At the tie of writing, we’re poised to see the Apple M2 chip get revealed at the upcoming Apple Event. And you can follow all of the action on our Apple Peek Performance event live blog.
If this all comes to fruition, we can expect to see the M2 chip in the likes of the Mac mini 2022, MacBook Pro 2022, and iPad Pro 2022.
The Apple Silicon initiative started with a bang thanks to the M1 chip, but that was just the tip of the spear for Cupertino’s move away from Intel processors as the M1 Pro and M1 Max driving the MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch (respectively) demonstrated in late 2021.
Much of what we heard about the M2 in 2021 ended up manifesting in the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. As such, we don’t have concrete details of what the new Apple silicon will be capable of. Some leaks even suggest the M2 will be less powerful than the latest M1 chips powering the MacBook Pros.
With that in mind, here’s what we know about the Apple M2 chip so far.
Apple M2 chip release date
According to reliable Apple leaker DylanDKT, the Apple M2 chip will release in the second half of 2022. Despite this, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims that the upgraded chip will show up at the March 8 Apple Event.
That would make sense, considering the name “Peek Performance” suggests that there will be some form of Apple Silicon showing up on the day. Though it’s unclear what this means for the launch of M2-powered Macs, and whether they will be arriving before the Fall.
Apple M2 chip specs
The M1 chip impressed us, and the rest of the computing world, with performance that can beat the 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake processors. The M1 Pro and M1 Max were even more impressive. Interestingly enough, the M2 chip will not surpass the current M1 chips despite bearing a higher number. The latest leak suggests that the M2 will be less performant than the M1 Pro and M1 Max.
At the moment, we can’t say how many cores the M2 chip will have. Previously, it was believed that the chip would have as many as 12 CPU cores. Neither the M1 Pro nor M1 Max has that many — each packing 8 and 10 cores, respectively. Another leak from DylanDKT suggests that a superpowered M1 Max chip driving the 2022 iMac Pro will have 12-cores.
Mark Gurman has previously claimed that the chip would have an 8 core CPU, complete with four efficiency and high-performance cores, plus a 10-core GPU. That would make it less powerful than the M1 Pro Max, but mire powerful than the M1 chip it’s intended to replace.
Gurman claims this is the chip being tested ahead of the March 8 event, further suggesting it may make an appearance.
Apple M2 chip MacBook Pro
As DylanDKT says (via CreativeBloq), the M2-powered MacBook Pro will not be a successor to the current 14- and 16-inch laptops. It will instead be an upgrade to the 13-inch MacBook Pro. As such, don’t expect a radical overhaul of the laptop’s overall design — notch and all. As Digital Trends notes, the M2 MacBook Pro will be cheaper than the latest MacBook Pros.
As we stated above, expect the 2022 MacBook Pro with M2 to be announced and released during the fall.
Apple M2 chip outlook
If recent leaks are accurate then folks expecting beefier Apple silicon in the M2 chip would do well to their temper expectations. It appears, at least for the moment, that we won’t see the same jump in performance experienced between the 2020 M1 chip and the 2021 M1 Pro and M1 Max. This is certainly disappointing, but even if this year’s MacBook Pro isn’t as powerful as the 2021 models, a potentially less cost-prohibitive machine isn’t a total loss.
We’ll update this hub with all Apple M2 news, leaks and rumors as we receive them.