The MacBook Pro M4 is here and my next laptop, here's why

Home / Hot Stuff / The MacBook Pro M4 is here and my next laptop, here’s why

At the moment, I’m rocking an M2-powered MacBook Air – the first refreshed model. While it’s served me very well over the past few years, I regularly max out what it can do. That’s why the new MacBook Pro M4 is going to be my next laptop. While not much has changed from last year’s refresh, it’s a big power upgrade from older laptops like mine.

Read more: Apple confirms exciting Mac announcements this week: here’s what to expect

Let me make this very clear off the bat – the new MacBook Pro with M4 is almost certainly not for you if you’ve got one from M2 onwards. It’s more or less an identical machine, bar from the chipset within and some minor details. But these yearly refreshes ensure anyone with an older device gets the latest and greatest, which is exactly what this MacBook Pro promises.

Regardless of the model, all the MacBook Pros now sport a Liquid Retina XDR display with the option for a nano-texture finish to keep that glare down to a minimum. Peak brightness gets a boost as well, maxing out at 1,000 nits for SDR and 1,600 nits for HDR – ideal for your intense outdoor working sessions, if that’s your thing. It’s still the 120Hz OLED panel that looks gorgeous.

The M4 chip has a 10 core CPU, up from 8 cores on the M3. We already know that the M4 Pro offers up to a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU from the new Mac mini. But the M4 Max chip is where this new MacBook Pro already shines. It’s the most powerful of the bunch, and gives you plenty more power. Its 16-core CPU and up to a 40-core GPU make it a serious contender for handling massive AI models, VFX, and 4K editing without breaking a sweat. You can also configure the device up to 128GB of RAM, while it now starts at 16GB – a long requested upgrade.

Connectivity wise, things get even better. You’ll now find that all three USB-C ports support ThunderBolt 5 for up to 128Gb/s data transder, whereas only two ports had ThunderBolt 4 before. You now get Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.3 for the fastest speeds. Although I can’t help that feel like Wi-Fi 7 should be there, since it debuted on the iPhone 16 models.

Like the rest of the new M4 Macs, the latest MacBook Pro refresh retains its starting price of $1599/£1599 for M4, $1999/£2099 for M4 Pro, and $3199/£3299 for M4 Max. All configurations now come in the Space Black colour unveiled last year. Another nice treat is that Apple announced the existing MacBook Air models with the M2 and M3 chips now start at 16GB of RAM.

Related: Here’s why Apple’s new iMac M4 is the best value it’s ever been

About

Connor is a writer for Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. He has been writing for around seven years now, with writing across the web and in print too. Connor has experience on most major platforms, though does hold a place in his heart for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, electric vehicles, and smartphone tech. Just like everyone else around here, he’s a fan of gadgets of all sorts! Aside from writing, Connor is involved in the startup scene. This exciting involvement puts him at the front of new and exciting tech, always on the lookout for innovating products.