Everything I Think About Apple’s New Mac Mini and 14″ / 16″ MacBook Pros

On the 17th of January 2023, Apple announced their new M2 Mac Mini, as well as their new 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros, which they have updated by empowering them with the M2 and M2 Max Chip.

In this blog, you’ll learn more about the products that Apple announced, as well as finding out whether or not you should buy them.

New M2 Mac Mini

The Mac Mini has been viewed as a way into owning a Mac ever since it was first introduced in 2005, with its cost being lower than any other Apple Mac.

But on the 17th of January, Apple announced a new Mac Mini, which has been updated with a standard M2 processor and to work with the M2 Pro Chip, which enables it to work with high performance workflows.

You also have access to Wifi 6E, and there are two thunderbolt 4 ports included on the box design, as well as two USB-A slots and an HDMI connector.

But if you buy the M2 Pro Chip Mac Mini, you’ll notice how it comes with dour Thunderbolt 4 chips instead of just two on the M2 model.

New 14 and 16″ MacBook Pros

The new 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pros come with an advanced version of the M2 processor, and also has 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU.

If you choose the M2 Pro model, you’ll get access to 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 32GB Fast Unified Memory, a 20% increase on multithreaded CPU processor compared to the 2021 M1 Pro Chip, and graphic performance has improved by 30%.

But if you opt for the M2 Max model, you’ll get battery power up to 22 hours — making it the longest battery in a Mac yet. You’ll also get a 28-core GPU and 96GB of Unified Memory which will act as RAM, but the CPU you’ll get is the same as the M2 Pro chip, which makes this the perfect time to move on to how much they cost.

Cost

If one of the new Mac Minis sounds like something you’d be into, the M2 version is available for £849, $799, and €956.

The M2 Pro Mac Mini, meanwhile, is available for £1,399, or €1476.

If you’d prefer to go for the new MacBook Pros, you can get the 14″ M2 Pro version for £2,699, $2,499 or €3,040.

The 14″ M2 Max version costs £3,349, $3,099 and €3265.

But if you’d rather buy the 16″ model, the 16″ M2 Pro version is available for £2,899, $2,699 and €3265.

The M2 Max version of the 16″ MacBook Pro, meanwhile, costs £3,749, $3,499 and €4222.

But keep in mind you’ll also have to pay additional costs if you want to add

But keep in mind you’ll also have to pay additional costs if you want to add extra storage or preinstall software, which adds on another £200 or £600 if you want to buy either Mac Mini, as well as £299 and £199 to preinstall Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro.

If you want to go up to 8TB of storage for an M2 MacBook Pro, it will cost you an extra £2,200.

Are they worth buying or not?

So while the last few generations of Macs have had a couple of things going for them, I generally feel like this generation of Macs are beyond powerful, in that only a few people will actually need them, and don’t really offer anything new as far as hardware goes — other than when it comes to the Mac Mini, where you have a choice between a model with 2 USB-C ports and a model which has two extra USB-A ports.

But while the last few generations of MacBook Pros have made me excited about getting something, I just feel like we’re not getting anything that different than any of the features we got with the M1 releases, unless you are someone who is really far into a really successful career.

As someone who is only working on a freelance bases in journalism, creating podcasts, making videos, web designing, question writing and writing a book, I feel like I can do all of that on now cheaper systems which still work, including the M1 Pro MacBook Pro and on a 2015 15″ MacBook Pro. By all means, if you’re someone who is working on multiple massive projects per month, it might make sense, but the vast majority of us won’t have to do that much, in which case I’d advise buying cheaper.

But the new 14 and 16″ MacBook Pros also have the exactly same ports as the M1 series, so really, I feel like the only thing you’d be upgrading for would be better speed, and if you’re someone who really doesn’t care about that, then it really doesn’t make sense upgrading.

So overall, if you’re planning to upgrade to one of the M2 Macs this year, the model I think offers more new features is the M2 or M2 Pro Mac Mini. If you’re interested in upgrading to a new MacBook Pro after using an older model, I would suggest any of the M1 Macs if you’re in the freelance industry, or any of the other older models which will now be going down in price, unless you are working on extremely big projects.

The accessibility features available on all the latest Mac models include:

• Voice Control
• VoiceOver
• Zoom
• Increase Contrast
• Reduce Motion
• Siri and Dictation
• Switch Control
• Closed Captions
• Text to Speech
• Sticky Keys