Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

The M2 Max MacBook Pro looks awesome, but you probably shouldn’t buy it

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro are my favorite laptops of the past couple of years. These computers are the real deal, and have no real weakness — outside the high price, of course. But you absolutely get what you pay for.

Meet the new MacBook Pro and Mac mini | Apple

And don’t get me wrong. I’m excited about the announcement of the M2 Pro and Max MacBook Pros, which launched unexpectedly just yesterday. But these are not “new” laptops, hence the unceremonious nature of the surprise launch. That means all the changes are internal, and the list of new features is fairly small.

They take the M1 Pro and Max models and bring them up to the latest M2 speeds, which we first saw in the M2 MacBook Air last year. These are faster chips, no doubt, and Apple says there are some meaningful gains on the graphics front over last year’s model. Overall, Apple claims the M2 Max has 30% faster graphics than the M1 Max, which is a substantial gen-over-gen upgrade. The 38-core GPU, available as the top option in both the 14-inch and 16-inch models, is obviously where you see the biggest performance jump.

In actual applications, the company says the new MacBook Pros are up to 20% faster at rendering titles and animation in Motion, which is Apple’s own version of After Effects. Meanwhile, compiling in Xcode is 25% faster and image processing in Photoshop in 40% faster. These are all just claims, of course, and no one has been able to confirm them with review samples just yet.

A screen from an Apple video announcement showing M2 Pro performance.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

But even if those performance jumps prove to be legitimate, the truth is that most people just don’t need that extra bump in performance. I know — these are supposed to be professional machines, and if your job depends on it, you’ll take any amount of bump in faster rendering or compiling. But a lot of people buy these laptops as general purpose machines first and content creation tools second.

Because the M1 Pro represents the cheapest “discrete level” graphics you can get on a MacBook, it attracts a lot of people in that group, especially the cheaper 14-inch model. In other words, this group of people want something with some decent power, but probably won’t benefit much of a change between the M1 Pro and M2 Pro.

Everything else that’s new with these MacBook Pros is relatively small potatoes. There’s Wi-Fi 6E, HDMI 2.1, and slightly longer battery life — all good things, they’re just probably not going to represent a significant change in user experience.

All that is to say, if that’s going to be true for you, you’re better off saving some money and picking up the previous-gen MacBook Pro — whether that’s the M1 Pro or M1 Max. These are still highly capable machines, and as Apple highlights, they still have the incredible display, speakers, keyboard, and trackpad the machine is known for.

A woman using a MacBook Pro in a studio.
Apple

But here’s the catch: Apple hasn’t kept the previous-gen model around in the lineup. And if you look at retailers like Amazon, the M1 Pro and Max MacBook Pros aren’t getting a big discount just yet. I expect this to change, however, once the new models are available, which is just next week. So, I’d recommend waiting until next week to check out how far these prices fall. I’m hoping to see some major drops even in the base configurations.

As for now, though, Apple is offering a refurbished version of the 16-inch M1 Max model, dropping the price by over $600. It’s a high-end configuration, though, and it’s currently the only one available through Apple’s refurbished program. Again, we hope to see more significant price drops soon, but that’s all we have for now.

So, if you’re not someone who really needs the generational bump from the M1 to the M2, there’s little reason to get one of these new MacBook Pros. Instead, save some money and wait for a likely incoming price drop next week on the previous generation.

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Larsen
Senior Editor, Computing
Luke Larsen is the Senior editor of computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
Why the MacBook Air is still stuck on the M2
A stack of MacBooks is pictured from the top down.

Apple just did something surprising. At its "Scary Fast" launch event, Apple announced a new chip, the M3.

But rather than introduce it in a MacBook Air like it did with the M1 and M2, this event was all about the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air was inconspicuously missing.

Read more
I saw the new Space Black MacBook Pro, and it’s stunning
Two MacBooks Pro renders side by side against a black backround.

It's not often that MacBook Pros get new color options. But with this most recent update to M3 chips, the MacBook Pro will add Space Black, a color that first appeared on the iPhone, to the mix. I was shown an early preview of the new color ahead of the "Scary Fast" launch event, and I have to say: I'm smitten.

This new Space Black is not true black, of course. In truth, it's a slightly darker gray than Space Gray, which it replaces. And it's a good thing this isn't true black. Because remember, this is aluminum, and Apple isn't just slapping a coating or layer of paint on here like so many laptop manufacturers do when making true black aluminum laptops. These laptops, such as most gaming laptops or even something like the Surface Laptop, tend to scratch easily and fade over time.

Read more
The M3 Max makes the MacBook Pro look like a nearly unbeatable laptop
Someone using a MacBook Pro on a table in front of a scenic background.

Apple announced an update to its MacBook Pros at today's Scary Fast event that brings the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max under the hood. That might sound like a ho-hum generational chip refresh, especially coming just 10 months after the M2 Pro/Max models came out. But trust me -- these new MacBook Pros have become an unstoppable force, especially the new full-tilt model with the M3 Max.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro (which replaces the 13-inch MacBook Pro) will now have the option for the M3, M3 Pro, or M3 Max, while the 16-inch model gets the M3 Pro and an even more powerful M3 Max configuration. Across the board, these new M3 chips are built on the new 3nm technology, the same that's used in the new iPhone 15 models, only scaled up for the Mac. It's all about efficiency, with Apple claiming that the M3 chips provides the same performance at 30% less power.

Read more