The IT Nerd

Okay, that title sounds like click bait. But it is valid. The 13″ MacBook Pro with the M2 Processor is an Apple laptop that nobody should buy. And I do mean absolutely nobody should buy this laptop. Here’s why:

• This is a design that dates back to 2016, and nothing has changed. And I do mean nothing truly has changed. And that includes having the Touch Bar that nobody likes. And the design that doesn’t match any other MacBook that Apple makes.
• It still only has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, of which one is used for charging. The new MacBook Air has MagSafe which frees up one of the two ports on that notebook by contrast. Making it much more usable. Plus the MacBook Air has a headphone jack that supports high impedance headphones which makes it more usable and more “pro” than the 13″ MacBook Pro which does not have a high impedance headphone jack.
• The screen on the 13″ MacBook Pro is smaller than the one on the new MacBook Air which is 13.3″. Plus the one on the MacBook Air supports billions of colours rather than millions of colours on the MacBook Pro. Which means that if you do video editing or photo editing, the MacBook Air is the better choice.
• Apple advertises a fan inside the 13″ MacBook Pro to increase performance. The MacBook Air by contrast doesn’t have one. However, benchmark tests by many have indicated that the fan doesn’t make enough of a difference to justify the increased cost of the 13″ MacBook Pro. In fact the difference between the two is often seconds to a minute or two in most benchmark tests that I have seen.
• The 13″ MacBook Pro still has the horrible 720p webcam and the horrible microphones while every other Apple notebook has updated to much better microphones and a 1080p webcam. So if you spend your day on Zoom or Teams, the 13″ MacBook Pro is not the notebook for you.

So why does Apple keep the 13″ MacBook Pro around? My rather cynical view is that they’ve paid down the design of this notebook years ago. So as long as people fall into the trap of buying this machine, the profit margin from the 13″ MacBook Pro will be higher than their other notebooks. Or put another way, Apple will make craploads of money off it it every time someone buys one. You shouldn’t be one of those people who buys one.

Thus my advice is two fold:

• If you need a “Pro” laptop from Apple, you should skip the 13″ MacBook Pro and just go straight to the 14″ MacBook Pro. It comes with MagSafe, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, an SD card slot, a mini LED screen that is stunning, and the power of the M1 Pro or Max chip. But let me make it even simpler for you. If you spec out a 13″ MacBook Pro with say 16GB of RAM and say 512 GB of storage, you’ll be within spitting distance of the price of the base model 14″ MacBook Pro. Given that the 14″ model comes with more, it’s a much better value than the 13″ model.
• If you don’t need a “Pro” laptop from Apple, you should skip the 13″ MacBook Pro and go straight for the new MacBook Air. It’s a much better laptop in every way possible and costs less than the 13″ MacBook Pro. Making it a better value than the 13″ MacBook Pro.

The bottom line is that the 13″ MacBook Pro is a bad buy. Nobody should buy it as it really isn’t a great choice for those who need a notebook. You should simply ignore it and pick out the much better value that suits your use case.

This entry was posted on June 9, 2022 at 11:19 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.