14-inch MacBook Pro
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The first reviews of Apple's new M4 MacBook Pro have arrived, and everyone is raving about the performance and battery life, but some are lamenting the lack of a flashy design update.
Apple announced the new M4 MacBook Pro during Mac announcement week, and the first pre-orders will ship to customers on Friday, November 8.
While the new models share the same design as the ones they replace, there are some key improvements. One is that, of course, the M4 processor and its M4 Pro and M4 Max variants are the latest and fastest Apple Silicon processors.
There’s also the fact that the new models have three Thunderbolt ports, with the base M4 supporting Thunderbolt 4 and the higher-end ones adding Thunderbolt 5. Plus, the new MacBook Pro is now available in Space Black.
But perhaps the most surprising update is that, for the first time, a MacBook Pro now has the option of an anti-glare nano-texture display. Reviewers who mention it — and not everyone will get models with it — generally say it works great, but don’t stop there.
While a surprising number of people still complain about the notch, even when it's hard to understand how they managed to make it a problem. “It's still an eyesore,” says Wired, which is the point, but the reviewer also incomprehensibly complains that “it closed dialog boxes more than once during my testing.”
Gizmodo isn’t thrilled either. “[That] damn notch piercing the center of the display,” its review says.
Been there, done that
“The excellent design is largely unchanged,” The Independent agrees in its report, “though everyone can now opt for a beautiful space black finish, and the connectivity has improved.”
“It’s an expensive laptop, but Apple has crammed so much into it, exceptional components, and mind-blowing power that it offers great value,” it continues.
“The M4 Pro processor pushes the performance envelope,” Wired writes. “But when your only real competition is yourself, what then?”
Wired focuses on how the design hasn't changed, and therefore “can the new MacBook Pro… cost you $3,649 better?” It concludes that it won't, if you're currently using the M3 model.
Plus, there’s “room for improvement” in the design. Specifically, the arrow keys “I use all the time and can barely control them because they’re so small.”
The reviewer at Wired also apparently never uses the trackpad gestures, and apparently found that you can only tap the trackpad instead of clicking it. Apple shouldn’t hide this feature, it should make it the default, but it’s still the first setting to change on any Mac.
“The [huge] trackpad gets in the way, and it’s very stiff to press down to click,” the reviewer says. “I eventually had to reduce the pressure to the lightest level and turn on the tap-to-click feature to make it usable.”
Performance Praise
“This is the best 14-inch MacBook released to date, but that was inevitable,” says Gizmodo. “Apple still manages to hold onto its lead in laptop performance and battery life, even if its advantage narrows with each passing year.”
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“These devices are really getting so powerful that most of you will never be able to fully utilize the entire system even at its maximum performance,” says iJustine on YouTube.
“While many users will be happy with the more affordable MacBook Air,” writes The Independent, “if you want the best laptop, this is it.”
The 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 starts at $1,599, while the 16-inch starts at $2,499.
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