The lack of design changes or ports doesn’t come as a surprise, seeing as last year’s MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models already delivered a major revamp. These models came with three Thunderbolt 4 slots, an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, so we’re now expecting the same for the upcoming 2023 models. The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are already expected to boost performance, keep the laptop cool, and bring enhanced power efficiency — if the MacBook Air M2 is anything to go by. However, hearing that the new models will be “worth the wait” teases its improvements over the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
Prepare for M2 Pro and M2 Max power
The rumor mill has already spilled the beans on what to expect from the next-gen MacBook Pro models. As Gurman previously reported, the next M2 Max chip is set to sport up to 12 CPU cores and 38 graphics cores — an impressive increase from the 10 CPU cores and 32 graphics cores in the current MacBook Pros. As for RAM, the chips seem to support up to 64GB of memory, and with no rumors or leaks around the onboard storage, it’s fair to assume that they will remain the same (from 512GB to 8TB SSDs). However, a new leak claims that the next MacBook Pro models will come with “very high-bandwidth, high-speed RAM,” according to MacRumors forum member Amethyst. Instead of the current LPDDR5 RAM in the current models, the M2 Pro MacBook Pro models could come with LPDDR5X RAM, which the report states could lead to “33% increased memory bandwidth with up to 20% less power consumption.” That will certainly boost performance. Many believed Apple would bring a 3-nanometer process with the new chips, which would greatly up the ante. However, oft-reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the next set of MacBook Pro models won’t come with a 3nm process, and it apparently won’t be ready until January 2023. So, expect the same, yet still very impressive, 5nm process. The updated MacBook Pro models are tipped to coincide with the launch of macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.3, which are expected to launch in the first quarter of 2023. There’s plenty to look forward to, but we won’t know if any of these rumors ring true until Apple finally decides to launch the new models. In the meantime, you’ll want to see why the Acer Swift 5 is better than the M2 MacBook Air.
