Now that all of Apple’s laptops have been updated with the second-generation Apple Silicon for Mac with the recent MacBook Pro refreshes from last month, one MacBook has been sticking out like a sore thumb. I’m talking about the 13-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 chip.
That laptop is one of the first Macs to transition to Apple Silicon along with the MacBook Air and Mac mini. They first featured the M1 chip, and when Apple introduced the redesigned MacBook Air with the updated M2 chip, the 13-inch Pro received the same treatment. However, the update to that model was very minimal as it was just a speed bump from the M1 to M2, with no redesign or anything substantial.
That puts the 13-inch Pro in an odd spot between the M2 Air and the 14-inch MacBook Pro with even more features such as the mini-LED display, and those two models share a more modern design with a flat top and rounded edges at the bottom. To make matters worse, there’s a $100 price difference between the M2 Air ($1,199) and 13-inch Pro ($1,299), but you have to consider that the Air’s entry model has the binned chip with an 8-core GPU. If you upgrade the chip to the 10-core GPU variant to match the Pro’s base model configuration, you’d pay $100 more, and you’re at the same price as that of the base 13-inch Pro. Additionally, the prices and options for the unified memory and SSD upgrades are the same between the two laptops.
So if you go with the 13-inch Pro, what exactly are you getting over the MacBook Air? Just an active cooling system, studio-quality microphones, and two extra hours of battery life. However, the Air offers a lot more for your money, including a better display with support for 1 billion colors (vs millions of colors on the Pro), MagSafe charging, a better webcam, and full-height function row keys, which many Mac users would find very useful.
As you can see, the M2 Air offers a lot more new features that an everyday user would appreciate. The 13-inch Pro exists mainly because so many people would like an affordable “pro” laptop without spending at least $2,000, but in reality, that laptop is not so “Pro” anymore, considering the new standards of Apple’s pro laptop found on its bigger brothers. At least, Apple updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a modern chip, which was way better than never updating it at all to the point to it becomes antiquated. The 13-inch Pro isn’t a bad product, but it’s simply the worst-valued Mac that you shouldn’t buy when you could consider other better alternatives such as the M2 Air or even the last-generation 14-inch Pro.
How can Apple fix this problem? We’ve been hearing reports that Apple has been developing a 15-inch MacBook Air for this year, so offering that model in place of the 13-inch Pro would make the lineup more streamlined. Alternatively, Apple could redesign the 13-inch Pro to feature the same design as the 14-inch Pro, but most of the features of the bigger brother.
If you have other ideas on what the MacBook lineup should consist of, let us know in the comments below. If you like this article and want more Apple-related stories, make sure you follow us on @Appleosophy.
