With $500 off the M1 Pro MacBook Pro, you really shouldn’t bother with M2 Pro — Here’s why

MacBook Pro with epic deal badge against a blue backgrond
Get $500 off the M1 Pro MacBook Pro right now! (Image credit: Apple, Laptop)

Right now, you can get $500 off the 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro, which begs the question: why bother with the M2 Pro MacBook Pro when you have this insanely good value for money?

Because when you compare the benchmarks, the speed differences are incredibly minor and the battery life of this previous generation system is actually better than the new laptop. It will easily keep up with any intense workload for a long time to come, and outside of the chipset inside, it shares all the same specs.

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 14: $2,499 $1,999 @ Amazon

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 14: <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45727&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FApple-MacBook-14-inch-10%25E2%2580%2591core-16%25E2%2580%2591core%2Fdp%2FB09JQWSQK7%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">$2,499 $1,999 @ Amazon
Save $500 on the 1TB model M1 Pro-powered MacBook Pro 14. It features a 14.2-inch mini-LED backlit display and delivers up to 14 hours of battery life. The laptop is powered by Apple's M1 Pro 10-core chip coupled with 16GB of RAM and employs a 16-core GPU for graphics. In our <a href="https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/apple-macbook-pro-2021-14-inch-review" data-link-merchant="laptopmag.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"">M1 MacBook Pro 14 review, its elegant design, excellent performance, and stellar battery life earned it a 4 out of 5 star rating. It's the Editor's Choice best laptop for power-users. 

And this isn’t just the base spec of this 14-inch powerhouse, because 512GB of storage isn’t really enough for any creative pro. No, instead, this MacBook Pro comes with a 1TB SSD — enough for big projects.

To get something similar with the most current Apple silicon, you will need to spend $2,199 (to get a machine for $1,999, you’ll need to cut that storage in half). Not to say that you shouldn’t go for the latest and greatest if you can. If you can spring for that extra 200 bucks, then fill your boots! But let’s actually look at what extra you get for that additional investment.

M2 Pro is 20% faster than M1 Pro, able to transcode video 10% faster, an SSD write speed that is 15% quicker, and a battery life that is six minutes less (even though Apple promised an hour longer). If that is worth it for you, then go for it. However, these are small increases over what was already a monstrous processor in the M1 Pro, which continues to dominate a lot of the competition today.

It’s a brilliant laptop at an even better price. That’s why I believe you should forego the M2 Pro hype and make a choice that’s friendly to your wallet!

Jason England
Content Editor

Jason brought a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a writer at Laptop Mag, and he is now the Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He takes a particular interest in writing articles and creating videos about laptops, headphones and games. He has previously written for Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.