M4/M4 Pro MacBook Pro review: Brighter, clearer, faster
The latest update to the MacBook Pro is not a radically different laptop than what has come before. Since the product was redesigned in 2021, subsequent updates have been largely the same, at least on the outside.
But just as the MacBook Air is the default Mac for a majority of consumer Mac users, the MacBook Pro is the tool of choice for most Mac professionals. As a result, even a small update can be of great importance.
Anyway, here’s the good news: All the things that have made Apple silicon-based MacBook Pros great are still here, now powered by the impressively upgraded M4 chip. Apple has also sufficiently improved the base model to finally elevate it out of “Why does this exist?” territory, boosted the device’s world-class display, and seriously upgraded the built-in webcam. Not bad for a small update.
Validating the base model
Apple’s relationship with the low end of the MacBook Pro line has some weird history. For a while, it was the one model to not get the Touch Bar. Later, it was the last model to have a Touch Bar. In the Apple Silicon era, it has used the same M series chip as the thinner, lighter, and more affordable MacBook Air.
Fortunately, last year Apple decided that the base-model MacBook Pro should have the design and most of the features of the more expensive models. It still had a base-model M3 chip, but it did have the amazing Liquid Retina display, the array of microphones, good speakers, the works. Still, it was not quite a full member of the club, with an alternate color scheme (Space Gray instead of Space Black) and some degraded functionality thanks to its lower-end chip.
I’m happy to report that, as of now, the $1599 base-model 14-inch MacBook Pro really feels like a full member of the family. It’s got the same Space Black color option as the other models, sure, but it’s also got—enabled by the expanded capability of the M4 chip over the M3—an extra Thunderbolt port, bringing its total to three. Most relevant: that third port is located on the right side, not the left, meaning that users of this laptop can plug in peripherals or charge from either side! I know it seems like a little thing, but sometimes the little things can mean a lot for ergonomics, especially when you’re using a laptop on the go.
In terms of processor performance, yes, the base model has the same M4 chip that’s in the iPad Pro and will undoubtedly be in the MacBook Air sometime next spring. Even the base-model M-series chips have been great, and four generations in, they’re so fast that I can’t even lift an eyebrow at Apple using one in a laptop labeled “Pro.” Yes, you can spend more money for faster and more capable versions of the MacBook Pro, but isn’t that always the way?
A few display upgrades
And now, the star of the show—that Liquid Retina display that debuted in 2021:
This is a 120-hertz ProMotion display with a wide color gamut, backlit by mini-LED display technology that allows it to run bright and peak even brighter, while also maintaining black levels that contribute to a remarkably extended level of dynamic range.
It looks incredible.
The Liquid Retina display on these new laptops is the same as it ever was—absolutely the best Mac display experience ever. Every time I get my eyes on one, especially the gigantic 16-inch model, I am blown away by how great it looks. And yet Apple has made a couple of changes in this generation to make it even better.
First off, it’s brighter—sort of. The peak brightness of the screen when displaying HDR content is unchanged, at 1600 nits. But if you’re in standard dynamic range mode—which most people are, pretty much all the time they’re not looking at HDR photos or watching HDR movies—the screen is brighter than ever before. Apple has been slowly ratcheting up this figure, from 480 nits with the M2 to 600 nits with the M3 to, now, 1000 nits with the M4.
One thousand nits is bright. So bright that you probably would only want to use it outside, in bright sunlight. But this is a laptop, which means it’s the kind of computer that might very well be used outside, in difficult lighting conditions.
Speaking of which, there’s another new feature designed to enhance the display in difficult viewing environments: a $150 nano-texture option. Apple has slowly been rolling out this anti-glare surface on many of its devices, from iPads to Macs to external displays, and now it’s reached the MacBook Pro (as well as the M4 iMac).
I frequently use my laptop outside. If it’s a nice day, I will sit in my backyard under a redwood tree and write. I did so for this article, in fact, and spent some time trying to counteract the afternoon sun shining through the branches with the new screen brightness and nano-texture display.
The results were very good. True, not even the nano-texture display can really defeat the sun shining directly into the screen and reflecting into my eyes. But beyond that extreme condition, it defeated all other forms of glare easily. Using a nano-texture-covered display is a little weird—the reflections just stop at the screen edge, as if by magic. It works incredibly well. And most of the time, in more normal lighting conditions, I didn’t really notice the nano-texture being there. Yes, if you look closely, you will notice a light scatter that reduces contrast a bit.
Laptops are designed to be portable. That means they can be used in uncontrollable conditions, and this display is more resilient in those situations. Of course, you may also be able to turn your chair to a different angle and solve the problem that way. It’s up to you to decide if you’d rather trade a little contrast for some dramatic glare reduction.
An improved webcam
Three years ago, Apple introduced a new feature called Center Stage. This feature uses a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera pointed at the user to capture a scene. Then, machine-learning software automatically crops, pans, and zooms the picture as if a camera operator were shooting your FaceTime calls and Zoom meetings.
I’m a fan of the feature, but it’s undeniably true that the 12MP camera really showed its limitations in certain lighting conditions, especially when zoomed in on a small portion of the image. In plenty of circumstances, it looked worse than a standard, boring, locked-in-place webcam. (Try using an iPhone camera as your Center Stage camera via Continuity Camera sometime—it looks so much better.)
With the M4, the MacBook Pro’s FaceTime camera has been upgraded from a 1080p model to a new 12MP Center Stage camera. I can hear the groans now, but here’s the thing: This isn’t the same sensor as in some previous Center Stage cameras. It seems better, though for whatever reason, it doesn’t look as good as the one in the M4 iMac.
In a challenging low-light environment, the original Center Stage camera on an Apple Studio Display can look fuzzy, blotchy, and low contrast. The new Center Stage camera on the MacBook Pro did a better job, with more contrast and more natural-looking skin tones.
Apple’s still promoting Desk View, which lets the Center Stage camera display documents placed on a desk in front of the camera, as a productivity feature—but I don’t think it makes sense on a laptop. To get Desk View’s geometry to work, you’ve got to push your laptop way back on the desk or table and tilt the screen forward, which makes viewing pretty awkward. It’s a fine feature for a desktop display or an iMac, but not a MacBook Pro.
Fourward march
We already know about how fast the M4 chip is, because it debuted earlier this year in the iPad Pro:
Regarding the M4 as a whole, the early returns are encouraging. The M4 single-core score was 24% higher than an M3 MacBook Air and 45% faster than the M2 iPad Pro. In multi-core operations, the 10-core M4 bested an eight-core M3 by 22%, and the eight-core M2 iPad Pro by 50%.
The same holds for the M4 when used in a device running macOS. What’s new is the arrival of the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, which offer higher levels of performance. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to review a MacBook Pro with the high-end Max chip, but I did get to spend nearly a week using a 16-inch MacBook Pro with a 14-core, 20-GPU M4 Pro processor and came away impressed.
In the M3 generation, the Max variety seemed to take a big step forward while the Pro version advanced by more of a half-step. That seems reversed this time, with the Pro chip getting a major memory bandwidth boost. So, if you’re in the market for a fast MacBook Pro, should you be satisfied with the Pro chip or spend the extra money for the Max?
It depends on what kinds of tasks you’re doing. (Isn’t that always the way?) On multi-core CPU tasks, the M4 Pro holds its own with the M3 Max chip of the previous generation. Basically, the faster M4 cores mean it has a little more power despite having a couple fewer cores. Yes, you can spend a lot of money for an M4 Max chip with a couple of additional CPU cores, but I’m not sure that would be reason enough to upgrade.
No, the big difference between the Pro and the Max is the availability of many, many more GPU cores—if you want to buy them. The M4 Pro tops out at 20 GPU cores, but you can spend a lot of money and configure an M4 Max chip with up to 40 cores. If your goal is to completely blow out GPU performance, Max will let you do it. Most people will be plenty comfy with the M4 Pro.
The M4 Pro and M4 Max chips also bring Thunderbolt 5 to the party, while the M4 remains behind on Thunderbolt 4. Thunderbolt 5 is obviously new, and there aren’t many (any?) accessories for it, but they’ll come eventually. The important things to know about it are that Thunderbolt 5 can deliver 200 watts of charging and that it supports enhanced transfer speeds—good for people who need fast storage, but also good for people who want to hook up big external displays. The M4 Max model will apparently drive four external displays! (The two models I tested only support two external displays.)
Onward and upward
For developers, artists, and creative people, the MacBook Pro is the Mac product line’s most vitally important representative. Apple must keep moving it forward with a combination of new features and ongoing performance boosts. The current MacBook Pro design is a few years old, but it doesn’t feel stale or boring—it’s still excellent. This year, Apple has improved on it by brightening the screen, improving the webcam, making the base model a full citizen of MacBook Pro nation, and, of course, raising the bar for performance with the M4 chip family.
Not too long ago, Apple struggled to ensure that the most important Pro Mac was updated regularly and reliably. Thankfully, in the Apple silicon era, that’s no longer the case.
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