Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
Apple has left the look and feel the same between generations, but the M4 MacBook Pro has what it needs to continue to be a leader: performance, and plenty of it.
How do you make a new computer better? There are plenty of ways to do just that, and you only need to glance at what manufacturers are doing to pull it off year on year.
Newer designs, better screens, and improved innards tend to make up the bulk of what companies do, but sometimes, it’s just the little things. When you already have a great base to start with, you might just need a new chip and that’s really it.
With the 2024 16 inch MacBook Pro, that may be all Apple needs to do to retain its best-in-class system. Is the 2024 edition just as good as the previous generations, or does it manage to be even better?
Design
The last generation of MacBook Pro was fairly tight in design, so why change what isn’t broke?
Unsurprisingly, Apple has left pretty much everything the same in the 2024 take, from the aluminium body to the minimalistic aesthetic, pin-prick speaker grilles, large keyboard and trackpad, and huge display.
It’s all just like last time, but with some changes found under the hood.
Features
Inside is where all the differences are, with a first, second, or even tenth glance revealing zero changes. You have to look at the system spec to find out what’s new.
So what’s new in this generation of the 16 inch MacBook Pro? A new chip.
While the 14 inch MacBook Pro starts with the base M4, the same chip used in the 2024 iPad Pro, the 16 inch MBP starts with the more impressive M4 Pro variation, offering both an M4 Pro and M4 Max depending on how much you want to spend. And depending on how much you end up spending, you’ll get a different amount of processing and graphical prowess.
The M4 Pro variation we’re reviewing here includes 14 cores of CPU, 20 cores for the GPU (graphics), and the 16 core Neural Engine every piece of Apple Silicon seemingly comes with.
There’s a minimum of 24GB RAM and 512GB SSD for the 16 inch MacBook Pro, though our review model arrives with 48GB RAM and 2TB SSD. You can flex that to a staggering 128GB RAM and 8TB SSD with the M4 Max, while the maximums of the M4 Pro are 48GB RAM and 4TB SSD.
Everything else about the M4 MacBook Pro 16 is largely the same between the chips, offering three high-speed Thunderbolt 5 ports backwards compatible with DisplayPort, TB3, TB4, and USB 4, plus an SDXC card slot, HDMI port, 3.5mm headset jack, and MagSafe 3 charge port.
Wireless support is provided, as well, including Bluetooth 5.3 and 802.11ax WiFi 6E, meaning you can get high-speed WiFi, just not as high speed as the WiFi 7 found in the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max.
There are also six speakers supporting Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio, three microphones, and a 12 megapixel front-facing camera with Full HD video, all in an aluminium laptop weighing 2.14kg.
Display
The other main feature is the display, which offers a slight change from previous models, as well.
Technically, the hardware remains mostly the same: a 16.2 inch 3456×2234 display supporting the P3 colour gamut and roughly one billion colours. That’s great, and if you get it with the standard MBP 16, you’ll get it with the glossy look.
However, one of the new features in the 2024 16 inch laptop is support for a “nano-texture display”, a type of glass for Apple displays that cuts back on glare and effectively makes the laptop a matt display of sorts.
Nano-texture is a different look, lacking the gloss of the typical Mac display and replacing it with a matte finish that is easy on the eyes in just about any light. It’s a premium look that is also an optional extra, and will add about $230 for the privilege.
But my, is it worth it. It’s such a pleasing look, and means you can use this laptop in direct sunlight, which is something we’re not used to.
In-use
Like all other MacBook models, you can expect a great keyboard and trackpad, offering a lovely full-size set of keys and a spacious mouse, too.
It’s still one of the best usability experiences available, and with the latest version of macOS, Sequoia, you can find a bit of AI that may help you. Summarise notifications, recompose words with the assistant of ChatGPT, and hopefully give Siri that little bit more capability overall. We didn’t spend as much time with Apple Intelligence on the MBP 16 — it won’t be for everyone — but it’s there a usability assist if you need it.
Performance
The biggest and most obvious change is under the hood powering the whole thing, with the performance notably changing.
We’ve tracked and reviewed MacBook Pro models for a good five years, with that five year mark being when Apple made the jump from 15 to 16 inches. One inch made all the difference in system hardware and capability, it seems, and we’ve seen growth from Apple each and every subsequent generation.
Here in the 16 inch M4 MacBook Pro, the bump is clearly there, notable specifically in the CPU. Both single core and multi-core scores shows the Apple Silicon bump generation on generation.
There’s a clear difference between the graphical capabilities in the M3 Max of the 16 inch we checked out from 2023 and the M4 Pro, the Max model being older but offering more grunt in the graphics area. Comparing apples to apples, the M4 Max would likely trounce the M3 Max, but the Pro vs Max is clearly a different battle. It handles itself well, even if it’s not the best of Apple’s Silicon line-up.
You can even see how that would work comparing the M2 Max in the Mac Studio to the M4 Pro of this MacBook Pro. The chip is different enough in age, but the M2 Max has the edge in graphics, even as the M4 Pro beats it in CPU performance.
Perhaps the best indicator of its raw performance comparatively is how the hardware handles against capable systems you can buy today.
Again, this isn’t a case of apples vs apples, but some of the latest PC laptops give the 16 inch M4 MacBook Pro some good competition. Dell’s Intel-equipped XPS 14 isn’t far from the graphical capability of the M4 Pro in the MacBook Pro, while the Asus ROG G14 with a discrete graphics chip can seemingly best it.
Overall, the results speak for themselves: the 16 inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro handles quite a bit, and the real-world results delivered that conclusion, as well.
Coding and archiving a package shows the system is fast, while building images in both Adobe Photoshop and Pixelmator Pro is speedy, too.
Regular work is understandably a cinch, and you really need to work hard to make the M4 Pro build a sweat.
Battery
If you don’t bring the system to its knees — and good luck to you on that — you’ll find the battery on the M4 Pro MacBook Pro is very, very good.
Up to 24 hours of battery life is possible from the 16 inch MacBook Pro with M4, largely from video streaming, while up to 17 hours is possible through regular use. Those set times are specific for Apple, and remind us of the solid video streaming performance of the iPhone, but the point is this:
You won’t need to think about the battery while using the M4 MacBook Pro. It’s just that good.
Several hours are working on this MacBook Pro, complete with some writing, photo editing, coding, a glance to our battery meter showed life at 64 percent.
We’d lost track of how long since we had last plugged in, but we didn’t need to think about it. The battery just kept going.
There’s a 140W charge pack you get with the laptop supporting fast charge, but if you have one of the sizeable battery charging adaptors, such as a 200W charge pack or even something slightly smaller, you’ll get that laptop up in percentage in no time.
Value
The one obvious question mark is the price, which isn’t so much bad, but just rather on the high side. The M4 MacBook Pro can be quite fairly priced for the base-level M4, the same chip we found in the M4 Mac Mini, but upgrade to the M4 Pro and things get markedly more expensive.
While the base 14 inch MacBook Pro with M4 starts at $2499 in Australia, the M4 Pro 16 inch starts at $3999, some $1500 higher for a faster chip, slightly more memory (24GB vs 16GB), and support for Thunderbolt 5.
You have to need this level of performance, that’s for sure.
As a workstation-class machine, the performance and price isn’t unbalanced, but it can still feel that way. It’s an expensive machine, but the price doesn’t feel out of kilter from where it needs to be.
What needs work?
So what needs work? Probably not much.
While the system is pricey, we at least get why: it’s a high-priced Mac, and high-priced Macs are expensive.
The biggest problem could well be the lack of difference between the M3 MacBook Pro and the M4, and for that, there isn’t much. The 2024 model isn’t a MacBook Pro you upgrade to if you have one from 2023 or even 2022.
From 2021 models and before that, the upgrade is clear: you’re getting a minimum of twice the performance in both graphics and CPU, but that’s really it. The bump in hardware isn’t serious enough to warrant a change unless your laptop is three or four years old, or even much older than that.
Final thoughts (TLDR)
Not a lot has changed between MacBook Pro 16 models, but if you’re looking for a high-speed Mac, enough has changed in the right place: the system is now faster than ever, and manages even more speed than before.
It’s not a super amount compared to last year’s generation, or even the one before that. Your experience will vary based on which Mac you might have had before.
But if you’re coming in fresh or even from one three years or older, what you’ll get is speed in spades. The 16 inch M4 MacBook Pro is the pinnacle of performance and perfection in a portable way. Highly recommended.
