Here's a biopia. It's all things safe. So this is the 2022 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple's

new M2 silicon. I've been using this machine for the past week now, doing all my work on it, including editing this

video, and I have a lot of thoughts on this machine. So when this laptop was introduced at WWDC a couple of weeks ago, it

got a little bit of a lukewarm reaction because some people felt that this M2 MacBook Pro was caught in between two

better Apple laptops because at the same event Apple also introduced the M2 MacBook Air. The Air model got most of the

attention because it had a newer design and had new colors. It had thinner bezels and it had more ports. Now, all these

changes are not new. Apple actually introduced them last year when they introduced the 14-inch and 16-inch

MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max. I actually purchased a 16-inch M1 Max machine myself because this was

at the time Apple's most powerful portable computer. So now, if you look at it from the point of view of a consumer,

this M2 MacBook Pro is not as powerful as the M1 Max or the M1 Pro MacBooks

from last year because the M1 Max and M1 Pro still have more cores than the M2 chip. And also, this M2 MacBook Pro has an

older, more outdated design compared to the M2 MacBook Air, and it's also $100 more expensive than the M2 MacBook

Air. So a lot of people felt like this machine didn't need to exist. And to be honest, even if you look at the way Apple

handled it, it looks like this machine is an afterthought because, for some reason, even though the M2 MacBook Air got the

new design that we saw in the M1 Max MacBook, this M2 MacBook Pro did not get a new

design. This is the exact same body casing—recycled design—from the 2020 Intel MacBook Pro and also the 2018 Intel

MacBook Pro. So at first, I also felt the same way, like, why did this machine need to exist? But after using it and after

checking out all the prices, I come to realize there is a small group of people for whom this laptop makes sense. It's a

small group because, for most people, you're still probably better off buying the MacBook Air. But there is a

spot for this MacBook Pro. So, as I said, this M2 chip is not as powerful as the

M1 Max or the M1 Pro MacBooks from last year, but those MacBooks start at a minimum

two thousand dollars. If you add anything like more RAM, more storage, it's going to easily bump up to two thousand five

hundred dollars. My 16-inch machine actually cost me almost four thousand US dollars. This thing starts at 1299, so really, no more

expensive than a flagship smartphone in 2022. So let's go over the hardware really quick. There's really not much to

go over in terms of other hardware because this is the exact same body as the 2020 MacBook Pro.

So that means you have probably seen this machine out and about. So you have a 13.3-inch LCD panel, 2560 by 1600

resolution, maximum brightness of 500 nits. The device weighs three pounds, so I wouldn't say it's ultra-portable, but

definitely something you can fit into your bag and carry around all day and not find it too heavy. There's a 58-watt-hour

battery inside that can last about 11 hours of basic productivity use, meaning streaming Spotify and surfing the web

and maybe typing words into WordPress. If you're doing video editing, then the battery life will drop a little bit, but

I'll go into that later. Now, the ports, unfortunately, are a little disappointing. You only have two USB-C Thunderbolt ports here and a headphone jack on the right. You charge the machine using the USB-C port, and the

charging brick included is a 67-watt charging brick. Now, this is unfortunate because with last year's 14 and 16-inch

MacBook Pros, Apple introduced MacBooks with more ports. This is my 16-inch MacBook Pro from last year; it has three

USB-C ports, one headphone jack, MagSafe charging port, and HDMI port, and also my favorite, the SD card slot. I am a YouTuber, so

I'm constantly recording video and I have to move video files over with my memory card. And with this machine, I just

plug the memory card into the slot and move files over immediately. If I want to do that here, I have to use a freaking

dongle. Now, some people will also complain that the bezels on this display are a little bit thick compared

to the M2 MacBook Air and the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros, but I'm okay with it

because those MacBook screens have a notch. This one, at least, you're getting a uniform display. Now, one of the strong

points of MacBook Pros has always been their excellent speakers, and this 13-inch model, even though the speakers

aren't as good as the 16-inch, it is still really good. Check—let's check it out. So we've got 50

volume, max volume [Applause]. And yes, one more old bit that returned after being eliminated in the 14 and 16

inch MacBook Pro last year is this Touch Bar, which allows me to control brightness, volume, all that. Now, a lot of people, for

some reason, were not fans of the Touch Bar. They were really happy when Apple got rid of it last year, but I'm okay

With it, I actually like that I can scrub through videos like this by sliding on the Touch Bar, and also I can switch

between tabs of a website by just tapping on it. And you can even see a mini preview of the website on the Touch

Bar, which I think is pretty cool. So yeah, there's not much more to talk about in terms of hardware, at least from the

outside, because this is a tried and true—yeah, a little bit boring—design. Not even compared to like the 16-inch MacBook Pro,

but even compared to like my Huawei MateBook X Pro. Look at how much thinner the bezels are of this laptop compared to

the 13-inch MacBook Pro. But again, this is not a machine you buy for looks; this is a machine you buy for performance and

an amazing chip. It's a really good upper mid-tier chip for most people. Like, obviously, if you are a heavy-duty

content creator, you're going to want the M1 Max or even the M1 Ultra, but for most

people—like 98 percent of people out there—the M2 is more than powerful enough. So if you follow the computing industry at all, you

already know that the M1 chip was a smashing success when it launched in late 2020.

A lot of people didn't think Apple's own chip—which is a small, mobile chip—could power a whole laptop better than Intel

processors, but the M1 somehow did it. You know, in terms of peak performance, you can argue an Intel processor is

still more powerful than an M1 chip, but the M1 chip was so much more efficient. Battery life is significantly better, and

also, when you're rendering videos, the machines stay completely cool, while an Intel MacBook would get really hot and

the fan would need to boot up. Now, to show you how efficient the M2 chip is, I did

An 8K video rendering test on Final Cut Pro. Now, Final Cut Pro is optimized for Apple silicon, so it's really going to

show you how powerful the M2 chip is. So this machine is an M2 with 16 gigs of RAM

and it rendered a four-minute-long 8K video in Final Cut Pro in just three minutes and 52 seconds. I did the same

rendering test with my girlfriend's 2020 Intel Core i7 MacBook Pro with 32 gigs

of RAM—so double the RAM—and it took 16 minutes and 24 seconds to render the same clip. I know it's not quite fair

because this 2020 Intel Mac is running on a two-year-old Intel processor, but trust me, even when I move over to

video editing tests later using newer-generation Intel processors, it's still going to fall behind the M2. Now I tried

the same test on Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro is not optimized for Apple silicon, so it takes much longer to

render clips, but even then the MacBook Pro is able to render a four-minute-long 8K clip in 33 minutes and 17

seconds. The Intel MacBook Pro took 50 minutes. And then I did the same test on the Huawei MateBook X Pro running an 11th

generation Intel Core i7, and it took 55 minutes. So even running software that's not optimized for Apple silicon, this

still finished like 20–30 minutes faster than Intel processors, even a relatively new one in my Huawei MateBook X Pro. Now,

I personally don't care about benchmarks that much; I care more about real-world tests like video exporting, but here are

some benchmark numbers for you anyway. So as you can see, the M2 chip is about 20 to 30 percent more powerful than the M1

chip, but still less powerful than the M1 Pro chip. Now, I personally don't have a Windows laptop right now with a 12th

generation Intel Core processor, but rest assured, I asked my colleagues to do the same test and, yeah, if you're talking

about like a new 12th generation Intel Core i7 that's a little bit specced out,

it will score higher points than the M2 in benchmarks, but where the M2 wins is in efficiency.

So all the benchmark numbers you just saw, I basically ran them two times: the first time it was plugged in, the second

time it was unplugged, and the M2 pumped out almost the exact same numbers whether the machine was plugged into

power or running on battery. You can't say that with Intel or AMD's Ryzen machines. With all those laptops running

AMD's Ryzen 5000 or Intel Core i7/i9, if you unplug, performance dips by anywhere from 10 to

20 percent. The M2 is efficient in that it basically keeps the same performance whether it's plugged in or not, so that

means the M2 MacBook Pro is a really good video editing machine for maybe entry-level to mid-level content

creators. Obviously, if you're a top-tier content creator like MKBHD and you're constantly editing and rendering 8K

video that lasts like 20 minutes, you're going to want the M1 Max or the M1 Ultra

machines, but this is more than good enough for like 95 percent of YouTubers

out there. Even me—I use the M1 Max because, you know, I like to splurge and buy the most powerful

thing, but to be honest, if I don't use the M1 Max anymore and I just use this, this

can make—dude, this can totally do all my work for me, including making YouTube videos and writing articles for XDA.

So, one of the weaknesses of this M2 MacBook Pro is that it can only output to one external display. It's not a big deal

to me because I have an awesome external monitor—this is the Huawei MateView—that gives me enough screen real estate.

But I do know some people who like to use two different monitors, and the M2 MacBook Pro is quite disappointing

because it cannot use a second monitor. So that's one of the shortcomings. The M1 Pro and M1 Max

MacBooks can output to two or more monitors. Another weakness of the M2 MacBook Pro is the existence of the M2

MacBook Air. Like I already said, the M2 MacBook Pro runs on the exact same chip as this machine. The only difference is this

machine has a fan, but even during my 8K video rendering test, the fan didn't really kick in. So, unless I step up my

workload even more, I'm pretty sure the M2 MacBook Air will give me the exact same performance as the M2 MacBook Pro.

Even editing 4K videos, I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same. So the use cases, the benefits of having the Pro over the Air,

it's very, very minimal. So ultimately, it does feel like this machine has a small niche because the M2 MacBook

M2 MacBook Pro Review, w/ Final Cut and Adobe Premiere Pro 8K Export Test

M2 MacBook Pro Review, w/ Final Cut and Adobe Premiere Pro 8K Export Test