MacBook Pro: 14″ vs 13″

Intro:

Released in October 2021, the 14” MacBook Pro was one of the first laptops to be included with Apple’s new and improved version of the M1 Chip, the M1 Pro, and the M1 Max. Now that it’s 2022 Apple has released the second iteration of its silicon in the form of the 13” MacBook Pro. Apple silicon has shown some promising performance and efficiency and the 14” MacBook Pro is no exception. However, buyers who want more performance are torn between the 14” model and the 13”.

Spec Comparison:

*See CPU section for in-depth analysis of CPU cores

CPU:

Both the 13” and the base 14” have 8 cores, but you can configure the 14” with up to 10 cores. One thing to note is that the base 14” has 6 out of the 8 cores designated to performance while the remaining 2 are efficiency cores. The 13” may have 8 CPU cores but those cores are split into 4 Performance and 4 Efficiency cores which make it less powerful than the M1 Pro. For things like word processing and browsing the difference between the two is negligible. However, if you are using programs for content creation like Final Cut or Adobe Suite, you will definitely appreciate the extra cores. Most people probably don’t buy a MacBook for console emulation, but for those who are wondering, the 14”  is a beast at emulating Gamecube, PS2, and even some lighter PS3 games. 

GPU:

When we take a look at the GPU we see the same trend as the CPU, the base 14” has a 14 core GPU while the 13” has only 10. In many GPU-heavy tasks, the 14” creates a decent performance gap that many users will notice. An example would be, any kind of video rendering on M1 Pro, even the base spec, is faster than the newer M2. Anyone in the market for a new MacBook Pro for things like image processing should strongly consider making the jump to the 14”.  The extra cost you pay will definitely be made up for in time saved.

Storage:

The base 14” Pro comes with 512GB of storage, which is not ideal, but having two 256GB  modules gives a significant boost to performance. This is a huge difference from the base model of any M2 MacBook because they only use 1 module, which cripples the SSD performance. In some cases, the prior generation M1 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air will outperform the M2 in read/write comparisons. This is important to the end user because these read and write speeds dictate how fast your system is able to access the information stored on the SSD. For small applications, it most likely will not be an issue but if you are accessing large files regularly it will be noticeable. It is worth noting that this SSD slowdown only impacts the base models.

Battery:

Having owned the 14” for more than a month now, I can confidently say the battery will last more than a day with light to moderate use. (Video playback, word processing, and web surfing) More demanding computing tasks will obviously deplete the battery faster so it will depend on your own use case. The efficiency cores on the 13” M2 will shine because of the lower power consumption. However if you still are leaning towards the 14” but are concerned about the battery, understand that I was able to get multiple hours of battery life while playing Mario Kart Double Dash off of my 14”.

Design:

The design on the 14” MacBook Pro is a breath of fresh air. This iteration brings back the HDMI port, an SD Card reader, and most importantly, Mag-Safe charging. The 13” MacBook Pro still rocks the classic design from 2016. Personally, I think the design still looks nice but having all those ports adds to it. The infamous touch bar also returns on 13” MacBook Pro which may be a deal breaker for some. While the touch bar looks nice it does take more time to do things like mute the speakers compared to traditional function keys. However, if you do fancy the touch bar keep in mind the 13” is the only new MacBook you can buy with it.

Screen:

The screen is another area where the 14” M1 Pro shines over the 13” M2. The peak brightness of the 14” is 1000 nits sustained (Full Screen, 1500 nits HDR content only) while the brightness on the M2 is only 500 nits. In my experience, the M1 Pro gets plenty bright, and I don’t think it will be a problem to use outside in most cases. Another nice feature that the 14” pro has is the higher DPI and resolution. The sharper image on the 14” is noticeable and welcomed. Either laptop will give you a good viewing experience, but the extra pixels are the cherry on top. The last feature, my favorite feature, is the ProMotion display. Being a PC gamer and constantly using a 144hz display makes this feature a must for me. The typical user can go without this, but those buttery smooth animations make the whole experience so much better. If you haven’t tried a high refresh rate monitor, I would most definitely recommend it because once you experience the smoothness it is hard to go back.

Conclusion:

My overall thoughts on the 14” MacBook Pro are mostly positive due to its superb performance, excellent battery life, modern design, and stunning screen. The only negative side I’ve had to this MacBook was some incompatibility with select programs. More specifically running Virtual Machines like Kali Linux will work but you may find that some features are limited to x86 processors. There are most likely other programs that share this problem so definitely investigate it before you spend a fortune on any of the Apple Silicon laptops. The price tag for the base 14” is $1999(*See Editors Note) but if you spec out any of the lower tier MacBooks, you’ll get close to $1999 and the design and ports make it worth the extra cost. If you want something with a lot of performance and solid battery life, I recommend this 14” base model. A similar spec 13″ just comes too close to the price of the 14″ and with the extra money spent you get a whole lot more. However, if that is not in your budget, the next laptop I’d consider is the M2 Air. It has a similar design (Only 2 USB C ports) and MagSafe charging, but sustained performance could present problems due to the lack of a fan.

*Editor’s Notes

At the time of publishing the 14” MacBook Pro is 1599 on BestBuy which makes it an even better deal! This is cheaper than a similarly configured 13.”