16-INCH MACBOOK PRO (M4 PRO) REVIEW: LOCKED IN AND LOADED

APPLE'S LAPTOP GETS GREAT UPGRADES TOMAKE IT A BETTER WORKSTATION.

- BY ROMAN LOYOLA

If you're someone who's shopping for a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M-series Pro chip, you ain't messin' around. If you want the most processing muscle, you really want an M4 Max chip, but if a $3,499 laptop is out of your budget, the M4 Pro models have what it takes to conquer your processing demands.

The 16-inch M3 Pro MacBook Pro was a really good laptop. This new M4 Pro version is even better, thanks in part to the nonchip upgrades. To solidify its workstation status, Apple implemented a Thunderbolt 5 upgrade in Pro and Max models. There's also a spiffy new built-in camera and a display option that makes things easier on your eyes.

This review is structured based on how the major updates will influence your buying decision. In this case, the M4 Pro chip will be the most important factor, so we evaluate its performance first, followed by Thunderbolt 5, the screen and camera, and then other factors.

SPECIFICATIONS

The M4 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pro in this review has the same CPU, GPU, and RAM as the $2,899/£2,899 standard configuration, but the SSD is a 2TB upgrade ($600/£600) and it has the Nano- texture glass ($150/£150). Here are the specifications of the laptop in this review:

CPU: M4 Pro with 14 cores (10 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores), 16-core Neural Engine

GPU: 20 cores

Memory: 48GB unified memory (273GBps memory bandwidth)

Storage: 2TB SSD

Display: 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR; 3456-by-2234 native resolution at 254 pixels per inch; 1000 nits sustained XDR brightness, 1600 nits peak (HDR content only); 1000 nits SDR brightness; 1 billion colors; P3 color gamut; True Tone; Nano- texture glass

Ports: 3 Thunderbolt 4/USB-C; MagSafe 3; SDXC Card slot; HDMI; 3.5mm audio