MacBook Pro 2023 — M2 Pro and M2 Max may be the only major upgrades

We’ve heard plenty of rumors about the 2023 MacBook Pros, which may arrive at the Apple March event with the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in tow. However, a new report from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman is tempering our expectations slightly.

According to Gurman, we shouldn’t be expecting the 2023 MacBook Pros to have any major changes. Gurman’s sources claim that both machines will have the same design and features as the existing 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros which debuted back in 2021. In fact, the new chips may be the only noteworthy change.

It’s no big surprise that the design wouldn't be changing for 2023. The 2021 MacBooks’ design was already a significant overhaul compared to their predecessors, and many of those changes were for the better. Both machines came with mini-LED displays with a 120Hz refresh rate, and while that display had a webcam notch the camera received a long-overdue upgrade to 1080p resolution.

On top of that, Apple scrapped both the TouchBar and included a generous number of ports. There were three Thunderbolt-3 equipped USB-C ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack and the much-celebrated return of MagSafe charging. In short, these are all changes that made the MacBook Pros better, and we’re glad they’re not going anywhere.

Anyone hoping for a few more sweeping changes will no doubt be disappointed. Then again the inclusion of the new, more powerful M2 chips will likely offer a bunch of improvements that should make the new MacBook Pros worth having.

We’ve already heard a bunch of rumors about both chips’ capabilities, with one leaker claiming that the performance boost will be “worth the wait." Those improvements will apparently better speeds, less heat and a boost to battery leaf. 

Leaked benchmarks from Geekbench suggest that the M2 Max will be particularly powerful, with 2,027 single-core and 14,888 multi-core scores. For comparison, a 2021 MacBook Pro with M1 Max clocked in with scores of 1,781 and 12,683. That’s a pretty hefty increase.

Other rumored changes include the inclusion of faster LPDDR5X RAM, and support for up to 96GB of memory. That means there’s going to be plenty of resources available for multi-tasking and high-intensity apps. Great news for people who like to keep a few hundred Google Chrome tabs open at any given time.

But the new MacBook Pros may not be the only Apple computers set to debut at the March event. While Gurman claims Apple is focusing its energy on the new VR/AR headset, we could still see a 15-inch MacBook Air, larger iMac Pro and a high-end Mac Pro complete with the M2 Ultra at some point this year. 

Some of these products may appear at the March event, but others may appear later in the year. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens, and we’ll bring you the latest news and rumors when we hear it.