With us Comments of the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13″, we have already analyzed the advantages of the M2 chip compared to the M1, but there is a test which we have not carried out and which everyone can relate to and which demonstrates the prowess of the M2.
David Heinemeier Hanson (@dhh on Twitter) recently tweeted his results from Speedometer 2.0, a test that measures browser speed. He found that the M2 is 33% faster than the M1, and it’s also 2.5 times faster than the iMac with a 4.2GHz Core i7 processor.
Apple’s chip team continues to embarrass everyone in the company. Just recorded a clean 400 on the 2.0 speedometer test for the M2 Air. That’s 33% faster than what the M1 (and A15) can do. 2.5 times faster than a 4.2 GHz Intel i7 iMac. Bananas. Try your own CPU: https://t.co/o25wL35Zu4 pic.twitter.com/WbBmys2bk1
— DHP (@dhh)
July 31, 2022
That 400 score is very impressive, especially since in our March tests, Google Chrome (version 99) and Safari Technology Preview 15.4 (version 141) scored close to 300. In fact, that score of 400 represents a 33% increase over the latter.
Given Heinemeier Hanson’s tweet and our previous tests, and the fact that Safari is probably the most used Mac app, we thought we’d try Speedometer on a Mac running M2 and in different browsers and see what happens.
These are our results.
How did we do the test?
The reference Speedometer is created by Apple’s WebKit team and uses web applications and simulates user actions. The test measures the responsiveness of the browser to these actions and then creates a performance score. The higher the score, the better the performance.
I used Speedometer 2.0 on Safari 15.6, Chrome 104 and Safari Technology Preview (Release 150). As for Materialthese are the used MacBooks:
| Processor | CPU cores | GPUs | Mac model |
| M2 | 8 processor cores 4 performance cores 4 efficiency cores |
10 hearts | 13″ MacBook Pro (2020) |
| M1 | 8 processor cores 4 performance cores 4 efficiency cores |
8 hearts | 13″ MacBook Pro (2022) |
| M1 Pro | 10 CPU cores 8 performance cores 2 efficiency cores |
16 cores | 14″ MacBook Pro (2021) |
Results: The M2 gives a boost
When I tested Safari 15.6, I saw an 18% increase in M2 compared to M1. That’s just over half of what Heinemeier Hanson tweeted, but he compares the M2 to an M1 score that he doesn’t list.
As I said before, a 33% increase would mean the M1 scored 300.
We get our results are the average of three tests and while I didn’t get an exact score of 400 for the M2, I got an average just above that, with one of the tests even getting 408.
Our tests also revealed an 11% improvement for the M2 over the M1 Pro.
The difference with Chrome 104 was smaller, with the M2 seeing a 9% increase over the M1. The speedometer is an Apple-designed test, which may have something to do with Chrome’s result.
Another interesting tidbit as a result of these tests is that the Chrome speed advantage that Google boasted about back in March is gone. Again, Speedometer is a test created by Apple, so Safari has an advantage.
On the M2, Safari is 18% faster than Chrome, and it gets better with Safari Technology Preview.
Safari Technology Preview is a beta version of the browser that Apple makes available to the public to test new features. Hopefully the general public will notice the speed improvements STP brings.
An impressive average score of 420 was achieved on the M2, with one of our tests reaching 425. The score of 420 is 18% better than the M1’s STP.
What does all this mean? Safari is pretty fast on a Mac with an M2 chip, and given how often we browse the web, every optimization counts. But in the end, no matter how fast a browser is, your experience will only be as fast as your connection.
