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Initial Thoughts on the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro

Photo of the box of the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro


Last week Apple announced the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, with these being available in the new 14-inch and 16-inch M2 MacBook Pros. The M2 MacBook Pros, as well as the M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini, were all available to order on that day with delivery starting on January 24th, 2023.

Once I read the announcement, I ordered a 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro with an M2 Max with a 12-Core CPU and 30-Core GPU. I got 32GB of Unified Memory and 2TB of storage. This machine is replacing an early 2015 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage.

I thought I would provide my initial thoughts at just about a day of ownership and using the machine.


Setup

When I did the initial setup of the MacBook Pro there was one step that I had not previously seen, and that was the “Install Latest Update” screen. Given that I do not replace my devices that often, I am not surprised by the fact that I have not seen this screen before. I did install the latest update during setup, so this did add some additional setup time, but it would have gotten done either way.


Screen

In 2021 Apple announced the 14-inch and 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro. One of the new features of these devices is a notch, similar to the iPhones. In order to accommodate this, the menu bar is a bit taller. And much like the iPhone, after the initial difference I have not really noticed the notch that much.

One of the other features of the screen is something that was introduced with the iPad Pro in 2018, and is on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 Pro phones. That feature is ProMotion. ProMotion allows the screen to have a refresh rate up to 120Hz. This usually provides smooth scrolling and I have definitely noticed how smooth scrolling is.


Speed

As you might expect, the M2 MacBook Pro is super fast when compared to my previous MacBook Pro. Part of this is, of course, because the computer is brand new, but a vast majority of this speed increase is due to the giant leap from my previous laptop. I mean, there is almost an eight year difference between the machines.


Touch ID

It is convenient having Touch ID right on the laptop. This is not the first laptop that I have used with Touch ID, my work MacBook Pro has Touch ID as well. I also have a Magic Keyboard connected to my Mac Studio, and I use Touch ID on that machine all the time. It is convenient having Touch ID on my laptop. Previously I would have to authorize something with my Apple Watch or enter in my account password.


Closing Thoughts (For Now)

Overall, so far so good with this 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro. Having a new machine is always a nice experience, particularly when you are making such a technological leap. I will do a full review, but I want to give it some time for me to put it through its full paces before I post that. The full review will include a lot more information about the machine and how it performs.

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