Following the launch of the new M4 iMac and Mac mini, Apple made another announcement today. In a press release, the company officially unveiled its new lineup of 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros powered by the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips.
The new MacBook Pro lineup is available for pre-order today, with availability starting November 8.
Here's everything you need to know about the new M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro lineup. For more information on the M4 version, check out our dedicated post for that model.
Here's what Apple says about the new MacBook Pro line:
Apple today introduced the new MacBook Pro, powered by the M4 family of chips — M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max — which deliver significantly faster performance and advanced capabilities. The new MacBook Pro is designed for Apple Intelligence, a personal intelligence system that transforms the way people work, communicate, and express themselves, while protecting their privacy. Now available in black and silver, the 14-inch MacBook Pro includes lightning-fast M4 performance and three Thunderbolt 4 ports, starting with 16GB of storage, all for just $1,599.
The 14- and 16-inch models with M4 Pro and M4 Max offer Thunderbolt 5 for faster data transfer and expanded connectivity. All models feature a Liquid Retina XDR display, which gets even better with an all-new nano-texture display option and up to 1000 nits of brightness for SDR content, an improved 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, and up to 24 hours of battery life, the longest ever in a Mac.
Display upgrades
The new MacBook Pro models offer a couple of notable display improvements. First, there’s a new nano-texture finish option. This option significantly reduces glare and distractions while maintaining image quality.
Additionally, Apple says the new MacBook Pro can now display SDR content at up to 1,000 nits of brightness and still display HDR content at up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness in bright conditions.
12-megapixel Center Stage Camera
The new MacBook Pro models feature an updated 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, which Apple says “delivers improved video quality in challenging lighting conditions.”
Center Stage support means you’ll always be in the center of the video frame as you move around. There’s also support for Desk View, which uses the wide-angle lens to show you and your desk at the same time, from a top-down perspective.
M4 Pro and M4 Max Chips
The new high-end MacBook Pro models are available with the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. There’s also a more affordable M4 version, which we’ve covered in detail in a separate article.
The M4 Pro chip features a powerful 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and four efficiency cores, paired with a 20-core GPU that’s twice as powerful as the M4.
The M4 Max chip features up to a 16-core CPU, up to a 40-core GPU, and more than half a terabyte per second of unified memory bandwidth. It also supports up to 128GB of unified memory. The base configuration of the chip has 14 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, and a $300 upgrade unlocks full support for a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU.
Apple says the M4 Max chip is the world’s fastest notebook chip. Testing shows that CPU and GPU performance is 1.2 times higher than last year's M3 Max.
Connectivity
The new MacBook Pro M4 Pro and M4 Max models support Thunderbolt 5 on all three USB-C ports. Thunderbolt 5 more than doubles data transfer speeds to 120Gbps for faster external storage, docks and hubs, and more.
Also included on all MacBook Pro models is an HDMI port with support for up to 8K resolution, an SDXC card slot, and MagSafe 3 for charging. Like the previous generation, there’s also support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
Battery Life
Here's Apple's battery life numbers for the new MacBook Pro models:
14-inch M4 Pro
- Up to 22 hours of video streaming
- Up to 14 hours of wireless web surfing
- 72.4 Wh lithium-polymer battery
14-inch M4 Max
- Up to 18 hours of video streaming
- Up to 13 hours of wireless web surfing
- 72.4Wh lithium-polymer battery
16-inch M4 Pro
- Up to 24 hours of video streaming
- Up to 17 hours of wireless web surfing
- 100Wh lithium-polymer battery
16-inch M4 Max
- Up to 21 hours of video streaming
- Up to 14 hours of wireless web surfing
- 100Wh lithium-polymer battery
Prices and Availability
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 Pro starts at $1,999 and comes with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. That's a significant improvement over the previous generation, which had 16GB of RAM for the base model.
Best comment by bcom77
The beauty of Apple's silicone is that any desktop or laptop with it will remain powerful for years to come. You won't have to suffer from FOMO because you have to upgrade every few years. The M1 machine is still a very relevant and powerful machine and will continue to be so for many years to come. I bought a MacBook Pro M3 Pro a few months ago and I'm confident it will last me at least 5-6 years.
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The 16-inch MacBook Pro based on the M4 Pro starts at $2,499 and now comes with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
The new MacBook Pro lineup is available for pre-order today, with first orders due November 8.
Buy New Macs from Apple:
- M4 Mac mini
- M4 Pro Mac mini
- M4 iMac
- 14-inch MacBook Pro
- 16-inch MacBook Pro
