Apples newMacBook Pro 16 with M4 Prois not carrying the old idiom, whats old is new again.
The MacBook Pro 16 with M4 Pro sports the same look and chassisweve seen for the last three years.
Theres an existential quality to thelatest MacBooks.
© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
You know theyll be powerful.
You know theyll last you a good, long while.
You know it so well that you may struggle to justify the upgrade.
© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
The M4 Pro by itself is capable of competing against desktop-level CPUs in some of our tests.
The new big MacBook is better on its own than the M3 Max from last year.
Pros
Cons
For all that promised power, this is still an expensive laptop.
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
All totaled up, this configuration would set you back $3,500.
The lowest-end M4 Max configuration starts at that same price.
The base model at this screen size is $2,500, already a princely sum.
© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
If you fit the bill and youve been eyeing an upgrade, this is the best one yet.
Just dont assume Apple Intelligence will change your world.
It cant possibly do so until 2025, if ever.
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
The M4 Pro is a powerhouse that managed to beat last years M3 Max in many of our tests.
Even more than that, it tested better than I had thought it would.
Apple seems to think the M4 Pro is a gaming-ready chip.
Apple likes to mention the hardware-accelerated ray tracing support on M4.
Resident Evil 4could offer between 100 and 120 FPS at high options at a 1920 by 1200 resolution.
Lets break it down.
The power-per-square-inch is why you should opt for the M4 Pro over the base 14-inch M4 models.
You should still look towards a quality PC if you want a mobile gaming computer.
I dont need a cutout on my display.
I want it gone, but thats not in the cards for this MacBook refresh.
Besides, a new screen may finally mean a transition to OLED.
Imagine the iPad Pros tandem OLED on a MacBook.
Come on, manifest it with me.
Apple said it sent me a MacBook Pro 14 with the nano-texture and the 16 model without it.
However, I found my 16 model seemed more matte than the 14.
The difference was obvious side-by-side with the M3 MacBook Pro.
However, the new, higher brightness on the 16-inch display did more to offset issues than a texture.
Compared to theIPS LCD MacBook Air 15, both the min-LEDs did a better job reducing glare.
I would suggest saving your money and opting for the regular screen.
Perhaps doubly so since Apple still wants you to buy a $19 polishing cloth for the nano-texture.
Our advice: dont.
Its still a pretty laptop, to be sure, and in my opinion, its prettier without nano-texture.
As for the few other minor changes, theres a new upgrade to the port selection.
I still feel satisfied with the I/O on the Pro models.
Theres the SD card reader, four USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and Apples proprietary MagSafe 3.
Thunderbolt 4 capped out at 40 Gbps bandwidth speeds.
Despite the big promises, you cant support multiple 8K monitors with a MacBook Pro.
Even with the move to Thunderbolt 5, some upgrades seem mysteriously lacking.
Theres still no WiFi 7 support; instead, its stuck with WiFi 6E.
These laptops last for a long time.
It only reached 50% at the 14-hour mark.
As you might expect, it took another 12 hours to die completely.
Simply put, it does not change how you use your Mac.
To sum it up, I found it didnt add anything to the Mac experience.
The M4 Chip has a better 38 TOPS neural engine than the M3, M2, or M1 chips.
However, you have to remember that the NPU doesnt do much of the intensive AI tasks.
The NPU is built for background AI.
Anything that requires more juice is likely handled by Apple Intelligences much-hyped private cloud computing.
If youre an AI developer, you already know you care more about the qualities of the GPU.
Just double-check you could live with this chassis.
I know I could, but part of me is hoping for something better.
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