MacBook Pro 14 review with M1 Pro

When we unbox the new 14-inch MacBook Pro, we find that it is a slightly more angular computer, meaning something similar to the Powerbook Titanium of bygone eras, retaining the sleek line and resistant from its predecessor.

Indeed, this new 14-inch MacBook Pro weighs only 210 grams more than the 13-inch MacBook Pro, despite the fact that many will have noticed that the thickness of the equipment has been increased to accommodate the new components.

At the bottom you’ll find the words “MacBook Pro” engraved, while the sides are equipped with a large number of ports including an SD card reader, an HDMI port and a MagSafe connector.

MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro display

The card reader is a godsend when thinking of photographers, while the HDMI port extends compatibility to use additional external displays, especially when going to conferences or presentations.

Finally, the MagSafe power connector type returns, the one that performed so well in the past with its magnetized system to prevent altercations or trips with the cable, now ensuring fast charging, among other things.

Filter

The screen is a Liquid Retina XDR model with a resolution of 3024 × 1964 pixels. That’s great – up to 1000 cd / m² of continuous brightness across the screen, which can scale up to 1600 cd / m² locally.

What is immediately noticeable is the adaptive Pro Motion technology, which can handle a refresh rate of 120 Hz. Scrolling web pages is like scrolling a device equipped in the same way as the iPad Pro.

Everything is going smoothly and quickly. In fact, the data of how often the screen is updated is automatically managed to adapt in the best average to what you see, although we can always resort to configuration parameters for its management.

The theme of the camera notch also appears on the screen. We find it hard to believe that Apple added it for cosmetic reasons. We have already seen videos everywhere where users show the kind of issues they are having with programs not working properly.

However, keep in mind that these types of issues will go away as developers update their program versions, and the truth is that after a short period of use you won’t even notice their presence.

Keyboard

The keyboard is of good quality, with an adequate and pleasant feel to the touch, as well as a sound when pressing the keys which is not unpleasant. The fingerprint reader now has a dedicated full size button. Functionally things don’t change, but aesthetically it stands out more.

The touchpad It again has a very generous and functional area on which to display the user gestures supported by macOS.

MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro Keyboard

Ring

In this section, Apple has done a great job integrating a total of six speakers, delivering great sound for a laptop. They support spatial sound when playing music and Dolby Atmos when it comes to watching movies or series.

It’s more than just a decent, surprisingly good, high-volume sound experience for a laptop, though it still sounds like it, with some somewhat fine frequencies.

Performance

Apple’s SoC (System on a Chip) got all the attention it needed when the M1 launched in November 2020. A high-performance, yet power-efficient processor that improved the performance of MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13 inches and Mac mini. .

It also offers longer battery life (or lower power consumption if we’re talking about a computer like the Mac mini). Regarding the 14-inch MacBook Pro that we are testing, it must be said that it comes with the new M1 Pro, the same SoC, but significantly improved.

In our Geekbench tests, it’s possible to see how performance improves over the previous generation MacBook Pro, including models that still carry the Intel Core chip.

In the Cinebench R23 section, the improvements are most noticeable when the laptop is forced to use multi-core CPU mode, where performance is noticeably increased when running processes in parallel.

Already in Geekbench graphics tests with support for Open CL and Metal, we saw that the new 14-inch MacBook Pro stood out from the Previous 16-inch MacBook Pro.

We also compare it to a MacBook Air with M1. We start by converting 8K resolution video clip to 1080p in Handbrake. Our MacBook Air with M1 it recorded 13 minutes and 55 seconds, which is not bad for an ultralight laptop.

However, the MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro completely outperformed the MacBook Air, taking just six minutes to accomplish the same task.

In Final Cut Pro, the result became even clearer. An 8K clip was exported with the “Apple Devices 1080p” setting selected. The 14-inch MacBook Pro took 57 seconds, while the MacBook Air with M1 took 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Now you might think a minute here or there doesn’t matter, but we want to point out that the video we used was two minutes long. If you are working with professional video editing projects, the difference will be much bigger.

Introducing the MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro

We’ve also looked at battery life and can confirm that when Apple says this is a computer that won’t keep you strapped to your desk, the company is not exaggerating. Although it is a powerful Mac, its power consumption remains low.

When we tested the hard drive read and write speeds, we were equally amazed. The write speed according to Blackmagic is 4,334.6MB / s and the read speed is 5,287.2MB / s.

We compare this with the MacBook Air M1 and you will see values ​​of 1314.8MB / s and 2822.4MB / s respectively. Keep in mind that the MacBook Air is not a slow laptop, but even so, the 14-inch MacBook Pro demonstrates that performance is boosting again.

SSD speed tests

Verdict

Is there anything negative we can mention about the new one MacBook Pro 14 with M1 Pro? Not really, except for the price that starts at $ 2,249 for the cheapest model of all. If you are a daily user, you may think it is expensive.

However, as we have already mentioned, if you are a professional photographer, music creator, filmmaker who edits videos or whatever, then you are getting some of the best laptops you can buy today when it comes to performance. and user experience.

Apple’s new SoC M1 Pro is blazingly fast as it has shown in tests. For those who want more, they can always opt for the performance offered by the M1 Max chip.

MacBook Pro 14 with M1 Pro specifications

  • 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display
  • Resolution of 3024 x 1964 pixels
  • 120Hz refresh rate
  • M1 Pro chip with 8 CPU cores and 16 GPUs
  • 16 GB of RAM
  • 512 GB SSD storage
  • 1080p HD front camera
  • Sound with 6 Dolby Atmos speakers
  • Connectivity: 3 Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SDXC slot, MagSafe 3 and headphones
  • Teclado Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
  • Touchpad strength
  • MacOS Monterey operating system
  • 67W USB-C Power Adapter
  • Dimensions 31.26 x 21.24 x 15.6 mm
  • Weight 1.61 kg
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