Well the M2 is not the pro chip version, just the regular M2. The price of the M1 Pro 14” v the M2 13” is similar with both having 16GBram and 500gb ssd. Does this change your opinion at all?
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Binned M2 Pro vs. Unbinned M1 Pro
- Thread starter aveona
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If turning coin faster is always better, equally need to extrapolate the additional cost of the HW versus increased productivity. The M1's are well discounted if in CONUS which is a value factor.
We're in vastly differing fields so likely others can advise better. When on an engineering project I would tend to swap out the HW at the 24 month point as failure is too much of a problem to deal with.
Right now today I'd go with M2 as there will likely be numerous silent under the hood improvements and the machine would generate revenue, so the cost would not be an issue...
Q-6
No, you already have a 2021 13“ M1 Macbook Pro? M2 512 13" would barely be any better. Get a discounted M1 Pro 14" while you still can.
I do but it’s for my 9-5, so i don't do any photography work on it. I’m currently using a 2017 i7 MacBook pro. So any of this will be an upgrade. Just trying to leverage that amount of money the farthest. $1500 is the budget.
I do not recommend the 13" M2 MacBook Pro at all. It should not even exist. If you're contemplating this machine, buy a 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro instead. You'll be much happier. And they can be found at a discount, too.
Even the M2 MacBook Air is a better machine than the 13" M2 MBP (better screen, better webcam, MagSafe power, lighter/thinner; lack of fan isn't important unless you're running extended sustained high CPU/GPU loads).
If battery life is a factor the 14" is ruled out, 16" is too big for some. The 13" can stretch a good deal longer than the 14" off the wire. There's good reason why Apple retains the 13" MBP.
The 13" MBP can deal with sustained high loads, is relatively cheap and performs strongly in a compact form factor, all R&D is paid and it's popular with companies and the public.
Your problem is...
Q-6
I will give you longer battery life above the already excellent 14" model, and edge cases of continuous full CPU/GPU loads with less thermal throttling, despite the 14" M1 Pro being faster on multithreaded workloads and only minimally heavier; people who plan on maxing the chip for extended periods of time are not the target demographic for the (non-Pro) M2 chips.
The 13" fits a very small niche.
Works for me and that's all that matters. The 14" is an excellent notebook, however any portable lives and dies by it's battery runtime. If the 13" didn't sell well it would be gone as Apple is well Apple.
The 13" MBP may be on borrowed time, equally it remains to be a very competent, fast & highly portable notebook, hard to beat for the price point make no bones about it...
Q-6
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Honestly, for that use case, you didn't even need the Pro version of either. A standard M1 or a standard M2 with at least 16GB of RAM would be plenty of performance. Those use cases will, more than likely, primarily entail use of the efficiency cores. M1, M2, M2 Pro (and M2 Max for that matter) all have four efficiency cores. For the one or two times where you need the performance cores, then it makes a difference. But, the "bit of gaming" is probably the only area where it would even come into play and, even then, it depends highly on the game in question. Then again, I don't know how heavily you are using Lightroom (though I'd imagine that a standard M1 or M2 would be more than enough power).