MacBook Pro M4: release date, specifications and new features

Apple has announced that the MacBook Pro line has been updated with the new M4 series of chips. The base MacBook Pro M4 has some major new changes, but the rest of the MacBook Pro lineup has some interesting changes as well. The new MacBook Pro is available to order now, with shipments beginning November 8, 2024.

Here’s what you need to know about the M4 MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro: release date

Apple announced the MacBook Pro M4 on October 30, 2024 and started pre-orders. The M4 MacBook Pro will ship on November 8.

You can pre-order the new MacBook Pro now.

New Apple products are launched throughout the year, read: when is the next Apple event to learn more about the company’s product launch plans.

MacBook Pro: price

MacBook Pro M4 prices in the US and UK are the same as the MacBook Pro M3 range.

14-inch MacBook Pro (M4)

14-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro)

16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro)

16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Max)

MacBook Pro: design

Apple has not changed the design of the MacBook Pro. This design was initially introduced with the MacBook Pro M1 Pro and Max in 2021. It features a 100% recycled aluminum body available in Silver and Space Black.

With the MacBook Pro M3 Pro and Max released in 2023, Apple replaced the Space Gray color with Space Black; at the time, it was not available on the base 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro. With these new MacBook Pro models, Space Black is available in all configurations, including the base 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro.

Apple

MacBook Pro: display

The MacBook Pro M4 features a Liquid Retina XDR display with 1,000 nits sustained full-screen compared to the previous 600 nits. It supports ProMotion with adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz.

MacBook Pro M4 specs, ports, and features

Processor

• M4, 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU
• M4 Pro, 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU
• M4 Pro, 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU
• M4 Max, 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU
• M4 Max, 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU

According to Apple, the base M4 chip with a 10-core CPU (four performance cores, six efficiency cores) and a 10-core GPU is “up to 1.8 times faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 for tasks such as gigapixel editing. photos and even more demanding workloads like rendering complex scenes in Blender are up to 3.4x faster. The 16-core Neural Engine is three times faster than the M1. Apple hasn’t cited performance comparisons in its press releases for the M3, but on the MacBook Pro website the company offers vague M3 versus M4 numbers, and it appears the M4 offers the increase typical incremental compared to the M3.

As for the M4 Pro, Apple says it’s “up to 3x faster than models powered by the M1 Pro, accelerating workflows like geo-mapping, structural engineering, and data modeling.” The M4 Max delivers “3.5 times the performance of the M1 Max, eliminating heavy creative workloads such as visual effects, 3D animation and film music.”

Apple has updated the base MacBook Pro M4 to have the same number of ports as the M4 Pro and M4 Max models: three Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, MagSafe 3, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, and a jack 3.5mm headset. The base model M3 had two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, not three. The base MacBook Pro M4 also now has 16GB of unified memory; the M3 based model had 8 GB.

The Thunderbolt ports on the M4 models are Thunderbolt 4. The M4 Pro and Max laptops use Thunderbolt 5, which is the newest version of the technology. It offers faster transfer speeds of 120 Gbps.

Apple

Apple has updated the built-in camera to a 12 MP Center Stage camera that automatically keeps the user in the center of the frame. The camera also supports Desk View, which can display the desktop space in front of the laptop.