Replacing my M1 MacBook Pro with the base model M4 blew my $3,000 laptop

What I’ve been using is M4 MacBook Pro I’ve had it for just under a month, and it’s the most boring and awesome device I’ve tested this year.

I don’t mean to envy my 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro, but this latest model is Apple’s most sophisticated and complete laptop yet, and the basic M4 configuration is sufficient for 90% of users. Possibly. Most people will be happy with the overall computing experience of the M4 MacBook Pro, especially if they have an Intel-based system.

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A few enthusiasts will absolutely salivate over the small changes, from the USB-C port change to the brighter screen in SDR mode. In fact, the base model of the M4, rather than the M4 Pro or M4 Max, is exactly the model I carry around town, and it has all the features I need to get through some serious photo and video editing. , gaming (tracing all rays), and content consumption.

It’s been 11 hours since the last charge and this laptop has 20% battery left in the tank. This isn’t the “24-hour battery life” that Apple touts in its marketing, but remember that the company benchmarks itself based on video playback time. I was very impressed with the M4 MacBook Pro’s durability while running various creative tasks and background apps. If it were my M1 MacBook Pro, my battery concerns would have started much earlier.

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The new M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro feature USB-C Thunderbolt 5 ports, making them some of the first laptops on the market to support faster 120Gbps transfer speeds, up to 240W charging, and more robust monitor support. It will be. For professional creatives who use an external GPU and storage solution and need a portable system that can move large files quickly, paying for the extra processing power is justifiable.

Otherwise, the base M4 MacBook Pro is more than adequate, with three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports. An additional USB-C port is on the right side of the laptop, which not only connects nicely to all the monitors and charging cables that naturally sit on the right side of your office desk, but the new processor now allows you to expand your computer upwards. . You can connect two monitors while the lid is open. Previously, you had to close the MacBook lid to power two external monitors.

Other than ports, the only major hardware difference between the base M4 MacBook Pro and the M4 Pro and M4 Max variants is the number of cooling fans, with higher-tier options having two instead of one. Although we weren’t able to test the differences in throttle and heat dissipation of all three systems, we were happy with the base M4’s performance. Whether you’re running a benchmark or playing mist When ray tracing was activated at high graphics settings, the laptop’s fan didn’t make any distracting hissing noises.

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Before we get into the benchmarks, I’d like to touch on the M4 MacBook Pro’s display. The 14-inch model doesn’t have the punch and depth of the M4 iPad Pro’s tandem OLED, but it does combine new brightness ratings (1,000 nits for SDR and 1,600 nits for HDR) with an optional, more expensive OLED. A satisfyingly clean nano-texture coating makes this one of the best-looking laptop displays I’ve used. The matte frost layering greatly reduces glare, and the bright panels manage to counteract the November sun that makes you think it’s still summer.

On the M1 MacBook Pro and all other laptops with glossy displays, the webcam area often got dirty when opening the lid or wiping away dust marks. Even after a week of intensive use, the M4 MacBook Pro’s display remains in great condition.

So is a nanotextured display worth the extra $150? For most people, it’s not. instead, matte screen protector You can buy it from Amazon for less than $20. You can get almost the same satisfaction for a fraction of the cost.

Here’s a breakdown of the benchmark scores for the M4 MacBook Pro (with 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16 GB RAM, and 1 TB storage).

Unsurprisingly, the M4 MacBook Pro outperforms its predecessor as well as some modern Windows machines running on Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) chipsets. . It’s pretty spectacular that the $1,599 M4 MacBook Pro outperforms the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip that I paid nearly $3,000 for.

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it is helpful every MacBook models (including M2 and M3 Air) start with 16 GB of RAM. We have AI to thank for that. Most of the consumer Apple Intelligence features aren’t immediately available when you purchase a compatible device, but I’ve tried the MacOS Sequoia 15.2 developer beta to see how my spending life looks. I have experienced something like this. You’ll spend less time thinking while using your MacBook. Here’s a quick hierarchical list of the best new features:

• Siri using ChatGPT (Tier A): Things change dramatically when Siri can actually answer more advanced queries instead of typing search results. It’s nice to be able to access the floating Siri menu by double-pressing the Command key, but it would be nice if a long press could automatically start a voice prompt.
• Lighting tools (B tier): We’ve had to manage a variety of conversations, from CES invitations to real estate messages, and have greatly benefited from AI-assisted responses. The only thing is, my natural tone is somewhere between the “professional” and “concise” versions, so there’s always one or two things that need to be adjusted or turned up. That means there is one.
• Image playground (C tier): The output from the image generator looks like the following variant: jetpack joyride iconI’m having trouble finding a way to actually use it in the real world. Sending an emoji often gets the same points as an AI-generated thumbnail, but in much less time.

ZDNET purchase advice

Same price as last year’s MacBook Pro model, M4 variations — Great upgrades in performance, practicality, and battery life, especially in the base configuration. Introducing a Thunderbolt 5 port, M4 processor designed for machine learning, a more capable webcam, and a brighter display funnel in a form factor suitable for office workers, digital nomads, students, professional creators, and more .

For most users, 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro is the way to go. If you need more internal storage than 512 GB, going up to the 1 TB level for $200 isn’t the worst idea. Beyond that, we recommend opting for an external SSD, which offers more storage at a much lower cost than what Apple offers.

If portability is important to you and you can live without features like a ProMotion display or SD card slot, you won’t miss out on a lot of features by choosing a cheaper (but still capable) option. M3 or M2 MacBook Airalso supports upcoming Apple Intelligence features.

How to test your laptop with ZDNET

At ZDNET, we test laptops using a combination of methods. First, it pulls data from benchmarking software to internally analyze the system’s metrics and compare them to the advertised numbers. We then use the laptop for an extended period of time (typically 1-2 weeks) in the same way as a typical consumer and evaluate its portability, form factor, and battery life. actually It will hold up. For a detailed breakdown, check out our comprehensive laptop testing methodology.

• benchmark: First, we run a series of tests that put your computer’s hardware through the wringer to see how it performs. cine bench is one of the most commonly used hardware test suites, testing laptop rendering performance on single and multiple CPU cores. PC mark 10 is another powerful program that covers a variety of tasks performed in the workplace, and there are many others that you can use in conjunction to collect as much data as possible. The components that run the tests include:
• Processor: It is the “brain” of your laptop and one of the most important factors that determines its performance. The four major manufacturers that make most of the CPUs in laptops today are Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple (Apple machines only). This is tested with benchmark software.
• display: The size of the display (measured diagonally from corner to corner) also determines the overall size of the laptop and has a big impact on the cost of the laptop. Brightness is measured in “nits” and color spectrum is tested with benchmark software.
• Graphics processor (GPU): Whether integrated into the CPU or a dedicated graphics card, how well a machine can handle graphics matters when it comes to demanding tasks like video editing, rendering, and of course gaming. It becomes an element. Test your GPU with a combination of benchmark software, games, and media playback.
• Physical form factor: Finally, the overall appearance and physical form factor of the laptop includes its weight, thickness, feel of the keyboard and trackpad, and whether it has a display that can be folded and used as a tablet. We carried the laptop around for at least a week and observed how comfortable it was for commuting.
• Battery test: Test your unit’s battery in several ways. Some benchmarking programs include their own battery testing components, but here we just let the laptop run under moderate load for as long as possible. Make sure screensavers and hibernation mode are turned off, set display brightness and audio to 50%, load a YouTube live stream in Chrome, and wait until it finishes.
• Human element: As mentioned earlier, metrics and system data are important, but numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Here, we incorporate our personal experience with the device and leverage real-world use cases of interest to consumers.

The ultimate goal is to break down the features of every laptop we test into easy-to-understand terms that real people find useful. There’s a lot of noise and confusion when navigating the laptop and computer consumer market. That’s why we want to leverage our team’s decades of experience to introduce an intuitive element to the entire process.

This article was originally published on November 7, 2024 and updated on November 19, 2024.