MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 with new processors released

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Apple is calling the event 'Unleashed' and its expected that they would be demonstrating the true power of their new silicon which they introduced in the lower end MacBooks. Calling them lower end would not be accurate given how they outperformed the beefier Intel processors. So much so that Intel went scrambling in desperation to release a series of ads showing how non-apple laptops are better, not once comparing the actual performance of Intel vs Apple silicon.

The MacBook Pro laptops are also supposed to redesigned around the new processors which are extremely energy efficient thus leading to a more compact design. The screen bezels are supposed to even thinner than they are in the 16" MacBook Pro and introduce a new MacBook screen size of 14" instead of the regular 13" size. The displays are expected to be mini LED with higher resolutions.

The base models on the new processor, to be called M1X or M2, are supposed to start with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. The processors themselves will get a bump up from 4 performance cores to 10 performance cores and 16 graphic cores from the 8 graphic cores. The cores are expected to run at a higher frequency. No wonder the event is being called Unleashed and Intel is scared out of their wits.

There are also rumours that the Touch Bar will go away in favor of regular function keys and we will have more variety of ports than just USBC ports currently available. A return to MagSafe charging is also expected.

All this however will likely cost 1,74,000 for the starting model here in India and would price it way out of reach for most of us.

Personally I would prefer that they introduce the redesigned chassis in the current base MacBook Pro model and take it from 13" to 14" with the current M1 processor in the market. I would happily take that model with a 16GB RAM option to replace my ageing MacBook 12. Had been saving every month for past 2 years for this day.
 
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I'm surprised no one talked about this yet.

Apple charging 2 Lacs INR for a laptop, yet they had the nerves to put a shambolic display that has severe ghosting issues. Hardware Unboxed said that the displays on the new MBPs are some of the downright worse they have tested so far in their career. Even a 144 Hz monitor from 5 years ago will provide miles better experience.
This is a huge misinterpretation of the review. This review found it near the best for content creation, colour reproduction in all of the colour profiles, HDR. The number of brightness zones is unheard of anywhere else. Yes, it is slow in many uses and especially pathetic for gaming, but not everyone is a gamer.

Apple generally gets better reputation than it deserves, so I have never needed to "defend" Apple, but this is going in the opposite direction.
 
This is a huge misinterpretation of the review. This review found it near the best for content creation, colour reproduction in all of the colour profiles, HDR. The number of brightness zones is unheard of anywhere else. Yes, it is slow in many uses and especially pathetic for gaming, but not everyone is a gamer.

Apple generally gets better reputation than it deserves, so I have never needed to "defend" Apple, but this is going in the opposite direction.
It does usually go in the opposite direction on most "tech" oriented reviews.
E.g. this review barely mentions the 1000 pound gorilla that this display features - the insane peak brightness which is almost 3X the levels of regular OLED TVs or laptop screens.

Having used the iPP display for the last few months, every other display/TV that I use seems like a major downgrade In day to day HDR usage scenarios where quality of display matters (viewing / editing HDR pics/ watching HDR videos) - 1500-1600 nits is phenomenally higher than the 500 nits you get on most other displays.
 
This is a huge misinterpretation of the review. This review found it near the best for content creation, colour reproduction in all of the colour profiles, HDR. The number of brightness zones is unheard of anywhere else. Yes, it is slow in many uses and especially pathetic for gaming, but not everyone is a gamer.

Apple generally gets better reputation than it deserves, so I have never needed to "defend" Apple, but this is going in the opposite direction.
No one buys a Macbook for gaming. Everyone knows that.

I'm talking about general usage. Even if you're browsing reddit in dark mode, the text starts to smear all over the display.

Considering Apple is touting their so-called BS 120HZ 'pro-motion' technology and charging insane money for that, you'd expect the 120HZ display to work at least on par with rest 'normal-motion' 120HZ displays on the market. But, alas. What a shame.
 
No one buys a Macbook for gaming. Everyone knows that.

I'm talking about general usage. Even if you're browsing reddit in dark mode, the text starts to smear all over the display.

Considering Apple is touting their so-called BS 120HZ 'pro-motion' technology and charging insane money for that, you'd expect the 120HZ display to work at least on par with rest 'normal-motion' 120HZ displays on the market. But, alas. What a shame.
A review mentions five good properties, 2 exceptional, 3 bad qualities, 1 pathetic property.

If you quote only the bad and pathetic qualities, call it shambolic, and prefer another display for "overall experience", it can only be said to be extremely biased.

And, in most discussions, I'm the one who is called an Apple hater.
 
A review mentions five good properties, 2 exceptional, 3 bad qualities, 1 pathetic property.

If you quote only the bad and pathetic qualities, call it shambolic, and prefer another display for "overall experience", it can only be said to be extremely biased.

And, in most discussions, I'm the one who is called an Apple hater.
How can it extremely biased when one of those 'bad and pathetic qualities' ruin your entire viewing experience?

If you've have worked with good displays in the past - then you'll know how much this ghosting affects everything you do on-screen on your MBP.

If Apple can't get 120HZ working with Mac OS in 2022 when the industry has already achieved 360HZ, then it's a real shame and should be criticised (which is clearly not being done). These MBPs are not your run of the mill Windows laptops that costs 70-80K. They start at 1.9 lacs. And when you're paying that amount of money, you'd expect to experience a fantastic display.
 
one of those 'bad and pathetic qualities' ruin your entire viewing experience?
The whole point of this review, other reviews, personal experience of my colleagues is completely that it doesn't. I didn't want to say that you missed the whole point, but that is the only alternative to bring extremely biased.

For production work, HDR video watching& editing are not at all affected. Unless you love dragging windows over the screen all day long irrespective of the work you are doing. My colleagues use it for coding, for them it is just a good screen, they neither noticed "ghosting", nor the gazillion dimming zones.
 
How can it extremely biased when one of those 'bad and pathetic qualities' ruin your entire viewing experience?

If you've have worked with good displays in the past - then you'll know how much this ghosting affects everything you do on-screen on your MBP.

If Apple can't get 120HZ working with Mac OS in 2022 when the industry has already achieved 360HZ, then it's a real shame and should be criticised (which is clearly not being done). These MBPs are not your run of the mill Windows laptops that costs 70-80K. They start at 1.9 lacs. And when you're paying that amount of money, you'd expect to experience a fantastic display.
There is practically nothing in tech (or elsewhere for that matter) that one can buy without compromising on something.
The key is to know where your individual priorities lie before you take a call.
Also, tech reviews on YT have a tendency to go entirely hyperbolic esp when in comes to buzzword fulfilment by a device (although this one probably doesn’t) so one needs to watch out for that too.


In 2018, I was enamored by the constant hyperbole of 120hz and plonked money for an ipad pro 11 with HRR..
After getting it, I was quite underwhelmed by the HRR aspect (I found it a cosmetic gain rather than a functional one)..
Thankfully it turned out to be a great device on all other aspects so no regrets.

In 2021, I experienced just the opposite
Most web reviews were dissing the mini LED on the 12.9 ipad for excessive blooming..
Thankfully I disregarded that - And the display turned out to the best display I have ever used - because while it does bloom in specific circumstances but the quality of HDR rendering itself beats every AMOLED/OLED I have seen by a huge margin..

OTOH, someone who tends to watch the credits more than the actual content itself will be disappointed because blooming :p
 
The whole point of this review, other reviews, personal experience of my colleagues is completely that it doesn't. I didn't want to say that you missed the whole point, but that is the only alternative to bring extremely biased.

For production work, HDR video watching& editing are not at all affected. Unless you love dragging windows over the screen all day long irrespective of the work you are doing. My colleagues use it for coding, for them it is just a good screen, they neither noticed "ghosting", nor the gazillion dimming zones.
Eh. There are people out there who can't notice differences between 60HZ and 120HZ. So, I don't blame you or your friends.

But, when a product is marketed as 'X' and doesn't deliver 'X', especially when a company is charging hefty amounts and marketing the terms like it's the next big thing, you don't cut them a slack. This is not a startup company and 144HZ monitors have been in the market since 2012. If a $3T company can't perfect a 120HZ display, then they should be rightly criticised & they themselves should be ashamed.
There is practically nothing in tech (or elsewhere for that matter) that one can buy without compromising on something.
The key is to know where your individual priorities lie before you take a call.
Also, tech reviews on YT have a tendency to go entirely hyperbolic esp when in comes to buzzword fulfilment by a device (although this one probably doesn’t) so one needs to watch out for that too.
Except, the compromise that Apple made is a deal-breaker for people who can identify good displays from the bad ones.

Inspite of touting 'pro-motion', the the refresh rate of the display is worse than my seven year old Benq 144HZ display.
 
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Except, the compromise that Apple made is a deal-breaker for people who can identify good displays from the bad ones.

Inspite of touting 'pro-motion', the the refresh rate of the display is worse than my seven year old Benq 144HZ display.
Of course it will be a deal breaker for some - but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad display for all, no?

The problem with your statement above is that it assumes there is only a single definition of a good display for everyone (“people who can identify good displays from bad”).

But again, you may think that your Benq 144hz is a the bee’s knees ..
While I may find it completely trash because I will very likely perceive it as a very low res screen with blurry text rendering.


I haven’t used the new MBP display at length so cannot comment as an expert - I did however try one out in a store and for that brief casual use, it did seem quite good.
The two things I focused on were text rendering (which was great) and on HDR rendering of photos (which was beyond excellent)

Personally I don’t care for 120hz , but can easily differentiate between 60 and 120 - and the scrolling did seem to be more like a HRR display as against the 60hz laptops I use.
Maybe it does smear more than other 120/144 display makes- and some people are surely sensitive to that.
And such folks have other options available and thus will steer clear of this machine when they notice it.

But for the rest (say someone like me), it will qualify as an excellent display by a good margin - No?
 
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Eh. There are people out there who can't notice differences between 60HZ and 120HZ. So, I don't blame you or your friends.

So many things wrong with this, I'll just scratch the surface :

1. If there are people who can't notice, then clearly you incorrectly stated : "ruin your entire viewing experience". By the very definition of experience.

2. If you know more than Tim from hardware unboxed, you needn't have quoted your misunderstanding of his review. There are many other expert reviews also confirming the same : that the entire experience is not ruined for many usage scenarios.

3. Since you don't know more than those experts, who also have specialized tools to measure properties of computer displays, this makes no sense anyway.
 
I'm talking about general usage. Even if you're browsing reddit in dark mode, the text starts to smear all over the display.
Sure. That also happens on a 120Hz OLED. Not every display is perfect.

For someone like me, I honestly would not care about the slow pixel refresh times as my use cases do not involve playing games. While watching 24p movies, its actually an advantage hilariously as it makes the movie appear smoother.

I do understand your point that 120Hz on such a slow pixel refresh rate monitor is not as effective. Hopefully the next iterations would be better.

Just waiting for the lower end 14" MBP to release so that I can finally upgrade fom my ageing 2015.
 
Sure. That also happens on a 120Hz OLED. Not every display is perfect.

For someone like me, I honestly would not care about the slow pixel refresh times as my use cases do not involve playing games. While watching 24p movies, its actually an advantage hilariously as it makes the movie appear smoother.

I do understand your point that 120Hz on such a slow pixel refresh rate monitor is not as effective. Hopefully the next iterations would be better.

Just waiting for the lower end 14" MBP to release so that I can finally upgrade fom my ageing 2015.
On a side note, the reason why your 120 capable displays looks better for 24p is not because the pixel refresh time is high.

All 120hz panels support native 24p (1 frame for 5 cycles )
So as long as your playback device supports it too, there is no 3:2 pull down involved that can cause 24p to look janky otherwise

60hz panels otoh may or may not support native 24p
 
On a side note, the reason why your 120 capable displays looks better for 24p is not because the pixel refresh time is high.

All 120hz panels support native 24p (1 frame for 5 cycles )
So as long as your playback device supports it too, there is no 3:2 pull down involved that can cause 24p to look janky otherwise

60hz panels otoh may or may not support native 24p
Could be, but i've never had judder issues while watching movies on my older 60Hz LCD TV's. I hated watching movies on my LG C9 so much that i sold it off within 5 months to a friend. The judder was god awful even on a 120 Hz panel.

The newer C1 is much better in that regards (same friend got a 48" piece) but still nowhere as good as my Sony X900F in terms of motion
 
Could be, but i've never had judder issues while watching movies on my older 60Hz LCD TV's. I hated watching movies on my LG C9 so much that i sold it off within 5 months to a friend. The judder was god awful even on a 120 Hz panel.

The newer C1 is much better in that regards (same friend got a 48" piece) but still nowhere as good as my Sony X900F in terms of motion
I know exactly what you are saying. I can't stand judder on one hand nor synthetic motion smoothing as a solution.

The best solution for it to make sure that everything on the video playback chain is capable of native 24p playback as well as capable of real time switching of frame rates.

Unfortunately that means that practically all android based streamers will fall short as will some of the built in apps on TVs.
But a 120hz panel will not be prone to any judder IF properly configured (or provided a correctly configured source)
 
For those interested, great offers on Reliance Digital and Croma. Using an HDFC card, the 14 inch Pro is available for 1.62L. Decent-ish price matching international pricing.
Damn thats the best price i've ever seen it go for. How far away is the M2 Pro anyways ?
 
Damn thats the best price i've ever seen it go for. How far away is the M2 Pro anyways ?
Likely Q4 22 or Q1 23. Depends on chip issues I guess.

I was trying to get my hands on M2 Air at Singapore, and they were OOS throughout the country. Hardly any units left at the official MBS Apple store.
The duty free had no stock at all.

In two minds to get the 14 Pro. Biggest challenge I see is the subpar battery compared to M1/M2. With basic tasks, it doesn't last longer than usual Windows laptops (like Gram or others with decent battery life). M2 Pro should bring efficiency improvements. The M2 Air beats the M1 Air in battery !
 
In two minds to get the 14 Pro. Biggest challenge I see is the subpar battery compared to M1/M2. With basic tasks, it doesn't last longer than usual Windows laptops (like Gram or others with decent battery life). M2 Pro should bring efficiency improvements. The M2 Air beats the M1 Air in battery !
The battery life is fine.
Might not be MBP 13" levels but I've been averaging 10 hours on a full charge with light usage, much better than my old 13" MBP 2015 (it used to get 7-8 hours as far as i can remember)

I couldn't live with 8GB of RAM anymore, 16GB is minimum and upgrading the M2 Air to 16/512 seems stupid
 
couldn't live with 8GB of RAM anymore, 16GB is minimum and upgrading the M2 Air to 16/512 seems stupid

As time passes by, I beg to differ. My most "hardcore" use will be photo editing - I'm not a video editor or coder - and hence I believe the M2 Air 16/512 combo will be fine. More efficiency cores, minor productivity bump over M1, and battery is just excellent.
I demoed both M2 Air and M1 Pro yesterday side by side, playing the default WW1984 HDR 4k clip on both - and the screen was almost identical. I didn't go WOW with Pro's miniLED, much to my surprise. The Promotion wasn't visible in usual hands on, so can't comment.
All in all, Apple still makes the best displays in the market, and I guess I'm not losing much with M2 Air.
16 gb is just not available anywhere though. And the Apple official price is insane.
 
As time passes by, I beg to differ. My most "hardcore" use will be photo editing - I'm not a video editor or coder - and hence I believe the M2 Air 16/512 combo will be fine. More efficiency cores, minor productivity bump over M1, and battery is just excellent.
I demoed both M2 Air and M1 Pro yesterday side by side, playing the default WW1984 HDR 4k clip on both - and the screen was almost identical. I didn't go WOW with Pro's miniLED, much to my surprise. The Promotion wasn't visible in usual hands on, so can't comment.
All in all, Apple still makes the best displays in the market, and I guess I'm not losing much with M2 Air.
16 gb is just not available anywhere though. And the Apple official price is insane.
Weird that you didn't see a difference in the displays. The refresh rate itself makes it much smoother to use. Plus at night, watching movies give you a great HDR experience but most of all, the extra 500 nits (by installing 3rd part apps like Vivid) makes the laptop usable in direct sunlight - something that i've never seen before.

Also, additional ports and active cooling are great but I guess if someone wants portability, the MBA is still the better choice.

My main point was that the value argument goes out of the window as soon as you spec 16/512GB as their price becomes exactly equal (~ 1.7L).
 
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