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Apple M2 is all anyone can talk about now that the Apple M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max chips have been released, even though Apple hasn’t even officially announced it yet.
Still, there’s definitely going to be a lot of anticipation around the next-gen Apple silicon, considering how successful its initial efforts have been. The latest MacBook Air (2020), 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020), 14-inch MacBook Pro (2021), and 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021) all feature Apple’s latest chips, as well as the Apple Mac Mini (2020) and its latest 24-inch iMac (2021). The M1 is even in the latest Apple iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 2021).
Nearly every one of these are best-in-class devices, so understandably, we’re excited for what the Apple M2 chip might bring to the table with these devices.
Will the higher-end Apple M2 chips feature more powerful GPUs to supercharge the best Mac games? That’s definitely on our radar, as the new MacBook Pro devices with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are highly capable gaming devices (even if they fall short of the very best gaming laptops with dedicated RTX 3080 Ti GPUs).
How will the Apple M2 stack up against Intel Alder Lake mobile processors this year, given that both are based on Arm’s big.LITTLE architecture? When might we see the new Apple M2-powered devices go on sale?
We’re going to dig into all of this and more as we wait for official word on the Apple M2.
[HEADING=1]Apple M2: cut to the chase[/HEADING]
[ul]
[li]What is it? Apple’s next generation of mainstream Mac and iPad processors[/li][li]How much will it cost? The chip won’t sell on its own, so it will depend on the price of the device it powers.[/li][li]When is it out? We’re expecting an announcement in Q2 2022, with a release shortly after that.[/li][/ul]
[IMG alt=“MacBook Pro 16-inch on wooden table in modern office”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kf...eLAbrqNcfV.jpg
(Image credit: Future)
[HEADING=1]Apple M2 release date[/HEADING]
There is no official word that the Apple M2 chip even exists, so there definitely isn’t an official release date. That said, we can look to the cadence of device releases and get a good sense of when we’ll see the Apple M2 debut.
It will almost certainly power the next-generation MacBook Air (2022), which we expect to see in the next few months. Whether we’ll also see an Apple M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro is another matter.
With the recent release of the MacBook Pro 14-inch with a much more powerful processor, the case for releasing a slightly smaller MacBook Pro this soon is pretty weak.
More likely, the 13-inch MacBook Pro will probably be discontinued in favor of a 14-inch MacBook Pro running the Apple M2 chip, something that might happen towards the end of 2022.
The M2 chip might also power a new Apple Mac Mini. Both the Mac Mini and MacBook Air will be two years old by the end of 2022, so a refresh can be expected as soon as the middle of the year.
Still, given the semiconductor shortages and other supply chain issues we’ve been dealing with, we shouldn’t expect that a traditional 18-to-24-month release schedule can be sustained in this environment.
Still, we’re hearing a lot about a bunch of new Mac and MacBook releases this year, so we’re definitely expecting big things on the M2 front in 2022.
[IMG alt=“Mac 2020”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/sD...uJahWoHAif.jpg
(Image credit: Apple)
[HEADING=1]Apple M2 price[/HEADING]
The Apple M2 won’t sell on its own – although can you imagine if that was Apple’s big play for 2022? That would be a trip.
No, the Apple M2 will only be sold as part of one of its products, so it’s those device price tags that we’ll be looking out for. And while the Apple M1-powered devices didn’t end up being any more expensive than their predecessors as a result of the upgraded hardware, it might be too much to hope that the same will be true for the Apple M2.
Prices from a lot of hardware manufacturers in the past year have steadily increased. Whether we want to chalk that up to companies getting a fast one over on consumers, or it’s because costs have actually gone up enough to drive up the prices on the finished products, things are just more expensive in 2022, and tech products especially so.
There’s something about $999 / £999 that just hits different for a consumer than $1,099 / £1,099, so its entirely possible that Apple will keep its entry-level M2-powered MacBook Air configuration at that price point.
Other configurations might be a bit more expensive to compensate, though, and the MacBook Pro devices are likely to see an across-the-board price increase. If you’re a professional user, Apple won’t have any qualms passing on that price increase to you.
[IMG alt=“Aerial 3.0 app on macOS”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Xy...eyRP3S5rLo.png
(Image credit: Future)
[HEADING=1]Apple M2 specs and performance[/HEADING]
While the number might be bigger, we’re not expecting the Apple M2 to outperform the most recent M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
Those two were specifically made for professional workstations (it’s called the MacBook Pro after all), and it looks for all intents and purposes that the MX designations will power consumer devices, while the MX Pro and MX Max chips will power the higher-end workstations.
This will likely only matter in terms of the graphics and neural processing components of the SoC, which a MacBook Air or an iPad Pro don’t need nearly as much grunt as a MacBook Pro used for video editing or 3D modeling work.
Still, we expect that the Apple M2 chip will have at least eight cores (4+4) with an even mix of performance and efficiency cores. It is possible that the M2 processor will have as many cores, though, but not one as powerful as last year’s M1 Pro and M1 Max.
The reason why we think there will be a bump up in the processor core counts is all about Intel Alder Lake. With the release of Intel’s latest mobile processors, Intel has a highly competitive product to go against Apple’s silicon in the consumer laptop market. Without Alder Lake, Apple could probably get away with the same number of cores, but make some changes around the edges and call it a day.
With Intel Alder Lake mobile chips featuring up to 12-cores / 20 threads, the Apple M2 will need to work a little harder to keep pace with Intel’s chips, as both companies move aggressively to shore up their laptop market share in 2022.
[ul]
[li]Check out the best MacBook and Macs of 2022[/li][/ul]
Continue reading…
Still, there’s definitely going to be a lot of anticipation around the next-gen Apple silicon, considering how successful its initial efforts have been. The latest MacBook Air (2020), 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020), 14-inch MacBook Pro (2021), and 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021) all feature Apple’s latest chips, as well as the Apple Mac Mini (2020) and its latest 24-inch iMac (2021). The M1 is even in the latest Apple iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 2021).
Nearly every one of these are best-in-class devices, so understandably, we’re excited for what the Apple M2 chip might bring to the table with these devices.
Will the higher-end Apple M2 chips feature more powerful GPUs to supercharge the best Mac games? That’s definitely on our radar, as the new MacBook Pro devices with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are highly capable gaming devices (even if they fall short of the very best gaming laptops with dedicated RTX 3080 Ti GPUs).
How will the Apple M2 stack up against Intel Alder Lake mobile processors this year, given that both are based on Arm’s big.LITTLE architecture? When might we see the new Apple M2-powered devices go on sale?
We’re going to dig into all of this and more as we wait for official word on the Apple M2.
[HEADING=1]Apple M2: cut to the chase[/HEADING]
[ul]
[li]What is it? Apple’s next generation of mainstream Mac and iPad processors[/li][li]How much will it cost? The chip won’t sell on its own, so it will depend on the price of the device it powers.[/li][li]When is it out? We’re expecting an announcement in Q2 2022, with a release shortly after that.[/li][/ul]
[IMG alt=“MacBook Pro 16-inch on wooden table in modern office”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kf...eLAbrqNcfV.jpg
(Image credit: Future)
[HEADING=1]Apple M2 release date[/HEADING]
There is no official word that the Apple M2 chip even exists, so there definitely isn’t an official release date. That said, we can look to the cadence of device releases and get a good sense of when we’ll see the Apple M2 debut.
It will almost certainly power the next-generation MacBook Air (2022), which we expect to see in the next few months. Whether we’ll also see an Apple M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro is another matter.
With the recent release of the MacBook Pro 14-inch with a much more powerful processor, the case for releasing a slightly smaller MacBook Pro this soon is pretty weak.
More likely, the 13-inch MacBook Pro will probably be discontinued in favor of a 14-inch MacBook Pro running the Apple M2 chip, something that might happen towards the end of 2022.
The M2 chip might also power a new Apple Mac Mini. Both the Mac Mini and MacBook Air will be two years old by the end of 2022, so a refresh can be expected as soon as the middle of the year.
Still, given the semiconductor shortages and other supply chain issues we’ve been dealing with, we shouldn’t expect that a traditional 18-to-24-month release schedule can be sustained in this environment.
Still, we’re hearing a lot about a bunch of new Mac and MacBook releases this year, so we’re definitely expecting big things on the M2 front in 2022.
[IMG alt=“Mac 2020”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/sD...uJahWoHAif.jpg
(Image credit: Apple)
[HEADING=1]Apple M2 price[/HEADING]
The Apple M2 won’t sell on its own – although can you imagine if that was Apple’s big play for 2022? That would be a trip.
No, the Apple M2 will only be sold as part of one of its products, so it’s those device price tags that we’ll be looking out for. And while the Apple M1-powered devices didn’t end up being any more expensive than their predecessors as a result of the upgraded hardware, it might be too much to hope that the same will be true for the Apple M2.
Prices from a lot of hardware manufacturers in the past year have steadily increased. Whether we want to chalk that up to companies getting a fast one over on consumers, or it’s because costs have actually gone up enough to drive up the prices on the finished products, things are just more expensive in 2022, and tech products especially so.
There’s something about $999 / £999 that just hits different for a consumer than $1,099 / £1,099, so its entirely possible that Apple will keep its entry-level M2-powered MacBook Air configuration at that price point.
Other configurations might be a bit more expensive to compensate, though, and the MacBook Pro devices are likely to see an across-the-board price increase. If you’re a professional user, Apple won’t have any qualms passing on that price increase to you.
[IMG alt=“Aerial 3.0 app on macOS”]https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Xy...eyRP3S5rLo.png
(Image credit: Future)
[HEADING=1]Apple M2 specs and performance[/HEADING]
While the number might be bigger, we’re not expecting the Apple M2 to outperform the most recent M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
Those two were specifically made for professional workstations (it’s called the MacBook Pro after all), and it looks for all intents and purposes that the MX designations will power consumer devices, while the MX Pro and MX Max chips will power the higher-end workstations.
This will likely only matter in terms of the graphics and neural processing components of the SoC, which a MacBook Air or an iPad Pro don’t need nearly as much grunt as a MacBook Pro used for video editing or 3D modeling work.
Still, we expect that the Apple M2 chip will have at least eight cores (4+4) with an even mix of performance and efficiency cores. It is possible that the M2 processor will have as many cores, though, but not one as powerful as last year’s M1 Pro and M1 Max.
The reason why we think there will be a bump up in the processor core counts is all about Intel Alder Lake. With the release of Intel’s latest mobile processors, Intel has a highly competitive product to go against Apple’s silicon in the consumer laptop market. Without Alder Lake, Apple could probably get away with the same number of cores, but make some changes around the edges and call it a day.
With Intel Alder Lake mobile chips featuring up to 12-cores / 20 threads, the Apple M2 will need to work a little harder to keep pace with Intel’s chips, as both companies move aggressively to shore up their laptop market share in 2022.
[ul]
[li]Check out the best MacBook and Macs of 2022[/li][/ul]
Continue reading…