MacBook Pro (M4 Pro) review: the best gets even better

Apple MacE-book Pro M4

MSRP $3,649.00

“With the M4, the MacE-book Pro has by no means been better.”

Pros

• Even brighter show
• Fantastic 12MP webcam
• Record-breaking efficiency
• Best-in-class keyboard and trackpad
• All the ports you need, now sooner
• Speakers so good you will ditch your headphones

Cons

• Still no OLED
• The 16-inch mannequin is sort of heavy

The M4 chip comes at an essential time. The competitors from Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD has by no means been stronger on the Windows aspect, coming to disrupt Apple’s comfy lead in the previous few years.

I used to be despatched the M4 Pro configuration of the 16-inch MacE-book Pro. It’s a big laptop computer with a really highly effective chip inside, one which claims to have all of it: implausible battery life, spectacular GPU efficiency, world-class AI, and the “quickest core” on the CPU aspect. It’s laborious to complain when Apple has solely decreased the value of those machines and amped up almost each facet, together with the ports, show, efficiency, digital camera, and battery life. This isn’t simply the best MacBook you should purchase, it’s additionally one among the very best laptops that cash should purchase.

Specs and configurations

Design

It’s been three and a half years of the MacE-book Pro utilizing this influential design, each the 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. These are thick laptops, constructed like tanks, and sure, lack a few of the finesse of a MacE-book Air. But they’re lovely, nonetheless. The introduction of the Space Black shade choice final yr is the solely bodily change that’s been launched since 2021, and this time round, the darker shade has utterly changed Space Gray in all configurations. Personally, I’ll miss Space Gray, and I want it had traded out Silver as a substitute. Oh nicely.

My mannequin was the 16-inch measurement, which I’ll admit is just too massive for me. It doesn’t provide you with a lot in the manner of extra efficiency or additional options, and at 4.7 kilos, it’s no joke to lug round. Some will recognize the additional display actual property, little question, however there’s positively a trade-off in mobility. One of the best MacE-book Pro options, the Asus ProArt P16, is each lighter and thinner, regardless of packing in a strong discrete GPU.

But the 14-inch MacE-book Pro actually is the excellent compact laptop computer. I’ve received final yr’s 14-inch M3 Max mannequin sitting subsequent to it, and it continues to be the laptop computer I choose utilizing.

It goes with out saying that no matter which measurement you select, you’re getting a keyboard that’s giant, comfy, and exact. It’s amongst the best laptop computer keyboards you’ll sort on — and that goes for the trackpad too. I proceed to understand the full-size perform keys and the easy glass floor of the trackpad. Double-clicks are easy and never too loud, one thing another haptic suggestions trackpads wrestle with.

The one eyesore in the entire expertise to me remains to be the notch in the show. I discover it fairly ugly and intrusive, and the manner it cuts into the menu bar could be clumsy, particularly on the 14-inch mannequin. I do know we’ll transfer past this design ultimately, so right here’s to hoping it occurs in the 2026 redesign at the least.

Ports and connectivity

The ports on the MacE-book Pro haven’t modified since 2021, and that’s a great factor.

The one massive improve this yr is the inclusion of Thunderbolt 5. It’s solely accessible in the M4 Pro and M4 Max fashions, whereas the M4 is caught on Thunderbolt 4. The Thunderbolt 5 will increase bandwidth from 40Gb/s to 120Gb/s. That means a lot sooner file transfers and broader exterior show help. The system can help as much as two 6K 60Hz exterior shows, and in the event you improve to the M4 Max, that bumps as much as 4 exterior shows.

There aren’t any upgrades to wi-fi connectivity with the M4. For future-proofing functions, it’s too unhealthy we didn’t get the bump to Wi-Fi 7, however Wi-Fi 6E right here is definitely nonetheless present, as is Bluetooth 5.3.

Display

I’ve already mentioned how the measurement choices for these screens impacts the general expertise, however let’s discuss the show itself.

Apple has been resisting OLED on the MacE-book Pro for years now, and it’s beginning to present. Don’t get me mistaken — I really like this MacE-book Pro’s mini-LED show. It’s extremely vivid, and the nano-texture show is the excellent steadiness of delivering readability whereas deflecting glare. Unfortunately, Apple is charging $150 for the nano-texture improve, but it surely actually is a gorgeous addition. It’s creates a refined matte impact that actually does look implausible.

But no, the mini-LED panel will simply by no means attain the highs of OLED, particularly when it comes to shade saturation, accuracy, and distinction. When you take into account the brightness of the tandem OLED panel on the iPad Pro  This display hits 100% sRGB, 99% Display-P3, and 87% AdobeRGB, whereas OLED usually gets nearer to 100% throughout the board. For shade accuracy, I measured a Delta-E of 1.18, which isn’t unhealthy, however a bit behind a lot of the best OLED laptops I’ve examined.

Like the iPad Pro, nevertheless, the MacE-book Pro display does now go as much as 1,000 nits of brightness in SDR. The catch is that you simply’ll must activate adaptive brightness in settings to succeed in that most. When examined with that setting off, I measured max brightness of 585 nits, which remains to be brighter than many OLED laptop computer screens.

To take a look at the full brightness, although, I introduced the MacE-book Pro outdoors. But beneath the noon cloudy skies of Portland, I might inform I wasn’t hitting the full 1,000 nits. I needed to shine a flashlight proper into the gentle sensor to actually see that max brightness shine. And although I wasn’t capable of get a studying from my colorimeter at this brightness, I might positively see the distinction. I do want Apple had made it potential to manually attain that full brightness, even if hidden in settings. However, if you may really want the additional brightness, the MacE-book Pro does have extra to supply than another laptop computer.

Speaking of additional brightness, HDR is dealt with rather well too, principally due to the seamless integration with macOS. When you hit HDR content material, you’ll realize it. And if you don’t, you’ll neglect it even exists. That’s precisely how HDR must be dealt with.

Webcam and audio system

The front-facing FaceTime digital camera obtained fairly a bump this time round, going from 1080p to 12-megapixel. That makes it the most high-resolution webcam on a laptop computer, and it actually does look nice. It handles low gentle better, introducing a lot much less noise into the picture.

It’s not solely about extra pixels although. Apple has two methods up its sleeve in relation to the digital camera: Desk View and Center Stage. Both are neat additions, if slightly gimmicky. Center Stage retains you focused in the body, which could be useful throughout shows.

Desk View, in the meantime, provides a second digital camera feed of the desk in entrance of you. There’s a separate new app known as Desk View, which helps you arrange the angle appropriately. I examined this out in a FaceTime name, and whereas I might see particular cases the place it could be helpful, it’s a bit too blurry to make me enticed to attempt it out extra.

The audio system are implausible, as you may anticipate. They’re louder, bolder, and bassier than many Bluetooth audio system, filling even giant rooms with loads of quantity. The 16-inch mannequin particularly, which I examined out, nonetheless has the absolute best audio system of any laptop computer. That’s not altering anytime quickly.

Performance

“Fastest core. Period.” That was really a quote from Intel’s advertising and marketing about its most up-to-date Core Ultra Series 2 chips. That could have been true for a few weeks, however the M4 has rapidly arrived to spoil Intel’s enjoyable. And boy, it positive does run circles round nearly each different cell chip on the market.

The 14-core half has eight Performance cores and 6 Efficiency cores, however that association hasn’t modified on this era. Instead, it’s all about pushing these cores as laborious as they’ll go, leading to the quickest single-core rating in Cinebench R24 and Geekbench 6 I’ve ever seen. And it’s not even shut. Its rating of 179 is eighteen% larger than the the M3 Max and 29% larger than the quickest Core Ultra 7 258V in our database, the Asus Zenbook S 14. The comparability isn’t wanting any brighter for Qualcomm or AMD’s current efforts.

The multi-core beneficial properties are extra modest over the earlier era, however they nonetheless present Apple manner out in the lead over its direct opponents. Take one among my favourite laptops from this yr for instance, the Surface Laptop 7th Edition. The M4 Pro in the MacE-book Pro is a surprising 53% forward of the Snapdragon X Elite chip inside the Surface Laptop. That’s no joke.

Having such a commanding lead in each single-core and multi-core efficiency means the M4 Pro MacE-book Pro is simply going to really feel sooner in nearly each activity you throw at it. You may not discover the efficiency distinction when looking the internet, however in the event you spend most of your day in entrance of an enhancing timeline, you positive will.

These MacE-book Pros maintain their crown as the final creator workstation. The ProArt P16 is a implausible Windows various, and it’s spectacular how a lot Asus has been capable of emulate the success of the MacE-book Pro, however there’s a motive they continue to be the go-to choice.

Part of the story with the M4 can be the AI efficiency. Apple Intelligence launches in earnest on these laptops, and Apple says its new Neural Engine is twice as quick as in the earlier era. As examined in Geekbench AI, that’s precisely what I noticed.

Graphics

Upon the announcement, Apple said that there have been graphics enhancements in the M4 collection. Although the previous-gen M3 would nonetheless symbolize the bigger architectural improve, introducing options comparable to mesh shading and Dynamic Caching, the M4 builds on that change with larger frequencies and sooner reminiscence. Impressively, the M4 Pro scored a 9182 in the GPU take a look at in Cinebench R24.

Making a one-to-one comparability with a discrete GPU is troublesome, particularly since efficiency varies so wildly in laptops. But it lands someplace in the ballpark of between a cell RTX 4060 and 4070. For instance, the RTX 4070 in the ROG Zephyrus G16 scored 10395 on this identical take a look at, whereas the RTX 4070 in the Dell XPS 16 scored 9721.

But the comparisons with older Macs are notably fascinating. The M4 Pro’s GPU is 16% sooner than the M2 Ultra’s GPU in the Mac Studio. That’s proper — the 20-core GPU in the M4 Pro beats the 60-core GPU we examined in the $4,000 Mac Studio. That’s mind-boggling.

So, what’s all that GPU efficiency good for? Well, definitely not internet looking and phrase processing. But because it seems, the M4 Pro MacE-book Pro is a reasonably nice gaming gadget, as long as you’ll find one thing to play. I loaded up Baldur’s Gate 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, and Myst.

In my testing thus far. The first two video games, that are a bit extra graphically intense, performed easily at the highest graphics preset — as long as I dropped the decision to 1200p. Neither might deal with enjoying easily in native decision, in fact, however that wasn’t too shocking.

HDR appears unimaginable in each of those video games on this show, one thing no gaming laptop computer can ship in fairly the identical manner. And the MacE-book Pro stays surprisingly quiet and funky throughout video games, an underrated benefit this has over a typical gaming laptop computer.

The GPU in the M3 Max in the MacE-book Pro remains to be barely sooner, averaging 88 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider versus 81 fps in the M4 Pro. I can’t wait to see how highly effective the M4 Max is in video games, however the M4 Pro remains to be spectacular at its cheaper price.

Battery life

The different take a look at I ran was operating the multi-core take a look at in Cinebench on battery till the system died. Unfortunately, the MacE-book Pro died after solely an hour and a half. I used to be disenchanted by this end result, as the M3 MacBook Air lasted over twice as lengthy. While Cinebench is an unrealistic workload, it could trace that the MacE-book Pro dies sooner in heavier duties. Additional testing is required, nevertheless, and I’ll replace this overview as soon as I’ve extra outcomes and spend extra time with the gadget.

Is it value it?

Absolutely. The $1,599 14-inch MacE-book Pro went from being a questionable proposition in the earlier era to a stable worth. The M4 Pro, in the meantime, is a big step ahead in nearly each efficiency indicator: the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine.

Meanwhile, the different high quality of life upgrades, comparable to the improved webcam, Thunderbolt 5, even longer battery life, and brighter display, all sweeten the deal and cement the MacE-book Pro as the absolute highest-tier laptop computer you should purchase that’s nonetheless in some way value the cash regardless of how costly it’s.

I haven’t examined each configuration but, in fact — nobody has but. So in the event you’re contemplating an M4 or M4 Max configuration, you could need to look ahead to every week or two till extra testing outcomes are printed earlier than selecting which to get. But in the event you have been already inquisitive about shopping for a MacE-book Pro, simply know that it’s solely gotten better on this yr’s replace.