8 Pros and Cons of Apple MacBook Pro M2 Max (14 and 16 inches)

Apple’s laptop portfolio underwent an update after two laptops appeared in January 2023. The two laptops are the Apple MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16. Both laptops are a continuation of the MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 2021 editions.

The MacBook Pro 14 and 16 are essentially twin laptops. Only the dimensions of the body, screen size and battery differentiate the two. Both the MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 come with chipset Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max. What Carisignal will discuss in this article is the variant with chipset M2 Max.

It is said that the M2 Max is much more powerful and efficient than the M1 Max used by the MacBook Pro released in 2021. Understandably, the number core The CPU has increased, from the previous 10 to 12. The GPU too, originally 30 core to be 38 core (on the highest models).

So what else are the advantages of these two MacBook Pro generations for 2023? You can check it in the table below.

What is listed in the table at least gives you an idea of ​​the quality of the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 2023. However, if you want a clearer explanation, please continue reading this article to the end.

Apple MacBook Pro M2 Max 14-inch specifications

Apple MacBook Pro M2 Max 16 inch specifications

Advantages of Apple MacBook Pro M2 Max

Apple laptops do have relatively high prices. However, the price can not lie. The following series of advantages possessed by the two MacBook Pro M2 Max are the reasons behind their high prices.

1. Minimalist Design with Cool Build Quality

Apple rarely talks about the design excellence of its products. Even so, many people admit that one of the advantages of Apple products is design. Likewise with the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 2023 with chipset This M2Max.

In appearance, these two laptops don’t look any different than the 2021 model. They look minimalist, typical of laptops unibody, able to exude an impression of elegance. Touch Bar, which some don’t really like revieweralso disappeared.

Notch screen with thin bezels, layout keyboard whose color contrasts with the body, touchpad with a large area, and the power button which is integrated with the fingerprint sensor, are some of the other things that you can find from these two laptops.

A special feature of Apple products that is present again on these two MacBook Pro M2 Max is build quality is cool. Gasoline from XDA-Developers that said, every part of this laptop feels solid. Evidence that the body construction of the two laptops is indeed good.

There’s no such thing as a slump when pressed, or a pod when tapped. Another interesting thing about the MacBook Pro Max 14 and 16 is that the screen can be opened with just one finger. You don’t need to hold the lower body when you want to open the screen.

Unfortunately, the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 M2 Max are only available in two color variants. Consumers can choose between Silver and Gray.

2. Comfortable Keyboard and Touchpad

As mentioned in the previous point, the two MacBook Pros no longer use the Touch Bar. This makes the “Function” button the same size as the other buttons inside layout keyboard. A good news, right?

For those of you who want to buy a MacBook Pro 14 and 16 2023, you don’t need to worry about the durability of the keyboard. Because Apple has replaced switch button to the conventional model, not the switch model butterfly seems quite problematic.

To be known, keyboard with switch “butterflies” appear on Apple laptops released from 2015 to 2019. The keyboards on the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 2023 are comfortable to use for typing.

Key travelits not too deep, so you can feel the typing experience effortless. According to Brian Westover from pc mag. Westover also spoke, keyboard this membrane also has feedback which is good. Every click feels solid.

Apple also designed so keyboard these two laptops produced minimal typos and incidents of wrong pressing. One of them is reducing the button’s ability to respond to half-presses. What this means is, when the button is not fully pressed, the response will not appear.

Andrew E. Freedman of Tom’s Hardware also tested his typing skills with a MacBook Pro 16. Freedman did the test on the Monkeytype site. The result is, he is able to achieve 120 words per minute with only 2% error.

Not only keyboardits comfortable, touchpadhis too. Touchpador trackpad in Apple’s terms, in both laptops have a wide size. Trackpad it already supports Force Touch technology to distinguish touches based on pressure levels, and creates haptic feedback (vibration).

Through trackpad, users can enter commands with certain clicks, swipes, or gestures. For Westover, trackpad The MacBook Pro 2023 is one touchpad best in the world for its responsiveness and precision.

3. Sharp and Bright Screen

The 2023 MacBook Pro 14 and 16 use Liquid Retina XDR displays. The screen is basically an IPS with a mini LED backlit. Apple crams various technologies that make the screens of both laptops suitable for activities content creationmultimedia, to gaming.

Starting from refresh rate adaptive 120 Hz (ProMotion), 1 million:1 contrast ratio, and DCI-P3-compliant color coverage. Apple claims that the screens of the two laptops can reach 1600 nits when used to watch HDR content.

When used indoors, the typical brightness is 500 nits. Meanwhile, if used outdoors the screen can reach a brightness level of 1000 nits. Feature True Tone to change the color temperature automatically on this laptop screen.

Diagonally, the MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 screens are different. So is the resolution. The MacBook Pro 14 has a 14.2-inch screen with a resolution of 3024 x 1964 pixels, while the MacBook Pro 16 has a 16.2-inch screen with a resolution of 3456 x 2234 pixels.

However, the sharpness of the screen is certain to be similar because the pixel density is both at 254 ppi. Regarding display quality, none of the testers complained. They flatter the display quality of these two MacBook Pro laptops.

In tests conducted by Andrew E. Freedman and the Tom’s Hardware team, the MacBook Pro 16 M2 Max screen was able to penetrate 118% sRGB and 83.7% DCI-P3. The color range is slightly behind from a number of laptops that already use OLED panels.

For example, the Dell XPS 15 achieved 123% sRGB and 86.9% DCI-P3. However, a laptop with a 100% sRGB screen is sufficient for video editing and graphic design purposes. So, the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 M2 Max screens meet these requirements.

4. Webcam and Steady Sound Output

Since the Covid 19 pandemic hit, many meetings have had to be held in person online. This habit apparently continued after the pandemic. Laptops with webcam, speakerand a capable microphone is just what is needed to support meetings online.

For this matter, the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 M2 Max webcams have been used webcam 1080p. The video quality of both laptop cameras has reached 1080p. The quality is certainly better than the MacBook Pro 13 M2 2022 webcamits only 720p.

The camera capture is claimed to be minimal noise because it has been processed by neural engine. However, if you are not satisfied, Apple provides a feature whose name is Continuity Camera.

This feature included in macOS Ventura allows the MacBook Pro to take advantage of the iPhone camera. You can take advantage of this feature with the help of wired or wireless. You can judge the difference in the camera quality of the MacBook Pro and the iPhone in the following sample photos.

Apple also installed three microphones, which he said were studio-grade, and six speaker with Dolby Atmos technology. The sound output of this laptop speaker is loud. Suitable when used to watch videos and music, said Brian Heater from Tech Crunch. However, for video editing purposes, of course you have to use it headphone.

5. Impressive Performance

Apple has never been outspoken about the innards of its products. They just call that chipset The M2 Max used by the two MacBook Pro 2023 laptops has 12 CPU cores, of which there are 8 core performance and 4 efficiency cores. Chipset it also contains 16 neural engine cores as well as a GPU of up to 38 cores.

If peeked from a synthetic benchmark application, for example Cinebench R23, the CPU clock speed of this chipset is at 3.7 GHz. It’s just that the GPU clockspeed is unknown. As for chipset it’s still made via 5nm fabrication by TSMC, just like the M1 Max.

Chipset The M2 Max is supported by RAM, or as Apple calls it unified memory (integrated memory) from 32 GB, 64 GB, up to 96 GB. That said, the memory used is LPDDR5. Meanwhile, there is also 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, or 8 TB of SSD storage.

Apple promises an increase in performance on the M2 Max compared to the M1 Max. The magnitude of the increase is 20% in CPU performance and 30% in GPU performance.

The improvement brought chipset M2 Max will not be seen in light daily use. The 2023 MacBook Pro with M2 Max will be just as fast as the previous MacBook Pro, when used for browsing, streamingtyping, and other light activities.

The improvement will be felt if these two laptops are tested with a synthetic benchmark application and used for video editing. The following synthetic benchmark tests provide evidence of that chipset The M2 Max has a cutting-edge performance.