Glimpse at the Brand-New MacBook Pro Collection Now Unveiled
Glimpse at the Brand-New MacBook Pro Collection Now Unveiled
Last year's "scary" themed MacBook launch gave us the "ink-black" MacBook Pro with M3. This year's "exciting period" of Mac news isn't as spooky for Apple's trusted laptop line, but it might be the year the basic 14-inch MacBook Pro stays relevant longer. The upcoming MacBook Pro models all feature an M4 or M4 Pro chip, with the M4 Max reserved for the 16-inch versions. Simultaneously, everything, including the 14-incher and the MacBook Air with M2 or M3, begins with a base 16GB of unified memory. About time!
Apple unveiled the new MacBook Pro lineups, powered by the M4 silicon. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is limited to the standard M4, whereas the 16-inch MacBook Pro comes in M4 Pro and M4 Max versions. The M4 debuted with this year's "mini iPad Pro". The chip's initial model included a 9-core CPU and a 10-core GPU; however, the 14-inch MacBook Pro sports a more potent 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, identical to the recently-introduced "new iMac." The high-end, costly version of the Pros with M4 Max boasts a 14-core CPU and 32-core GPU.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with basic M4 starts at $1,600, offering 512 GB of SSD storage. 1 TB options for the smaller Pro will cost $1,800 or $2,000, depending on whether you desire 24GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the M4 Pro versions of the 14-inch range from $2,000 to $3,200 without optional add-ons. The M4 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pros start at $2,500. If you want the M4 Max model with a 16-core CPU and a 40-core GPU, 48 GB of RAM, and 1 TB storage, expect to pay over $4,000 or $5,000 for the maximum 128 GB of RAM.
© Image: Apple
Apple presented the M4 Pro chip alongside the "shrunken-down Mac mini" on Tuesday. We had hints about the M4 Max before launch, but the new chip is the epitome of expensive options on the MacBook Pro 16. Apple claimed the M4 Max CPU includes 12 performance cores and four efficiency cores. Apple touts it boasts four times the bandwidth of recent AMD, Qualcomm, or Intel PCs. We'll determine those performance claims once we test these laptops. Apple stated that the new GPU should be 1.2 times faster than the M3 Max's graphics processor from last year. Apple compared Redshift benchmarks to the 2023 top-end MacBook Pro 16 and claimed the M4 Max was 1.2 times quicker.
Apple remains determined to push gaming on Mac. To that end, the company also announced that the famous first-person RPG, "Cyberpunk 2077," would finally grace the Mac platform early next year. If it performs well on the M4 Pro or M4 Max, Apple might persuade developers to bring their games to the M-series silicon.
The new Pros maintain the same flat chassis design as the 2022 MacBooks. It's a sleek, lightweight, and versatile laptop design, but we're still not impressed with the webcam notch still present. Apple promises excellent battery life on the Pro models alongside the mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR Display and a 12 MP webcam with the company's Center Stage software. One benefit of the new hardware is that the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro or M4 Max now supports Thunderbolt 5, allowing 120 GB/s transfer speeds. The routine HDMI port, SD card slot, headphone jack, and MagSafe 3 charging port are still available.
Though any M-series Mac product will acquire the guaranteed AI features for macOS Sequoia, the M4 chip is expected to enhance Apple Intelligence more effectively than all other Apple-branded CPUs with a 16-core neural engine capable of 38 TOPS, or trillions of operations per second. Computers' neural processing units only function with background AI tasks; anything more intensive will rely on the Mac's GPU or Apple's cloud infrastructure. Apple said its AI features would be confined to English for US customers but will expand to Australia, Canada, the UK, and South Africa in December, followed by additional languages next year.
Additionally, Apple declared that the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs would all sport 16GB of base RAM. Apologies to those who bought the previous model with just 8GB of RAM. The M2 model still starts at $1,000, the same as before.
As we've witnessed with the latest iPhones, Apple Intelligence is also quite RAM-intensive, which may explain why Apple updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro's memory. Apple went on record to claim that 8 GB of RAM is sufficient, despite opposition from modern PC enthusiasts. In June, XDA developers spotted a feature called Predictive Code Completion for M-series chips that required at least 16 GB of unified memory. If Mac users were supposed to get the most out of their MacBook Pros, it's clear Apple had to shell out more for more RAM.
The new MacBook Pro models will be available for preorder starting Wednesday and will ship by Nov. 8.
The integration of the M4 chip in the new MacBook Pro lineups highlights Apple's commitment to advancement in tech, showcasing its capabilities in the future of laptop technology. Moreover, the 16-inch MacBook Pro's offerings with the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips echo Apple's ambition to balance power and affordability, appealing to a wide range of tech enthusiasts who value both performance and value.