Which new MacBook Professional must you purchase — the 14 or 16-inch? That’s what we hope that can assist you with on this information.
Earlier this week, Apple introduced the up to date fashions of its prosumer laptops with M2 Professional and M2 Max, and it’s honest to say there’s numerous inquiries to ask earlier than making that buy. What measurement must you go for? What spec do you want? These are questions that we’ll go in depth on to try to reply.
Now, I do know it’s posed as a face-off, however it will be fairly daft to do a “which is healthier,” as a result of spoiler alert: measurement issues. The 16-inch will likely be higher on paper, however it’s not so simple as that. Let’s get into the small print.
MacBook Professional 14-inch vs 16-inch: Pricing
So let’s break down the pricing right here, as a result of there are numerous variations. The beginning worth is $1,999, however you possibly can spec all of it the best way as much as $6,499.
- That two-grand price ticket will get you the bottom mannequin 14-inch MacBook Professional (opens in new tab) with M2 Professional CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. After all, there are a number of specs you possibly can tweak, and in the event you go to the highest of the road (M2 Max, 96GB of RAM and an 8TB SSD), you’ll be paying $6,299.
- As for the 16-inch mannequin (opens in new tab), the bottom mannequin is $500 extra at $2,499, with the identical spec because the entry-level 14-inch choice. Get the highest spec and that goes as much as the complete $6,499.
MacBook Professional 14-inch vs 16-inch: Design
The aesthetic is equivalent between each machines, and when in comparison with 2021’s mannequin: an nearly imposing utilitarian dominance that calls for your consideration to get stuff carried out. And although rounded edges aren’t new, the entire presentation simply feels a complete lot sleeker.
You’ll additionally see that the ports stay the identical (form of) throughout each laptops from the earlier technology too: three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI 2.1 that helps as much as 8K, an SDXC card reader, headphone combo jack and the MagSafe charger.
The place these differ, after all, is within the dimensions and weight:
- The 14-inch is available in at 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches with a weight of three.5 kilos (with the M2 Professional — the M2 Max takes it as much as 3.6 kilos).
- The 16-inch measures up at 14 x 9.8 x 0.7 inches and weighs as much as 4.8 kilos.
If portability of your professional rig is vital, the 14-inch is the clear choice right here. Don’t get me mistaken, the 16-inch does have a sleekness to it meaning you possibly can stick it in a backpack. However for the smaller measurement and weight, prosumers on the go could fare higher going smaller.
MacBook Professional 14-inch vs 16-inch: Show and audio
Each sport a stunning Mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR show with a 1,000-nit peak sustained brightness — going as much as 1,600 nits in the event you’re watching HDR content material. Alongside this, you’ll discover a P3 vast coloration gamut, true tone expertise, ProMotion (Apple-speak for a 120Hz adaptive refresh price), and that rattling notch. I type of hoped we’d get Face ID in there by now, however that’s one thing for the subsequent technology.
Going extra granular on the sizes and their pixel-density:
- There’s the 14.2-inch panel with a 3024 x 1964-pixel decision, which interprets to a detail-dense 254 pixels per inch.
- Or a 16.2-inch mannequin with a 3456 x 2234-pixel decision. This has the identical excessive ppi.
After all, that is solely depending on how a lot display screen actual property you need — the opposite facet of the choice we made earlier about portability. In case your workload calls for an enormous display screen for multitasking, or a clearer view of a video timeline, then the 16-inch is your best option. However you’re nonetheless getting a jaw-dropping show within the 14-inch too, which implies the compromise received’t essentially be felt by numerous you searching for a brand new laptop computer.
MacBook Professional 14-inch vs 16-inch: Efficiency
Each the 14 and 16-inch MacBooks could be specced with equivalent chipsets. Earlier than we get into the nitty gritty, listed below are the choices you possibly can choose from:
- M2 Professional with a 10-core CPU (six efficiency, 4 effectivity), 16-core GPU, and 16-core Neural engine. This one is out there solely on the 14-inch.
- M2 Professional with a 12-core CPU (eight efficiency, 4 effectivity), 19-core GPU, and 16-core Neural engine.
- M2 Max with 12-core CPU (six efficiency, 4 effectivity), 30-core GPU, and 16-core Neural engine.
- M2 Max with 12-core CPU (six efficiency, 4 effectivity), 38-core GPU, and 16-core Neural engine.
The main target of this chip has been to extend the CPU and GPU cores, improve the reminiscence bandwidth to 200GB/s, and increase the graphics efficiency. Apple is touting some big beneficial properties over Intel-based techniques of previous, however on the graphs, you discover the will increase over M1 Professional and M1 Max are much more minor.
Whereas the corporate all the time drops some very imprecise graphs with bizarre information that we are able to’t essentially parse, some leaked benchmarks give us a greater concept. The M2 Max is pulling off a single-core Geekbench 5 rating of two,027 and a multi-core of 14,888. These are big numbers that outpace the already speedy M1 Max (1,790 and 12,800 respectively).
MacBook Professional 14-inch vs 16-inch: Battery
One factor’s for certain. Whichever choice you select, the battery life goes to be mint. They each sport the identical measurement battery cells as final yr: a 70 Wh choice within the 14-inch, and a beasty 100 Wh within the 16-inch. The previous helps as much as 96W quick charging, whereas the latter can go all the best way as much as 140W to juice it up insanely quick.
Apple has made some claims about what these batteries are able to doing:
- The 14-inch is able to as much as 18 hours Apple TV app playback and 12 hours of wi-fi internet searching.
- The 16-inch can do 22 hours of Apple TV and 15 hours of internet searching.
Outdoors of the plain (the 16-inch has an even bigger battery, so it would last more), we are able to’t actually say something till we’ve had some correct hands-on time with these laptops. After we ran the Laptop computer Magazine Battery Check on the 2021 14-inch MacBook Professional, which consists of steady internet browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the MacBook Professional lasted a powerful 14 hours and eight minutes with the ProRes refresh price enabled.
And with Apple’s work on enhancing effectivity behind the scenes, I’m optimistic that this quantity might go up.
Backside Line
Like I mentioned up prime — this isn’t a straight up face-off with a transparent winner. For all intents and functions, the 16-inch is the clear winner with an even bigger display screen and greater battery.
However that’s not the purpose of this. On the finish of the day, you possibly can solely take what we’ve mentioned right here and make some selections for your self. If you’d like pure portability, then the 14-inch reigns supreme. It could possibly nonetheless have that energy you’re on the lookout for in a smaller kind issue.
Selecting the smaller mannequin additionally does open you as much as a doubtlessly compromised battery life, although, as we noticed within the M1 Max 14-inch Professional. So if you would like the blistering prime finish of energy potential, then the whole lot else must be obtainable in proportion, which implies the 16-inch would suffice.
