In a surprise to no one, Apple has taken the wraps of the M4 MacBook Pro.
This comes just after the launch of the M4 iMac and is easily a highlight of all the Mac news this week, since these new MacBooks have been upgraded with the new Apple M4 chip.
Apple has unveiled the 2024 MacBook Pro with three chip options: the M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max. Regardless of which model you choose, the laptop is designed to leverage Apple Intelligence as those features start to come out, including Writing Tools and the new Siri.
Apple offers the base model, which comes with the speedy M4 chip, in a black and silver finish with a 14-inch display, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, a minimum of 16GB of memory and a starting price of $1,599.
That’s one more port than that the M3 MacBook Pro and double the RAM. And you don’t have to jump up to a higher-end model to get the black color this time around.
Upgrading to the M4 Pro or Max gets you added performance of the faster chips, but you also get bumped to Thunderbolt 5 ports for extra speed and performance.
Every model of the new M4 MacBook Pro comes sporting Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR display (capable of achieving up to 1,000 nits of brightness) with a new nano-texture display option. This reduces glare.
The new M4 MacBook Pro also gets an upgraded 12MP Center Stage camera. So your video calls should look sharper, and the camera can follow you around as you move.
We should see new heights of battery life too, since Apple is promising these new M4 MacBooks can deliver up 24 hours of battery life. We’ll have to put it through our usual tests to see what it gets in a real-world setting, but it sounds promising, and given that the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max lasted over 17 hours in our testing lab we have high hopes for the M4 models.
Apple says all three M4 chips are built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology to deliver improved performance and power efficiency. They’re promised to feature the world’s fastest CPU core, though again we need to test it ourselves to see it how these new Pros compare to the best laptops on the market.
All models of M4 MacBook Pro are available for pre-order starting today and are slated to ship on November 8. As mentioned, the most affordable model is the 14-inch, which begins at $1,599; the most expensive is the 16-inch, which features an entry price of $2,499 (depending on configuration).