Apple Releases New MacBook Pro With M4/M4 Pro/M4 Max Chip Options
After many days of waiting, Apple today officially launched the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with three M4/M4 Pro/M4 Max chip options, promising to bring a great user experience. Today is the third consecutive day that Apple has announced new products to global users. If two days ago we had the new iMac and Mac mini, today, Apple chose to give the spotlight to the new MacBook Pro line with 14-inch versions running Apple M4 chip and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch versions using Apple M4 Pro and M4 Max.
MacBook Pro 14 inch with M4 chip
This update brings a more powerful M4 chip, a minimum of 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB, an additional Thunderbolt port, and a Space Black color option. Accordingly, the most notable upgrade of the new basic 14-inch MacBook Pro is the M4 chip, which has a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, promising to bring powerful performance to users.
Apple introduced the M4 chip in the iPad Pro earlier this year, and in the new iMac and Mac mini models that were announced a few days ago. Geekbench 6 benchmark results show that the M4 chip is up to 25% faster than the M3 chip in the iPad Pro, and we can expect similar performance improvements in the M4 Mac models.
Like the new iMac, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro now starts with 16GB of RAM, up from 8GB on the previous generation, and users will have the option of up to 32GB of RAM. In terms of storage, the product offers SSD options ranging from 512GB to 2TB.
The laptop has three Thunderbolt 4 ports, up from two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the previous model. It now supports up to two external displays at up to 6K resolution, even with the lid open. It has a nano-texture display option with a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, a new 12MP Center Stage camera, and a better battery life of up to 24 hours.
This year, Apple has added a darker Space Black color option to the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, along with a Silver option. Previously, Space Black was reserved for the higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. In terms of design, it doesn't have any major changes compared to the previous generation.
MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips
The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, which use Apple’s latest high-end M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, come with a minimum of 24GB of RAM, up from 18GB in the previous generation. They all have three Thunderbolt 5 ports, which offer speeds of up to 120Gbps with Bandwidth Boost, triple the maximum bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4. The new standard also supports native DisplayPort 2.1 output over USB‑C. Thunderbolt 5 is fully compatible with USB4 and supports advanced protocols like PCIe 4.0, enabling faster data access speeds for storage devices and peripherals.
According to Apple, the M4 Pro chip has a 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and four efficiency cores, along with a GPU up to 20 cores for twice the performance of the M4. With the M4 Pro, the new MacBook Pro models have 75% more memory bandwidth than the previous generation, with performance up to 3 times faster than models with the M1 Pro chip.
Meanwhile, the M4 Max models have up to a 16-core CPU, a 40-core GPU, more than half a terabyte per second of unified memory bandwidth, and a Neural Engine that’s three times faster than the M1 Max. With the M4 Max, the MacBook Pro offers 3.5 times the performance of the M1 Max, according to Apple. The processor also supports up to 128GB of RAM.
In terms of display quality, the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models all feature improved Liquid Retina XDR displays with a brand-new nano-texture option that delivers up to 1,000 nits of brightness for SDR content. They also feature a new 12MP Center Stage camera, which Apple says delivers improved video quality in low light. The new camera also supports Desk View, which shows both your face and the desk below. The M4 Pro offers up to 22 hours of battery life, while the M4 Max offers up to 18 hours.
All new MacBook Pro models have HDMI ports that support resolutions up to 8K. The M4 Pro model can support up to three 6K displays at 60Hz via Thunderbolt or HDMI, a significant improvement over the previous M3 Pro. If you’re using two displays, Apple’s M4 Pro can support one display at 6K at 60Hz and a second display at 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 240Hz.
Meanwhile, the M4 Max supports up to three external displays at 6K resolution at 60Hz via Thunderbolt and one external display at up to 4K resolution at 144Hz via HDMI. The processor also supports up to two external displays at 6K resolution at 60Hz via Thunderbolt and one external display at up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or one external display at 4K resolution at 240Hz via HDMI.
Additionally, the new laptops all feature an SDXC card slot, a MagSafe 3 port for charging, and a headphone jack, along with support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Like their predecessors, the new MacBook Pro models with M4 Pro and M4 Max are available in Space Black and Silver.
