Brace yourself for M4 speed

In addition to dramatically better chips, all new MacBook Pros have MiniLED Liquid Retina XDR displays that can reach 1,000 nits for SDR (standard dynamic range) content. That’s a 400-nit increase from before, which should help make content more visible in daylight or brightly lit rooms. (HDR content, as always, can push the screen up to 1,600 nits peak.) There’s also a nano-textured glass option (for an extra $150) that makes the screens anti-glare, and it’s handy to work with. bright environments. However, be aware that it can also make the screen appear less sharp.

Apple also upgraded the MacBook Pros’ webcams to 12 megapixels, which is a big jump over the previous 1080p camera. (Apple hasn’t confirmed the megapixel figure for this camera, but it’s likely around 2MP, to hit 1080p minimum). Having a higher-resolution camera also opens the door for Center Stage, which can focus your attention as you move around your room.

I didn’t hate Apple’s previous webcams, but that’s mostly because I remember how mediocre its old 720p webcams were. The new models look sharper with more accurate colors and the overall image doesn’t look as filtered as previous cameras. They also support Desk View (above), Apple’s handy feature for displaying objects below your screen.

If you often deal with large file transfers, you may also appreciate the support for Thunderbolt 5 on the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. It can support speeds from 40 Gb/s to 120 Gb/s on Thunderbolt 4, which includes a standard M4 chip. If you transfer terabytes worth of 4K and 8K videos to external drives, this can make a big difference – just note that you’ll need to invest in similarly equipped Thunderbolt 5 storage. Thunderbolt 5 could potentially allow external AI accelerators (unfortunately, Apple Silicon doesn’t support external GPUs).

In use: Still the best MacBook Pro

I didn’t expect much from the new MacBook Pros, especially since the previous M3 models were already very impressive. But still, Apple managed to surprise me with its mobile hardware. The M4 chip in our 14-inch review unit was a solid performer. But the M4 Pro on the 16-inch MacBook Pro was a stunning leap ahead of its predecessor, and it’s also faster than every other computer we’ve tested this year (except the new Mac mini). also had the M4 Pro chip).

Unfortunately, we didn’t have an M4 Max-equipped MacBook Pro to test with, but given that it’s packed with more M4 CPU and GPU cores, I’d expect another big performance jump.

In Geekbench 6’s CPU benchmark, the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro scored 1000-1500 points higher than other recent laptops when it comes to single-threaded work. Its multi-threaded performance was more subtle, but still beat Intel’s new Lunar Lake chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite. The M4 Pro scored the same as the 16-inch MacBook Pro for single-threaded work, but it trailed the competition by 9,000 to 12,500 points. This performance difference alone equals the multithreaded Geekbench 6 scores of other laptops this year! (It’s also slightly faster than last year’s M3 Max chip in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which is another big achievement.)

Cinebench 2024 scores tell a similar story. Both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros outperformed the competition in the single-threaded test. The M4 system matched the best multi-threaded scores we’ve seen from the Surface Laptop 7 (powered by the Snapdragon X Elite chip) and the HP Omnibook Ultra 14 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375). But the M4 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pro once again easily beat out other systems with a multithreaded score that was nearly double what we’ve seen all year.

Cinebench’s GPU benchmarks match the M4 Pro’s graphics performance with NVIDIA’s RTX 4070 in Dell’s XPS 16, while the M4 chip matches the Framework Laptop 16’s Radeon 7700S. After testing the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip, it’s everything I expected, and to see this level of performance from a mobile-centric GPU is simply amazing.

When it comes to games, the M4 Pro was able to keep up with the 16-inch MacBook Pro at 60fps. P’s lies, Resident Evil 4 and Mist When playing at 1440p with graphics settings maxed out. 4K was possible, but it usually slowed things down to around 30fps, which isn’t very playable on PC. And the M4 14-inch MacBook Pro ran the same games at 1080p at 60fps. We don’t usually recommend playing a lot of games on Macs, but Apple’s graphics hardware is hard to ignore at this point, and the company is also trying to get higher-profile titles like Remedy’s Control on the App Store.

To test Apple’s Neural Engine, I also used the Whisper Transcription app (AKA MacWhisper) to transcribe an hour and nine minute podcast episode. The M4 14-inch MacBook Pro took three minutes and two seconds, and the M4 Pro 16-inch model took two minutes and 11 seconds (as I saw with the M4 Mac mini). By comparison, the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro took three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

While the speed boost is welcome, in my tests I found both MacBook Pro screens to be easier to see in bright sunlight. It’s not enough to upgrade to if you own an M2 or M3 MacBook Pro, but it’s definitely something to look forward to. While Apple’s keyboard and giant trackpad haven’t changed, they’re still among the best in the industry. I still appreciate the wide variety of ports these systems have: three USB-C connections (Thunderbolt 4 with the M4, Thunderbolt 5 with the M4 Pro), an HDMI port, a headphone jack, a MagSafe power connector, and an SD card reader.

Both MacBook Pros continue to deliver excellent battery life. The 14-inch took 34 hours and 15 minutes while shooting HD video, while the 16-inch took 30 hours and 16 minutes. This is the first time we’ve seen our video review test exceed 30 hours. In real-world use, I could typically use both machines for two days for general productivity work without needing a refill. This is the benefit of relying on power-hungry mobile devices.

Should you buy the new M4 MacBook Pro?

There’s no doubt that these new MacBook Pros are attractive, especially if you need the raw power of the M4 Pro (or M4 Max). If you’re running an M1 MacBook Pro or still booting a truck with an Intel model, you’re sure to see some noticeable performance gains from these machines. But if you have an M2 or M3 MacBook Pro, the M4 hardware is less of a leap in quality. Probably better to wait the latest OLED updateIt is rumored to take place in 2026.