M4 MacBook Pro: Everything you need to know

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

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

MacBook Pro: Release date

Apple announced the M4 MacBook Pro 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 launch throughout the year, read: when is the next Apple event to learn more about the company’s product launch plans.

MacBook Pro: Price

The prices for the M4 MacBook Pro in the U.S. and the U.K. are the same as they were for the M3 MacBook Pro lineup.

MacBook Pro: Design

Apple did not change the design of the MacBook Pro. This design was originally introduced with the M1 Pro and Max MacBook Pro in 2021. It features a 100-percent recycled aluminum case available in Silver and Space Black.

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

MacBook Pro: Display

The M4 MacBook Pro has a Liquid Retina XDR display with an XDR brightness of 1000 nits sustained full-screen, 1600 nits peak (HDR content only), and an SDR brightness of 1000 nits, which is an improvement over 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 1.8x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 for tasks like editing gigapixel 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 did not cite performance comparisons in its press releases to the M3, but on the MacBook Pro website, the company does offer some vague M3-versus-M4 numbers, and it looks as though the M4 offers the typical incremental boost over the M3.

As for the M4 Pro, apple states that it is “up to 3x faster than models with M1 Pro, speeding up workflows like geo-mapping, structural engineering, and data modeling.” The M4 Max offers “3.5x the performance of M1 Max, ripping through heavy creative workloads like visual effects, 3D animation, and film scoring.”

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

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 120Gbps transfer speeds.

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