The 24-inch iMac used to be my favorite Mac, but was replaced last year by the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The biggie-sized laptop is the most practical computer for me at this stage in my life. And my latest is one equipped with the M4 Pro.
As the person who does almost all the work at Apple World Today these days, the biggie-sized laptop attached to a Studio Display is a great desktop set-up for running the website. And when I take a trip for work or pleasure, the 16-inch MacBook has a big enough display that I can easily continue my daily chores.
And, yep, being a mostly one-man show, I do the morning and evening AWT updates even on vacation. I’ve tried using a 12.9-inch iPad Pro to do this, but, even with Stage Manager, iPadOS is so limited compared to macOS that it takes twice as long to do my work on a tablet as on a laptop.
So a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro processor, 48GB of memory, and a 2TB SSD is my workhorse.
Performance
The MacBook Pro/Studio Display set-up works seamlessly. I have Pages, Safari, iTunes, Mail, Calendar, Photos, Messages, and Pixelmator Pro all open at the same time (and often Apple Music, as well), and there’s never a hiccup in performance. This laptop works smoothly all day long and I’ve never heard its fan kick in. You can find a round-up of reviews with more specific speed tests here.
Apple says that MacBook Pro models powered by the M4 and M4 Pro chips simultaneously support the built-in display and:
° Up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt, or one external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one external display with up to 4K resolution at 144Hz over HDMI.
° One external display supported at 8K resolution at 60Hz or one external display at 4K resolution at 240Hz over HDMI
This is a big update from the base M3 MacBook Pro, which only supported one external display with the MacBook lid open and two displays with the lid closed.
High Power Mode is available on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip, according to Ars Technica‘s Andrew Cunningham. The feature was previously limited to Macs with Apple’s highest-end “Max” chip, so this is the first time it is available on Macs with a “Pro” chip.
Apple says High Power Mode allows a Mac’s fans to run at higher speeds, and this additional cooling allows the system to deliver higher performance for graphics-intensive sustained workloads, such as 8K video color grading. On supported Macs, the feature can be used when the computer is running on battery power or connected to a power source.
In his Mac mini review, Cunningham said High Power Mode performance gains were “essentially negligible” despite “considerably increased” fan noise. However, he acknowledged that his tests were short and that High Power Mode could be more beneficial “over many hours of activity.” As mentioned, Apple said the feature is for “sustained” workloads.
I’ve never found a need to use the High Power Mode, but it’s there for folks who need it.
The Display
As with the previous iteration of the laptop, the Liquid Retina XR display of the MacBook Pro is gorgeous. It boasts 7.7 million pixels, up to 1,000 nits of sustained, full-screen brightness, 1,600 nits of peak brightness, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and extreme dynamic range. It has a P3 wide color gamut and supports one billion colors for smoother gradients.
Apple’s tech specs page says all of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models have a peak display brightness of 1,000 nits for standard content in bright outdoor lighting, such as on a sunny day. The previous-generation MacBook Pro models have a peak display brightness of 600 nits for standard content, in any lighting conditions.
It’s a mini-LED display, which means the backlight is composed of 10,000 tiny LEDs, grouped into over 2,500 local dimming zones. Photos look vibrant and crisp. The MacBook Pro is a great system for watching movies, especially with its outstanding speaker system (more on that in a moment).
The display also sports ProMotion technology that features an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz. ProMotion automatically varies the refresh rate to match the motion of a user’s onscreen content to help preserve battery life. (If only the Studio Display also had ProMotion support ….)
A fantastic option for the new Mac laptops is an optional nano-texture display that reduces glare and distractions from reflections. If you’ll ever work with the laptop outside or in very bright environments, you’ll want to spent an extra $150 for this option.
In bright lighting conditions, the new MacBook Pro can now show SDR content at up to 1000 nits and still displays HDR content at up to 1600 nits of peak brightness.
Enhanced webcam
Another great addition to the new Mac laptop is the upgrade to a 12-MP webcam. Up from 1080p in previous models, it offers enhanced video quality in what Apple describes as “challenging lighting conditions.”
The webcam is also fantastic for use with Center Stage, a feature that automatically keeps you centered in the camera’s view as you move around.
The webcam supports “Desk View,” which lets you share a livestream of your desk while you’re screen-sharing.
The Audio
The speakers on the MacBook Pro — unchanged as far as I can tell — sound great. The six-speaker sound system features two tweeters and four force-cancelling woofers. The sound system also supports spatial audio, which creates a three-dimensional listening experience.
The speakers are clear and crisp with thumping base. You can really crank up the volume with no distortion. Listening to your tunes or watching a movie in Dolby Atmos is an immersive, gratifying experience.
Apple says the MacBook Pro has industry-leading, studio-quality mics that have an even lower noise floor, resulting in clearer calls and voice recordings. I’ll take their word for it, as I’m not a podcaster.
The Space Black option
The MacBook Pros are available in a Space Option that I really like. Apple says the anodized material keeps “any but the greasiest of smudges from showing up.” I wouldn’t go that far, but it does reduce fingerprints.
That isn’t a major concern of mine, as I keep my 16-inch MacBook Pro safely enclosed in a Satechi Eco-Hardshell.
Connectivity
The latest MacBook Pro has a SDXC card slot, HDMI port (that supports up to 8K resolution), 3.5mm headphone jack, the fantastic MagSafe 3 port for charging, and three (up from two) Thunderbolt/USB-C 5 ports. The Thunderbolt 5 ports that more than double transfer speeds up to 120 Gb/s, enabling faster external storage, expansion chassis, and powerful docking and hub solutions.
Another plus for the updated 16-inch MacBook Pro M4: it runs up to 24 hours on a full charged battery. The previous version “only” lasted about 22 hours.
The Controversial Notch
As with the 2021 and later models the new MacBook Pros sport an iPhone-like notch, which some folks apparently hate. The notch houses the 1080p webcam, the camera LED, the TrueTone light sensor, and the ambient light sensor at the top of the display.
To be honest, the notch doesn’t bother me at all. Basically, the MacBook Pro has a 16:10 display with a little extra space at the top where the menu bar and the notch live. I don’t notice it any more than I notice the notch on my iPhone.
Conclusion
If you’re a one-man business like me and have to take your work on-the-go occasionally, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is a good investment. However, it’s very expensive (you can find pricing here). The 14-inch MacBook Pro will save you substantial money if you don’t need the bigger screen. And, for most consumers, the MacBook Air will be the perfect combination of price, power, and size.
And weight could be a determining factor. At 4.7 pounds, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is 1.3 pounds heavier than the 14-inch Pro and 1.4 pounds heavier than the 15-inch Air. The 16-inch is notably thicker, as well, at 0.66 inch, 0.05 inch thicker than the 14-inch Pro and 0.21 inch thicker than the 15-inch Air.
However, I’m more than happy to deal with the extra weight and size to have a laptop that’s basically a portable workstation — and a good gaming machine.
Some nit-picking
Of course, there are features I wish Apple had added. I’ve long wanted a MacBook Pro with an optional cellular feature as is available with the iPad.
I’d also love to see a MacBook Pro with an OLED display; however, that’s no likely to happen until 2027, according to the rumor mill.
Finally, some folks want a Mac laptop with a touch screen. I don’t see it happening anytime soon — and I’d rather have the aforementioned features first — but a January 11 2023 Bloomberg report said Apple was planning such a device for 2025.
I wouldn’t bet serious money on a touch screen MacBook Pro (or any of the other features I’ve mentioned). But a fella can dream, can’t he? And some, if not all, the things on my wish list will almost certainly come in time. It’s just a matter of when.
Still, I do have to wonder why the new Mac laptops don’t come with Wi-Fi 7 support. All of the iPhone 16 models boast Wi-Fi 7 chips from Broadcom and support the 802.11be Wi-Fi 7 standard with 2×2 MIMO.
Apple’s Wi-Fi specifications page notes that the Wi-Fi 7 chips in the iPhone 16 models have a maximum physical layer data rate of 2400Mb/s and a maximum channel bandwidth of 160MHz, which is the same performance as the Wi-Fi 6E chips in the iPhone 15 Pro models and the M3 Mac models with Wi-Fi 6E on 6GHz networks. I don’t understand the reasoning behind not including Wi-Fi 7 in devices that are (mostly) more expensive than an iPhone.
With these niggling complaints, I can’t say the M4 MacBook Pro is a perfect laptop, but it’s arguably the best one out there.
Apple World Today rating (out of 5 stars): ★★★★.5
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