MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max Now Official: Price Starts At RM8,799

Earlier today, we discussed a rumour which claimed that Apple is planning to announce new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro variants. It turned out to be true but instead of being revealed next Monday, the company has since decided to officially announce these new MacBook Pro models this evening.

Essentially, the biggest difference between the newly announced model and their October 2021 predecessors is their processor. For this year’s model, they have been equipped with the new M2 Pro and M2 Max SoCs which were announced at the same time as both notebooks.

Naturally, both of these processors provided performance upgrades for the 2023’s MacBook Pro models thanks to the additional amount of efficiency cores inside their CPUs as well as an increase in graphics core count. At the same time, the M2 Max can also be obtained with a higher amount of unified memory at 96GB as opposed to M1 Max’s 64GB.

Here are several performance figures that were released by Apple, based on the M2 Pro-based MacBook 16:

• Animation rendering in Motion: 20% > M1 Pro / 80% > Intel Core i9
• Image processing in Photoshop: 40% > M1 Pro / 80% > Intel Core i9
• Code compiling in Xcode: 25% > M1 Pro / 2.5x > Intel Core i9

On the other hand, here is what the performance difference looked like between M2 Max-based MacBook 16 and its predecessors:

• Colour grading in DaVinci Resolve: 30% > M1 Max / 2x > Intel Core i9
• Effects rendering in Cinema 4D: 30% > M1 Max / 6x > Intel Core i9

Apple also noted that the M2 Pro and M2 Max generally offer up to 20% more CPU and 30% more GPU performances than M1 Pro and M1 Max in the same power envelope.

The company also said that the 2023 MacBook Pro 14 can last up to 18 hours while the 16-inch model can go as long as 22 hours. Essentially, they can last one hour longer than their predecessors.

Both models also can support the faster Wi-Fi 6E network and Bluetooth 5.3 standards. Not to forget, multi-channel audio output support is now available through their HDMI ports too.

We understand that pricing is a big factor for many users in Malaysia. So, here is a quick starting price list for these 2023 MacBook Pro 14 and 16 for our market:

RM8,799: MacBook 14 with M2 Pro 10-Core CPU, 16-Core GPU, 16GB Memory, 512GB SSD

RM10,799: MacBook 14 with M2 Pro 10-Core CPU, 19-Core GPU, 16GB Memory, 1TB SSD

RM13,199: MacBook 14 with M2 Max 12-Core CPU, 30-Core GPU, 32GB Memory, 1TB SSD

RM10,799: MacBook 16 with M2 Pro 12-Core CPU, 19-Core GPU, 16GB Memory, 512GB SSD

RM11,599: MacBook 16 with M2 Pro 12-Core CPU, 19-Core GPU, 16GB Memory, 1TB SSD

RM14,799: MacBook 16 with M2 Max 12-Core CPU, 38-Core GPU,32GB Memory, 512GB SSD

Even though Apple has listed the local pricing for both MacBook 14 and MacBook 16 with M2 Pro and M2 Max, the company did not reveal their availability date for Malaysia though. While we will keep you posted once there is an update from the Cupertino giant, you may want to keep a constant look at Apple Malaysia’s website as well if you planning to get your hands on either of these new notebooks.