Apple is readying a new M2-powered version of its 13-inch MacBook Pro model with, exterior design mostly unchanged from the company’s current M1-based notebook.
- Apple is reportedly readying an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro model
- The upcoming notebook should be powered by Apple’s new M2 chip
- A leaker advises against expecting major changes in terms of design
- Apple may unveil an updated notebook at its rumored event in March
Apple’s 13″ M2 MacBook Pro may have an unchanged design
You may be hard-pressed to notice any difference between the current 13-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M1 chip and an upcoming model expected to be powered by the company’s unreleased M2 chip. This is according to the same source that called for a notch containing a webcam on the redesigned MacBook Pro, which turned out to be true.
The above details were relayed by the original source of last year’s last-minute MacBook Pro notch rumor that MacRumors was first to report on. That left-field claim, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and so close to Apple’s fall “Unleashed” event, turned out to be completely accurate, and the new redesigned MacBook Pro models were unveiled the next week with the controversial camera housing centered at the top of the screen.
The leaker says an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with Apple M2 is launching sometime next month, which lines up with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman who expects an Apple event on March 8. On top of that, a recent supply chain report on DigiTimes predicted that Apple’s first M2-powered MacBook Pro models would be unveiled at a spring event.
Will the 13″ M2 MacBook Pro retain the Touch Bar feature?
Aside from Apple’s in-house designed M2 processor, a successor to the M1 chip powering the first Apple silicon Macs, Apple’s upcoming notebook refresh is expected to mark the removal of the useless Touch Bar feature which is already absent from 14 and 16-inch M1 MacBook Pros. A removal of the Touch Bar from the 13-inch MacBook Pro means Apple will no longer offer notebooks without a physical function key row.
So what else is noteworthy about this machine?
Based on the new information seen by MacRumors, the upcoming 13-inch MacBook Pro retains the same design as the current version, including the Touch Bar, but unlike the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, it will not have a notch or a ProMotion display, contrary to some rumors.
But the True Tone feature from the current M1 model will be retained.
If so, that means the headline difference in the new entry-level MacBook Pro model will be the new M2 chip, which features the same number of CPU cores as the ‌M1 processor‌, up to 10 graphics cores and improved performance.
DigiTimes basically said the same thing earlier:
Except for the processor, most other components used in the new MacBook Pro reportedly will feature almost the same specs as those for existing model featuring M1 chips, leading MacBook Pro supply chain partners to maintain production during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday to satisfy increasing demand for Mac series.
The current 13-inch MacBook Pro is offered in two configurations, one ($1,299) with 256GB of flash storage and the other ($1,499) offering double the storage. Both variants feature the M1 chip with an eight-core CPU, eight-core GPU and sixteen-core Neural engine for machine learning operations, plus eight gigabytes of unified memory, two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports and more.