Get up to speed on the M4

Besides the best chips, all new MacBook Pros feature MiniLED Liquid Retina XDR screens that can reach 1,000 nits for SDR (standard widescreen) content. That’s a 400-nit increase from before, and should help make content even more visible during the day or in brightly lit rooms. (HDR content, as usual, can push the display further to the peak of 1,600 nits.) There’s also a nano-texture glass option (for an extra $150) that can make the screens more glare-resistant, useful for working in bright areas. Be aware, however, 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 from the previous 1080p camera. (Apple hasn’t confirmed the megapixel count for that camera, but it’s likely around 2MP, the bare minimum for up to 1080p). Having a high-resolution camera also opens the door to Center Stage, which can keep you focused as you walk around your room.

I didn’t hate Apple’s previous webcams, but that’s mostly because I remember how great the old 720p webcams used to be. 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 showing things below your screen.

If you tend to deal with large file transfers, you might also appreciate the Thunderbolt 5 support on the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. It can support speeds of up to 120 Gb/s, up from 40 Gb/s on Thunderbolt 4, including the standard M4 chip. That can make a big difference if you’re moving terabytes worth of 4K and 8K videos to external drives – just be aware that you’ll need to invest in a rack like Thunderbolt 5. Thunderbolt 5 may support external AI accelerators (unfortunately, Apple Silicon does not support external GPUs).

It works: The best MacBook Pros yet

I wasn’t really expecting much from the new MacBook Pros, especially since the previous M3 models were already very impressive. But, once again, Apple has managed to surprise me with its mobile hardware. The M4 chip, which was in our 14-inch review unit, was a solid performer. But the M4 Pro in our 16-inch MacBook Pro was an impressive leap ahead of its predecessor, and it’s also the fastest of all the other computers we’ve tested this year (except for the new Mac mini, which again have an M4 Pro chip).

Unfortunately, we didn’t have an M4 Max-equipped MacBook Pro for testing, but since it’s packed with multiple M4 CPU and GPU cores, I’d expect another big jump in performance.

In the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark, the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro scored 1,000 to 1,500 points higher than other recent laptops when it comes to single-threaded work. Its multi-threaded lead was narrower, but it still beats Intel’s new Lunar Lake chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite. The M4 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pro scored the same for single-threaded work, but blew away the competition by 9,000 to 12,500 points. That performance gap alone equals Geekbench 6 multi-threaded results from other laptops this year! (It’s also slightly faster than last year’s M3 Max chip in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, another big achievement.)

Cinebench 2024 scores tell a similar story. Both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro scored higher than the competition in the single-threaded test. The M4 system matched the best multi-threaded results we saw in 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, outperformed other systems with its multi-threaded results, nearly double what we’ve seen all year.

Cinebench’s GPU benchmark puts the M4 Pro’s graphics performance on par with NVIDIA’s RTX 4070 in Dell’s XPS 16, while the M4 chip matches the Framework Laptop 16’s Radeon 7700S. That’s all I expected after testing the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip, and it’s surprising to see that level of performance from a mobile-focused GPU.

When it comes to games, the M4 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pro was able to maintain 60fps in. The lies of P, Resident Evil 4 again Myst while playing at 1,440p the graphics settings are turned down to high. 4K was possible, but it usually slowed things down to around 30fps, which isn’t very playable on a computer. The M4 14-inch MacBook Pro, on the other hand, handled those same games at 1080p at 60fps. We wouldn’t normally recommend gaming on Macs, but Apple’s graphics hardware is hard to ignore right now, and the company is working on getting some high-profile titles into the App Store, like Remedy’s Control.

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

While the speed improvement is welcome, in my testing I noticed that both MacBook Pros’ screens were easier to see in sunlight. That alone isn’t enough to upgrade you if you already have an M2 or M3 MacBook Pro, but it’s something to look forward to. And while Apple’s keyboard and large trackpad haven’t changed, they’re still among the best in the industry. I still enjoy having a variety of ports on these systems: three USB-C connections (Thunderbolt 4 with M4, Thunderbolt 5 with M4 Pro), HDMI port, headphone jack, MagSafe power connector and SD card. student.

Both MacBook Pros also continue to deliver excellent battery life. The 14-inch lasted 34 hours and 15 minutes while playing HD video, while the 16-inch lasted 30 hours and 16 minutes. This is the first time we’ve seen our video test exceed 30 hours. In real-world use, I could use both machines in a typical production job for two days without needing a charge. That’s the benefit of relying on power-hungry mobile hardware.

Should you buy the new M4 MacBook Pros?

There’s no doubt that these new MacBook Pros are compelling, especially if you need the raw power of the M4 Pro (or presumably, the M4 Max). If you’re using an M1 MacBook Pro, or you’re still trucking along with an Intel model, you’ll see some significant performance benefits on this machine. But if you have an M2 or M3 MacBook Pro, the M4 hardware is less of a leap in quality. You’re probably better off waiting for the eventual OLED refresh, which is said to happen in 2026.