Video: M4 MacBook Pro Review

[MacRumors]

The 14-inch MacBook Pro is Apple's only Mac that can be purchased with an M4 chip, M4 Pro chip, or M4 Max chip, so is the M4 powerful enough or is it better to get the M4 Pro or M4 Max? That's the question we explore in our M4 MacBook Pro review.

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Built on a 3-nanometer process, even the base M4 chip is more than enough for everyday tasks like web browsing, checking mail, writing, and watching videos. It's also more than sufficient for video editing, 3D rendering, photo editing, and other creative tasks.

Full time creative professionals who need to get a lot done in a short amount of time are going to benefit from the more powerful M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, as these can cut precious minutes off of rendering times.

Next year, you'll be able to get the MacBook Air with an M4 chip too, but right now, the M4 MacBook Pro is the best machine in terms of price, value, and portability. The 14-inch model is more convenient for travel than the 16-inch model, but one must-have travel upgrade is the nano-texture display. If you're ever planning to use your MacBook Pro outside, it really cuts down on glare, and it's ideal for bright rooms, too.

The minimum RAM is now 16GB, which goes a long way toward making the base M4 MacBook Pro the best value you can get. 16GB is totally adequate for Apple Intelligence and video and photo editing tasks. You could bump it up for future proofing purposes, but if you need more RAM for your day-to-day tasks right now, it may be worth getting the M4 Pro or M4 Max instead because those machines come with 24GB and 32GB minimum RAM, respectively.

Storage is a consideration too. The base M4 MacBook Pro comes with a 512GB SSD, which may be too little storage for some users. Bumping up to 1TB could be worth it if you don't want to have to rely on an external SSD, but you're basically going to be paying more for storage regardless of whether you choose the M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max. The M4 Pro models also start with 512GB of storage, while the M4 Max models start with 1TB.

For an on-the-go machine, the base M4 MacBook Pro is likely to be an excellent machine for most users, and when the M4 MacBook Air models come out, those will be ideal for most people even over the MacBook Pro. If the MacBook Pro is your sole machine and it's used for intensive tasks like video editing and 3D rendering, it could be worth checking out the M4 Pro and M4 Max chip options, but a lot of people won't need anything beyond the M4.

Article Link: Video: M4 MacBook Pro Review

 

[jicon]

If the preview image is to be believed, I think I'll be skipping this one. I prefer the old Apple stickers that came with the computers. The Macrumors staff writer cutout looks rather large, and wearing a hoodie? Hard pass.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

CNET: 6/10

No stickers in the box

 

[Paul76]

I have base model m4. No nano texture because apple cloth is £20. I know I can wipe down regular screen with screen spray and cloth. I sneeze without warning sometimes. Tell me how you like it after 3 months.

 

[Colpeas]

Built on a 3-nanometer process, even the base M4 chip is more than enough for everyday tasks like web browsing, checking mail, writing, and watching videos.

Any Intel Mac can do this better than fine with ¼ of M4's performance.

 

[dinobear]

take away from the video: use your laptop for light things and use your Mac Studio for heavy work.

what about us poors? one computer to do all jobs.

 

[familychoice]

I was going to go for the base M4, but picked up the M4 Pro 14” for just £200 more - faster chip and ports, plus an extra 8GB RAM.

I tend to run my computers into the ground and rarely upgrade, so the Pro chip and extra RAM legroom will provide a couple of extra years usage where I’m not holding off upgrading the to latest OS for fear of slowing it down!

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Any Intel Mac can do this better than fine with ¼ of M4's performance.

Well they do have 1/4 of the battery life it would seem.

 

[grad]

That useless and ugly notch is unbearable to see.

 

[MacBH928]

Its common knowledge that any base model today will do most generic stuff super fast.

You only need the higher end models if you are into extreme number crunching, making games, video, or graphics in general which is like not 90% of the users.

 

[BelgianChoklit]

My M1 Pro is still crazy snappy. I think my next one will only be the M6 model which I'll only buy at the end of its cycle when it's 25% off.

 

[Aka757]

I have base model m4. No nano texture because apple cloth is £20. I know I can wipe down regular screen with screen spray and cloth. I sneeze without warning sometimes. Tell me how you like it after 3 months.

The nano-texture devices (at least iPad Pro and MacBooks) come with the polishing cloth.

 

[CaptainV]

I was going to go for the base M4, but picked up the M4 Pro 14” for just £200 more - faster chip and ports, plus an extra 8GB RAM.

I tend to run my computers into the ground and rarely upgrade, so the Pro chip and extra RAM legroom will provide a couple of extra years usage where I’m not holding off upgrading the to latest OS for fear of slowing it down!

Same for me. Shame though that Bestbuy doesn’t sell the Nano texture version, would’ve loved that one.

 

[gk_brown]

My M1 Pro is still crazy snappy.

Agreed. I'm hanging on to my M1 Pro MBP for portability but picked up the M4 Pro mini for the office.

 

[LogicalApex]

I have base model m4. No nano texture because apple cloth is £20. I know I can wipe down regular screen with screen spray and cloth. I sneeze without warning sometimes. Tell me how you like it after 3 months.

I clean my computers a lot as well...

The nano texture screen has WAY too many disclaimers on cleaning it. Polishing cloth only, no liquids. Rubbing alcohol is OK, but only rarely. etc etc.

My wife also kindly reminded me that the one of the major reasons I was happy going with my MBP from my long stint on Windows laptops was the swap from matte to glossy. Why would I pay extra to go backwards to something I was happy to leave behind?

I'm the OCD and clean my computers at least a couple of times a week or more. I also periodically clean my wife's when I see it as she's not OCD like I am. I can't see buying the nano if you're OCD AND don't have an absolute need for what it offers.

 

[devinher]

take away from the video: use your laptop for light things and use your Mac Studio for heavy work.

what about us poors? one computer to do all jobs.

I edit marginally complex short films with my M1 Max with 32 GB RAM with very little problem. I think most folks will do fine with just this base model and for those who want to do heavier lifting, beefing it up a little will probably cover 98% of users well. I'm with you. No way I can afford two machines.

 

[Candlelight]

How does a MacBook Air with passive cooling handle video editing? I regular re-encode footage so the fans on my old intel are screaming most of the day. Not that I would consider getting an Air over a Pro, just curious how they handle.

 

[sledgehammer89]

Missing a MBP M4 16". If I went to a notch display, only with 16". But a M4 Pro is too much for me and I have fear because of too much fan noise.

 

[jml12286]

I edit marginally complex short films with my M1 Max with 32 GB RAM with very little problem. I think most folks will do fine with just this base model and for those who want to do heavier lifting, beefing it up a little will probably cover 98% of users well. I'm with you. No way I can afford two machines.

Ive been editing basic 4k videos shot on my iphone with my M1 MBP 8GB and it breezes through it just fine. Im slightly considering getting the base M4 just because of getting rid of touchbar and getting a brighter/nicer screen 🥳

 

[d-klumpp]

I clean my computers a lot as well...

The nano texture screen has WAY too many disclaimers on cleaning it. Polishing cloth only, no liquids. Rubbing alcohol is OK, but only rarely. etc etc.

My wife also kindly reminded me that the one of the major reasons I was happy going with my MBP from my long stint on Windows laptops was the swap from matte to glossy. Why would I pay extra to go backwards to something I was happy to leave behind?

I'm the OCD and clean my computers at least a couple of times a week or more. I also periodically clean my wife's when I see it as she's not OCD like I am. I can't see buying the nano if you're OCD AND don't have an absolute need for what it offers.

I've had Apples since my Powerbook 180, and my last MBP served me admirably for almost 9 years. I don't know what others are doing with their computers, but I probably only cleaned the screen a couple times -- it's not a touch screen and doesn't really get dirty. [In contrast, I clean the keyboard routinely with 70% EtOH and a microfiber.] As a result, I didn't even take the "special" cloth from the box of my new M4 MBP and probably will never use it. And if the screen eventually gets dirty, any microfiber will do well enough. In the meantime, the nano display is great and really works nicely in bright light!

 

[scm123]

I'm using a M1 Pro and from a processing standpoint it's mainly fine for most of my day to day requirements, except for the fact that things have evolved from a workflow standpoint that I really need to be running three external monitors. This is something so generic on the PC side that most any modern Windows laptop can do this for under $2000. But Apple in all their wisdom have limited this functionality it seems to just the Max version, the base model of which starts at $4349 CDN. It's absolutely maddening insanity. I may have to go back to Windows just because Apple has decided on this one ludicrous limitation for its laptops. Good grief.

 

[Naraxus]

This is hands down the greatest laptop I have ever owned and it's not even close. I have the base model and it SCREAMS. As I've mentioned before, I mainly use it for some fairly serious gaming and there is zero slowdown, and the framerate is a consistent 120fps.

I used to be a huge critic of Apple's approach (or lack thereof) to gaming but with this much power in the base model I can only imagine how powerful the pro and max chips are. GameMode is another great feature.

Bottom line, this laptop is revolutionary.

 

[Naraxus]

That useless and ugly notch is unbearable to see.

You don't even notice it's there after a while.

 

[LogicalApex]

I've had Apples since my Powerbook 180, and my last MBP served me admirably for almost 9 years. I don't know what others are doing with their computers, but I probably only cleaned the screen a couple times -- it's not a touch screen and doesn't really get dirty. [In contrast, I clean the keyboard routinely with 70% EtOH and a microfiber.] As a result, I didn't even take the "special" cloth from the box of my new M4 MBP and probably will never use it. And if the screen eventually gets dirty, any microfiber will do well enough. In the meantime, the nano display is great and really works nicely in bright light!

I am too OCD and I get very ritualistic and obsessive.

I don't touch my screens and I clean all my screens frequently. That includes my Desktop monitors and my MacBook. There is absolutely no way I could live with a screen that hasn't been cleaned more than 2 times in 9 years.

Most people are OK with a screen or device that's less clean than I am (and I'm not judging in any way!).

For me, the nano texture screen isn't suitable.

Oh, and Apple specifically states that using anything other than the polishing cloth will damage the nano texture coating. So I'd caution you to actually use the cloth. It wasn't included by accident.

How to clean your nano-texture Apple display - Apple Support

If your Apple Studio Display, Apple Pro Display XDR, iMac, MacBook Pro or iPad Pro (M4) has a nano-texture display, follow these important guidelines to prevent damage when cleaning the screen.

support.apple.com

 

[delsoul]

My 2021 MBP 14” with M1 Pro still absolutely manhandles whatever I throw at it. This is one of those rare modern cases where a company made a product TOO good. There’s zero reason for me to upgrade at this point all
These years later.