128gb and 2.8gbs is plenty fast enough for a 512 drive.

The SSD speed decrease is disappointing on paper, not sure how it would feel in real world

Thank you for the comparison. Im torn now, not sure if I should exchange it.. I have a chance to exchange my 14”M1Pro (10c) with 1TB which I got for $2k (US dollars). I Do you think it’s worth to get the base m2pro with 512GB and sacrifice the 1TB?

Took me a while to realise that it was up again maxed out last year’s option

What about the battery life difference between these two machines?

Doubling the number of efficiency cores in the base model of the M2 pro was definitely the right way to go. It’s still plenty fast but more efficient than the M1 Pro. The base 14” MacBook Pro is an even more perfect laptop than it was last year.

Nice & Thanks :)

I’m confused by the older machine being on the right, and the new one on the left.

I like that " it is slowerrr, but not slow at all" - from m2 pro 14" base model😅

Any chance to do some battery life comparisons with the M1 Pro version? Feels like the perfect laptop for my wife when this eventually goes on sale.

Curious about the 2 more efficient cores giving you better battery life. One would think that would be a good reason to apple making that decision.

I still think a clearance, used or refurb M1 Pro would be a better purchase overall, you can save some money and still get excellent performance, and even better performance with the SSD. It’s hard to justify the M2 MacBooks when you can get discounted M1 versions.

Wasn’t the 2021 based model 8-core CPU 14-core GPU …or am I hallucinating

Here in the UK I purchased a M1 Max on refurb the base 32gb, 1Tb for about £150 less than the base M2, in your video presentation, what do you think ?

For the price you are paying, slowing the ssd drive is crazy to me. No Apple shouldn't get a pass for that.

The thing is here in the UK, prices went up by about £100. That means my 8C, 32GB/1Tb M1Pro with education discount retails at £2238 while the 10C, 16GB/512GB retails at around £2300+. An additional £100 for marginally noticeable speed improvements (which only applies to a very specific demographic) BUT half the storage size...

I have no problem with the base model ssd being slower, but it should be mentioned on apple website!

Hi guys, I'm planning to buy MBP with M2 Pro custom configuration. I'm sure, that I want 32GB unified memory and 2TB storage. Question is, that if 12/19/16 SoC is worth 370€ extra compared to binned 10/16/16 SoC. I need that mostly for coding(iOS, Android), sometimes video editing and 3D rendering and... What do you guys think? Thank you