MacBook Professional comparability: 14- vs 16-inch MacBook Professional

As of November 2024, Apple sells two MacBook Professional fashions: a 14-inch mannequin with both the M4, M4 Professional, or M4 Max, and a 16-inch mannequin with both the M4 Professional or M4 Max. The corporate used to promote a 13-inch MacBook Professional however this mannequin was discontinued.

The M4 chip within the 14-inch MacBook presents satisfactory energy for many customers, however the M4 Professional and M4 Max processors are superior and reasonably unbelievable. Nonetheless, the MacBook Professional is greater than only a killer processor. It’s stuffed with nice options like a ProMotion HDR show, HDMI output and MagSafe. For those who’re having bother deciding which one to get, right here’s how they examine.

For extra recommendation about selecting the Mac laptop computer for you learn: MacBook shopping for information: Which Mac laptop computer is greatest? and MacBook Professional vs MacBook Air.

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Specs in contrast

We’ll talk about a number of the extra salient variations point-by-point, however first listed below are all a very powerful specs at a look.

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Worth

The very first thing you’ll discover is the worth distinction between the 14-inch MacBook Professional with M4 and the 14-inch and 16-inch fashions with M4 Professional. It’s important to pay an additional $400/£400, however that worth does embrace greater than a CPU improve–you get extra GPU cores, and extra reminiscence. The M4 Professional MacBook Professional fashions additionally supply extra reminiscence customization choices–the M4 Professional has a most restrict of 48GB, whereas the M4’s restrict is 32GB.

The worth hole between the M4 Professional and Max laptops is analogous. For instance, the high-end 14-inch M4 Professional mannequin is $2,399, and to improve that to an M4 Max provides $600/£600. The beginning worth for a 16-inch M3 Max MacBook Professional is $3,499/£3,499, which is $300/£300 greater than the top-end 14-inch M4 Max MacBook Professional customary configuration.

To summarize, the M4 Professional fashions are costlier than the M4 fashions, however they’re extra succesful as a result of they’ve extra CPU and GPU cores and might have extra reminiscence. Upgrading from M4 Professional to M4 Max is an efficient worth/efficiency deal–a lot so that you just would possibly forego an M4 Professional altogether and go together with the M4 Max.

14-inch MacBook Professional, M4 (2024)

• M4, 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB unified reminiscence, 512GB SSD: $1,599/£1,599
• M4, 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB unified reminiscence, 1TB SSD: $1,799/£1,799
• M4, 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 24GB unified reminiscence, 1TB SSD: $1,999/£1,999

14-inch MacBook Professional, M4 Professional/M4 Max (2024)

• M4 Professional, 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB unified reminiscence, 512GB SSD: $1,999/£1,999
• M4 Professional, 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 24GB unified reminiscence, 1TB SSD: $2,399/£2,399
• M4 Max, 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB unified reminiscence, 1TB SSD: $3,199/£3,199

Apple 14-inch MacBook Professional (M4 Professional)

14-inch MacBook Professional (M4 Max)

16-inch MacBook Professional, M4 Professional/M4 Max (2024)

• M4 Professional, 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 24GB unified reminiscence, 512GB SSD: $2,499 / £2,499
• M4 Professional, 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 48GB unified reminiscence, 512GB SSD: $2,899 / £2,899
• M4 Max, 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB unified reminiscence, 1TB SSD: $3,499 / £3,499
• M4 Max, 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB unified reminiscence, 1TB SSD: $3,999 / £4,099

Apple 16-inch MacBook Professional (M4 Max)

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Efficiency

The brand new M4 has an 10-core CPU (4 efficiency, 6 effectivity cores) and in response to Apple, is 3.4 instances sooner than the M1.

For extra money, you’ll be able to step up from the M4 to an 12-core M4 Professional chip, which presents a 52 p.c improve, or to a 14-core M4 Professional.  Nonetheless, due to the Professional’s core configuration, it is perhaps a greater funding to step as much as a 14-core M4 Max.

Apple

The 14-inch MacBook Professional is out there with the M4, M4 Professional, or M4 Max chips; the 16-inch MacBook Professional comes with both a M4 Professional or M4 Max chip. The M4 Professional and Max can be found with totally different CPU and GPU core choices, they usually even have extra reminiscence configurations out there.

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Show high quality and display screen dimension

The 14 and 16-inch MacBook Professional have mini-LED shows with slim bezels. Display sizes are literally 14.2 inches and 16.2 inches measured diagonally.

The screens supply good power effectivity, distinction, and brightness. The brightness with SDR content material has been boosted from 500 to 600 nits in comparison with the early 2023 14- and 16-inch fashions. With HDR content material the brand new shows can go as much as 1,000 nits sustained and 1,600 nits peak. That’s unbelievable HDR efficiency that beats almost some other laptop computer show available on the market.

ProMotion, when it arrived with the 2021 MacBook Professional fashions was a game-changer, bringing 120Hz excessive refresh charges to the MacBook Professional, whereas additionally permitting for dynamic variable refresh charges all the way down to 24Hz, which isn’t solely nice for movie-watching, it’s an enormous profit to battery life.

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Audio system, mics, and headphones

The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Professional have a six-speaker sound system that guarantees excessive constancy along with help for Spatial Audio. All of the MacBook Execs have a beamforming three-mic array, however the 14-inch and 16-inch fashions have improved sensitivity and a decrease noise ground, so recordings ought to sound higher.

There’s a headphone jack on all of the MacBook Execs, and it helps high-impedance headphones. That’s nice for studio headphones, which want extra energy to drive them.

The 2023 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional’s HDMI port helps multichannel audio output.

Foundry

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Webcam (and the notch)

The MacBook Execs have a 12MP Canter stage webcam with Desk View help. That’s an improve from the 1080p digital camera used within the earlier MacBook Professional fashions.

The webcam is housed in a fairly significant-sized notch on the high of the show, which first made an look on the 2021 MacBook Professional fashions. Regardless of wanting very very similar to that on the iPhone, it’s not a TrueDepth sensor. There’s no Face ID or Animoji or something like that. The notch doesn’t truly minimize into the primary show space, although. The realm beneath the notch is a 16×10 show, identical to all prior MacBooks. The show space on both facet of the notch extends upward from there, including display screen space on high of the 16×10 rectangle. The menu bar is situated in that space, successfully providing you with extra vertical area for all of your apps. Builders can select to make use of that further display screen area in the event that they need to.

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Connectivity and enlargement

Years in the past, Apple removed our beloved MagSafe charging connector, opting as a substitute to take up one of many few Thunderbolt ports for charging. They usually removed the SD card slot and HDMI port, too.

When Apple up to date the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions in 2021, Apple gave us one extra Thunderbolt port, and it introduced again the HDMI port, SDXC card slot, and MagSafe connector. Considerably confusingly, the corporate additionally makes use of MagSafe because the model for the iPhone’s magnetic charging and accent attachment expertise, which is form of a distinct factor but additionally entails magnetic charging.

Within the M4 MacBook Professional, Apple now presents three Thunderbolt/USB-C ports; the M3 mannequin it repalces had solely two ports. The M4 MacBook Professional’s ports use the Thunderbolt 4 specificaion, whereas the M4 Professional and Max laptops use Thunderbolt 5, which presents extra bandwidth and sooner efficiency. Most customers received’t discover the distinction between Thunderbolt 4 and 5 except they’re utilizing Thunderbolt 5 gadgets and are performaning very giant knowledge transfers. Thunderbolt 5 additionally helps larger wattages for charging and working gadgets.

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Contact Bar

The 13-inch MacBook Professional had a Contact Bar. Apple dumped that laptop computer with the introduction of the M3 collection within the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Professional, which additionally meant that it dumped the Contact Bar fully. The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Professional doesn’t have a Contact Bar, they’ve a full-height row of Operate keys with a Contact ID sensor on the proper. Each techniques have a Contact ID button within the higher proper of the keyboard just like the iMac’s Magic Keyboard with Contact ID.

Apple

14-inch vs 16-inch MacBook Professional: Battery life

The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Execs have actually glorious battery life specs. The 72.4Wh battery within the 14-inch M4 mannequin will preserve it going for 16 hours; the identical battery within the 14-inch M4 Professional and Max laptops will final about 13 to 14 hours. The 16-inch mannequin will get 21 to 24 hours of video playback out of its 100Wh battery.

The M4 and M4 Professional 14-inch MacBook Professional include a 70W energy adapter, and each additionally supply an choice for a 96W adapter. The 96W mannequin is critical for quick charging and comes customary with some configurations, in any other case, it’s a $20 improve. The 16-inch mannequin comes with a 140W energy adapter in all configurations.

Verdict

The 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Professional is absolutely the pinnacle of the moveable Mac. We advocate getting as a lot RAM and storage as you’ll be able to afford. The candy spot for most individuals would be the 12-core CPU/16-core GPU M4 Professional with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, however we’re assured that you just’ll be pleased with any of the configurations Apple presents. 

For those who’re in search of a 13-inch M3 MacBook Professional, you received’t discover it. Apple changed it with the 14-inch MacBook Professional, which has a distinct design, no Contact Bar, a greater show, and a better worth. Total, the M4 MacBook Professional is a greater laptop computer, however if you happen to love the Contact Bar, you both have to simply accept the brand new keyboard, stick along with your Contact Bar laptop computer, or discover a 13-inch M2 MacBook Professional from a third-party vendor or Apple’s Licensed Refurbished Retailer. Alternatively, the 13-inch MacBook Professional is perhaps the most suitable choice for you, see our comparability of the MacBook Professional vs MacBook Air.

In case you are on a funds and the 14-inch M4 MacBook Professional seems to be engaging, you received’t be disenchanted. It’s a significantly better deal than the M3 MAcBook Professional it changed.

For extra shopping for recommendation learn our Greatest Mac information.