MacBook Pro M4 Pro Review: Super-powered and Super-pricey

Add the word “super” in front of any positive adjectives, and you’ve got something to describe the new 2024 MacBook Pro with the M4 Pro chip. That’s, in short, the entire review of this laptop. If you want a device that’s portable, powerful, efficient, beautiful, sturdy, and everything else that a laptop can, and maybe should be, the MacBook Pro with the M4 Pro chip has got you covered.

I have been using this laptop as my daily driver for over a month, and here’s my review of the M4 Pro MacBook Pro.

Specs: Oh My Beast!

Full disclosure, Apple sent us a very souped-up version of the MacBook Pro for the review. Here are the complete specs:

Yes, yes, it’s an expensive proposition, and one that most people don’t need. But if you do need one, or as is more likely want one, here’s what you can expect.

It’s Super-Beautiful

First off, the 2024 MacBook Pro doesn’t change anything in terms of the design. The 16-inch unit I have been using has literally the same dimensions as the 16-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro. And, for some reason, it’s 10 grams lighter as per Apple’s documentation, coming in at 2.14kg instead of 2.15kg. I’m unsure where this weight reduction comes from, but I can tell you with certainty, that you won’t feel it. If you’ve used a 16-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro and you thought that was heavy, you’ll find this every bit as heavy as that one.

If, like me, you were using a MacBook Air, the new MacBook Pro will feel insanely hefty.

All that is not to say that this is a bad laptop, or a heavy one. It is heavy and bulky, but it’s just a gorgeous device to look at. Especially in the Space Black color that I have here.

It’s also very well built. As has been the case with MacBooks since at least 2013, when I first got one, you can open the lid with one hand, and it opens up oh-so-smoothly. The rubber feet on the bottom offer just enough grip to ensure it didn’t slip away while I was busy typing away this review, alongside all the other articles I have been writing this last month. And every angle you set the display at, just feels like it was supposed to be the angle for it, because the hinge never seems to struggle to keep the rather massive screen in place.

I also really appreciate Apple making the MacBook Pros thicker from the absolutely unnecessary slim things they were back in 2017 (when I, rather stupidly, bought one by the way). Not only does this make the MacBook Pro look and feel more well-built, it also allows for some of the most useful ports to be brought back to the laptop. So you do get three Thunderbolt 5 Type-C ports (two on the left, one on the right), and you also get the headphone jack, an SD card slot, and an HDMI-out port — all without having to use any dongles. Plus, you get MagSafe.

These ports are nothing new. In fact, the M2 Pro MacBook Pro also had all of the same ports (except it had Thunderbolt 4 instead of Thunderbolt 5), on exactly the same places. But, coming from a 2017 MacBook Pro, and then an M1 MacBook Air, these ports have really made my life a lot easier, and the dongle I purchased for my 2017 MacBook Pro now lies unused and gathering dust in a long-forgotten drawer.

Needless to say, I am glad to have a laptop with a decent number of ports on it.

I should also address the notch here, because apart from that, the bezels around the display are quite slim, and the notch is the only eyesore on this laptop. Not for nothing though, has Apple trained us to forget and entirely ignore the notch since the days of the iPhone X, and I found myself very quickly forgetting that there’s a giant piece of bezel staring at my face when I’m engrossed in watching a Netflix show on this machine.

What’s more, on the MacBook Pro, the notch can be made useful, thanks to a bunch of third party developers who made the Notch Nook app. So, I now have the otherwise useless eyesore of a notch showing me my currently playing media, a quick calendar with the meetings and events for the day, and a bunch of other features that I haven’t enabled, but can be added to the notch nook as well.

I Don’t Hate the Nano-Texture Display

Speaking of the notch, let’s also talk about the display. Obviously, in my practiced ignorance of the eyesore that the notch is, I was constantly focused on the display right in front of me. It’s a beautiful, 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with 254ppi and ProMotion support. It’s also configurable with a Nano-texture display, for a matte appearance, less reflections, and, in my opinion, an easier time staring at the screen for long hours without tiring out your eyes.

The device Apple sent us is configured with the nano-texture display, and I can tell you without a doubt that I have spent more time staring at this screen in one sitting than I ever have on any other MacBook, and this display just doesn’t seem to cause as much fatigue to my eyes. That’s great.

Plus, the reduced reflections are no joke. They are massively reduced. The window blinds right behind my workspace are absolutely invisible on this screen, and they are absolutely clearly visible on a MacBook Pro without a nano-texture display.

The display itself is really good too. Not that I was expecting anything less from a MacBook Pro display. I did have my doubts about the matte screen maybe ruining the experience of watching multimedia content, but it doesn’t. It does seem a smidge less bright as compared to the glossy displays of other MacBook Pros, but it’s plenty bright, and it’s definitely not going to make you wish for a brighter display if you’re using it out in the sun, or even against harsh lighting. It’s just a good quality display with the Nano Texture done just right.

It’s Super-Powerful

Super-powerful seems like too much of a superlative for most devices I have used and reviewed, but in the case of this M4 Pro powered MacBook Pro, it might just be an apt description. Should I use “Extremely powerful” instead? Wait. I asked Writing Tools to figure out a professional way of saying “extremely powerful”, and here it is: Possessing exceptionally potent capabilities. Yes, that.

Anyway, the M4 Pro in itself is an “exceptionally potent” processor, but paired with 48GB of RAM, it takes things to the next level. Especially if you’re trying out things like LMStudio on your MacBook.

That’s not all I did, by the way. I used this MacBook Pro to do everything I normally do — which includes writing (in a markdown app like Paper), editing photos and screenshots in Photoshop, having more than 30 tabs opened simultaneously (usually for no other reason than not being able to figure out which ones I should close), and I’ve also started using Freeform for project planning, so that’s usually hovering around as well.

For a workload like this, the MacBook Pro is overkill, and easily so. There’s absolutely no universe where I need this much power for the tasks I do in a regular day of work. At most, I would add Apple Music running in the background for music, but that’s about it.

However, I did try to push it as well. I installed Mythic on it to play some AAA Windows games, and they all work spectacularly well. Especially Hitman 3, which is once again my favourite way to spend time at my work desk.

I also tried editing videos here, and sure, they may not be the kind of exceptional quality you’d find on the Beebom Instagram or YouTube channels, but the point is Final Cut Pro never lagged, stuttered, or even took longer than a breath to background render and playback everything smoothly. I’m talking 4K clips here, and multiple compound clips loaded up on top of each other, and this MacBook Pro barely breaks a sweat.

Lastly, just to round things off, I did run some benchmarks, and if benchmark numbers are your jam, feast your eyes on the screenshots below.

It’s Super-Fun to Type On

The keyboard too, remains the same as the older M2 Pro MacBook Pro, which means it is just as good as that one was. Now, I know that technically, this is the same keyboard as the one on my M1 MacBook Air from 2020, but on the Pro, it just feels better. I can’t say why that is, and it could just be my mind playing tricks, but I don’t think so.

Judging by all the Reddit posts and forum discussions about this exact topic, most people agree that the same Magic Keyboard on the MacBook Pro just feels better, more substantial, with a more pronounced thunk when pressing the keys.

All this could be because of the thicker chassis that the MacBook Pro bears, and it most likely is, the point being that the MacBook Pro M4 Pro keyboard is just a wonderful keyboard to type on. The keys feel comfortable, and the typing experience is pretty much the best I have experienced on a laptop so far.

I am incredibly thankful that Apple switched away from the Butterfly keys on the MacBooks from back in the day, because these new keyboards on the M-series MacBooks (Airs and Pros) are definitely better, more reliable, and more fun to type on.

If you often find yourself spending long hours typing on your laptop (also known as — me), the keyboard on this MacBook Pro is brilliant. It won’t tire you out, and it feels amazing.

One more thing I want to address, because a few of my colleagues seemed to have an issue with it, is the size of this keyboard. A lot of people, especially those coming from a MacBook Air, or an older (read 2017) MacBook Pro, seem to think that this keyboard is more compact than the ones on their laptops. That, is absolutely not the case. I sat down with a measuring tape and measured the length and width of the keyboard on this M4 Pro MacBook Pro and the M1 MacBook Air I was using before this, and they are the exact same size. If anything, the MacBook Pro keyboard is slightly taller, because the function keys are full-sized.

The only reason this keyboard looks more compact, is because of the huge speakers on each side.

It’s Super-Loud

The huge speakers on each side that I referred to, are actually one of the best things about this laptop. I don’t know quite how to put it into words that justify them, but they are excellent. In every sense of the word, these speakers are by far the best laptop speakers I have tested.

They are loud. Too loud, in fact, in most scenarios, and they have excellent sound quality. Whether you’re watching a movie, or even listening to music straight on your laptop speakers — something which, by the way, I would have attributed to a poor taste in audio quality back in the day — these speakers just don’t disappoint.

There’s excellent clarity at all volume levels, absolutely no distortion at max volume, and there’s bass. Thanks to the size of this chassis, the speakers have enough air to move and produce a good amount of bass. It’s obviously not what you’d get with high quality external speakers (nothing is), but it’s much, much better than pretty much any laptop speakers I have heard. And, being at the Beebom office, we do get a lot of laptops in for review, so the sample size I’m talking about is quite large.

So if you find yourself watching movies on your laptop a lot, this MacBook Pro wouldn’t disappoint.

It’s Super-Power Efficient

Speaking of watching movies, not only will you enjoy the multimedia experience on this laptop, it’s also gonna let you binge watch content without dying on a whim. Let me put it this way, Apple claims the battery can last for 24 hours of video streaming, and in my experience that seems a modest claim. This laptop simply doesn’t want to die.

I’m not one for good charging habits, as some of my colleagues at Beebom are, which means I often forget to charge my devices, and sometimes forget to bring chargers along entirely.

With this M4 Pro MacBook Pro, I no longer forget to bring the charger with me, because I deliberately leave it at home now. Simply because the battery life is absolutely stellar. Once charged to a 100%, the MacBook Pro takes me through a day of heavy workload without dropping below 40-50%. Which is crazy. It means I can use this without charging for 2 days straight (and I have, once or twice), and I don’t have to worry about having it die out on me while I’m busy working.

Suffice it to say, that unless you’re editing 4K and 8K videos all day long, this laptop will not make you reach for the charger in a day of heavy usage.

It’s Super Pricey

All that good stuff about this laptop? The power of the M4 Pro, the beautiful ProMotion display, and everything else, comes at a steep price as well. As specced, the M4 Pro MacBook Pro costs $3,649, which is a staggering amount of money. You can get the M4 Pro in a 14-inch variant starting at $1,999 and in a 16-inch variant starting at $2,499. However, those will not include the Nano Texture Display, the 48GB of RAM (however, 24GB is the base RAM configuration for the M4 Pro MacBook Pro, which is great), or the 2TB of storage (although 512GB is standard for M4 Pro now, which also, is good enough, if not plenty).

The Perfect Laptop… Almost

The new 2024 MacBook Pro is a confusing laptop to talk about. It’s simultaneously the perfect laptop, while also being difficult-to-recommend. At a starting price of $2,000, it’s not a cheap idea and it will definitely put a strain on most wallets. However, it also brings the best of Apple’s laptop-making prowess to your desks.

For most people, the MacBook Pro is not a necessity — it’s hard to need a MacBook Pro — and the MacBook Air would do just fine. With the M3 chip, the MacBook Air starts at $1,099, albeit with 16GB of base RAM. However, you can spec-up the MacBook Air M3 to 24GB of RAM and it would still cost you $1,499.

The only question is, do you need a new Mac right now? If you don’t, I would suggest waiting it out for a while because the new M4 MacBook Air should be coming in the first quarter of this year, which would make your M3 Air look rather a silly purchase right now.

As for the MacBook Pro with the M4 Pro chip, if you’ve got nearly $2000 burning a hole in your pocket, this laptop is a good way to spend that money. It won’t disappoint, obviously, but more importantly, it will make you want to use your Mac a lot more.

This is a laptop for creators, for people who find the M2 and M3 chipsets “not quite powerful enough” for their use-case, and for the ones who want to shave off another 10 seconds from the time that it takes their M2 Pro MacBook Pros to export their FCP projects. If that sounds like you, go ahead and buy this MacBook Pro.

For everyone else, either wait for the M4 MacBook Air, or get the M2 or M3 MacBook Air right now.