Apple has launched two new laptops: the MacBook Air 2022 and the M2 MacBook Pro. While the MacBook Air M2 is pretty spectacular, it's the Pro I've got my eye on: it takes everything I like about my current M1 MacBook Pro and makes it better while also solving some of the things that annoy me.
It's not about speed, although Apple claims that the M2 is 1.4x faster than the Mac I already have. I've never found reason to fault the performance of my Mac, even in very demanding apps such as Logic Pro. It's everything else.
Why the M2 MacBook Pro is more compelling
The first big change is the memory. My MacBook was limited to a maximum of 16GB of unified memory. I'd have liked more – music production is pretty memory-hungry – and with the M2 I can have more, because it now supports up to 24GB. That's not a huge increase, but it's big enough for me.
The other big improvement here sounds a bit vain, but: the FaceTime camera is better in the M2. That might not sound like a key feature, but when you spend a lot of time in Zoom calls or doing livestreams the performance of the current FaceTime camera is desperately bad – like, fifty quid smartphone bad. I'm a bit fed up of rocking up to Teams meetings where everybody looks normal and I either look like I'm very ill or the villain in a Japanese horror movie.
I like that Apple's kept the Touch Bar too, which everybody other than me seems to hate. I rarely use it at home, where I've got a separate keyboard and don't use my Mac's one. But when I'm out and about I really like it, especially when it offers context-sensitive options to help me find things more quickly.
I'll be honest, though: as much as I like the new features I can't justify shelling out for a new Mac when my current MacBook Pro is so good. But if I were still on Intel I'd absolutely be upgrading to this: it's ridiculously fast and it makes you look less like a zombie. Maybe Apple should use that in their ads.
Don't want to wait for M2?
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