M4 14-inch MacBook Professional vs M3 14-inch MacBook Professional: in contrast

Apple’s commonly scheduled replace to the MacBook Professional lineup has occurred once more, however this time in considerably uncommon circumstances. This technology options the M4 chip, an Apple Silicon creation that oddly launched earlier in 2024 within the iPad Professional, not a Mac.

With this being one of many first launches of M4 Mac fashions outfitted with the newer chip, this can be a launch that has been anticipated for fairly a while already.

Now that Apple has introduced out a brand new entry-level MacBook Professional, it is time to examine it straight in opposition to its predecessor. That might be the 14-inch MacBook Professional with the M3 chip.

Apple is fond of what’s referred to as a spec-bump replace. One the place Apple makes few modifications to the surface look and a lot of the specs, however makes its modifications internally as a substitute.

On this case, it is vitally a lot a chief instance of what a spec-bump replace might be.

The M3 14-inch MacBook Professional, in its flat aluminum enclosure, measures 12.31 inches lengthy by 8.71 inches extensive. At 0.61 inches thick, it is a pretty skinny design, and one that’s noticeably Apple in building.

With its rounded corners and flat slab look, it is a distinguished design that everybody instantly acknowledges.

M4 14-inch MacBook Professional vs M3 14-inch MacBook Professional: That is the M3 model. The M4 seems identical to it.

You will discover no actual modifications in the case of the M4 model. It seems precisely the identical as its M3 counterpart.

The weights are additionally comparable, at 3.4 kilos apiece.

That is unsurprising for this form of replace, because it is not precisely a design that Apple would need to shake up right now. It is labored thus far, and there is little purpose to vary issues and probably make them worse.

After all, there’s one change you can not get away from. Now you can get the M4 mannequin in Area Black as a substitute of gray or silver.

For the M3 launch, Apple relied on its Liquid Retina XDR show, just like the M2 and M1 releases. There have been few modifications through the years, and Apple hasn’t jumped to vary them for the M4.

The M3 14-inch MacBook Professional has a 14.2-inch show with a decision of three,024 by 1,964, giving it a pixel density of 254 pixels per inch. Utilizing mini LED backlighting, it manages a million-to-one distinction ratio and excessive brightness ranges.

M4 14-inch MacBook Professional vs M3 14-inch MacBook Professional: SDR content material is brighter on the M4

This extends to 600 nits of most brightness for SDR content material, rising to 1,000 nits of “XDR brightness” for sustained fullscreen HDR content material. At its peak for HDR content material, it could handle as much as 1,600 nits.

There’s additionally Broad shade (P3) assist, True Tone, and ProMotion adaptive refresh charges of as much as 120Hz.

The 14-inch MacBook Professional with M4 does not fiddle with any modifications right here. It is the identical part, virtually.

Even the notch on the high within the M3 mannequin, used to accommodate the digital camera, is retained within the M4.

The one actual distinction with the show is the utmost brightness of SDR content material. Within the M4, it is upped to 1,000 nits.

There may be an non-obligatory further accessible for the M4, within the type of a Nano-texture show. That is an etching to the glass that minimizes glare.

In terms of dealing with exterior shows, the M3 14-inch MacBook Professional may deal with one exterior show at as much as 6K 60Hz over Thunderbolt 4. The HDMI may also deal with as much as a 4K decision at 120Hz.

For the M4, it breaks custom and may cope with a number of shows, maxing out at two 6K-resolution 60Hz shows in the event you solely use Thunderbolt. A type of screens could be moved onto the HDMI and as a substitute be a 4K display screen operating at 144Hz.

For those who stick to 1 exterior display screen, you may run an 8K show at 60Hz, or a 4K display screen at 240Hz, each over HDMI.

The M3 chip used within the 2023 launch had an 8-core CPU, consisting of 4 efficiency and 4 effectivity cores. They had been accompanied by a 10-core GPU, together with a 16-core Neural Engine and the Media Engine.

That GPU included hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a function geared toward enhancing the rendering of 3D graphics, comparable to gaming. In the meantime the Media Engine supplied hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding of video codecs, together with HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW.

The M4 consists of a 10-core CPU with 4 efficiency cores and 6 effectivity cores. It additionally makes use of the quickest cores Apple has included in a Mac.

That is accompanied by a 10-core GPU, a quicker Neural Engine, and the Media Engine.

The reminiscence bandwidth within the lowest chip in an Apple Silicon household is affordable, however minimal. Within the M3, it was 100GB/s, but it surely’s now 120GB/s within the M4.

Following the introduction of the brand new MacBook Professional, preliminary benchmarks of the brand new chips have began to floor. We will use these to straight examine the older and newer chips.

The 14-inch MacBook Professional with M3 is listed with a single-core rating of three,082 and a multi-core rating of 11,579. Listings for the “Mac16,10” which is for a Mac operating the M4 chip, places the single-core rating at round 3,850, and the multi-core at about 14,400.

M4 14-inch MacBook Professional vs M3 14-inch MacBook Professional: Geekbench single-core and multi-core figures

This works out to be a efficiency increase of about 25% for single-core efficiency and 24% for multi-core.

For the Metallic benchmark, measuring the GPU’s functionality, the M3 mannequin weighs in at 47,672. The Mac16,10 with M4 seems at about 57,250, or about 20% higher.

M4 14-inch MacBook Professional vs M3 14-inch MacBook Professional: Geekbench Metallic figures

The Mac16,10 looks like it’s most likely the 14-inch MacBook Professional, however there’s a small probability these early benchmarks are for various fashions or in any other case fabricated. Even so, enhancements at these ranges are totally inside the bounds of Apple’s functionality, and are most likely real.

The notch on the high of the M3 MacBook Professional’s display screen homes a 1080p FaceTime HD digital camera. Using a notch could invoke ideas of it having Face ID capabilities, besides it nonetheless doesn’t.

That stated, it’s nonetheless a helpful digital camera, benefiting from the superior picture sign processor included within the M3 chip. This supplies computational imaging help to the sensor, enhancing the video feed high quality for video calls.

The M4 makes use of what’s named the 12MP Heart Stage digital camera, borrowing the title from Apple’s roaming digital camera body function. It additionally has Desk View, so that you may give folks you video name an approximation of a top-down view of your desk.

M4 14-inch MacBook Professional vs M3 14-inch MacBook Professional: The digital camera notch is again

The digital camera continues to be able to 1080p video, and makes use of a complicated picture sign processor for computational video advantages.

For audio, the M3 14-inch MacBook Professional has what Apple describes as a high-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers. These present a large stereo sound.

Spatial Audio can be supported on the M3 mannequin, for enjoying again Dolby Atmos content material on its audio system. For those who use appropriate AirPods or different earphones, there’s additionally Spatial Audio assist with dynamic head monitoring.

There isn’t any change to the M4 MacBook Professional audio this time round.

The M3 additionally has a 3.5mm headphone jack with assist for high-impedance headphones, which the M4 additionally retains. That is one thing made to deal with larger high quality private audio units typically utilized by audiophiles.

Apple additionally features a three-mic array within the M3 mannequin. Studio high quality microphones with a excessive signal-to-noise ratio, full with directional beamforming.

That is mirrored within the M4 MacBook Professional. You are getting the identical high-quality audio within the newer mannequin.

The M3 14-inch MacBook Professional’s base configuration makes use of 512GB of SSD storage with 8GB of reminiscence. The bottom M4 has 16GB of reminiscence and 512GB of storage.

For storage, there are configurations for the M3 going as much as 1TB and 2TB of capability. Once more, these improve choices are supplied within the M4 model.

Reminiscence upgrades embody 16GB or 24GB unified reminiscence choices for the M3. The M4 provides 24GB and 32GB upgrades.

M4 14-inch MacBook Professional vs M3 14-inch MacBook Professional: You get yet one more Thunderbolt port with M4

For connectivity, you get a pair of Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on the M3, which can be utilized for charging and DisplayPort connections too. There may be additionally a MagSafe 3 connection to save lots of you probably losing a Thunderbolt port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a HDMI port, and an SDXC reminiscence card slot.

The M4 differs in that it has three Thunderbolt 4 ports.

On the wi-fi facet, the M3 mannequin has Wi-Fi 6E, in addition to Bluetooth 5.3. The M4 does not stray from this combo in any respect.

By way of energy, the M3 14-inch MacBook Professional has a 70-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. That is stated by Apple to final for as much as 22 hours of Apple TV app film playback from a single cost, or as much as 15 hours of wi-fi net entry.

The M4 advantages from a 72.4Wh battery. That is stated to final for as much as 24 hours of video streaming and as much as 16 hours of wi-fi net entry.

It is an enchancment, however not by a lot. In both case, there’s numerous battery energy for day-long utilization.

The bottom M3 14-inch MacBook Professional price customers $1,599 with the 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 8GB of reminiscence, and 512GB of storage.

Upgrading the reminiscence to 16GB price an additional $200, or $400 in the event you wished 24GB. Storage upgrades begin at $200 for 1TB, rising to $600 for 2TB.

For those who wished to vary the included 70W USB-C Energy Adapter for a 96W model, you can achieve this for an additional $20.

The bottom M4 14-inch MacBook Professional additionally prices $1,599, with the 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of reminiscence, and 512GB of SSD storage.

The reminiscence upgrades are $200 per tier, with storage upgrades mirroring the M3. Nano-texture prices $150.

There is not actually a large distinction construction-wise between the M3 and M4 generations, save for an additional Thunderbolt port, a brand new shade scheme, and the non-obligatory Nano-texture show remedy. The display screen’s a bit brighter within the M4 too, and the digital camera’s been upgraded.

Including this all up, alongside the efficiency increase of utilizing M4, and there is fairly a number of updates taking place right here.

Nevertheless, it is uncertain that anybody who purchased the M3 mannequin one yr in the past will be capable to justify upgrading to the most recent version. Excluding the M4, there’s probably not sufficient change to warrant that.

That stated, these modifications actually make the most recent launch a pretty prospect for customers of older Mac fashions looking for an improve, or for switchers.

The 14-inch MacBook Professional with M4 continues to be the most cost effective mannequin for anybody wanting to purchase a MacBook Professional as a substitute of a MacBook Air. It is nonetheless an important pocket book, with some tweaks.

It isn’t groundbreaking when it comes to change, but it surely’s nonetheless the finances MacBook Professional to get.

Apple’s M4 Professional 14-inch MacBook Professional is already discounted, with Apple Licensed Reseller Adorama taking $100 to $200 off the laptops with promo code APINSIDER. The identical promo code additionally knocks $30 off three years of AppleCare for the 14-inch notebooks.