The M4 MacBook Pro is evolutionary but worth upgrading to
Apple’s latest and greatest laptops look the same as before but they deliver considerably more on every front
KOSTAS FARKONAS
PublishED: October 31, 2024
Not a lot of tech companies are able to announce precisely what everyone was expecting for months and still impress with what’s essentially unveiled by a video and a press release… but that’s exactly what Apple seems to have pulled off by announcing its M4 MacBook Pro line of laptops. These models look exactly the same as their predecessors – the rather unexciting M3-based MacBook Pro line of 2023 – but there are enough changes under the hood to ensure that these will do much better with their target audience.
So, first things first: just as expected, we get three M4-based MacBook Pro models. The base 14-inch MacBook Pro is built around the same chip found in the new M4 iMac or the new M4 Mac Mini (it does get the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU though) and it also comes with 16GB of RAM at long last (so it’s actually worth the “Pro” label this time around) and 512GB of storage. It sports three Thunderbolt 4 ports (so it can drive two 6K monitors at 60Hz while remaining open) as well as an upgraded 12 Megapixel webcam supporting Center Stage and Desk View. Everything else – HDMI port, headphone jack, SD card slot – remains the same, but battery life is now rated at an impressive 24 hours. Not bad for a $1599 laptop… and an Apple one at that.
Professionals who work with high-resolution photos, videos, music or 3D graphics though – and are in need of more powerful hardware – will probably gravitate towards the 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro models equipped with the M4 Pro or M4 Max processors. The former seems to be pretty much the same chip found in the more powerful versions of the new Mac Mini (clocks might obviously be a bit lower), but the latter is a different beast altogether: not only is the GPU of the M4 Max using up to 40 cores, but if configured to work with the 16-core CPU the unified memory bandwidth of the whole system can break through the 500GB/sec barrier (!), which is unheard of in the world of laptop computers.
As impressive as the M4 Max may be when it comes to system memory bandwidth and power efficiency, in terms of raw power the jump from last year’s M3 Max will probably not be as big as one would expect. The improved 3nm manufacturing process works in the M4 Max’s favor – it obviously helps with battery life too – but the difference in performance does not seem to be all that great. If anything, the M4 Pro/Max are enticing upgrades for the crowd who embraced Apple silicon early with the M1 Pro/Max and did not see the point in investing in the M2 or M3 generation of processors. Having said that, it’s clear that consumers who choose the base 14-inch MacBook Pro or the most affordable M4 Pro configurations will be getting the most out of their purchase this time around in terms of value.
It goes without saying that the M4 Max MacBook Pro models are as expensive as top pro tools tend to be (they start at $3199 offering 36GB of RAM/1TB of storage for the 14-inch model and quickly shoot up from there), but that’s to be expected from Apple. The 16-inch model costs more than $7000 when configured with 128GB of RAM and 8TB of storage, which sounds like a lot of money – until one comes across several PC gaming laptops even more expensive than that, in which case… it all makes some kind of sense, maybe? At least Apple is throwing an amazing 120 Hz screen, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, great speakers, exceptional built quality and unmatched battery life into the mix, which is something professionals who love Apple products can appreciate.
All three MacBook Pro models come in Space Black or Silver colors, the same 16-core Neural Engine co-processor built for Apple Intelligence AI functionality as well as the same Wi-Fi 6E/Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity. They will be available in all major markets from November 8th. As a sidenote, Apple quietly upgraded all current MacBook Air models – i.e. those based on the M3 chip as well as that based on the M2 chip – to 16GB of system memory at no extra cost, presumably so that they can support Apple Intelligence on macOS Sequoia too. Was it that long ago when “8GB of RAM on a Mac” was “equivalent to 16GB on PC”? How time flies!