We've got good news and bad news about the M2 MacBook Pro and M2 Mac mini

Apple's best laptops are coming really soon, but if you're outside the US the price is likely to be painful

Apple M2 processor
(Image credit: Apple)

If you're hankering after Apple's very biggest and most powerful laptops, hang on a few weeks: the M1 MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch are expected to be replaced by even more powerful M2 models in November, alongside the new M2 Mac mini. 

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the new macOS Ventura which arrives on Monday includes support for new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. If Apple follows previous patterns, we should expect to see those Macs next month.

These are going to be seriously powerful machines, but thanks to the very strong dollar if you're outside the US you should expect pretty serious prices too.

Should you buy the M2 MacBook Pro 14-inch or 16-inch?

There's no doubt that the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros are absolutely sensational laptops. But they're probably overkill for most of us: I'm writing this on an M1 MacBook Pro 13 and even when I use it for big Logic Pro X projects it's more than powerful enough for anything I throw at it. But I'm not the target buyer here: these are pro machines for pro users such as video editors, people for whom time means money. A lot of money.

As we said in our guide last year, the largest MacBook Pros aren't cheap. The M1 model was launched at £1,899 / $1,999, and if you really hit the customisation you can easily take that up to £5,399 / $5,899.

It's likely to be even more this year. We've already seen iPhones and iPads go up in price quite significantly here in the UK: for example the iPhone 14 Pro is £1,099, up from £949 the previous year, and the iPad Air has just had its price upped from £569 to £669. If Apple's putting the MacBook Pro prices up by 15% too, you're looking at a starting price of nearly £2,200. 

We'll find out for sure in the coming weeks. Apple isn't expected to hold any more product launch events this year, so we'd expect the Pros to launch via press releases and Apple Store updates rather than a flashy keynote. We will, of course, keep you up to date. 

Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series. When she’s not scribbling, she’s the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR (havrmusic.com).