M4 MacBook Pro Reviews: CPU Benchmarks Impress, New Nano-Texture Option Worth an Extra $150

Tim Hardwick

The first wave of reviews of Apple's new M4-based MacBook Pro models was released this morning. Below, we've collected some of the latest impressions from YouTube channels and select media outlets.

Last month, Apple announced new 14-inch and 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models, the addition of next-gen M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end models, display and camera changes, a nano-texture display option, and a few other updates.

Nano-Texture Display

Antonio J. Di Benedetto of The Verge:

As for editing on a nano-texture display, I know glossy screens have a little deeper contrast, but I like not having to worry about glare. I don’t just edit in a dark room with a reference monitor closed, and I like the flexibility of working in places with less-than-ideal lighting conditions. The convenience of nano-texture far outweighs any small technical benefits of a glossy display. And at $150, it’s a worthwhile upgrade for visual professionals.

Brian Heather of TechCrunch:

To put it simply: If you're buying the new Pro and plan on going outside, spend the extra $150. I currently have two Studio displays on my desk. One with nanotexture, one without. It makes a huge difference, even indoors. In fact, at one point I rearranged the two screens to minimize glare from the only window in the room.

Glossy displays on Macs are one of those things we’ve been complaining about for years, but at some point many of us were fed up with Apple’s refusal to offer an alternative over the years. I gave up on the idea years ago. Now that it’s available, I plan to buy one for any MacBook I own in the future.

Jason Snell of Six Color:

I use my laptop outside a lot. If it’s a nice day, I’ll sit in my backyard under a redwood tree and write. I did just that for this article, and spent some time trying to neutralize the midday sun shining through the branches with the new screen brightness and nano-texture display.

The results were very good. True, even the nano-texture display can’t really beat the sun shining directly on the screen and reflecting into my eyes. But outside of that extreme state, it easily beats all other forms of glare. Using the nano-texture display is a little weird — the reflections just stop at the edge of the screen, like magic. It works incredibly well. And most of the time, in more normal lighting conditions, I didn’t really notice the nano-texture. Yes, if you look closely, you can see the light spill, which reduces contrast a little.

M4 Performance

Antonio J. Di Benedetto of The Verge:

You won’t see the same performance in grueling workloads as you would if you spent a little more on the M4 Pro or a lot more on the M4 Max, but the standard M4 makes some noticeable improvements over the M3. The M4 performed about 64 percent better than the M3 in the standard Cinebench multi-core test, and it maintained about 41 percent delta when running a longer, steady 30-minute loop of the same benchmark. It has two more cores than the M3 we tested, so it makes sense that the M4 did well here, but its single-core scores in both Cinebench and Geekbench were also more than 20 percent better. The machine was 25 percent faster in the GPU tests with the same number of GPU cores.

ZDNet's Carrie Wang:

It's no surprise that the M4 MacBook Pro outperforms its predecessors, as well as some of the latest Windows machines running Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Intel's Core Ultra (Series 2) chipsets. It's pretty impressive to see the $1,599 M4 MacBook Pro outperform the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip, which I paid almost $3,000 for.

TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff:

Apple is now outfitting all of its new Macs with at least 16GB of RAM. This pays dividends in the areas of artificial intelligence (Apple Intelligence on board) and graphically intensive operations like ray tracing, which helps games like Lies of P look incredible on the MacBook Pro 14.

In benchmark testing, I found that the numbers match the M4 performance I saw on the 13-inch iPad Pro, with Geekbench 6.3 scores significantly higher than the M3 on my MacBook Air.

When I played Shadow of the Tomb Radar, Steam's internal FPS counter showed that I was getting between 42 and 62 FPS. There was no tearing or dropped frames to my eyes.

According to Geekbench's multi-core CPU performance results for the M4 Pro and M4 Max, the most powerful M4 Pro and M4 Max variants are able to outperform the most powerful M2 Ultra chip in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, which is impressive. Specifically, the M4 Max is 25% faster than the M2 Ultra in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance.

For customers choosing between the M4 Pro and M4 Max, the M4 Max appears to be 20% faster than the M4 Pro in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance. The M4 Max is now the fastest Apple silicon chip in the Geekbench 6 database.

Upgraded webcam

Antonio J. Di Benedetto of The Verge:

Apple has a history of shipping disappointing webcams, even on its $1,599 Studio Display, which costs the same as the M4 MacBook Pro and the just-released iPad Mini. But the MacBook Pro’s new 12-megapixel camera has good contrast, even when I’m backlit by a window, and its Center Stage software, which keeps you in the frame, works well enough without being overly aggressive in its reframing. I can’t offer the same praise to Desk View, which uses some heavy cropping and software fixes to show an overhead view of your desk. It’s distorted and low-res, and there are plenty of better ways to show and tell on a video call — including using your iPhone and Apple’s own Continuity Camera feature.

Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar:

Apple also upgraded the MacBook Pro’s webcams to 12 megapixels, a big step up from the previous 1080p camera. (Apple hasn’t confirmed the megapixel count for this camera, but it’s likely around 2 MP, which is the minimum required to achieve 1080p.) Having a higher-resolution camera also opens the door to Center Stage, which can keep you in focus as you move around the room.

I didn’t hate Apple’s previous webcams, but that’s mostly because I remember how mediocre its old 720p webcams were. The new models look much sharper with more accurate colors, and the overall image doesn’t look as heavily filtered as previous cameras. They also support Desk View (above), Apple’s useful feature for showing off objects underneath your screen.