Update: Now the MacBook Air M2 may also be having a problem with thermal throttling.
The new MacBook Pro 13-inch is here with all the power of the Apple M2 processor. While many reviewers have had a smooth experience with the laptop, there is one user who has pointed out some troubling concerns.
This is the second time the MacBook Pro's performance has been in the news recently. Just earlier this week, it was reported that MacBook Pro M2 testing revealed a surprise downgrade. Specifically, some new MacBook Pros with 256GB SSDs appear to offer slower read and write speeds than the SSDs on the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 from 2020.
Now, tech YouTuber Vadim Yuryev has tweeted that the MacBook Pro 2022 reached an internal temperature of a whopping 108 degrees Celsius (226 F). In addition, the machine reportedly “heavily throttled down on the M2 chip” which in turn affected the performance.
The YouTuber does mention that he pushed the MacBook Pro 2022 to its limit by exporting 8K RAW footage.
We discovered SEVERE thermal throttling with Apple's new M2 MacBook Pro, proving that it needs a BETTER cooling system with two fans instead of one. We exported 8K Canon RAW and saw temps hit 108°C, more than we've ever seen on a Mac, even an Intel Mac.But it gets worse...1/7 pic.twitter.com/JFCN7qJQbfJune 29, 2022
But here’s why this is not such concerning news — exporting 8K RAW footage is an extreme function. It is something most regular users would never need to do, and in this case seems to be an experiment aimed at pushing the Pro to its limit.
Thus it's not surprising the laptop throttled performance in an effort to keep its components cool under pressure. You likely won't need to do anything similarly demanding with a MacBook, so you shouldn't need to worry about such temperatures. If you do want to export 8K video you'd definitely be better off doing so with the MacBook Pro 14-inch or the MacBook Pro 16-inch from 2021, since they're expressly built to handle those kinds of workloads.
In our extensive testing and review of the MacBook Pro 13-inch, our Computing Writer Tony Polanco found the new MacBook Pro to be “the most powerful 13-inch MacBook Pro ever released.” In fact he also mentions that “like the 2020 M1 MacBook Pro, this laptop doesn’t get overly warm” during normal use. It is one of the “coolest” laptops he has used and tested.
We even carried out a battery test on the new MacBook Pro and found that this is the longest lasting laptop ever. This involved continuous web surfing at 150 nits of screen brightness — and after a record 18 hours and 20 minutes, the new MacBook Pro 13-inch was out of juice but still cool to the touch.
Maybe Apple could have included better cooling that would have kept the laptop from throttling itself during Vadim Yuryev’s experiment. But the reality is most users will use the laptop for day-to-day work, not 8K video editing. And for that, the MacBook Pro 2022 is a beast thanks to the M2 chip.
Amazon Prime Day 2022 is around the corner. To help you decide which new MacBook to get before the sales start, check out our MacBook Air 2022 vs MacBook Pro 2022 guide.
