The iPhone 16 reveal event, Glowtime, might be tomorrow, but a new report has suggested we won't have to wait long for another Apple event.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman is reporting that the company will reveal M4 versions of its Mac lineup as early as October, including the MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac.

While we've known for a while Mac models with M4 were coming, including a redesigned Mac Mini, it seems we'll hear more about them next month - but that's not all.

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Gurman notes "there are also new iPads in the works, including an upgraded mini."

Mac and iPad event leaked for October

Last year, Apple's "Scary Fast" event revealed the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, as well as new versions of the iMac and MacBook Pro.

It's a little different this year as the iPad Pro debuted the M4 chip earlier this year, meaning we'll be getting variants of those chips but not a whole new generation being revealed.

The promise of an iPad Mini is an interesting one, however. The iPad Mini sold today is the 2022 model, meaning it's getting a little long in the tooth. If it was to gain the M4 chip (or any M-series chip), it could go some way to becoming the ultimate ultra-portable computer I've been hoping it would in the past.

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While it seems like an open secret that Apple is working on its M4 Mac lineup, a new report suggests it'll include the MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac.

That's perhaps not all that exciting on its own, but Apple may finally be ready to cut loose the 8GB RAM starting configurations of models like the Mac Mini.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company is ramping up testing of base-level M4 chips of varying specs, while also offering 16GB or 32GB of Unified Memory. Considering one of the biggest gripes around Apple hardware these days is a lack of RAM at the low end, that feels like it's been a long time coming.

This could just be for testing purposes, though, but here's hoping the 8GB RAM option is no more.

The mystery M4 variant

That's not all, though. Gurman notes that four Macs are being tested with base M4 chips, and while three have the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU we've seen before, a fourth has eight of each instead. That's a new configuration for the M4.

Keep in mind these are all just the base-level chips, so there's no word on the Pro or Max versions as yet. Still, it's interesting Apple would essentially test a chip with fewer cores alongside additional RAM.

Maybe the rumored September 10 event will shed some light, but it's a good chance we'll be waiting until a little later in the year for our first look at M4 Macs.

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• The M4 MacBook Pro looks on track to launch this fall, with display panels already shipping

Top display analyst Ross Young has revealed that the M4 MacBook Pro is on track to launch later this fall, as expected.

Apple’s current best MacBook, the M3 MacBook Pro, was unveiled in October last year. While there were no major design changes, it did feature Apple’s M3 Apple silicon processor and its more powerful M3 Pro and M3 Max variants. Despite being not even a year old, however, all eyes are now firmly on the next iteration of the MacBook Pro that'll come with the M4 chip. And there's good news for those waiting for the device.

In a tweet for subscribers, Ross Young revealed that the panel shipments for the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models kicked off earlier in July/August. That's in line with the Q3 timeline Young previously reported on. Now, if we do the maths based on Apple’s usual timeline this means we’re looking at a Q4 2024 launch – just as expected.

When to expect the M4 MacBook Pro

As for the big reveal, last year’s M3 MacBook Pro arrived during a Halloween-timed "Scary Fast" event in late October. So, if Apple sticks to its new event traditions, we could see the M4 models creeping onto the scene around the same time. October or early November seems like a solid bet, as that's always been when new MacBook Pros arrive.

Apple has already debuted the new M4 chip in Apple’s best iPad, the M4 iPad Pro. The M4 chip features a beefed-up GPU with better efficiency, and its Neural Engine can put out 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Apple says its M4 is an “outrageously powerful device for AI.” In all likelihood, the MacBook version of this chip should be even more powerful because it will feature significantly better cooling compared to the thermally-limited iPad.

When they do arrive, the new M4 MacBook Pro is likely to be the best Apple laptop on the market when it comes to Apple Intelligence, with the most processing power and thermal performance of any eligible device yet.

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In a ‘finally’ moment, the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro now supports up to two displays when its clamshell is closed, thanks to the latest macOS 14.6 Sonoma update released on July 29.

When the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro was released in October 2023, users could only connect it to one external monitor. It wasn’t until the M3 MacBook Air, released in March 2024, that Apple introduced a new MacBook feature that can support two monitors simultaneously when the Mac’s lid closed. Many have been hoping for this feature to come to the M3 MacBook Pro, especially since Apple confirmed it back in May.

The macOS 14.6 Sonoma update has now made the feature available. A support document confirmed this, stating “This update adds support for using up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed on 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 chip and also provides important bug fixes and security updates.”

Apple hasn’t explained why it’s taken several months for a feature available on the M3 MacBook Air since its launch in March to come to the M3 MacBook Pro. Nevertheless, if you use a couple of monitors on a desk, the time has finally come to use them with your MacBook Pro when its lid is shut.

Is it time to buy a couple of monitors for your desk?

If you own an M3 MacBook Pro, you likely chose this model because of its superior features compared to the MacBook Air, which further helps your workflow. The Pro has a 120Hz ProMotion display with up to 1200 nits brightness, four hours of extra battery life, more speakers, and a HDMI port.

Now that the MacBook Pro can work with dual displays when its lid is closed, here are a couple of monitors we recommend.

• Monitor deals: Best Buy | Walmart | Dell | Lenovo | HP | Amazon | Newegg

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Apple has reduced the trade-in values of some of its products, namely the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple Watch Ultra, and more, alongside some Android smartphones.

The company’s trade-in program allows anyone to hand in their device at an Apple Store or send it off through Apple’s website, in exchange for a certain amount of credit based on the condition of the device, which can go towards a new product. Alternatively, they can choose to have the device be recycled.

Apple regularly changes the value of some products to reflect the length of time they have been available. This time, products like the iPhone 14 Pro Max have had their trade-in value altered. Via MacRumors, it’s now up to $620 instead of $630. Similarly, the Apple Watch Ultra’s trade-in value is now up to $355, which is a $5 reduction from the previous $360 trade-in value.

What else has seen their trade-in values reduced?

The iPad Pro has seen its trade-in value slashed from $580 to $565, while the regular iPad’s value has gone from $250 to $225. Macs have also been affected by the new trade-in value changes:

• MacBook Pro - was $1,010, now $925
• MacBook Air - was $525, now $485
• iMac - was $420, now $330
• MacBook - was $145, now $130

Android smartphones have also seen some reductions in their trade-in values. Samsung’s S22 Ultra 5G is now valued up to $235, down from $270, while the Google Pixel 6 Pro is now valued up to $125, down from $150.

The full list of Apple’s trade-in pricing can be seen on the trade-in section of its website. It’s a great program to use, but be aware that the trade-in value of your device can change depending on its condition.

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Looking for the best MacBooks for programmers, coders and developers? We've got you covered. There's a good reason why Apple's laptops are so popular with developers - they are fast, dependable and look great as well. With the launch of Apple's very own silicon, the M1, back in 2020, the company put a lot of effort into making sure compiling and running code was incredibly quick - and this has continued with the M2, M3 and now M4 chips that followed.

In fact, since the M3 generation, gaming on MacBooks is now better than ever, with support for advanced graphic effects like ray-traced lighting - and this means programmers working on games are now able to test out their creations without having to change machines.

For those really intensive workloads, you're going to want a 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro armed with an M3 Pro or M3 Max chip. But what about coders who don't need quite that much firepower?

The good news is that even Apple's most affordable MacBook — the MacBook Air (M2) — does a brilliant job when it comes to coding, and with the launch of the M3 MacBook Airs (which are great coding machines themselves), the M2 model has had an official price cut, making it a brilliant choice for people on a budget - or for students who are keen to learn how to code.

Apple's current MacBook lineup is one of the most varied and exciting in the company's history, and that means there's going to be a MacBook for any of your coding needs. Want a big display and ultra-powerful performance? The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max is the one to go for. Want to code on a MacBook but are on a budget? Check out the MacBook Air (M2). Fancy the best of both worlds? The 15-inch MacBook Air (M3) is a great choice.

To help you find the best MacBook for your coding needs, we've put together this guide, which gathers together all the different models and generations of MacBooks that are currently on sale - and we've tested every single one, so you can be sure that our recommendations for the best MacBook for programmers, coders and developers come backed with years of experience.

Quick list

Best overall

If you’re after the absolute best MacBook for programming on in 2024, then we recommend the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip. Released towards the end of 2023, this is an incredibly powerful laptop – especially if you go for the model with the M3 Pro, which features 11 CPU cores, divided up into 5 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores to start. This can be upgraded, and you can also go for the more powerful M3 Max chip – but that also ups the price considerably. The 14-inch MacBook Pro also comes with a (slightly) more affordable model with the M3 chip and this is a good choice if the M3 Pro or M3 Max models are too pricey for you.

However, we think the M3 Pro version offers the best balance between value and performance – for the vast majority of programming tasks the M3 Pro is more than enough, so the M3 Max model is likely overkill.

We also think the 14-inch MacBook Pro is the best choice thanks to the fact that it packs all of this power into an impressively portable package, and the 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR panel is an absolute joy to work on with sharp and clear image quality and smooth 120Hz refresh rates. If you’d like a larger display to work on, then you can go for the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Pro, which offers the same level of performance, but with a larger screen.

Best affordable MacBook

When Apple launched the M3 version of the MacBook Air, it continued to sell the older M2 model, but with a new lower price - and because the M2 chip remains a formidable bit of silicon despite its age, we now recommend the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 as the best affordable MacBook for programming.

The M2 chip that powers this model of MacBook Air offers plenty of power for coding, and compile times for even complex projects are impressively short, which means there's less waiting around when you're waiting to test out your code. Sure, it doesn't have the raw power that chips like the M3 Max or M3 Pro have, but to be honest, most people simply don't need that kind of performance for most coding tasks - you just want something that is quick, dependable and good value for money; and the M2 MacBook Air offers all of that in spades.

Running things in the background is the 8 CPU-core M2 processor, which also features 8 GPU cores to handle the graphics processing. It offers plenty of power for browsing with loads of tabs open, and its battery life is excellent, so you can work on this MacBook pretty much anywhere you want without worrying about where you're going to plug it in. The 13-inch model is thin and light with a stunning design which Apple was so pleased with that it kept it for the newer M3 model, but if you want something with a larger screen, then you'll be pleased to know that there's also a 15-inch version which can make programming on a lot more comfortable.

Best of both worlds

While the 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 Pro offers incredible performance, and the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 is a great affordable choice, if you want something that offers a great balance between power and price, then the 15-inch MacBook Air M3 is our pick.

Thanks to the base M3 chip, this MacBook Air is the most powerful version of Apple's thin and light laptop, and offers a decent jump in performance compared to the M2 chip. For most programmers, the M3 offers more than enough power, and it means you're not paying for performance you won't make use of, like you might with an M3 Pro or M3 Max-powered MacBook Pro.

The M3 MacBook Air doesn't come with a new design - but that doesn't matter as the redesign ushered in by its predecessor, the M2 MacBook Air, remains superb, with a gorgeous 15-inch Liquid Retina display and with 500 nits peak brightness, you can comfortably work on the M3 MacBook Air no matter what the lighting conditions you're working in are.

You can fit this model with up to 24GB of memory, and with the M3 chip offering 8 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, you'll have plenty of power to program, test, run and even emulate the apps you make, all without the high price tag of the MacBook Pro series of laptops. The 15-inch MacBook Air also features two extra cores in the base model compared to the 13-inch version, which means that you get a nice extra boost in performance if you pick the larger version, especially for graphic-intensive tasks. If you don't need that power and would like a smaller, more portable laptop, then the 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 is a great alternative.

Most powerful

If you're after some serious firepower to help you compile and test your code, then the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max is the one to get. This is the most powerful laptop Apple has ever made, and while the base models offer huge amounts of performance, if you fully max out its specifications, you get a desktop-replacement laptop that will last you for years to come.

Featuring the most powerful iteration of the M3 chip - the M3 Max - you get 16 CPU cores and a huge 40-core GPU, and you can configure it with up to 128GB of memory and 8TB of SSD storage, this is a seriously future-proof MacBook. The price is incredibly high (it costs $7199 for the maxed-out model), but you won't need to buy another laptop for a long time.

The power that the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max offers, along with the price tag it comes with, means this is a MacBook that won't be for everyone. However, if you're a programmer who needs to quickly compile and test code, then it can seriously speed up your workflow. There's enough power to emulate other platforms as well — so you can see how your app runs on various iPhone models, and if you're a game developer you can play your games while you work on them.

This means that while the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max is a huge investment, it could end up being a very wise one, especially if you end up using it for many years to come.

If you're not going to need that kind of performance, however, then we recommend you go for a more modest MacBook - either a MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro or base M3 chip, or even the M3-equipped MacBook Air models.

There's more than just the power on offer with this machine — the ProMotion 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is one of the best screens you can get on a laptop in 2024, and the large screen size means that working on pages of code is comfortable (while also ensuring that games, movies and TV shows look fantastic when you're not busy coding).

The larger screen means that the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max is also a very large (and heavy) laptop, which makes it a lot less portable than many of the other MacBooks on this page. If you're looking for a MacBook to carry around with you no matter where you go, then this won't be the best choice for you. Read on for our best portable pick instead.

Best portable MacBook

These days many of us are used to a more hybrid way of working, which means we don't always need to be sat in an office - or even by a desk - when we're coding, and that means having a laptop that is both portable and powerful enough to handle complex workloads is now more important than ever.

So, if you're in the market for a MacBook to code on that is thin and light enough to take with you almost anywhere, the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 is the one to get. As you'd expect, this is an incredibly thin and light MacBook that's easy to carry around. With the 13-inch model, you get a smaller screen, but it also reduces the overall size, making it a better choice than the 15-inch MacBook Air M3 if you want the best portable MacBook for programming on. The smaller size doesn't mean you're having to make sacrifices to the performance, however, as it offers the same powerful M3 chip as the larger model.

And, while the M3 chip isn't as powerful as the M3 Pro or M3 Max, it is still a fantastic performer, easily competing with Windows 11 laptops of around the same price - if not beating them. For most programming tasks, this offers plenty of firepower.

Another great thing about the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 when it comes to portability is its impressively long battery life - you should get around 15 to 18 hours of life out of a single charge, depending on the kind of tasks you're performing with the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 (more intensive tasks will make the battery deplete faster). This long life means you can take the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 pretty much anywhere, including outdoors, and you don't have to worry about finding a power outlet to plug it into. This gives you the freedom to program on the MacBook Air M3 anywhere you want.

Best on a budget

The MacBook Air M1 is certainly getting on a bit - it launched in 2020, and Apple no longer stocks it - but it remains a brilliant budget MacBook for programming on. This is for two reasons. The first is that while Apple no longer stocks the MacBook Air M1, other retailers, including Amazon and Best Buy, still do.

The second reason is that with each new MacBook Air that launches, the price of the M1 model drops further, and this makes it exceptional value for money, especially around big sales events like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day.

The M1 chip was the first ever ARM-based chip for Macs made by Apple, and it's no exaggeration to say that it revitalized Macs and MacBooks. It was so successful that we're now on the M4 chip, and that success is down to just how well the M1 performed - and continues to perform.

Sure, the MacBook Air M1 won't be able to compete with an M3 MacBook, but for the price you're getting an excellent thin and light laptop that is still more than capable of most coding tasks. It's the perfect choice for someone looking to get a MacBook to code on, but can't afford the high price tags that newer devices come with.

The M1 chip features 8 CPU cores and a 7-core GPU that handles graphics, and thanks to its power efficiency, its battery life can last well over a workday - and there's no annoying fans either to distract you when it's working hard.

The M1 MacBook Air does miss out on the new redesign that was brought in with the M2 model, but this is still a great-looking super slim laptop with Apple's unmistakable design flair. You get a 2560x1600 native resolution screen with P3 wide color support as well, and the 400 nits peak brightness means you can comfortably use it in bright daylight.

If you don't need the most powerful MacBook out there, then you can save yourself a huge amount of money by getting the M1 MacBook Air. As long as you keep your expectations in check, you'll be very pleased with your purchase.

Q&A

The M3 MacBook Pro is regarded as the best MacBook you can buy. But it's also the most expensive. Fortunately, there's a deal available on the device at the moment. It brings the most stylish chassis and stunning 14-inch or 16-inch display of the more expensive models to a more affordable price, with whatever configuration you want. At the moment, you can save $300 on the M3 MacBook Pro, from either Amazon or Best Buy. The deal at Amazon is particularly appealing ahead of the Prime Day sales.

Best Buy has the cheapest offer, netting you $300 off the 11-core M3 Pro model with 512GB storage – down to just $1699 now. The 12-core M3 Pro model with 1TB of storage is also $300 at both, down to $2099. Or the 12-core M3 Max model with 1TB of storage is down to $2899. Some of the other models are also on offer, with varied prices across Amazon and Best Buy. 

M3 MacBook Pro $300 off

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

The M3 MacBook Pro replaced the aging touch bar models, ditching the ever-controversial function row display for a sleeker chassis and a much nicer screen. One of the best parts of that screen is ProMotion, which ups the refresh rate to 120Hz for a super smooth experience.

It’s thicker than the latest M3 MacBook Air, but that just means that the internals are better cooled by a fan when things get really hot, letting you get more out of the M3 chip at its core. That chip is paired with 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, giving you plenty of juice for most normal work applications. Those with heavier demands will want to look at the M3 Pro or Max models, but the M3 MacBook Pro will be plenty for the rest of us. Either way, this is one of the best MacBooks at an incredible price.

I’ve written in the past about how I’ve always felt a little like a “fake Pro” having a MacBook Pro. Not only does Apple’s “top of the line” laptop cost a fortune, but there’s always been a sort of status that comes with it.

Growing up, everyone I knew wanted a MacBook Pro, and after spending time with outdated MacBook Airs provided by employers, I’d grown to feel like Apple’s slimline machines were somehow “lesser”.

If you’d felt a tad snobbish about the gap between the two product lines, though, I’m pleased to tell you that you can drop that misconception - I swapped my MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air, and I may never go back. 

 Light as Air

My main reason for the change was simple - I travel fairly regularly for work, and lugging a 16-inch MacBook Pro in a backpack was starting to become a drag. It’s not that it’s all that heavy, and the MacBook Pro is an unbelievably impressive machine, but it began to get harder to find backpacks and bags that fit its chunkier chassis without too much of a squeeze.

I considered the MacBook Air as a replacement and thought better of it. After all, could I really give up the speakers, ports, ProMotion refresh rate, and the extra inch of screen real estate just for a slimmer laptop?

As it turns out, each of those was easier to reckon with than anticipated. I don’t game on my Mac (I have a Windows machine and consoles), and I can’t say ProMotion has ever stood out to me in day-to-day usage anyway.

My laptop is also usually docked and connected to a monitor and speakers which means the built-in speakers only really need to be impressive on the rare occasions it’s not, and I connect everything via a single USB-C port. As for the extra portion of screen size, it’s pretty negligible for the most part.

There was just one issue - the M2 chip couldn’t handle two external displays at once.

Make room for M3

Thankfully, the M3 chip fixed that issue, albeit by requiring the laptop to be in clamshell mode. This means I could hook the MacBook Air up to my dual-monitor setup, with a single cable, but also know I could remove it and throw it in a bag if I wanted to work elsewhere.

After ticking off everything on my list, it all comes down to performance. Could I really do what I need to do on a laptop with an M3, rather than the M1 Pro? Surely it couldn’t be that simple?

As it happens, yes, it is. Since I’ve not done big tasks like editing audio in years, the bump in single-core performance from the M1 Pro to the M3 was more than enough, but the M3 Air also performs at a similar level to the MacBook Pro M1 Pro when it comes to multi-core tasks.

While the lack of a fan may change things under sustained load, I’ve been really impressed so far - and I’m only just scratching the surface.

It’s all about intelligence

Apple made a big deal in its M3 MacBook Air press release about the potential of the device for AI tasks, packing additional neural cores into its third-generation chip.

With Apple Intelligence on the way, that could be a great way to future-proof, but it’s also likely to come in handy for me, a tech freelancer who regularly contributes content to iMore and its sister sites about AI developments.

So, if you're concerned about moving from a Pro to an Air, rest assured - it's a much easier transition than you may think.

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While the M4 chip made its debut on the latest M4 iPad Pro, it's no surprise to anyone that it'll likely form the basis for the next lineup of Apple's MacBook Pros.

While currently on M3 architecture, Apple is expected to bring M4 to its MacBook Pros, as well as Mac Mini, MacBook Air, and Mac Studio in the coming months.

As for what it'll offer Mac users, X (formerly Twitter) user Fred The Frenchy dug into a new Tech Insights image that appears to show the ways the M4 is different from its predecessor, which Max Tech's Vadim Yuryev followed up on. 

What could M4 do for Mac?

As noted by Yuryev, Apple's M4 chip contains "a bunch of secrets" to be revealed alongside new MacBook Pros this year.

Yuryev says these include double the Thunderbolt blocks, three Thunderbolt 4 Ports, and a new Media Engine with faster encoders and decoders.

Perhaps most interesting is the inclusion of support for "3+ displays", including 8K resolution. Given the M3 was the first non-Pro or higher chip to support multiple displays when it came to the MacBook Air this year (albeit in clamshell mode), this feels like a solid next step for the platform.

Naturally, we'll update you as we hear from Apple, but with no new hardware revealed at WWDC and new iPhones likely just months away, we could be waiting a while for a Mac-focused event.

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A top display insider has revealed that Apple’s next premium laptop, the M4 MacBook Pro, is likely on track for a launch before the end of this year. 

Apple’s current best MacBook, the M3 MacBook Pro, was unveiled in October last year. While there were no design changes to speak of, it did feature Apple’s potent M3 Apple silicon processor and its more powerful M3 Pro and M3 Max variants. Despite being not even a year old, however, all eyes are now firmly on the next iteration of the MacBook Pro, as Apple looks to pivot to a yearly release cycle in line with its best iPhones. 

Previously, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman revealed that Apple is targeting a new M4 MacBook Pro launch “around the end of 2024.” Now, display analyst Ross Young has revealed panel shipments for the new device are set to begin in Q3 of 2024, reiterating rumors of a Q4 2024 launch. With December an unlikely candidate for a Mac release, we’d look to either October or November as prime launch windows. A release then would coincide nicely with the launch of macOS Sequoia and the new Apple Intelligence features on board, and as we’ve seen, Apple’s new M4 chip is all about AI. 

Apple Intelligence in the best possible package 

As is clear from Apple’s stringent system requirements for Apple Intelligence — you need an iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max or an M1-powered iPad or Mac — AI is all about processing power. The more potent your NPU (Apple’s Neural Engine), the more data you can process and the more substantial the requests that you can handle are. 

Apple has already rolled out its new M4 chip in Apple’s best iPad, the M4 iPad Pro. Unveiled in May, headline upgrades include the stunning new OLED display and the new Apple Pencil Pro. However, when it comes to AI and Mac processing power, the M4 is the most enticing change. The new M4 chip features a beefed-up GPU and better efficiency, and its Neural Engine can put out 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Apple says its M4 is an “outrageously powerful device for AI.” In all likelihood, the MacBook version of this chip should be even more powerful because it will feature significantly better cooling compared to the thermally-limited iPad. 

A final noteworthy detail from Young, he says that panel shipments for both the 14- and 16-inch models of the new MacBook Pro are about to be set in motion. As such, it seems we can expect a rollout of all three expected models of the new M4 MacBook Pro, the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max versions, with only the M4 model limited to the 14-inch chassis. Previously, Mark Gurman’s report had only indicated that the “low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro” was coming, and said the higher-end variants might not surface until “early 2025.” 

When they do arrive, these new M4 MacBooks are likely to be the best Apple products on the market when it comes to Apple Intelligence, with the most processing power and thermal performance of any eligible device yet. 

Can't wait for M4? Get $300 off M3 in this early Prime Day MacBook deal:

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Yet another report claims that Apple is planning to introduce OLED display technology to its MacBook lineup in 2026, sparking a major surge in OLED notebook demand. 

Apple recently unveiled its new best iPad, the M4 iPad Pro, replete with a tandem OLED display that Apple calls Ultra Retina XDR. The new iPad uses two OLED panels, combining the light with both for brightness of up to 1000 nits in both SDR and HDR, as well as 1600 nits peak for HDR. While the new iPad Pro has an HDR bug in its earliest iterations, it is the biggest Apple display leap in years and one that MacBook customers look set to benefit from soon. 

We’ve heard multiple reports of Apple’s plans to bring OLED to the MacBook, and now more market research indicates this is the case. 

Apple to drive OLED notebook march 

A new Omdia report from May cites Senior Principal Analyst Ricky Park, who states “Apple is highly likely to incorporate OLED into its MacBook Pro models as early as 2026. This move could spark a significant surge in OLED demand within the notebook market, potentially reaching over 60 million units by 2031.”

A report in December claimed that Apple’s OLED MacBook could arrive as early as 2025. However, more recently we’ve heard that the MacBook Pro with OLED display could be delayed, with other reports placing the device’s launch in 2026 or even 2027. 

Scattered timeline aside, all agree that Apple has a significant OLED upgrade on the cards for its MacBook Pro. We say Pro because this certainly seems like a feature that’ll be reserved for Apple’s more expensive MacBook Pro line. The new OLED display in the iPad not only improves the display but saves weight and thickness, benefits a future MacBook could share following the adoption of OLED in the future. 

Before then, Apple is expected to unveil a new M4 MacBook Pro, perhaps as early as the end of 2024. The M4 chip is expected to mark the first time Apple pivots its entire lineup to the current generation of Apple silicon.

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It's important to buy one of the best docking stations for MacBook Pro if you want to turn your Apple laptop into a truly great workplace powerhouse. 

MacBook Pros may have more ports than they used to have, but they still don't have many. Even the best MacBooks could do with more options for hooking up accessories. If you need to plug in loads at once, like screens, hard drives, or keyboards, you need a docking station to get the most from your setup. A MacBook docking station removes the strain from the MacBook itself. You only use one plug while gaining multiple inputs and outputs. Whether you need to add more Thunderbolt 4 ports, or you need old favorites like full-size USB-A ports, a docking station can take the hassle out of juggling connections.

Below, we've curated the best MacBook Pro docking stations you can buy right now. Each will make it easier to connect lots of devices and peripherals including those that need high-speed data transfer.

Quick List

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Best Overall

The weighty, aluminum shell of the CalDigit TS4 gives you some idea of the quality on offer — it's a monster of ports and connections, giving you plenty of ways to hook your accessories up to your MacBook. It can be laid out horizontally or vertically as well, so you won't have to worry about how much space there is on your desk, or how you want your setup to look.

There are loads of ports on offer, as we covered in our review: "three Thunderbolt 4 ports (all on the rear), three 10Gb/s USB-C ports (one rear, two front), five 10Gb/s USB-A ports (four rear, one front), a DisplayPort 1.4 port, a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port, two UHS-II card slots (in both full size and microSD sizes, both on the front), 3.5mm audio in and audio out, plus a 3.5mm combo audio in and out on the front." That's loads of different ports, and makes for one of the most fully featured docks that you can plug your Mac into.

Thanks to its excellent port selection and solid construction, the CalDigit TS4 is easily the best dock overall — although if you want an HDMI port, then you're going to have to look elsewhere. The TS4 only uses a Display Port or Thunderbolt 4 to connect to a display.

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Best Ports

The iVanky FusionDock Max 1 is an absolute monster of a dock, packing in more ports than you can shake a very large stick at. You can orient its metal shell in both portrait and landscape and still have every single one of its ports easily accessed. Its floating design is a cool look too, so it will slip nicely into whatever kind of desk decor you've got going on.

The port layout is excellent, with a good number of ports on the front so that you can easily reach over and plug in anything you need more access to — there are even USB-C ports for displays on the front in case you swap monitors out a lot. On the topic of the ports, there's a grand total of 21: "Five USB-A 10GBps ports, Two HDMI 2.1 ports, An SPDIF optical port, Two headphone jacks, A 2.5Gigabit Ethernet port, Two 10GBps USB-C ports, one with Power delivery, Four Thunderbolt ports with support for a 6K monitor up to 60Hz, A microSD card slot, and a miniSD card slot."

In our review of the dock, we loved the dock in our review, although we lamented the lack of 8K support and Display Port sockets. Bear in mind as well that the dock only supports M-series Macs, so you'll be left high and dry if you've got an older machine.

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Best for 8K

While the Ugreen USB C Triple Display Docking Station might not have the same smattering of ports as the other entries on this list, it more than makes up for it with its display support and more compact design. It's powered by a USB-C port on the back, and it'll let you connect an 8K monitor in a triple display setup thanks to its Display Port 1.4 port.

There's no Thunderbolt on board, which is a shame, but its array of different connection options is still going to be plenty for most people. There's a pair of HDMI ports and a Display Port connector for monitors, and USB-C and type A connectors on the front for some easy access plugging in. Those front ports are joined by SD card readers and a Headphone jack, while the back of the dock houses the extra two USB-A ports, the monitor connectors, the power USB-C port, and the USB-C input for your MacBook.

We loved the way that the dock looked in our review, as it seemed to pay more attention to its appearance than other options. It's not cheap, and later model M-series Macs might not work quite so well, but it's a solid desktop dock for most people — especially if they want something that supports 8K.

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Best Vertical

While the Plugable 14-in-1 can be oriented on its side, it's more suited for being sat in a stand, pointing towards the sky. It takes up less space on a desk this way, and means you can more easily hide it behind a monitor or a laptop stand. With a mixture of aluminum and plastic in its construction, it's a sturdy dock too, and the rubber feet on the bottom of the included stand mean that it won't move around too much if you're plugging accessories in and out.

Port selection is also very solid, with a pair each of HDMI and Display Ports, alongside five USB-A ports shared between the front and the back. Camera users are served with a microSD card slot and a full-sized SD slot, and then a 3.5mm jack rounds out the selection. It might not be as fully featured as the other docks on this list, but there's plenty here for someone who needs some more ports for their MacBook.

Be aware that M-series users might find some weaknesses. There's only support for a single display, unfortunately, even if you plug multiple in. It's also not been tested with the latest Apple Silicon, so you might want to look elsewhere if you've got a shiny new M3 MacBook Air. Intel Mac users will be served well by the dock, however, so it might be one for the users of older Apple hardware.

Best Portable

If you're looking for something smaller, more compact, and portable, then the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Mini might be just what the doctor ordered. It's a portable dock, for one, but it has a surprisingly extensive gamut of ports to connect to your MacBook. It connects over Thunderbolt 3 as well, so you'll be able to hook up a display to your MacBook.

There are two HDMI ports on the dock, alongside two USB-A 3.0 ports and a Ethernet connector. That might not sound like much, but its plenty to hook up a keyboard, mouse, and display while you're on the go. It's small enough to slip into a bag as well, so you'll never be without ports.

As with all Thunderbolt 3 docks, Mac users with M-series machines won't be able to connect multiple screens with their dock. Unfortunately, there is only support for one screen over HDMI, so no multi-display setups with your MacBook Air M1. Users of older Intel Macs will be fine, however, and you can easily connect two different HDMI displays to your MacBook using the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock mini.

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Most Compact

The final dock on the list is one that's great if you travel to different desk setups. It's not 'portable', per se, because it needs a power supply to work properly, but its compact design means that it will easily fit into a backpack or rucksack if you're moving between work zones.

Port selection is solid as well, with two HDMI ports handling most display duties, and then a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port handling the rest. There are four USB-A ports, and an SD card slot for photographers, rounded out by the requisite 3.5mm headphone jack so that you can connect some cans and listen to your favorite tunes while you work. The dock connects to your machine over USB-C.

This is another dock with iffy support for M1 Macs, so you might want to go for something else if you've one of Apple's first M-series devices. Other M-chips should be fine, and Intel Macs aren't going to have any problems at all.

Q&A

If you want to get the most from your shiny new MacBook, such as if you've just bought the latest 15-inch MacBook Air with M2, then the CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 dock is a must-have. Outside of HDMI ports, it offers multiple sockets for every conceivable physical connection to your MacBook Pro or Mac (and even your iPad), while also providing fast charging at 98W. It's expensive but it's the ultimate docking station for most people.

If portability or price is a concern, then you may wish to consider Belkin's Thunderbolt 3 Dock Mini instead. It has two HDMI and two USB-A ports, along with Gigabit Ethernet, all while being tiny and almost half the price of more expensive docks. It also has a built-in cable so you can unplug the dock and easily toss it in your bag before traveling.

To expand your workspace or home office setup, check out our best charging stations and best webcams for Mac guides for further ways to enhance your working environment. 

If you’re after one of the finest laptops that money can buy, you should look no further than the best MacBooks. Whether you’re looking at the MacBook Air line-up or the MacBook Pro range, weighing up a 13-, 14-, or 16-inch model, all MacBooks have oodles of power and an attention to detail in their designs that are second to none.

It’s the reason why the best MacBooks are so popular with so many different types of users. From the high-end designer working on a major creative project to the simple student looking for a lightweight workhorse to bring to a lecture, Apple’s portable computer range has a MacBook to suit all needs.

But which MacBook is right for you? With a wide range of prices, specification options, sizes and capabilities, making the choice can be difficult. Do you need an M3-chip in a 16-inch MacBook Pro, the top-tier supercharged machine at the premium end of Apple’s MacBook line-up? Or can you get by with an older M1 MacBook Air which, years after its initial release, still represents the best bang-for-buck laptop on the market?

We’ve tested every generation of MacBook to make sure you’re served with the precise information you need. Looking at every generation of Apple silicon, weighing up every screen size and chip configuration, if you’re looking for the best MacBook for you, this guide will make sure you grab the right model for your needs.

Quick list

Best overall

The best MacBook around isn't necessarily the most powerful, but arguably the best when power and price are balanced — as such, the best MacBook in our eyes is the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3 Pro. That's not the most expensive Mac by any stretch of the imagination (although it is not cheap), but it takes a top-quality processor in the M3 Pro and puts it in the svelte and attractive 14-inch MacBook Pro chassis.

For anyone looking for plenty of power, the M3 Pro MacBook Pro has it in spades. The M3 Pro chip features 11 CPU cores, divided up into 5 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores. You can boost that up to 12 CPU cores and 18 GPUs, but you'll have to pay a lot more for the privilege.

Display duties are handled with a 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR panel, and it's an absolute stunner. Color is handled with aplomb, and the ProMotion runs everything along at a slick 120Hz. For the display nerds, there are 1 billion colors here meeting the P3 Wide color gamut, and TrueTone color keeps everything looking good no matter the environmental light. There's Apple's XDR high dynamic range as well, giving a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 1,000 nits peak brightness across the whole screen.

Battery life is top-of-the-line as well — on a full charge, the 14-inch MacBook Pro will last 18 hours, and that only drops significantly if you start doing loads of hard work like video rendering. It's all kept cool with an active cooling system in its aluminum shell, and just like the previous models, you're only going to hear those fans turn on if you run the machine super hard.

Why is this the best MacBook overall? Because it gives everything you could ever actually need out of a MacBook, and means you don't have to spend through the nose to own one. This model, if you head to the Apple Store sets you back $1999. Sure, there are cheaper MacBooks, but this won't break the bank quite as much as some of the really powerful models.

Best on a budget

The MacBook Air M1 is not the newest machine out there, but it is the cheapest of the MacBooks that you can currently buy. It’s no longer stocked at Apple, but third party retailers still carry the MacBook Air M1, and we’ve seen its price tag reach crazy lows of as little as $399. You're still getting a hell of a computer — and you're not paying the most to get it. While it might not satisfy those who are looking for a MacBook with bucket loads of power on tap, it is more than adequate for users who want a MacBook for the lowest price possible.

That's not to say it's not got any power — far from it. For some light computing, document editing and even rudimentary photo editing, the M1 that resides inside its super slim shell is still a great performer for everyday computing. There are 8 CPU cores in there for all the computing stuff, and then a 7-core GPU that handles graphics duties. The M1 was a very powerful chip when it came out, and it's no-less powerful now — it's just that its sequels have upped the game.

The display is nothing to be sniffed at either, even if it does lack the Liquid Retina moniker of the newer models. It's plenty colorful for watching some YouTube videos, and the 2560x1600 native resolution makes text look super crisp on a smaller display like this one. There's P3 wide color as well, and it gets bright enough for use in broad daylight with 400 nits peak brightness.

Battery life is good, with a solid 18 hours of video playback. That means you can slip it in your bag and not worry about losing battery when you take it out and about — be that to class or to work. It'll be easy to slip into your bag as well, with its super slim chassis. In fact, at its slimmest the MacBook Air M1 is a paper-like 0.41 inches, making it one of the thinnest MacBooks ever made. That makes the laptop super portable — more so than most of its range mates.

The MacBook Air M1 is the best MacBook on a budget because it's so cheap. You can often save extra money on top of its already super low price. The best time to pick one of these up is during one of the many deals events throughout the year — that way you'll get the absolute best price possible.

Best for students

Students need a little more power than your average person for all the research and work they do on a daily basis — but they also need a machine that is portable enough to put into a bag without any trouble at all. The MacBook Air with M2 chip is just the right laptop for a student studying at college, striking the perfect balance of price, performance, and portability. It’s now the cheapest model available direct from Apple, replacing the M1 Air on Apple’s shelves — and its price tag means we still recommend it for students despite a more powerful M3 chip version now also being available.

Running things along in the background is the 8 CPU-core M2 processor, which also features 8 GPU cores to handle the graphics processing. That's not a top of the range processor, but a student doesn't need top of the range. Instead, this power option gives plenty of juice for all those Chrome tabs you need open while you revise for tests, and runs productivity apps like Pages with aplomb so you can get those crucial papers written. Crucially, it also offers phenomenal battery life, easily getting you through a day and into the next morning’s lecture if you forget to plug the charger in overnight.

That's not to mention how the MacBook Air looks — after all, that kind of thing can be important to the cool kids on campus. The slim MacBook Air has a new svelte design with a more uniform chassis than its wedge-like predecessor, and it's a look that we really like. It's slim too at just 0.44 inches thick. Portable and powerful: just what a student needs.

The display on this one was upgraded too, now a Liquid Retina. More importantly, however, it's also changed shape slightly — and it's a productivity godsend. Rather than 16:9 like most displays, the MacBook Air's screen is 16:10 which adds some vertical space, something you really notice when you're working on text in Pages or even in spreadsheet apps like Numbers. It's bright and colorful to boot — perfect for when you've stopped working.

This is the best MacBook for students because, as said up top, it balances power with portability — something that's super important when you have to cart your laptop around a college campus while getting some work done. If you're a student on a budget, then grab an M1 MacBook Air — you'll get a slightly less impressive machine, yes, but a solid one nonetheless.

Best for gaming

Gamers might think they want the most powerful laptop they can find — they also will unlikely be looking for a Mac. If you're after a Mac for work reasons or personal choice and you want to do a bit of gaming on the side, however, you should look no further than the base model M3 MacBook Pro 14-inch — and we'll tell you for why.

No, the M3 isn't going to run all the AAA games at 120FPS and 4K, but most of those games aren't available on Mac anyway. Instead, the kinds of games that you can run on a Mac are those directly ported over and optimized for use on a MacBook. Games like the Resident Evil 4 Remake run very well on an M3 chip, and even the very new (and award-winning) Baldur's Gate 3 will be munched up by the latest base model Apple chip with no problems at all. Indie games? Indie games are no challenge for the extremely potent M3 at the heart of the entry-level MacBook Pro.

"What about my AAA games? I want to play Cyberpunk!" Worry not, there is a solution. There is a very limited number of those optimized games that will run natively on Mac — and those that you'll find on Steam don't always work very well as they rely on a compatibility layer, which isn't an issue that those monster M3 Pro and Max chips are going to solve. Instead, you're better off running those AAA games on a service like Nvidia GeForce Now, which will stream games over the internet directly to you for a monthly fee. With these two things — the M3 running the ported, optimized games and GeForce now running those that wouldn't normally run on a Mac — you've got everything a gamer could want from a Mac.

The other bonus is that incredible screen — the same 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR from the more expensive models. That's a top quality display, and its ProMotion refresh rate of up to 120Hz will make any games you run on the MacBook buttery smooth. Just remember to grab one of the best wireless mice for Mac — the trackpad just isn't made for gaming.

Beyond your gaming specs there's some extras that just make it a great machine for normal computing tasks. Up to 22 hours of battery life is exemplary, and will give you plenty of juice if you're looking to game on the go. An excellent laptop, and our pick if you're looking for the best MacBook for gaming.

Best for creatives

If you're an on-the-go creative, photographer, or artist, then the latest 15-inch MacBook Air is the top pick for. It still provides plenty of power thanks to the upgrade to the base-level M3 chipset, but without the overkill in performance (and price) that the M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro line-up represents. And, you still have lots of screen real estate to see your canvases and art in large-scale detail.

As the name suggests, the headline feature here is the 15-inch Liquid Retina display. It's gloriously colorful, and while it lacks the 120Hz refresh rate of the ProMotion displays in the Pro models, it's still a wonderful panel, with great contrast and accurate color reproduction. P3 wide color is supported, with the ability to present 1 billion colors. The 500 nits peak brightness is a great bonus too, and you'll love how vibrant it is on the eye, even in direct sunlight.

Even without going up to the M3 Pro and M3 Max chip levels, there's plenty of power on tap as well, with M3 providing more than enough power for PhotoShop or Illustrator sessions. With support for up to 24GB of RAM there's plenty of multitasking power there as well, so you won't have to worry about having multiple layers in a project at all. For the computer nerds, there are 8 CPU cores here, joined by 10 GPU cores that handle those all-important graphics. Curiously, that's 2 more GPU cores than the base model 13-inch MacBook Air gets — which is just more juice for you to use in your work, as well as opening up some 3D overhead for gamers and CAD projects.

Battery life is good for when you want to take your work on a train or a bus, or you fancy working at the local cafe — you'll get up to 18 hours which means far fewer trips to the power outlet. You won't worry about anyone tripping over the cable and yanking the power cord (and your laptop with it): MagSafe is back so the connector just pops out without taking the laptop with it.

Artists and other creatives will love the extra screen size of the 15-inch MacBook Air, and then they'll slip it into their bag super easily with its 0.45 inch belt line. It's the creme de la creme of ultimate portable laptops, giving you oodles of power on the go. Hook up a USB-C drawing tablet and you're away. If you’re working on really demanding 3D projects or need to carry out light-speed video exports, maybe consider stepping up to a MacBook Pro. But for many creatives, they won’t be able to touch the sides of what this MacBook can achieve.

Most powerful

If you want the most powerful MacBook you can lay your hands on then you won't need to go any further than the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max. That's an impressive $7199 worth of laptop if you go for the fully specced machine — a true desktop replacement for all but the most power-hungry of users.

That is for the most extreme version of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, however, with 128GB of memory and an 8TB SSD, so make some sensible cuts and you still get a monstrous machine with a slightly less monstrous price tag. The M3 Max is a beast right across its configurations — there are 16 CPU cores on board, connected to an insane 40-core GPU. For those keeping track, that's an absolute powerhouse of a processor, and will absolutely destroy pretty much any computing task you throw at it.

For some users, however, that's exactly what they need. If you're a video editor for movies, a programmer or graphics specialist, then you'll need all the power that the most powerful MacBook can provide you with. Granted, you don't need to opt for all the RAM or SSD space that Apple tempts you with — the base Max option with a mere 32GB of memory is only $3499. Still a lot of money, but you're still getting that incredible processor for a little less financial outlay. 

There's more than just the power here — that ProMotion equipped 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is a stunner, with sumptuous colors and oodles of brightness on tap. The whole package is incredible, with all that power on tap in a deceptively slim chassis. The most powerful, most impressive MacBook Pro is the best if you want a laptop with everything — although you'll have to pay to get it.

Q&A

For some time now portable Macs, powered by Apple silicon, have ruled the roost. There are faster chips out there, even faster than the Ultra versions of the M-series chips, but Apple's have one key advantage — they can be extremely fast without destroying battery life or generating incredible levels of heat. But there could be new competition on the way.

Qualcomm is the company that Apple has been desperately trying to ditch for years. It's the company that builds the modems that go into iPhones and iPads and Apple is thought to be working on its own modem so it can have more control over its products. But while Qualcomm is readying itself to lose Apple's custom, it's getting ready to compete with it in new areas.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite is a new chip that will power laptops of all kinds and it has its sights set firmly on Apple and its own in-house chips. Now, one machine apparently running a Snapdragon X Elite has been through its paces and the benchmark scores suggest that Apple's place at the top of the pile might be in question. And an old Apple adversary is involved, too.

Competitive silicon

The benchmark figures were shared by Windows Latest and appear to be for what many believe is a rebadged Microsoft Surface Laptop 6. The benchmark results show an OEMBR OEMBR laptop, but it's thought that's simply Microsoft's way of hiding which machine is being tested.

All of that's interesting in itself, but the more notable point from this news comes in the form of the benchmark scores. Running Windows 11, the Surface Laptop 6 scores around 1,730 in single-core testing and around 13,900 in multi-core tests. Both scores are respectable, especially when compared to Apple's M3 Pro.

To put the figures into perspective, an M3 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro scores 3,125 in single-core and 15,124 in multi-core tests while the larger 16-inch MacBook Pro manages scores that are almost identical, as you'd expect.

Other specifications of note for this new Surface Laptop 6 include 16GB of RAM and the fact that the Snapdragon X Elite it sports has a 12-core configuration.

While the Snapdragon X Lite doesn't seem to be able to best the M3 Pro here, it's definitely a better option than the Intel chips that were used previously. That mimics Apple's experience throughout the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lineups and should be a concern for Intel and its shareholders. The company does have a stranglehold on server-side silicon, but its place in laptops continues to come under fire — especially in machines where a trade-off between performance and battery life is important. For machines that will spend all of their time plugged in and can draw as much power as they want, the conversation might be slightly different.

Microsoft isn't expected to announce the Surface Laptop just yet, but we're told that an unveiling is likely to happen in September of October. It'll be very interesting to see how this laptop performs in the real world and we can expect plenty of comparisons between it and Apple's laptops, too.

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Have you been looking to upgrade your old device to one of the best MacBooks but don't quite want to pay the full retail price? One deal at Best Buy can give you a whopping $150 off, with enough left over to get yourself a nice case for it too.

If you don’t need a huge amount of storage, the M3 MacBook Pro with 512GB of SSD storage is as low as $1,499, and the 1TB model has the same saving at $1,849. We’re unsure how long this deal will last but it includes both the Silver and Space Grey models, and both the 8GB and 16GB models get $150 off. This gives you plenty of room to upgrade it if the mighty M3 isn’t quite enough power for you by itself. This deal is also available if you use Best Buy’s trade-in plan to get rid of your old tech.

Best Buy, best deal

If you’re looking to pick up a MacBook but haven’t quite settled on the M3 MacBook Pro, it is not the only MacBook deal at Best Buy right now. The M2 MacBook Air, still an excellent device, is a pretty great $300 off, making it just $1,199. If you want something in between those two choices, the recently released M3 MacBook Air is just $999. No matter which device you go for, Best Buy offers an excellent upgrade path from your current device.

Apple's M4 MacBook Pro is expected to be one of the first devices equipped with the latest generation of Apple silicon, and it could be announced as soon as this year. 

The M4 chip made a surprise debut in the M4 iPad Pro in May 2024, and we have a pretty clear idea of all the Macs that Apple is planning to upgrade with the chip over the next year or so, namely all of them. 

The M4 MacBook Pro is one of the most exciting new products, not only because it's rumored to be so close at hand, but also because it should also herald the new M4 Pro and M4 Max versions of the chip too. 

Apple's M3 MacBook Pro is the best MacBook on offer right now, and the lineup is now more diverse than ever before. With M3, Apple unveiled a new base-model option that comes with the M3 chip usually reserved for the MacBook Air. Its cheaper price point gives access to some great Pro Mac features including the 120Hz ProMotion display, expanded connectivity, and more. 

Apple is expected to move its Mac to a new annual upgrade cycle in line with the iPhone starting later this year. If rumors are correct we could see a new M4 MacBook Pro before the year is out. 

M4 MacBook Pro: Release date

Apple’s brand new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max MacBook Pro models came out on October 30, 2023, the third Apple silicon MacBook Pro launch since 2020. Perhaps more surprisingly, it was the second MacBook Pro launch in less than 12 months, the M2 Pro and M2 Max lineup having graced Apple Stores in January 2023. 

It seems clear that Apple is turning up the dial on Mac launches, with more products and fewer significant changes, just like its other product lines. We’ve been told to expect that a new M4 MacBook Pro could debut as early as the end of 2024. According to a leak from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in April, Apple is planning an accelerated Mac makeover which will begin with the new M4 MacBook Pro, and an update to the M3 iMac. Specifically, Gurman says Apple will announce “A low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4, coming around the end of 2024.” 

We’ll discuss models in more detail below, but Apple is likely going to release multiple models of a new M4 MacBook Pro. That includes both 14 and 16-inch versions of its higher-end M4 Pro and M4 Max variants. Gurman says those are due “between the end of 2024 and early 2025.” This doesn’t preclude all three being released at the same time, which seems more likely as that’s the format Apple chose in 2023. Apple could take yearly upgrades to its natural conclusion and announce these at the end of October. November is also a likely shout, with Apple having announced Macs at events or otherwise in both months previously. 

M4 MacBook Pro: Models

With the advent of the base model M3 MacBook Pro, Apple seems to have found a model configuration that works very well. Three models in two sizes. Apple’s current offering lends users the choice of either a 14 or 16-inch chassis, and three total processor options, M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. The only caveat is that the base-model M3 version only comes in one size, 14 inches. Having so recently tweaked that lineup significantly — ditching the 13-inch MacBook Pro for a larger, more potent base model — it seems unlikely that Apple would overhaul its MacBook lineup again. While we could have made an educated guess about the lineup, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has given us a good look at the roadmap and the expected models coming. The expected model rundown is as follows:

M4 MacBook Pro: M4 chip

Apple unveiled the M4 chip in May 2024, first housed inside its brand-new iPad Pro for 2024.

Built using TSMC's N3E node, Apple's new M4 chip comes with up to 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores. IT features many of the same advancements as M3 including Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading. This being the age of AI, M4 comes with a Neural Engine (NPU) capable 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS), the fastest AI chip Apple has ever put out. 

M4 also features increased memory bandwidth and machine learning accelerators baked directly into the CPU. 

The CPU is made up of four performance cores and six efficiency cores. Apple hasn't offered comparisons to M3, but it says that it's 1.5x faster than the M2 in terms of CPU performance. 

We don't have good details yet on the M4 Pro or M4 Max chips, but they're likely to offer similar performance and capacity gains as we did with the M3. 

In the iPad, the M4 chip is benchmarking at 3674 and 13325 for single and multi-core tests specifically, a marked improvement over previous generations. For comparison,  the M3 clocks around 3050 and 11598, revealing a significant power increase in this latest generation. 

M4 MacBook Pro: Design

Apple solidified its MacBook Pro design with the 2021 version of its MacBook Pro. While Apple often releases new MacBook Pro models every year, the broader design language tends to last for five or even six years at a time.  Apple’s iconic unibody aluminum MacBook Pro took us from late 2008 to late 2011, despite getting six refreshes during its lifetime. Similarly, the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are still quite fresh design-wise, so we wouldn’t expect any significant changes or tweaks to the MacBook Pro’s design for 2024, and there are no rumors to suggest otherwise.  

M4 MacBook Pro: Display

One of the best features of the current MacBook Pro lineup is its Liquid Retina XDR display. Pumping out 3024-by-1964 native resolution at 254 PPI and 3456-by-2234 native resolution at 254 PPI respectively, both the 14 and 16-inch models of the MacBook Pro offer a 1 million to one contrast ratio, and 1600 nits of peak HDR brightness powered by mini-LED. 

Apple introduced OLED to the M4 iPad Pro in May. Meantime, we’ve been hearing lots of rumblings about the prospect of a future OLED MacBook Pro. However, the leaks and rumors are all so scattered that it's impossible to pin down a good timeframe. One recent report from February 2024 indicated that the new OLED Macbook Pro was still years away, with a reveal tipped for 2027. 

However, in December the OLED MacBook was tipped for a 2025 launch, while a report in November said the upgrade was coming 2026.

All of this seems to suggest that OLED is really too far away from the MacBook to make an appearance as early as the end of this year. An OLED MacBook certainly seems like a clear path Apple will choose for the future, and the MacBook Pro is the obvious choice as the next recipient of such an upgrade. However, Apple’s existing mini-LED lineup already offers some of the best displays of any notebook out there. While OLED would offer better contrast and black levels, a more important benefit would likely be the advantage of thinner displays which could reduce the MacBook Pro lineup's overall thickness and weight.

Crucially, the new M4 chip includes a dedicated new display engine that powers the Ultra Retina XDR display of the new M4 iPad Pro. 

M4 MacBook Pro: Memory and Storage

Apple continues to offer some really hefty configuration options for its MacBook Pro models in 2024, each with eye-watering price tags to match. Apple’s M3 MacBook Pro comes with 8GB, 16GB, or 24GB of RAM along with storage of up to 2TB. The M3 Pro models offers up to 36GB of memory, while the M3 Max version can go all the way up to 128 GB. Apple’s M4 chip could likely add even more memory to the mix later this year, or perhaps more memory bandwidth. The biggest pressing need here, however, is a starting configuration of 16GB. While Apple claims that 8GB is still plenty of memory for most users who want a base model, it seems to defy logic that this is an option in 2024. Drawing a line under 8GB MacBook Pro models would be one of the biggest steps the M4 MacBook could make for 2024. 

M4 MacBook Pro: Connectivity

After eschewing all of its ports for USB-C slots a few years back, Apple finally made MacBooks useful again by bringing back HDMI and SDXC slots in 2021. With no design changes expected, Apple’s connectivity support is likely to go unchanged for 2024. Apple already offers all of the ports a MacBook Pro users could need including Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and even a headphone jack. As it stands, there are no current reports of any connectivity changes coming to the M4 MacBook Pro.  

A significant rumored upgrade, based on the specs of the M4 chip, includes support for twice the number of Thunderbolt ports currently available, so four instead of two. The M4 MacBook Pro could also include support for more than three displays, including up to 8K, and official Thunderbolt 4 ports, up from Thunderbolt 3 in the current model. 

M4 MacBook Pro: Price

With a new starting price of $1,599, the M3 MacBook Pro lineup is arguably more affordable than it has been in previous years. The theme of the M4 MacBook Pro upgrade for 2024 overall is a slight tweak to performance in M4 and not much else. As such, we’d expect many of the MacBook Pro’s features and specs to remain broadly the same, if not identical. As such, the M4 MacBook Pro 14-inch is likely to retail at the same $1,599 price tag as its predecessor. Likewise, the 14-inch Macbook Pro will likely be $1,999, and the 16-inch model will start at $2,499. With no major upgrades or design changes, there’s no clear reason to indicate Apple would increase the price of its MacBook Pro lineup at all. Furthermore, Apple’s MacBook Pro models are incredibly expensive, and pushing the price up further would likely have customers looking elsewhere.  

While Apple's latest best MacBook, the M3 MacBook Air is barely fresh out of the oven, and Apple's M3 line of chips is but a few months old, all eyes are firmly on what Apple has in store next for its computing lineup. Now, we've just got our clearest look yet at Apple's future plans for Mac. 

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has revealed that Apple is planning "an accelerated Mac makeover" focused on the new M4 chips that will see every single Mac product moved onto the latest generation chip for the first time. 

The chips, which will include a big focus on on-device artificial intelligence, are dubbed Donan (for the M4), Brava (the M4 Pro and M4 Max), and Hidra, an M4 Ultra chip. 

The next wave of Macs

With the caveat that release dates can shift, Gurman predicts a low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro could debut at the end of this year with the M4 chip, around the same time as a 24-inch M4 iMac.

These could be followed in late 2024 or early 2025 by the release of MacBook Pros with M4 Pro/Max options in 14 and 16-inch variants, alongside M4 and M4 Pro Mac Minis.

Spring 2025 would see the arrival of M4 MacBook Airs in 13 and 15-inch versions, which would mean they debut roughly a year after this year's M3 models, and a Mac Studio with a "high-end M4 chip" would arrive closer to the middle of next year.

As for the Mac Pro? You could be waiting until the second half of next year, but it'll reportedly come packing the M4 Ultra.

More from iMore

• Apple doubles down on 8GB Macs despite calls to increase the base spec ahead of M4 devices
• Mac Mini rivals: Five small form factor PCs that want a bite of Apple's pie
• Four new features Finder needs in macOS 15 (and the apps you can use to get them now)

The M3 MacBook Pro brings the svelte chassis and stunning 14-inch display of the more expensive models to a more affordable price, skipping out on the more powerful M3 Pro and Max chips. At the moment, you can save $200 on the M3 MacBook Pro — although there is a hoop you have to jump through first.

There is one thing that you should keep in mind before going to buy your brand new MacBook: Amazon has hidden $50 of the discount behind a tick box on the product page. Click that, and you’ll get the full discount when you check out — so make sure to double-check the price in the last stage of your purchase in case you miss out!

M3 MacBook Pro $200 off

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

The M3 MacBook Pro replaced the aging touch bar models, ditching the ever-controversial function row display for a sleeker chassis and a much nicer screen. One of the best parts of that screen is ProMotion, which ups the refresh rate to 120Hz for a super smooth experience.

It’s thicker than the latest M3 MacBook Air, but that just means that the internals are better cooled by a fan when things get really hot, letting you get more out of the M3 chip at its core. That chip is paired with 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, giving you plenty of juice for most normal work applications. Those with heavier demands will want to look at the M3 Pro or Max models, but the M3 MacBook Pro will be plenty for the rest of us. Either way, this is one of the best MacBooks at an incredible price.

It may be some time until the long-rumored MacBook Pro with OLED redesign launches, if a new report is to be believed.

A new MacBook Pro revision taking advantage of the high-end screen tech was previously tipped for a 2025 launch. However, according to a new report from The Elec (via translation), we may not actually see the model revealed until 2027.

Samsung, which is expected to provide the OLED screens through its Samsung Display arm, is said to have entered into an agreement with Dell and HP to put the screens into Dell and HP machines “ahead of Apple”. Samsung is investing in a new manufacturing line that will be ready in the second half of 2025, states the report. And while it may have initially been considered “a line exclusively for Apple,” it will in fact be shared among Apple’s industry rivals, with Dell and HP seemingly pipping Apple to the post. 

It seems then that the next major revision for the best MacBook models on the market may be some way off.

Picking between a great screen, or an already great screen - iMore’s take

I’ve always found the fervor surrounding a potential OLED-equipped MacBook Pro a bit strange. Aren’t the displays on the existing MacBook Pro lineup already best-in-class, beating out the quality of even existing OLED laptop rivals?

OLED definitely has benefits that mini-LED can’t quite match. The per-pixel lighting means they offer the richest contrast and black levels in the business, while that same system results in a more efficient display, too. It’s also possible to make incredibly slim OLED displays. So, from the perspective that OLED tech could lead to sleeker form factors and a potential battery life bump… sure. Its inclusion could be great.

But would it be game-changing? I find that harder to believe. Mini-LED screens are already rich and color-accurate enough for professional artists to use and have super-smooth refresh rates. There’s a reason they’re considered the best in the business, to the point where I think the average user won’t see a huge difference. The MacBook Pro is, however, aimed at the most demanding users, so perhaps that last point is moot — but unless an OLED screen affords some other design overhaul that we’re yet to anticipate, picking up a current model is going to bag you a truly wonderful machine regardless.

If you’re currently in the market for a new MacBook Pro, check out our MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max review — it’s a model we heartily recommend.

As for other potential OLED-equipped Apple gear, the next OLED Apple product might actually be just a few weeks away, with an OLED iPad with an M3 chip tipped for launch at an event as early as March.

More from iMore

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• Best Mac: Desktop or MacBook, which should you choose?

Barely four months after it was first unveiled, one of the most exciting MacBooks you can buy is now available at a discount through Apple’s refurbished store online. 

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 is one of Apple’s most unique and capable products, and my personal favorite Mac in the lineup. Historically, Apple reserved the base model “M” chips for cheaper, more portable models like its best MacBook for students, the M2 MacBook Air. However, with the M3, Apple brought the base model to its more potent 14-inch MacBook Pro chassis, finally retiring the tired old 13-inch Touch Bar model.

The M3 MacBook Pro 14-inch model boasts an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, as well as 8GB of Unified Memory. Prices usually start at $1,599 but Apple’s refurbished discount means you can get one of these for $1,359, saving $240 in the process on the 512GB version. If you want more storage, you can save even more ($270) when you pick up the $1,799 1TB model for just $1,529.

Why choose M3? 

Apple’s 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro is currently the cheapest way to get your hands on an M3 MacBook, and this refurbished discount makes the deal even sweeter. The M3 chip is an important step in the Apple silicon lineup. Built on the more efficient 3nm process, it delivers more power and efficiency than previous models, making performance snappier than ever and battery life longer. 

Because of the 14-inch model’s bulkier, square design, the battery life of this model is considerably more than even the 15-inch M2 MacBook Air. Apple says the former is good for up to 22 hours, while the latter will manage just 18. 

The M3 14-inch MacBook Pro is also a handier machine when it comes to gaming thanks to hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The real reason you should pick this model, however, is the display. The larger 14-inch M3 mode boasts a much brighter Liquid Retina XDR display than the M2 MacBook range. Peak brightness clocks in at 1000 nits or 1600 for HDR, compared to just 500 on a 15-inch MacBook Air. It also has better SDR brightness and, most importantly, a 120Hz ProMotion display with adaptive refresh rate. The M3 model also boasts more connectivity than previous M2 models, offering an SD card slot, USB-C ports, and a headphone jack. When you package all that up with a refurbished discount, the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro looks a lot like the best MacBook money can buy right now. 

Buying refurbished from Apple doesn’t mean secondhand. All models come completely refurbished, cleaned, and with Apple replacement parts where needed. You also get a one-year warranty and all the requisite charging gear. It’s not quite brand new, but Apple’s refurbished products are notoriously excellent, and stand head and shoulders above similar offerings from outlets such as Amazon.

More from iMore

• The M3 iPad Pro could convince me to ditch my MacBook for good
• Apple M3 MacBook Air: Release date rumors, news, and more
• 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro M3

Today, was the end of an era, of sorts: That's because Apple added the mid-2012 13-inch MacBook Pro—the last model to include a built-in optical drive for reading and writing CDs or DVDs—to its list of products that it considers obsolete.

Macrumors said that this MacBook Pro model, “remained for sale until October 2016 as a lower-priced option.”

Apple says that it "discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products." But Apple also says that, "Mac laptops may be eligible for an extended battery-only repair period for up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed for sale, subject to parts availability."

Of course, I'm sure there are many of you out there that still own large collections of CDs and DVDs, even if you won't admit it. (Maybe you own the entire collection of ABBA or Bee Gees on CDs. Or perhaps you want a way to covertly play your "'Weird Al' Yankovic's Ultimate Video Collection" DVD, which is just one DVD, by the way). Well, anyways, if you have CDs and DVDs you want to play, you still can: Apple still sells the Apple USB SuperDrive for $79. However, you'll most likely need a USB adapter to use it, depending on the Mac laptop you have.

What “obsolete” products do you miss or still use?

But you might be wondering how Apple determines what products are obsolete? 

According to Apple's support page, "Products are considered obsolete when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 7 years ago. Monster-branded Beats products are considered obsolete regardless of when they were purchased." 

Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products. Mac laptops may be eligible for an extended battery-only repair period for up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed for sale, subject to parts availability."

They also have a section that explains when Apple deems its products to be "vintage:" Products are "considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago."

Macrumors also said that, on the software side, “Apple dropped support for the Mid 2012 model of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with macOS Big Sur in 2020.” It also noted that “Apple discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Pro entirely last year.”

The M3 Macbook Pro is only a few months old, but you can already save $200 with this incredible Amazon deal that brings Apple’s best everyday laptop down to $1,399.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M3 chip, an 8-core CPU, and 512GB of SSD storage is 13% off in the Space Gray colorway, although you’ll need to fork out $1,499 if you want the Silver option.

When we reviewed the M3 MacBook Pro’s larger 16-inch sibling in November, we said, “The M3 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro is the pinnacle of portable Mac performance, a triumph of silicon engineering. There are now no excuses for owning an Intel-powered Mac.”

While this 14-inch M3 model is far less powerful, it has adequate power for most people and shares the fantastic design just in a smaller form factor. If you’re in the market for a 16-inch powerhouse with the M3 Max, you can also get a record-low price using the coupon provided via Amazon (just make sure to check the box). With the coupon, the 16-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro is $3,249.99 instead of $3,499.

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

Grab yourself a worthwhile deal on the 16-inch M3 Max

The M3 MacBook Pro family is one of the best laptop lineups Apple has ever made, and any purchase will last you well into the coming years. These options are some of the best Macs available and Apple’s silicon provides incredible performance with genuine all-day battery life, which makes these laptops easy to recommend for anyone looking to upgrade.

For the past few years, I’ve tested countless apps on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Recently, however, I’ve noticed that there’s been a resurgence in Mac apps.

This could be down to a few factors — the move to Apple silicon for the Mac, which uses similar Apple-produced chips to the current iPhone and iPad models, allows developers to focus on multiple platforms with the same chips, making development far more streamlined. 

And there’s also the rise of OpenAI and ChatGPT. The AI platform exploded in 2023, and has led to a boon of apps — so much so that macOS has been inundated with new apps powered by AI.

With this in mind, there are three apps that I’ve kept coming back to throughout 2023, which I simply need to talk about and explain why they’re my favorite macOS apps of the year.

Things 3

Until 2023, Cultured Code’s to-do app was solely on my iPhone, and it was great. Being able to quickly create short tasks, group a bunch of them into a project, and then check them off in the app or on a widget on the home screen, was fantastic. Its user interface and features are consistently simple but powerful — it’s a trait that more apps should take note of.

So when I decided that it’d be easier to view these tasks on my Mac, it was almost like rediscovering Things 3 all over again. macOS Sonoma only supercharged this, thanks to widgets on the desktop.

I love Things 3 on my iPhone, so having Things 3 on my Mac, and all of the tasks appearing across my devices thanks to iCloud sync was very helpful.

I can also create other projects for the weekend, such as ones that revolve around my newborn son’s bedroom. I can now tweak, add, and remove all the decorating tasks for his room on my Mac.

I’m not sure what a Things 4 could entail or how it could further improve my productivity — but rediscovering an app just by using it on another device is rare. So, whatever Cultured Code may be planning, I can’t wait to see what could be coming over the horizon.

MacWhisper

I’ve written about Jordi Bruin’s app a few times this year, and for good reason. For those unaware, this macOS app uses OpenAI’s Whisper transcription model to take audio files and translate them into a text file. So if you host a podcast, for example, and you want a readable copy of what was said for someone who may be hearing impaired, MacWhisper makes it easy.

I’ve used it for The iMore Show and for projects I’m working on at weekends, and it’s been a savior for me. When writing my book in 2020, I spent countless hours transcribing Zoom interviews. I did try to use some transcription services, but it was more miss than hit when they would send me a text file with gibberish.

Yet since the first version of MacWhisper was released in February (now on its sixth version), its transcription results have been very impressive. At the time of writing, you can select multiple audio files and throw them into the app, where all of them will be transcribed. If you use an Apple silicon Mac, the app can use the GPU so that transcriptions are between two to three times faster than before.

It’s an app that only gets better every month, with every minor and major release. I’m looking forward to what MacWhisper 10 may bring this time next year — but for now, it’s an app that’s simply become essential in my workflow.

Whisky

Gaming on the Mac has always intrigued me. Granted, for years now, Apple has consistently promised that it’s serious about gaming. I remember being in awe back in 2010 when I could play ports of Half-Life 2 and Portal, thanks to Steam coming to the Mac. Yet in recent years, I’ve had to use Windows, either through Boot Camp on an Intel Mac or through Parallels Desktop on my Apple silicon MacBook Pro, to play some games that aren’t on macOS.

So when Apple announced its ‘Game Porting Kit’ for macOS Sonoma in June, which essentially converts a game to the Mac, I was very intrigued. Soon after, a free app called Whisky was released, which packages this into an easy-to-use interface where you can easily boot up your games from a Steam library and play as normal.

The results are no less than stunning. After plugging in an external mouse, I was playing Resident Evil 3 at full speed, avoiding the Nemesis monster with ease. All of the graphic options were set to high, too — and I only experienced some slowdown when the game changed to a cutscene.

Even a demo of TEKKEN 8, released on December 21, runs at full speed with everything set to Medium.

The app is still being updated, allowing you to ‘pin’ certain games to the home screen of Whisky, so you’ve got easy access to load up Unreal Tournament 2004 or something else.

Unofficially, thanks to Whisky, gaming on the Mac hasn’t been this good in years.

A new report confirming Apple’s plans to upgrade its MacBook and iPad displays to OLED says that an OLED MacBook model is in the works and could drop sometime in 2025, the first concrete launch information we’ve heard about the upgraded laptop. 

Apple has used OLED displays in its best iPhones for several years, and the screen tech that powers the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max is finally financially viable to distribute in larger mobile devices such as laptops and tablets as manufacturing gets more efficient and costs come down now the tech isn’t so new. To that end, we’ve been hearing plenty of rumors that Apple will debut a new OLED iPad Pro in 2024 with the upgraded display tech and Apple’s new M3 Apple silicon chip. 

We’ve also heard more distant rumblings of an OLED MacBook, and now Nikkei Asia reports it could be closer than we’d first thought. 

 OLED MacBook Pro when? 

Apple’s current best MacBook, the M3 Max MacBook Pro, and the wider family of 14- and 16-inch models use the mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR Display, which powers 120Hz refresh rates for buttery-smooth scrolling and excellent visual performance. Going forward, however, Nikkei Asia “Apple plans to deploy the tech in its high-end iPads next year, multiple tech” and that “An OLED MacBook model is also under development for production in the second half of 2025 at the earliest.” 

Switching to OLED should give MacBook Pro models better color performance versus mini-LED, with more accurate colors and more responsive changes, as well as pixel-level dimming. Because OLED pixels are lit at the individual pixel level, rather than with a backlight, pixels also produce truer blacks because the pixels can be switched off. It’s an interesting change but one that is sure to benefit “Pro” MacBook users, including those who use them for visually-intensive work such as photo and video editing where every color counts.

Apple’s newest MacBook Pro was released very recently, starring the new M3 Apple silicon chip. It’s the first such chip built on the more powerful 3nm process, making it both faster and more efficient. If a 2025 OLED MacBook Pro is on the way, it’s possible that could be the next update to the line unless Apple releases an update sometime in 2024, which seems less likely given how recently the new model came out. 

More from iMore

• Apple M3 chip: Release date, cores, Dynamic Caching, speeds, and everything you need to know
• Apple M3 14- & 16-inch MacBook Pros: Release date, news, and more
• Apple's M3 MacBook Pro is made for users like me — 'fake pros

My M1 MacBook Air has served me well over the last few years but, with it due to stop production as early as next year, it feels like it may finally be time for me to upgrade. Luckily, with the M3 MacBook Pro already getting a pretty huge $150 discount, now is the perfect time to get that upgrade. 

It’s important to note that the 9% discount we have spotted on Amazon promises a delivery date of up to one week before Christmas, making it perfect for a very exorbitant gift for yourself or a (very) loved one. This is the lowest price we have ever seen the M3 MacBook Pro at.

Great power at a great price

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy
• Laptop deals: Dell | Best Buy | Walmart | Lenovo | HP | Newegg | Amazon

Available in space gray or silver, it comes with, three thunderbolt ports, an HDMI Port, and a 1080p camera, the M3 MacBook Pro has some small quality-of-life upgrades from previous models but where the MacBook really shines is in the M3 chip. It offers significantly better single-core, multi-core, and power efficiency stats, whilst new features like hardware-accelerated raytracing and mesh shading allow for much better gaming and rendering performance. 

Increased battery power gives up to 22 hours of battery life out of a single charge, and the upgraded storage capabilities leave plenty of room for all the productivity apps it can run so well. With the launch of Resident Evil 4 Remake on the way for Mac devices, it offers a level of gaming experience never before seen on an Apple device. If you’re looking for a nice upgrade, this is an excellent choice. 

Apple's Vision Pro was finally announced at WWDC on June 5, an unveiling that brought an end to years of rumors and leaks. But the headset won't go on sale until early 2024, and Apple isn't saying exactly when that will be. Recent reports suggest March at the earliest, meaning we still have a long wait. And even when it does arrive, the AR/VR headset will cost $3,499. And that's a lot of money.

So what if you could build something similar yourself? Something that would be available much sooner than March 2024 and most importantly, wouldn't cost $3,499. What if it could cost, say, less than $1,000?

That's something that the folks on the Mac Address YouTube channel set out to figure out and the whole thing, as you'd expect, was turned into a video. That video takes us through how the whole thing was created, but that's just the start. After spending a week with the faux Vision Pro, one team member was left to ponder just how useful something like the Vision Pro could be in day-to-day life and during a week in the office.

A hacked-together headset

The Mac Address crew stuck to their sub-$1,000 build budget by taking a 2019 MacBook Pro and removing the broken display — that explains why it was so cheap — and hooking the whole thing up to a pair of Rokid Max AR glasses. That meant that the budget Vision Pro wasn't wireless, but if you consider the real Vision Pro's battery pack, Apple's own headset isn't going to be, either.

The end result was half a MacBook Pro connected to a pair of AR glasses with one person putting the whole system through its paces. They're a designer who previously used a 24-inch iMac and a second monitor, so moving to a world of augmented reality was always going to be an interesting switch. So how did it go?

Perhaps predictably, the whole process left everyone a little off-kilter, with the idea of having the Mac's desktop right in front of the user's face seeming weird at first. We can likely expect something very similar from the Vision Pro when that arrives as well, but I expect that we'll all get used to that soon enough.

One problem that did crop up was display real estate. Because the guinea pig designer was previously using a 24-inch iMac and an external display, they understandably felt cramped when they switched to a single display via the makeshift Vision Pro. Thankfully, that's a problem that should be fixed by the real Vision Pro's ability to run multiple apps in the same 3D space. But that, like so much else about the Vision Pro, is something we will need to see for ourselves before we can be sure.

A hint at what's to come

If there's one thing that this video shows us, it's that there are still plenty of questions surrounding how the Vision Pro will function and importantly, how we as wearers will deal with the change in interface. The video showed that there are still some awkward conversations to be had about how we all look and feel when we're wearing these things, especially during meetings and speaking with others.

But my overarching feeling after watching this video is that I really want to see how this thing pans out. The early hands-on experiences were positive and the people I've spoken to were extremely impressed with what they saw. But that's a relatively short demo period, and I'm more interested in what it's like to live with this headset full-time. And if the experience is positive that $3,499 asking price might be a lot easier to swallow.

More from iMore

• 50 things you need to know about Apple Vision Pro
• News and features about Apple Vision Pro
• Where to buy Apple Vision Pro (when it comes out)

Sometimes, you find a Cyber Monday deal that blows all other deals out of the water, and this might be it.

B&H Photo is offering $1800 off the M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro — down to $2499 from $4299.

Yes, it's a very expensive laptop, but for those who need an incredibly powerful computer, this could be a better buy than a brand-new M3 MacBook Pro.

For $2499, you get 64GB RAM, a 2TB SSD, and the M1 Max with a 32-Core GPU and a 16-Core Neural Engine.

Save $1800 on this insane MacBook Pro deal

• MacBook Pro M3 Pro 14-inch $2399 $2199 at B&H Photo
• MacBook Pro M3 14-inch | Up to $825 off when you trade-in at Best Buy
• MacBook Pro M2 13-inch $1499 $1349 at Amazon
• MacBook Air M2 15.3 inch $1299 $1049 at Amazon
• MacBook Air M1 $999 $749 at Amazon
• MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16-inch $2699 $1949 at B&H Photo

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

Looking for a 14-inch model? 

What about an M3 Pro?

While the M1 Max is a couple of years old now, it's a very powerful computer and while it may not be on par with the M3 Max, you're getting one of the best Macs for far cheaper than we've ever seen before.

If you spend  $2499 at Apple today, you can pick up an M3 Pro 16-inch with 18GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. I'd rather have the 2TB, but both choices will give you a laptop that will last years to come.

I love my MacBook — It’s a 14-inch M1 Pro model, and it’s got all the power that I could ever ask for. What it doesn’t have, however, is a massive SSD inside. For most people, the 512GB of storage is fine. For me, however, it has quickly filled up with untold amounts of digital detritus, from half-finished screenplays to semi-edited video files. As a result, my 512GB is now full. If I want to save something, I must delete something else. A soul for a soul, as it were.

Where to get the best storage deals

• Save up to $200 on Storage at Amazon
• Up to $238 off storage at Best Buy
• Massive savings up to $600 at B&H Photo

Thankfully, there are loads of ways to extend my storage, with a multitude of different storage options available. I could plug a portable SSD into one of the USB-C ports, or stick an SD card into the card slot on the side to add some much-appreciated extra storage — and now, I can do it for cheaper with some massive storage deals in Amazon’s Black Friday sale.

Those sales are ongoing, and there are already some epic Apple deals to be had along with these great storage deals. They’ll be running up to Cyber Monday next week, so there’s plenty of time to get involved.

Simply Storage Savings

During its Scary Fast October Mac event, Apple unveiled its stunning new M3 chip lineup, and there is a lot to be impressed by. With an ungodly amount of transistors, efficiency, and performance core improvements, and that insane new GPU, the M3 is certainly the best Apple silicon chip generation. 

That doesn’t mean you should discount devices using Apple’s previous generation of silicon, the M2 line, however, especially if you can find yourself a good deal in the ongoing Black Friday sales. The M2 Pro and Max MacBook Pro laptops are not even a year old and are still immensely powerful. Thanks to the fact they’ve just been superseded, it’s going to be much easier to find a deal on the older models, so here are some things to consider before you splash all your cash on M3. 

Do you need a Mac for gaming?

M3 is all about gaming performance. With hardware-accelerated ray tracing, dynamic caching, mesh shading, and more speed, the M3 GPU delivers 65% more performance at its peak compared to the M1 chip. Indeed, in our M3 Max MacBook Pro 16-inch review, we found that tests of the M3 Max chip delivered double the frame rates of the M2 Pro model at the same graphic settings running Pharaoh: Total War. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it demonstrates how far these chips have come in the gaming sphere. 

If you want a Mac for gaming, the M3 is your best bet. However, if you need a Mac for music production, photo, and video editing, or any other type of power usage where FPS and rendering aren’t as important as raw processing power, the M2 range might suit you just as well.

M3 is not a universal upgrade 

While pound-for-pound the M3 chip is better than M2 in terms of core performance and efficiency, there are a couple of key ways in which it’s actually not as good as the M2 range. Specifically, the M3 Pro chip has fewer GPU cores (18, not 19), and less memory bandwidth (150GB/s, not 200GB/s). As such, if you want more raw power than the base model M2 or M3 MacBooks, but don’t want to stretch for a Max chip, the M2 Pro is a viable option for all but the most graphic-intensive workloads. 

It’s all about the price

With Black Friday still a few days away, some of the heftier discounts are yet to take hold. That’s why right now you can get an M3 Pro MacBook Pro for the same price as last year’s M2 model, thanks to epic discounts like this one at B&H Photo:

However, I’d bet good money that some retailers are holding onto some tasty discounts on the M2 MacBook Pro line that we’ll see unleashed closer to the main event. When the time comes, a solid saving on an M2 Pro device might well make more financial sense than pushing the boat out for the M3 alternative. Right now the M3 is the better buy, but that may change if and when hefty discounts arrive on M2. 

It’s two years since I upgraded to an M1 Pro MacBook Pro, and it’s the best Mac I’ve ever owned. The fast M1 Pro chip, the 120Hz ProMotion display, and a great keyboard, it’s all I want from a laptop. It’s only when I use all three of the Mac’s USB-C ports, that a problem occurs.

You see when I connect my Mac to an external monitor, an Ethernet port, and a USB-A to USB-C adapter all at once, everything becomes cluttered for my Mac. Wires for each of these are everywhere on the desk, and there’s not much more I can do. Now that I've spotted this 9-in-1 USB-C dock by Anker for $119, down from $149 before Black Friday has even begun, my mind is already wild with the prospect of all the peripherals I could plug into my Mac with this dock.

Plug it in for 20% off

The dock features the following ports:

• Headphone jack
• 3 x USB-A ports
• USB-C port
• USB-C port for charging
• 4K HDMI Port
• 4K Display Port
• Gigabit Ethernet Port

All this dock requires is to be plugged into the mains of an office or wherever there’s a socket nearby, a USB-C port from your Mac, then you can go to town with this dock.

No more will I have to ration a USB-C port, to decide if I should use an Ethernet adapter or a USB-A accessory. Now, it’ll be a matter of taking the dock with me, and simply using what’s available to me at that moment. I can’t wait.

Just a couple of weeks after Apple announced its stunning new M3-powered MacBook Pro range and barely one week since its launch, you can already buy Apple’s best MacBook with savings of up to $200 at B&H Photo. 

In our recent MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023) review, we said Apple’s latest and greatest portable powerhouse was “the pinnacle of portable Mac performance, a triumph of silicon engineering,” thanks to its epic new Space Black color, great display, and that potent new M3 chip. 

These MacBooks are decent value at their asking price, which matches the old M2 models. However, savings of 10% or more a week after release is absolutely mind-boggling on a product this good. Move fast, however, these deals will end on November 19, meaning you might miss one of the best Black Friday MacBook deals before the event even starts.

Epic Mac savings

•  MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy
  

 Apple’s all-new 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro replaces the old 13-inch MacBook Pro. It sports the new base-model M3 chip built on the 3nm manufacturing process. The M3 chip’s efficiency cores are 30% faster than M2 and 50% faster than the M1 version, while the performance cores are faster by 15 and 30% respectively. That means the M3 chip is the best Apple has ever produced, and now it’s housed in a much more capable chassis with a 120Hz ProMotion display, a tremendous keyboard, and a 1080p webcam. This is the ultimate laptop for anyone who wants more power than a MacBook Air but needs to retain some portability. 

The M3 Pro version on sale sports a 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU, making it more potent than this if you want to splash out. $200 off a brand-new MacBook is not to be sniffed at, and this will be superb for video editing and graphics tasks. Right now, there are no sales on the M3 Max, but these two should be more than enough processing power for all but the hungriest of Pro users.

Not ten months removed from the advent of its stalwart M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro models, Apple has seen fit to grace us with yet another upgrade to its most potent MacBooks. The M3 MacBook range boasts a powerful new beating heart and a stunning new color. In truth, however, these are the only two changes worth writing home about. Elsewhere, Apple has retained the same design and display that made the last one great, which you’ll recall was also the same design and display from the previous model. 

This MacBook Pro is the third iteration of Apple’s stellar top-of-the-range model, first trotted out in October of 2021. So how much has changed, and who is this MacBook really for? We’ve put the new all-singing, all-dancing M3 Max 16-inch version through its paces to see what’s what for 2023. Here’s our review.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Price and availability

The MacBook Pro went on sale on November 7 and is available to buy now from Apple and a swathe of other retailers. The model tested here is the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max chip with 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU, 48GB, 1TB SSD, and will set you back a cool $3,999. The M3 Pro and M3 Max variants of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models follow the pricing structure of the M2 range. So it starts at $1,999 for an M3 Pro 14-inch model with 18GB of Unified Memory and a 512GB SSD. The 16-inch model starts at $2,499, and confusingly its M3 Pro chip is a more potent version of the M3 Pro. The M3 Max 16-inch model also comes in a 30-core GPU variant with only 36GB of Unified Memory, priced at $3,499. The wrinkle in this year’s lineup is a new M3 base-model version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, a massive upgrade on the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 it replaces in the lineup, starting at $1,599. 

The MacBook Pro is available from Apple, Amazon, B&H Photo, Best Buy, Target, and more. In the UK it’s also available from Apple, Amazon, and John Lewis. 

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Hardware and design

Out of the box, the hardware of the M3 Max MacBook Pro looks and feels identical to the current M2 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pro I’m using — mostly because it is. Just like its predecessors, the M3 MacBook Pro 16-inch is 0.66 inches thick, 14 inches wide, and 9.7 inches deep. The M3 Pro and M3 Max models weigh 2.14 and 2.16kg respectively, and it’s worth noting that this is a noticeably heavier and chunky laptop compared to Apple’s Air range, or even its old 13-inch MacBook Pro. It’s decidedly thicker and features a squarer design, and if portability is your priority, the 14-inch version is definitely a much better shout than this beast. 

Both the old and new models also share the same 1080p FaceTime HD camera, six-speaker audio, 78-key keyboard, and Touch ID. Either side of the MacBook is adorned with three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports, an HDMI slot, and an SDXC card slot. Indeed, the hardware and design similarities go on and on, because there’s only one difference. 

This year Apple has developed a stealthy new Space Black color. Apple says the new finish is “unmistakably pro” and uses “a breakthrough chemistry that forms an anodization seal to greatly reduce fingerprints.” Fingerprints are inevitable on a MacBook of this color and were evident from the moment I first laid hands on it. Apple doesn’t say, however, that it will eliminate them completely, rather just that it will “greatly reduce” them. There is a noticeable sense that egregious fingerprints fade away quickly when you first leave them on the chassis. 

The effect on the outer shell is very impressive. It’s impossible to leave a fingerprint on the closed lid of the MacBook, as they dissipate instantly every time you remove your fingers, a truly marvelous sight to behold. Inside the clamshell around the fingerprint hot zone of the TouchPad and keyboard, the coating is less resistant but still manages to perform well. It does cling on to some fingerprint residue, but not nearly as much as you’d expect. You should buy the Space Black if you like the color, however, not because of the fingerprint coating. The resistance isn’t an extra feature that comes with the color, it’s a necessity because the Black highlights fingerprints more. If you want a completely fingerprint-less MacBook Pro, you should buy the Silver one. 

The MacBook Pro still sports the same epic Liquid Retina XDR display. Powered by mini-LED technology, it boasts 1000 nits sustained full-screen brightness and 1600 nits peak for HDR content. Apple has also improved the brightness of SDR content, now displayed at up to 600 nits, an immediately noticeable change that will improve your MacBook experience day to day. 

The 120Hz display is the best display I’ve ever used, period. It’s so crisp, clear, and bright, and has rapidly become one of my favorite parts of the new MacBook.. The adaptive refresh rate helps to preserve battery life when you’re doing static work like typing or reading but kicks into life as soon as you start scrolling. It makes all of the animations buttery smooth, and lends a much-needed boost to gaming. Now that the MacBook Pro has a GPU capable of strong gaming performance that high refresh rate makes more sense than ever. Processing aside, the display is one of the key reasons a user would choose this over the MacBook Air. Anyone who has made the switch to a Pro iPhone in recent years will understand this. 

New chip aside, there is no feasible hardware upgrade here that will tempt anyone away from an M2 or M1 version of this MacBook. However, users of older Intel MacBooks, especially any with a butterfly keyboard, will be getting a massive hardware upgrade thanks to the new display, keyboard, and an array of ports that will leave you begging the question: Why did Apple remove the SD card slot in the first place? At least it’s back, however, giving professionals that much-needed boost in connectivity. Just make sure it stays that way, thanks Apple.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Software and performance

This brings us to the reason why you’re all here, and the reason this MacBook exists: The M3 chip. The first Apple silicon chip built on the 3nm process, M3’s stats really leap off the page. As noted, our model for testing provided by Apple packs a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU, as well as 48GB of unified memory. This M3 Max chip boasts more CPU cores than the M1 Max (10) and the M2 Max (12), and Apple is still using its potent combination of performance and efficiency cores, sporting 12 and four respectively. That means that when you’re doing “quiet” work like typing in a document or reading emails, your M3 Max will hum silently in the background, using very little battery life. However, as soon as you start a more intensive task like rendering, graphic design, or gaming, those performance cores will fire into life and provide all the power you need. Think of it like a hybrid supercar, which can run on an electric motor upfront when you pop to the shops, but has a roaring combustion engine in the back for thrashing around a track. 

Versus the M2 Max, then, this M3 Max boasts four more CPU cores (all performance), and two more GPU cores. M2 introduced a faster Neural Engine, and Apple says this year’s is better still, 60% faster than M1 and 15% faster than M2. The Neural engine powers features like AI image processing, and Smart Conform in Final Cut Pro. I’ve seen this demonstrated, and it can transform a video edited for landscape (YouTube, perhaps), into a video for vertical forms like TikTok and reels. It will adjust all of the framing and cropping, as well as any titles or effects you have in the blink of an eye, and is an immensely powerful tool for creatives. 

The M3 efficiency cores are 30% faster than M2 and 50% faster than M1, while the performance cores are 15% faster than M2 and 30% faster than M1. Across the three, however, some things haven’t changed. This M3 Max chip has the same 400GB/s memory bandwidth as its predecessors, although it offers significantly higher capacity options of up to 128GB. While not tested here, it’s worth noting the M3 Pro chip is actually a step back on the M2 Pro chip in some ways, it has fewer GPU cores and lower memory bandwidth.

So what does all this mean in the real world? While benchmarks aren’t real-world tests, per se, they do give us a solid objective indicator of performance relative to Apple’s previous chips. Geekbench six scores for the M1 Max MacBook Pro register single and multi-core scores of 2379 and 12209 respectively (higher is better), according to Geekbench’s own macOS charts. With OpenCL GPU and Metal GPU Scores of 68145 and 113122. So how does Apple’s first MacBook stack up to the M2 model, and our own tests of this brand new M3? Here’s a chart to show you, as you can see the stats were so impressive we’ve also included scores for the M2 Ultra chip to show just how far this Apple silicon has come.

As you can see, the M3 Max is hilariously fast, even smashing the M2 Ultra in single-core performance, proving Apple’s performance claims about the single-core speeds of this new chip. Don’t forget too that the M2 Ultra tests were carried out in a Mac Studio with much better thermal performance. 

We also tested Apple’s SSDs, yielding Blackmagic read and write speeds of 5054MB/s and 6416MB/s respectively, which is about on par with the previous models. 

We recently put the Feral Interactive’s Pharaoh: Total War title through its paces on the M2 MacBook Pro. In that test, benchmarking got us 40 FPS on Ultra settings at 2560 x 1700, so I wanted to see how this chip would perform by comparison. As you can imagine it didn’t disappoint, averaging an astonishing 86 FPS, more than double that of the M2 Pro. I don’t have the M2 Max to make a direct comparison, so I’ve reached out to Feral for their figures, but it’s safe to say that Apple’s new upgraded GPU is doing a serious amount of heavy lifting here. What’s more, it supports hardware-accelerated ray-tracing, and testing elsewhere has revealed Lies of P “plays Amazing” with high frame rates at 4K resolution while supporting ray-tracing for stunning reflections and environment lighting. As that test noted, this is aided in part by the Game Mode in macOS Sonoma, which brings us neatly to the software this device is packing. 

The M3 Max MacBook Pro, like all current models, ships with macOS Sonoma. There are cool new screensavers, interactive widgets, and more, but people buying a laptop of this spec will likely be most interested to hear about gaming. Game Mode ensures that all the power of your CPU and GPU goes to your game in the heat of battle at the expense of background tasks. It kicks in as soon as you load up a title and boosts not just gaming performance but audio latency and input lag as well. This certainly feels like the most capable macOS in years and gaming is a big part of that. Now we just need developers to start taking Mac gaming as seriously as Apple does. Another Sonoma feature, the game porting toolkit, should also help in this endeavor.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Battery life

Thanks to the excellent aforementioned blend of performance and efficiency cores, the M3 Max boasts absolutely tremendous battery life. Using it for what I would describe as “regular” work, browsing, writing, and emails, I used up just 4% of its life in 90 minutes. That means I’ve probably got another 35 hours of battery life in the tank. Overall, Apple says the M3 Max’s battery is rated the same as last year’s model. When you consider the improvements in the silicon hardware, that’s a fine achievement. 

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Competition

As is often the case with Apple’s premium products, you’re often choosing between different Apple products, rather than offerings from different vendors. If you want a potent laptop that runs macOS, you’re only choice is between this and older MacBook Pros. M1 Max and M2 Max users likely won’t be feeling too jealous of the M3 (although it is considerably faster), but any Intel user will notice a huge difference. While you could save some money going for an M2 or even an M1 model, this is definitely the one to buy. This is more pertinent when you consider the customer base for this laptop will be Pro users who need as much raw processing power as physically possible, which the M3 Max provides. 

The 14-inch M3 Max is a much better alternative for users who want a more portable device. If you want a device that isn’t going to be pushed to the limit but will be both rapid and futureproof, the new M3 MacBook Pro is an enticing alternative. 

If you want a Windows alternative, I’d be tempted by the Lenovo Legion 9i (Gen 8), which offers a 165Hz refresh rate mini-LED display, 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13980HX, and an RTX 4080 L or 4090 L depending on your specs. 

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Should you buy it?

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Verdict

The M3 Max MacBook Pro is an astonishing bit of kit. It’s the pinnacle of Apple’s illustrious Mac history (to date) and proof the company is making leaps and bounds with its Apple silicon architecture. The extra performance the company has squeezed out of this new 3nm process is very impressive and one that pros will love and appreciate. There are not enough hardware changes here to justify moving from any of its Apple silicon predecessors, but Intel Mac users and first-time buyers will be blown away by the performance. The Space Black color is another welcome addition and a finish I’d love to see make its way to the rest of Apple’s Mac lineup, both mobile and desktop.   

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023): Gallery

Apple's latest fleet of MacBook Pro models is now on sale, featuring all-new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chipsets to power the next generation of Apple laptops. 

They've now replaced the previous M2-carrying MacBook Pro, though those of you sporting an older model, especially one of the M2 Pro devices that came out in 2023, may wonder if an upgrade is really in order.

In this guide we'll run through the key differences (and similarities) between the new M3 Pro models and the older M2 Pro devices they replaced – so you can make the best purchasing decision for you.

MacBook Pro M2 Pro vs MacBook Pro M3 Pro: Specs

What's notable is just how similar the MacBook Pro M3 Pro models are to the 14-inch and 16-inch M2 Pro models we saw released earlier this year, with the M3 Pro laptops sharing much of the same specification regarding the keyboard, ports, Wi-Fi capability, speakers, screen, and so on – you can see the full run-down below.

You'll notice that CPU and GPU numbers seem pretty equivalent, with the M2 Pro's 19-core GPU seeming to outdo the M3 Pro's 18-core design, with a faster unified memory speed, which feels a little odd. 

But Apple asserts that graphical performance has still seen an improvement, thanks to the advanced 3nm architecture compared to the former's 5nm tech – so those immediate numbers don't necessarily tell the whole story. Just don't worry too much about an upgrade if you nabbed a 2023 M2 Pro model already.

MacBook Pro M2 Pro vs MacBook Pro M3 Pro: What's new?

Processor

Apple boasts that the new M3 Pro processor makes use of a 3nm architecture, featuring smaller and more efficient transistors for faster processes compared to the M2 Pro's 5nm tech.

This allows for far more transistors in an equivalent amount of space, meaning that more tasks can be completed in parallel, with greater power efficiency – so while many specs are the same between both MacBook Pro models, there are some subtle advances under the hood.

Technically, the M3 Pro has fewer transistors than the M2 Pro, at 37 billion compared to the latter's 40 billion, mind – whereas the standard M3 and step-up M3 Max see much more appreciable gains here.

Apple says that the M3 Pro's GPU is "up to 40% faster" than the older M1 Pro chipset, while the CPU is "up to 30% faster". There aren't exact comparisons between the M2 Pro and M3 Pro yet, but we can estimate the latter offers some modest 10-15% improvements on the M2 iteration; the M2 Pro's CPU was 20% faster than in the M1 Pro, meaning this M3 generation looks like a smaller improvement.

It's notable that Apple is mainly comparing with the M1 range where it can, suggesting a big upgrade for anyone still using an M1-carrying MacBook Pro, and not quite as big a difference for those with an M2 model, even if overall the processor's design and efficiency has improved.

Unified memory is up to 36GB, compared to the 32GB we saw on the M2 Pro, which should in Apple's words enable "larger projects to be tackled on MacBook Pro when users are on the go."

The M3 Pro also packs in a number of new features, such as Dynamic Caching for improved memory allocation, Mesh Shading for improved graphical rendering, and "hardware-accelerated ray tracing" for improved lighting and shadows when rendering games.

The Neural Engine used for AI image processing tools, is said to be 15% faster than in the M2 range – with rendering speeds at 2.5x what we saw in the M1 range. AV1 decoding allows for better image quality for video streaming services too.

Design

Not much to report here – the M3 Pro MacBook Pro features the same screen, ports, and overall build as its predecessor, which seems to have been a test run for the new model. However, there is a new Space Black colorway replacing the Space Grey option from the last generation of MacBook Pro models.

Display

Both M3 Pro and M2 Pro laptops feature the same Liquid Retina XDR display, with 1,000 nits of sustained brightness (double that of the earlier 13-inch M2). But that does mean you're getting the same screen performance, brightness, 120Hz frame rate, and resolution between each 14-inch model, or the 16-inch step-up sizes.

The 16-inch models feature roughly a 4K display (3456x2234 pixels), whereas the 14-inch version offers more of a 3K specification (3024x1964 pixels)

Speakers, audio, ports, and connectivity

All M2 Pro and M3 Pro MacBook Pro models feature the same high-fidelity six-speaker sound system, with force-canceling woofers that help to keep your laptop still during audio playback. It's a big step up from the stereo sound on older Apple laptops, though.

In either case, you'll get the same triple mic array and 3.5mm headphone jack for wired headphone connections too – alongside an HDMI cable port, an SDXC memory card slot, a MagSafe charging port, and inputs for Thunderbolt / USB-C.

All M2 and M3 Pro models also support the latest Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) connectivity standard, and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless audio.

MacBook Pro M2 Pro vs MacBook Pro M3 Pro: Battery life

Battery life is also pretty constant between both processors. If you grab a 14-inch MacBook Pro with either chipset, you can expect up to 18 hours of battery life for constant video playback on the Apple TV app, though this goes up to 22 hours for the heftier 16-inch model.

MacBook Pro M2 Pro vs MacBook Pro M3 Pro: Which should you buy?

The MacBook Pro M2 Pro and M3 Pro models share a lot in common, from their CPU cores on the inside to the Liquid Retina display and matching ports on the outside, which makes a clear decision between them a little difficult.

You should expect some uptick in processing power overall, thanks to the 3nm architecture in the newer M3 Pro chipset, but the M2 Pro model was already pretty powerful. Given the similar design, it might make more sense to pick up the M2 Pro MacBook Pro for a lower price where you can – it's been discontinued on the Apple Store website but should be found from third-party sellers and retailers trying to shift their remaining stock in the holiday sales. The best one we've seen so far is this $1,799 M2 Pro MacBook Pro. 

Just make sure to check out the best MacBook Black Friday deals, for your best chance at finding a good MacBook deal.

Apple recently announced the updated 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros with a whole new line of chips. Starting with the M3, the new laptops can also be configured to ship with the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips inside. The latter, as you'd expect, is the most capable of the three and according to one review, it's quite the gaming powerhouse.

As well it should be. The M3 Max comes with a 30-core GPU attached to a 14-core CPU in its base configuration, but it's likely the model given to this particular reviewer was the upgraded one. That means it has a 16-core CPU and a GPU with a whopping 40 cores. That's a lot.

But while we're told that 4K gaming on this thing is "amazing," the same old Mac gaming problems remain. And no number of GPU or CPU cores is going to fix that, meaning gamers are probably still going to overlook the M3 Max MacBook Pro no matter how capable it might be.

All the performance

The review in question was by YouTuber Marques Brownlee for his hugely popular MKBHD channel. It isn't a hugely long one, running for less than 10 minutes. But it gives us all the highlights that you'd expect from such a thing — the Space Black color isn't as black as it could be, and the machine is incredibly fast. No surprises there.

Brownlee also took us on a whistle-stop tour of the MacBook Pro's gaming capabilities, noting that he'd been playing Lies of P on what is clearly Apple's best Mac to see how it ran. The result? "Amazing." Brownlee was playing in 4K with plenty of graphics quality settings ramped up and the game does indeed look great.

But for once, the Mac's performance isn't the problem here. There was once a time when buying an Apple laptop almost guaranteed that you wouldn't be playing a game on it. Integrated Intel GPUs were bad, and adding a discrete one meant paying a lot more and then dealing with the terrible battery life it brought with it. Today, things are different.

Sure, the M3 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro isn't cheap, although the 14-inch model can be had for less. Starting at $3,499 the big aircraft carrier of a laptop is a costly option, no doubt. But you get performance for days and a machine that looks like it costs $3,499. But is it a gaming laptop?

Where are the LEDs?

No, it isn't.

Over in the gaming world, you'll find laptops that cost even more than the M3 Max MacBook Pro, but they have some key things going for them — real gaming GPUs, and a gaming library that's second to none.

An example? The Razer Blade 16 costs $3,599 at its starting price point. It has the same size SSD and essentially the same amount of RAM as Apple's base M3 Max model, but has the Intel Core i9-13950HX CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 GPU. Both of those things will make the Razer a very capable gaming laptop. And it has LEDs — everyone knows gamers love those.

And then, there's the library.

Sure, Apple's trying its best to get games into the App Store and sure, Steam's on the Mac now. But not all games are available to play on Apple's computers and if they are, there's no guarantee they're optimized for them. Contrast that with the PC where you just know the hit new game will make an appearance and the choice is easy.

Would I buy the Razer? I wouldn't, I'd get the MacBook Pro all day long. As would creatives working in video and photo apps that make use of every little core the M3 Max has to offer. But gamers? For people willing to spend around $3,500 on a laptop to play games with, it makes sense to go where the games are. And that's Windows.

And no number of GPU cores in the M3 Max or beyond will change that.

More from iMore

• M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips are here
• M3 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros
• The state of Mac gaming

Apple might have only just refreshed the best portable Macs with the arrival of the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips but it won't stop there. These too will eventually be replaced by something new, and further down the line that something new will reportedly include OLED displays.

The OLED display is something that's very much in the iPad's future, starting with the M3 iPad Pro next year assuming reports are accurate. But the MacBook Pro is a different beast entirely, with reports now pointing to those machines moving away from the current display technology as soon as 2026.

The technology used in the current 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros is of the mini-LED variety with Apple marketing the displays as Liquid Retina XDR. That doesn't mean all that much in reality, but these displays are among the best Apple has used which makes the prospect of OLED all the more exciting.

Liquid Retina XDR and beyond

The prospect of Apple using OLED technology in future MacBook Pros isn't an alien one, but the latest to get involved in the guessing game surrounding the company's future products is Jeff Pu, an analyst with Haitong Intl Tech Research. According to an investor note seen by 9to5Mac, the analyst believes that Apple intends to bring OLED to its 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros at some point in 2026. He also added further weight to the growing expectation that an 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro refresh with OLED technology is in the cards for 2024.

Those iPads won't be the first Apple devices to sport OLED displays, of course. Apple has been using the technology in iPhones for years, including the latest iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. The Apple Watch also has an OLED display, including the 2023 models like the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

While it's true that the Liquid Retina XDR displays Apple already crams into its high-end laptops are among the best around, there are still benefits to be had if it moves away from mini-LED in favor of OLED. Those benefits include deeper blacks which means for better contrast, while colors should also be more vivid as well.  There's also the possibility of thinner displays which in turn could also mean for thinner and lighter laptops, although how much difference it would really make remains to be seen. Of all of the components that go into a 16-inch MacBook Pro, the display is far from the heaviest.

It isn't all upside, though

That isn't to say that there aren't negatives to moving to an OLED technology when building laptop displays. As we've seen with other OLED displays, burn-in can be a real problem. Otherwise known as image retention, the phenomenon sees some on-screen components appear permanently even when the display is turned off. That's caused by static images being displayed for too long, although Apple seems to have largely mitigated that issue on the Apple Watch and iPhone. Given that, it seems unlikely to be an issue on the MacBook Pro or indeed the iPad Pro.

All things considered, OLED would surely be an upgrade for the MacBook Pro and we'll get a sneak peek at what to expect once next year's iPad Pros arrive. As for other OLED products, a recent leak claimed to share Apple's OLED roadmap over the coming years including MacBook Airs, a foldable laptop of sorts, and even a 42-inch iMac. I'm not convinced about that one in particular, but time will tell whether my cynicism was warranted there.

If you're picking up a brand-new M3 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro you won't only be getting the most powerful Apple laptop money can buy right now, you'll also be getting one with a new feature that actually lets you use that power all the time.

That feature, dubbed High Power Mode, was previously only available to buyers of the 16-inch MacBook Pro that had the M1 Max or M2 Max chips inside. But with this latest round of updates Apple has brought the feature down the lineup, adding it to the 14-inch model for the first time.

But what is High Power Mode and what does it mean for people who use their Mac laptops on the road, in the office, and at home?

All the power

High Power Mode is detailed in an Apple support document which explains exactly what it does. It begins by saying that "by default, your Mac is set to Automatic mode to balance energy use and performance." It goes on to say that the optional "Low Power Mode reduces energy use to increase battery life." That all makes plenty of sense and you're probably already starting to guess what High Power Mode might do as a result.

"High Power Mode allows the fans to run at higher speeds," Apple's explanation starts. "The additional cooling capacity may allow the system to deliver higher performance in very intensive workloads." Specifically, Apple says that "High Power Mode can improve performance in graphics-intensive workflows such as color grading 8K ProRes 4444 and 8K DNxHR video. In video editing and 3D applications, you may experience smoother playback and faster exports in High Power Mode."

But it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Those who use High Power Mode can expect their MacBook Pro's fan to run at a higher speed which obviously means it's more likely to be heard. And while the feature can be enabled even when running on battery power, you can bet your bottom dollar that the battery life will take a considerable hit when it's used.

But does that really matter?

Just like Apple's Game Mode which seeks to improve gaming performance when needed, High Power Mode is designed to give people the full benefit of that powerful M3 Max when they need it. While macOS Sonoma can be left to its own devices and will choose when to ramp up the CPU and GPU speeds to meet demand, there are times when MacBook Pro owners just need to know that their laptops are working at full pelt. If that happens on the go, and the battery life takes a hit, so be it — giving photographers and videographers the chance to ensure their Mac is as performant as possible at all times could be exactly what they need, especially when on a deadline.

The move to bring the feature to the M3 Max running in the 14-inch MacBook Pro is an interesting one, and I do wonder why it wasn't there in the previous iterations. It's possible that there's a cooling consideration here and that Apple believes the 3nm M3 silicon can run cooler even when pushed to its limits. The 14-inch chassis is obviously smaller, but that means its cooling capabilities are also lessened. Perhaps the M1 Max and M2 Max were simply too warm for High Power Mode in such a small enclosure.

Regardless, it's great to see Apple giving the smaller MacBook Pro the same capabilities as the bigger one. Choosing between Apple's two best Mac laptops should be a case of picking the right screen size, and nothing more.

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When Apple unveiled its updated 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros alongside a refreshed 24-inch iMac, it also took the wraps off a trio of new chips. The M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max are updated versions of the previous M2 series and it turns out that they're pretty quick indeed.

At least, the M3 Max is. That's just one of the chips that we've already seen pop up in early Geekbench results. Sitting inside the updated 16-inch MacBook Pro, the M3 Max was put through its paces, presumably, by someone who got their hands on an early unit. The results were then unloaded to the internet and that was that. But that isn't even the most interesting part of the story.

That part is the fact that this 16-inch MacBook Pro, powered by an M3 Max chip, is faster than the M2 Ultra that currently powers the Mac Studio and what is supposed to be the best Mac money can buy — the Mac Pro. And that's fascinating.

Big, bug numbers

To really appreciate what's going on here we have to look at the numbers. The Geekbench run, spotted by AppleInsider, posted a single-core score of 2,971 and a multi-core score of 20,785. Those are already big numbers before you compare them with the M2 Ultra that previously sat at the very tippy-top of Apple's lineup.

Right now, those running an M2 Ultra can expect scores of around 2,692 in single-core tests and 21,231 in multi-core tests. That means that the M3 Ultra is faster per-core than the M2 Ultra and it's only when you add the extra cores that older chip can take back the crown. The M2 Ultra has 24 cores whereas the M3 Max tops out at 16.

With all of those things considered, we can likely expect some pretty great things when the M3 Ultra ships. When that will be, we don't yet know. But we can expect it to be used in future Mac Studio and Mac Pro computers at some point — assuming Apple doesn't leave the Mac Pro to languish all over again. 

A bright future ahead but the vultures circle

This is of course all excellent news for people who will be buying Macs over the next year or so, especially at the top end of the lineup. The MacBook Pros are now great buys across the lineup thanks to the removal of the 13-inch model from the lineup. And Apple silicon continues to show that Apple was right to ditch Intel and start designing its own chips.

TSMC and its 3nm manufacturing process should also take some plaudits, as it did when it produced the A17 Pro that powers the iPhone 15 Pro devices. It would be no good Apple designing great chips if it couldn't get anyone to build them, after all.

These are without question the best Macs that Apple has ever sold. But in a wider computing market, the vultures are already starting to circle.

Qualcomm, the company that builds Apple's iPhone modems, has its new Snapdragon X Elite chips on the way. Those chips will run Windows on ARM for a number of different laptop companies and the early benchmark tests show that Apple has a fight on its hands — especially when you look at the base model M3.

Of course, none of this really matters. You can't get an M3 series chip in a Windows PC and you can't get a Snapdragon X Elite chip in a Mac, either. But where once Apple had the edge in mobile chips, it appears Qualcomm's catching up. And that's good news for everyone because faster computers mean better experiences for us all.

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Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the next generation of Apple Silicone, the M3 chip. Built using a 3nm (nanometer) process, the brand-new processor takes the Mac to new heights, and it looks like Apple’s speed claims during the “Scary Fast” event live up to hype according to the first benchmark results.

During the event, Apple said that the new M3 chip has an 8-core CPU that is up to 35% faster than M1 and 20% faster than M2 and a 10-core GPU that is up to 65% faster than M1 and up to 20% faster than M2. Now, thanks to some Geekbench results that appeared in the database, it looks like the M3 is an excellent upgrade for anyone looking to make the jump to Apple Silicone.

The Geekbench results from the base model M3 MacBook Pro show a single-core result of 3030 and a multi-core score of 11694. These results align with Apple’s claims of 20% improvement on the M2 and 30% on the M1.

Benchmarks don’t give us the full picture of how the new MacBooks will perform in daily use, but the results give a good indication that the new M3 chips are as good as Apple claims.

The M3 MacBook Pro is available for preorder just now and will be available from November 7, but with Black Friday fast approaching it may be worth waiting for one of the Best MacBook Black Friday deals.

M3 Power

The new M3 MacBook Pro not only houses the new processor but also allows customers to own a Space Black MacBook. The new color available with the M3 Pro and M3 Max is the only external hardware difference from the previous M2 MacBook Pros released earlier this year.

We can’t wait to get our hands on the new laptops to check out the new color and test the M3 chip. Stay tuned to iMore for more M3 Mac news.

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If you have just preordered a brand new M3 MacBook Pro, one of the last things you will likely notice is the stock wallpaper. But, if you pay attention, you may be able to spot a fun little detail in it. 

Apple is a company that enjoys a little bit of pageantry. From the ‘Scary Fast’ event going live late before Halloween or all the teases it does for its live streams, it always has something fun up its sleeve. If you take a look at the M3 MacBook site right now, you can have a look at the new wallpaper but there’s more to it than meets the eye. 

A good spot

As spotted by Steve Moser on Threads, though it initially looks like just a mass of ridges on a black background, if you squint or catch it on the right angle, you can spot ‘Pro’ among all those lines. Though half of the iMore couldn’t spot it without my excellent artist’s rendition. As we discussed this fun easter egg,  it was pointed out that this is not the only time Apple has done this. 

The MacBook Air background, which you can spot below, also has Air written in the cryptic blues and yellows. Though it took a second for it to fully register for me, squinting at the background elucidated the problem. This extra attention to detail is part of what people love about Apple. When my black iPhone 15 Pro Max arrived, I was surprised to see a matching black background. It dynamically changes depending on the always-on display — a very nice little touch.

Were you able to spot Pro in the M3 MacBook Pro background or Air in the MacBook Air cover without us pointing it out? Have you spotted any more neat details in the background of Apple devices? If so, let us know in the iMore forum. 

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The new 14-inch MacBook Pro bids farewell to the old 13-inch model, and comes with some wicked new features — not least of all that M3 chip on the inside. It’s also a little more expensive than a MacBook 13-inch would normally be at launch, so you’ll want to find every saving you possibly can.

Thankfully, there are already deals out there on the as-yet-unreleased MacBook Pro models — and one of the best could save you a massive chunk of the price at Best Buy.

Trade in your old MacBook

• MacBook deals: Amazon | B&H Photo | Best Buy

The brand new MacBook Pro is a lovely refresh on the old base model, packing the same chassis as the more expensive M3 Pro and Max version, and featuring the wicked new M3 chip. For those with older Mac hardware, like an intel-based MacBook Pro, that’s going to be a marked improvement over your existing machine, making this the perfect opportunity to trade in and save some money.

Alas, there’s none of that new Space Black for the M3 version of the MacBook Pro M3 14-inch, but there are the classic Space Gray and Silver. It’s an epic upgrade to the Mac line, and it brings the whole lot together into the same design language.

The new MacBook Pro models are going to ship on November 7, although delivery dates might start to shift as the month moves on. This deal is only at Best Buy at the moment, but there are loads of places to preorder the MacBook Pro 14-inch.

The first thing that crossed my mind when Apple revealed the brand-new M3 MacBook Pro in its Space Black finish during the “Scary Fast” Mac event was just how greasy the beautifully blacked-out laptop would get when in use. 

In the keynote, Apple claimed that the Space Black finish, only available on the M3 Pro and M3 Max Macbook Pro models, which starts at $1,999, has a “breakthrough chemistry that forms an anodization seal to greatly reduce fingerprints.” But we’ve all seen how darker aluminum colors fair on MacBooks — I’m looking at you Midnight MacBook Air.

Now, we’ve got our first glimpse of the new finish thanks to a hands-on video from The Verge, which shows the brand new Space Black computer in all its glory, and it looks like you won’t need to worry too much about fingerprints.

Grease be gone

The Verge’s Dan Seifert said, “I got like 30 seconds to touch the new Space Black model, and yeah, I guess there are fewer fingerprints on it, but we'll really have to see how it holds up in the real world."

He’s not the only one who noticed the fingerprint resistance. Six Color’s Jason Snell said, I got my greasy monkey paws on a Space Black laptop and can report that Apple's as good as its word in the sense that it seems generally more resistant to fingerprints and other smudges.”

Snell added, “But I don't want to exaggerate this feature: you can still see fingerprints. They just aren't as prominent. This is a progressive improvement over something like the Midnight M2 MacBook Air, but it's not a cure-all.”

So it looks like those of us with initial reservations surrounding the new Space Black MacBook Pro could be in luck, no longer opting for lighter colors just to avoid gross fingerprints. That said, we’ll need to wait until we’ve got the new MacBook Pros in hand to put the M3 chip through its paces and check out Space Black for ourselves. Stay tuned to iMore for our review.

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Apple's big 'Scary Fast' event brought with it just about everything we expected including new M3 chips and updated 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros. But while that's all good news and the new chips sound great, one of them has some curious specifications that might not be immediately obvious.

The chip in question is the M3 Pro, silicon that now replaces the M2 Pro which itself replaced the M1 Pro that came before it. The new chip can be bought in the updated 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros and is sure to be a great option for a lot of people. But its specs make for interesting reading if you're coming from one of those older siblings.

That's because while the new chip is based on TSMC's latest 3nm manufacturing process — like the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro — it's actually a downgrade in a couple of key areas when compared to the M1 Pro and M2 Pro.

Fewer cores, less memory bandwidth

While Apple showed some impressive-looking graphs that claim its new chips will smoke Intel-powered Macs, the devil is, as they say, in the details. And those details show that the M3 Pro has fewer cores than the chip its replaces.

As an example, the M3 Pro comes with an 11-core CPU and 14-core GPU as standard. The outgoing M2 Pro model has 16 GPU cores, which you don't need to be a math whizz to know is two fewer.

The story continues when you move to the upgraded model, too. That comes with a 12-core CPU and an 18-core GPU, but the M2 Pro had a 19-core GPU as an option. That's one fewer, which is better than two fewer, to be sure. But it isn't quite as good as having the same number.

The bad news continues when you consider that the M3 Pro has fewer performance cores than the M2 Pro, with Apple choosing to use more so-called efficiency cores instead. We'll need to see some benchmarks before we can judge how that affects real-world performance, though.

Another aspect that might need testing is memory bandwidth. Apple's M3 Pro sports a memory bandwidth of 150GB/s which is 25% less than the 200GB/s managed by the M1 Pro and M2 Pro. That might only impact people who are working with particularly meaty workflows of course, but considering these are Apple's best Macs and designed for professionals, it's possible people will notice the change depending on what they're doing.

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Apple announced the brand new M3 MacBook Pros at its "Scary Fast" event and, in doing so, replaced the base model MacBook Pro. The new M3 chip is the fastest chip Apple has ever made and includes some huge new performance additions like Dynamic Caching.

If you're in the market for a new MacBook Pro, there are a few options to choose from, and one of those might be to pick up the previous generation M2 13-inch model to save some cash.

We’ve put together a comparison so that you can make an informed decision and make sure that you purchase the right base model MacBook Pro for you.

13-inch MacBook Pro M2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro M3: Specs

The M3 14-inch MacBook Pro replaces the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 as the base model MacBook Pro available via Apple. There's a lot to compare, including the brand-new M3 chip and the design differences, like the notched display.

The older M2 model is great for users who need power but don't need all the bells and whistles of the M3 chip and newer design. If you're looking for a powerful machine with a better display, better connectivity, more ports, a bigger display, and more power then it's a no brainer — Pick the M3.

13-inch MacBook Pro M2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro M3: What's new?

Processor

One of the main differences between the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 is the processor found inside. With the brand-new M3 chip you'll get better performance alongside Dynamic Caching, Mesh Shading, and Hardware- accelerated ray tracing. Apple estimates 20% better CPU and GPU performance on the M3 compared to the M2.

Design

The newer M3 MacBook Pro has a larger, squarer design compared to the M2 MacBook. It's also a bit heavier, and naturally larger because of the bigger screen sizes. The larger design enables more ports for connectivity and MagSafe charging. 

The 14-inch M3 model is larger in terms of both width, and depth, and also heavier. The newer 2023 models also don't come with a Touch Bar, whereas the 2022 13-inch Pro is the last Mac to feature the ill-fated but loved-by-some design. 

Display

The M3 14-inch MacBook Pro boasts a significantly improved display over the M2 13-inch model. The M3 has a Liquid Retina XDR display, which means you're getting a larger display with more pixels, and it's also brighter at 1,000 nits of sustained brightness compared to just 500 nits on the 13-inch M2.

Even more importantly, the M3 MacBook Pro has a 120Hz ProMotion display which will make the user experience feel far smoother than the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro

Speakers, audio, and ports

The M3 MacBook Pro offers a high-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-canceling woofers to stop your Mac from vibrating while playing audio. The M2, on the other hand, only has stereo sound.

There is no difference to be found in the "studio-quality" mic array, and both come with a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can plug in your favorite wired headphones.

The M3 MacBook Pro also offers more ports, including an HDMI for video, and an SDXC slot for your memory cards. 

Connectivity

The M3 14-inch MacBook Pro has Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, while the M2 13-inch has slightly older connectivity technology with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.

13-inch MacBook Pro M2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro M3: Battery life

The M3 chip is more efficient than its predecessor which means the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro has slightly better battery life than the M2 13-inch despite being more powerful. Apple says you can get up to 22 hours of battery life in the M3 compared to up to 20 in the M2, we'll need to test the new MacBook out to confirm this.

13-inch MacBook Pro M2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro M3: Which should you buy?

The decision is pretty simple. If you want the best base model MacBook Pro Apple has ever made, purchase the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro, as it has awesome specs, an amazing design, and a beautiful display. That said, the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro is no slouch, and if you want to save some cash, you'll be able to find some great deals on the now-discontinued MacBook, especially in the run-up to Black Friday.

If you are looking to buy a new MacBook Pro, be sure to check out the best MacBook Black Friday deals, as iMore is your best friend when it comes to finding a bargain.

The 'Scary Fast' Apple event is done and dusted and it brought with it a number of new announcements. Things kicked off with the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips and continued with the arrival of three new Macs.

One of those Macs was the long-awaited M3 24-inch iMac, a machine that finally replaces the M1 version that has been on sale since its introduction back in 2021. But as important a product that can be for Apple, I'm much more interested in the laptops. In particular, my attention is firmly on the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros that have now been refreshed with all-new Apple silicon.

But the new chips, as cool as they might be, aren't really the most interesting thing. That label is reserved for a new color. A color that will surely be the only color to have if you're picking up a new Mac laptop. The problem? You'll have to spend a lot of money to get it.

Space Black for (almost) everyone

The new color is of course Space Black, a finish that I'm told is darker than Space Gray without being actual black. I also gather that it's still going to show fingerprints, but those who buy Apple's best Macs probably have a Pro Display XDR cleaning cloth to hand at all times, anyway.

Snark aside, it's a stunning color. But while Apple says this is most definitely a color that evokes the "pro" name, it seems that not every MacBook Pro is as pro as the next. Not when it comes to Space Black, anyway.

That's because those who want to get that swish new color will have to buy a 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro or M3 Max chip to get it. Go that route and you can choose between Space Black and Silver — is that even a choice? — but if you opt for a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 chip, everything changes. For you, it's Space Gray or Silver. You don't deserve Space Black for skimping on CPU and GPU cores, it seems.

Just look at it though

It's an interesting decision to be sure, and I'd love to know why Apple came to the decision that only the most pro of MacBook Pro buyers can get its most pro color. If a color can even be pro at all.

I'm writing this on a 16-inch Space Gray MacBook Pro and I adore it. I get what Apple means when it says that Space Black is a pro color, even though I feel myself cringe as I say it. But it's true — darker colors seem more pro. I don't make the rules, that's just the way it is.

From the images Apple has shared, a 16-inch MacBook Pro in Space Black will be one giant slab of hotness. And while I'm not advocating for spending a few thousand dollars to upgrade just for the color, anyone who is upgrading anyway is going to be in for a treat.

At least, I think so. Because Apple hasn't really shown this thing off. I'd have expected the MacBook Pro's press release to be full of lifestyle photos showing the Space Black color off to the fullest. But there aren't any. That seems like a strange decision when Apple just made a big deal about the new color in its streamed event.

Maybe those fingerprints are worse than we thought and Apple didn't have a microfiber cloth to hand when taking its photos.

After years of getting used to it, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is finally being replaced with a flashy new M3 version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Suddenly, Apple's product line has changed and we now have two different versions of the 14-inch model with the M3 and the M3 Pro. If that's not enough power for you, the M3 Max Chip is an even beefier version of the chip. 

If you have watched the reveal and feel like you could benefit from an upgrade, you are probably wondering where you can preorder one. Here's everything you should know about the 14-inch MacBook Pro preorders, alongside some tips to get your brand-new laptop. 

What’s new?

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is no more, replaced by the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3. That's the same chassis as the M3 Pro MacBook Pro, finally unifying the whole line. The M3 chip is a big jump from the previous model chips, with features like Dynamic caching and other extras. Want the most powerful 14-inch MacBook? Go for the M3 Max MacBook.

Where to look first

• MacBook Pro 14-inch preorder at Amazon
• MacBook Pro 14-inch preorder at B&H Photo
• MacBook Pro 14-inch preorder at Apple
• MacBook Pro 14-inch preorder at Target

Preorder MacBook Pro 13-inch

Preorder Q&A

The 'Scary Fast' Apple event came and went on October 30, and we’ve seen some brand new MacBooks to potentially spend our money on — alongside a brand new chip with some cool new features and big performance gains.

The new MacBook Pro 16-inch model is just one of those models, but as it's packed with an M3 Pro or M3 Max, it will be very desirable for those who do a lot of video editing and other powerful tasks on a Mac.

With the M3 Pro and Max chips included in these new models, they will be seen as the ultimate portable Macs – and you’ll be wondering where and when you can get one.

At the moment the only way to get one on release day is by pre-ordering. With this in mind, we know just the places to do that.

What’s new?

The MacBook Pro 16-inch always comes with the most powerful chips, and this time that’s in the form of the M3 Pro and Max chips. They're 30% faster than the M1 chips that you might be upgrading from, and they proved improvements in battery life. 

That's because the 3nm process used to build them uses far less power than previous chips, allowing for more staying power from the latest laptops.

However, any MacBook Pro that has an M3 Pro and above also comes in a great Space Black color. This means that any 16-inch model will have this as an option as you approach the pre-order button.

Where to look first

• MacBook Pro 16 M3 preorder at Amazon
• MacBook Pro 16 M3 preorder at B&H Photo
• MacBook Pro 16 M3 preorder at Apple
• MacBook Pro 16 M3 preorder at Target

Preorder MacBook 16-inch

Preorder Q&A

We finally know what Apple meant by scary fast, and it has everything to do with the Mac.

At the company's "Scary Fast" event, Apple unveiled a brand new version of the MacBook Pro. While the laptop didn't get much of a design update and looks scarily similar to the previous generation, the MacBook Pro got quite a boost with the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips — and components paired with them — inside of it.

The new MacBook Pro features a new thermal system — not surprising since I'm sure that was needed to handle the power capabilities of the new chips. Speaking of chips, the 14-inch MacBook Pro supports the M3 and M3 Pro and the 16-inch MacBook Pro supports the M3 Pro and M3 Max processors.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, said in a statement that the company is "raising the bar yet again" with the introduction of the M3 chip family.

"There is nothing quite like MacBook Pro. With the remarkable power-efficient performance of Apple silicon, up to 22 hours of battery life, a stunning Liquid Retina XDR display, and advanced connectivity, MacBook Pro empowers users to do their life’s best work. With the next generation of M3 chips, we’re raising the bar yet again for what a pro laptop can do. We’re excited to bring MacBook Pro and its best-in-class capabilities to the broadest set of users yet, and for those upgrading from an Intel-based MacBook Pro, it’s a game-changing experience in every way.”

According to Apple, the new version of the MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip is up to 40% faster than the previous generation of the MacBook Pro running an M1 Pro chip. With the MacBook Pro, users will be able to support up to two high-resolution displays.

With the MacBook Pro and the M3 Max chip inside, the new model is reportedly two and a half times faster than the previous generation with the M1 Max chip. The M3 Max chip will pack up to 128 GB of unified memory and drive up to four high-resolution displays.

Speaking of displays, the new MacBook Pro display is up to 20% brighter than its predecessor with the new Liquid Retina XDR display. The new MacBook Pro also comes in a new color: Space Black. That color has already existed with the iPhone and iPad for a bit, but this is the first time it is coming to a Mac.

The new MacBook Pro comes with up to 8TB of storage, 22 hours of battery life, a six-speaker sound system, up to a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU, HDMI, Thunderbolt 4, and an SDXC port.

The new MacBook Pro is available to preorder today and will officially launch on November 7, 2023.

The 14-inch model now starts at $1,599 and is available in the M3 and M3 Pro configurations immediately. For those who want the M3 Max chip, those configurations will be available in late November.

The 16-inch model still starts at $2,499 and is also available to order today. If you want it with the M3 Max chip, those configurations will also be available later in November.

The departing M2 

Apple's M2 MacBook Pro has been out for less than a year, so it's certainly a surprise that Apple has chosen to update it so soon.

That said, Apple seems to be diehard about launching its M3 chip lineup all at the same time so, of course, the MacBook Pro was going to be part of that rollout.

Just days before it hold its Mac October event, a top insider has revealed everything that Apple plans to unveil at the event. 

The Scary Fast event will take place on Monday, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple’s new Macs come “at a critical moment for Apple” citing the PC market slump ending and burgeoning competition. 

So what will Apple announce on Monday? Gurman says we can expect “fresh MacBook Pro laptops and iMac desktops” with new chips, but that these likely “won’t have a radical new look.” Let’s get into the details.

The event slate 

According to Gurman, Apple is preparing new “high-end MacBook Pros”, likely the M3 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, that “will probably include speedier new M3 Pro and M3 Max processors.” The M3 Pro processor could have 12 cores, six high-performance, and six high-efficiency. The GPU will have 18 cores, so two more of each than the M2 Pro. however, Gurman says there’s also an M3 Pro chip in testing with 14 CPU cores and 30 graphics cores, so who knows which one we might see? M3 Max will reportedly feature 16 main cores and 40 graphics cores. There are also new RAM configurations including 24 and 48GB options. 

The other big story is the M3 iMac, which isn’t getting a “bold new design” and will look “nearly identical to the existing versions.” The new 24-inch iMac will have a slightly changed stand and internals, and new colors are a possibility. According to Gurman, this will feature the M3 iMac with 8 CPU cores and 10 graphics cores.

Apple is also “likely” to unveil new USB-C versions of its trackpad, mouse, and keyboard. 

That all confirms Gurman’s previous assertion that the 13-inch MacBook Pro, 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air, new iPads, and new AirPods are all being saved for 2024. With the event just a few days away we don’t have long to see Apple's next best MacBook come to life. 

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Apple's 'Scary Fast' event pulled back the curtain to reveal its new M3 family of processors on October 30, alongside new versions of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

These include all three of the M3 chips, depending on your budget. The M3 model replaces the old 13-inch MacBook Pro with TouchBar, while the M3 Pro and above come in a new Space Black color.

Apple made sure to mention that these Macs are up to 11x faster compared to an Intel Mac. So if you've been considering an upgrade, now could be a great time to.

With all this in mind, here's everything you need to know about the new MacBook Pro with the M3 chip.

M3 MacBook Pro: Release date

The new MacBook Pro became available to preorder right as Apple's "Scary Fast" event came to a close on October 30, 2023. Users are able to preorder all of the configurations immediately. However, there is a difference in when certain models will be available.

For the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the M3 and M3 Pro configurations will launch on November 7, 2023, so if you get your preorder in fast enough you might be able to nab it for launch day.

For the 16-inch MacBook Pro, only the M3 Pro configuration will be delivered from November 7. If you're looking for a new MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip, Apple says it will begin delivering those configurations in "late November."

M3 MacBook Pro: Chip

As expected, users are going to have a lot of choice when it comes to the chip they want inside their new MacBook Pro.

If you pick up a 14-inch MacBook Pro, you'll be able to choose across the entire M3 family: the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. The M3 will only come in one option with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU.

If you upgrade to the M3 Pro, you'll be able to choose between two configurations: one with an 11-core CPU and 14-core GPU and another with a 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU. Finally, if you choose to pack it with an M3 Max, you'll also only have one option with a 14-core CPU and 30-core GPU.

If you pick up a 16-inch MacBook Pro, that's when things get crazy. With the M3 Pro, you'll only get one configuration option with a 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU. If you upgrade to the M3 Max chip, you'll be able to choose between two configurations: one with a 14-core CPU and 30-core GPU and another with a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU.

All of the chips get Apple's new GPU architecture and what it is calling Dynamic Caching. This means that "the GPU allocates the use of local memory in hardware in real-time so only the exact amount of memory needed is used for each task. This dramatically increases GPU utilization and performance for the most demanding pro apps and games."

M3 MacBook Pro: Display

The M3 MacBook Pro has received a slight bump in quality with its new display — as long as you're watching content in SDR instead of HDR. Apple says that the new display shows SDR content at up to 600 nits now, which is twenty percent brighter than before.

Other than that, things have stayed the same for HDR content. The Liquid Retina XDR display still pushes out HDR content at 1000 nits sustained and 1600 nits of peak brightness.

The only difference between the 14-inch and 16-inch models is in the native resolution. The 14-inch model's native resolution comes in at 3024-by-1964 pixels while the 16-inch model comes in at 3456-by-2234 pixels.

When it comes to external displays, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 can only support one external display. The 14-inch and 16-inch models with the M3 Pro chip can support two external displays, and the 14-inch and 16-inch models with the M3 Max chip can support up to four external displays.

M3 MacBook Pro: Memory

There are plenty of choices when it comes to memory with the new MacBook Pro — in fact, there are so many choices that it gets downright confusing since what's available is wholly dependent on what processor you choose.

For 14-inch MacBook Pro models with the M3 chip, users will be able to choose between 8GB, 16GB, or 24GB of memory. If you upgrade to the M3 Pro chip, you'll have options between 18GB to 36GB. If you upgrade to the M3 Max chip, your options will increase — you can choose either 36GB, 48GB, 64GB, 96GB, or 128GB depending on the specific M3 Max configuration you choose.

For the 16-inch MacBook Pro, things get even more complicated. If you choose the M3 Pro chip, you'll be able to choose either 18GB, 36GB, 48GB, 64GB, 96GB, or 128GB of memory depending on the configuration of the M3 Pro you choose. If you go with the M3 Max, you'll actually lose the 18GB option and only be able to choose between 36GB, 48GB, 64GB, 96GB, or 128GB — also depending on the number of cores of the M3 Max that you decide on.

That leaves us with a range of 18GB to 128GB of unified memory from the base M3 chip to the M3 Max — a difference of 110GB. That is a massive span of options.

M3 MacBook Pro: Storage

If you're buying a MacBook Pro, you likely need a decent amount of storage. Well, Apple has plenty of options with the new M3 MacBook Pro models.

If you go with the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 chip, you'll be able to choose between 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage. If you upgrade to the M3 Pro, you'll get to choose between 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB of storage. And, if you get one with an M3 Max chip inside, you'll get to choose between 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or even 8TB of storage.

The options are exactly the same for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. If you choose the M3 Pro, you'll get to choose between 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB of storage. If you get one with an M3 Max chip inside, you'll get to choose between 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or even 8TB of storage.

M3 MacBook Pro: Connectivity

There is something to be noted about the connectivity with the new M3 MacBook Pro, and that has to do with the fact that you get one less port if you choose a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base model M3 chip.

If you do that, you will only get two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports. However, if you choose any other 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro or M3 Max chip, you'll get three Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports.

Outside of that, the new MacBook Pro is the same as the old MacBook Pro and features a MagSafe port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an HDMI port, and an SDXC card reader. All models support Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.3 and come packed with the same 1080p FaceTime HD camera as the previous generation and a six-speaker sound system.

M3 MacBook Pro: Battery

The battery life in the new MacBook Pro is what you've come to expect with Apple's new M-Series MacBooks.

For the 14-inch MacBook Pro, users will be able to achieve battery life of up to 22 hours if you choose the M3 chip. If you upgrade to the M3 Pro, that battery life will drop to an estimated 18 hours total. That's, of course, using Apple's yardstick of "Apple TV app movie playback." For web browsing, you can expect 15 hours and 12 hours, respectively.

For the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple says that users should expect the same amount of battery life regardless of the chip that they decide to go with. Whether it be the M3 Pro or M3 Max, users should expect up to 22 hours of battery life when watching videos or 15 hours for web browsing.

That goes to show just how power efficient the base model M3 chip is!

M3 MacBook Pro: Colors

Buying a modern MacBook Pro today usually means choosing either Space Gray or Silver. Both are fine colors, to be sure. But what if we got something different?

That's what Apple decided to do with the new MacBook Pro. Now, in addition to Silver, the new MacBook Pro has left Space Gray behind and is now available in Space Black — but only if you choose a model with an M3 Pro or M3 Max chip.

Interestingly, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base M3 chip is only available in Silver and the good old Space Gray. Apple seems to have made a decision that Space Black is only for customers who go all out and buy a MacBook Pro packed with an M3 Pro chip and above.

M3 MacBook Pro: Price

The new MacBook Pro with M3 actually received a price decrease for once, but only on one model.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 chip will now start at $1,599 for regular customers and $1,499 for education customers. Previously, the entry point into the 14-inch MacBook Pro was $1,999 — but that was also because that laptop did not offer the M2 chip and only offered the M2 Pro. 

This is the first time that Apple has offered its base M-Series chip on the 14-inch MacBook Pro. However, if you want the 14‑inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro, that configuration will start at $1,999 for regular customers and $1,849 for education customers.

Things get much more simple with the 16-inch MacBook Pro. That model starts at $2,499 for the M3 Pro for regular customers and $2,299 for education customers.

It may finally be time to replace your old MacBook Pro with rumors of an M3 variant lingering ahead of Apple’s Scary Fast event next week. The next line of MacBook Pros is rumored to have up to 16 CPU cores and 40 GPU cores so the high-powered M3 Max chip is sure to take advantage of all that power. 

As originally reported by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg’s Apple expert, “New high-end MacBook Pros are in mass-production and are likely shipping imminently. I have little doubt these are being announced next week.”

A surprise Mac Apple event was announced on Tuesday and is set to stream on October 30. Entitled “Scary Fast”, the 3nm M3 Silicon chip is due to be officially unveiled alongside the first machines it will power. Perhaps the strangest part of this event is its air time of 5 pm Pacific time, 7 hours after Apple’s normal event time of 10 am Pacific. Given the event airs the day before Halloween and has some spooky imagery, this could be an effort to add to the theming of the event. 

A Staggered release — iMore’s take

13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Airs with M3 chips are in development, according to Mark Gurman, but much further behind, suggesting the M3 Max chip is Apple’s priority right now. A new Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro won’t be here until next year at least. This means that Apple already has a big year planned for 2024.

Though, according to these reports,  we are only expecting to see the release date of the M3 Max power MacBook Pro next week, we should get a lot of information on everything Mac. With the iPhone event last month and WWDC 2023 just a few months ago, this focus Apple has on the spectacle of its events is a great way of distinguishing its projects and keeping some level of hype year round. This is before mentioning that the impressive-looking Vision Pro is due to launch early next year too. Hopefully, the M3 chip will allow new MacBooks to complement the AR experience. 

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