The new M1 Pro and Max chips, larger screens, longer battery life and more ports bring huge upgrades
Last modified on Monday, November 29, 2021 02.02 EST
Since 2016, Apple's MacBook Pro has undergone the biggest upgrade in terms of power supply, ports, and screen quality, meeting almost all the requirements on the wish list of eager Mac users.
But the new 14-inch and 16-inch models are no longer machines for ordinary consumers. Priced at £1,899 (US$1,999 or AU$2,999), they are workstation laptops for creative professionals and developers and are priced accordingly. They regard the excellent £999 M1 MacBook Air as Apple's most important consumer laptop.
Apple has listened to the needs of its advanced users, making the new laptops larger and heavier, with longer battery life and more ports. They are all better because of it.
The design is almost retro. The aluminum body mimics the first-generation MacBook Pro from 2006, and the screen size of the 14-inch version (tested) is similar to that of the 2002 iBook model.
When you open the lid, two things stand out: There is an iPhone-like notch on the top of the screen, and the previous model Touch Bar is gone. This marmite-like function has great potential, but it has not been liked by most people.
Instead, there are standard function and utility keys, including a large escape key that will please developers. The power button has a Touch ID fingerprint scanner, which works well.
The new 14.2-inch screen is in a different state. It is taller than its 13.3-inch predecessor and borrows two technologies from the 12.9-inch iPad Pro: ProMotion and miniLED backlight.
ProMotion refreshes the screen twice as fast as most 60Hz non-gaming consoles to achieve smoother animation effects. It's smooth, but compared to touch screen devices such as tablets and smartphones, this jump has less impact.
The miniLED backlight is a huge leap forward, producing peak brightness of up to 1,600nits (a standard measure of screen brightness) to present stunning HDR content. Most of the competitors' screens are up to 500nits or less. It can produce super bright white and deep ink black for excellent contrast.
But for standard dynamic range content, the screen is limited to the same 500nits as the previous model, which is not HDR movies, images, and games. For most situations, it is certainly bright enough.
Screen: 14.2-inch mini LED (3024x1964; 254 ppi) ProMotion (120Hz)
Processor: Apple M1 Pro or M1 Max
Storage: 512GB, 1, 2, 4 or 8TB SSD
Camera: 1080p FaceTime HD camera
Connection: wifi 6, Bluetooth 5, 3x USB 4/Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.0, SD card, headset
The 2021 MacBook Pro is the first computer equipped with a more powerful version of the Apple M1 custom processor, which is used to perform outstandingly in the MacBook Air and iMac.
The performance of the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips is comparable to most of the competitors' workstation-class machines, but the power consumption is only a fraction. They are much faster than all previous Apple laptops and are close to the most expensive Mac desktops. No matter what you want to accomplish, whether it's multi-stream 4K/8K video editing, development work, or editing a large number of image projects, the MacBook Pro can handle it while on battery without performance degradation.
The laptop runs completely silently most of the time. Only when I played the Intel Mac version of the game Xcom 2 with the graphics settings set to the maximum, I could hear the fan's low growl.
Battery life is equally impressive, with 14 hours of easy work including email, browsing, writing, and photo editing, or for more demanding tasks such as editing video and advanced photo processing11 More than hours. Really push the machine by exporting high-resolution videos or compiling large applications, and battery life may plummet, but I estimate you can still get at least five hours.
The case of MacBook Pro is 100% recycled aluminum. It contains 98% rare earth elements, and 100% recycled tin is its logic board solder, and at least 35% recycled plastic is used in multiple components. Apple detailed the environmental impact of computers in its report.
Computers are usually repairable, and Apple can replace the battery for £199. Repair expert iFixit gave the machine a 4/10 score, mainly because it was difficult to replace certain parts. Apple offers trade-in and free recycling programs, including non-Apple products.
MacBook Pro runs Apple's latest macOS Monterey software, which looks and feels similar to its predecessor, Big Sur. In short, Monterey added FaceTime video calling features to the grid layout, such as Zoom, spatial audio surround sound for movies, real-time text recognition in photos, quick note-taking, and improved privacy options in Apple Mail. It also adds extensions to the "focus", "do not disturb" settings, and other features from iOS 15.
More ambitious Share Play and Universal Control features will be available as part of a software update later this year. Like Big Sur, most software developed for Intel-based Macs works well, but the compatibility of older applications cannot be guaranteed.
Compared with most LCD-based screens, Blooming (the backlight shines like a halo on the dark edges) is very well controlled.
Six speakers are amazing for a laptop computer and can produce surprisingly effective virtual surround sound for movies.
The graphics performance of the M1 Max is twice that of the M1 Pro, but the processor performance of the two chips is the same.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro M1 Pro chip starts at £1,899 (US$1,999/2,999 AUD), and is equipped with an eight-core CPU and a 14-core GPU, 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage space.
The model with the M1 Pro 10-core CPU/16-core GPU starts at £2,199, while the M1 Max model starts at £2,799.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at £2,399 (US$2,499/3,749 AU$). RAM or storage cannot be upgraded after purchase.
In contrast, the MacBook Air starts at £999, while a Windows laptop roughly equivalent to new machines such as the Dell XPS 15 costs about £2,099, the Razer Blade 15 costs about £1,700, and Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio The price is approximately US$2,100 (£1,576).
The 2021 MacBook Pro is the powerful laptop that Apple users have been waiting for.
The combination of workstation-level processing power and long battery life is unparalleled. The display is amazing and allows people who are engaged in video work to stay away from their desks and use dedicated high-end displays to work in HDR mode-many of the displays themselves cost astoundingly. Compared to 13.3-inch laptops, 14.2-inch laptops are taller and have larger screens that make e-mailing, writing, and browsing more comfortable, while still being easy to put in a bag.
The keyboard is great, and the top-notch trackpad is also big. Even the new 1080p HD webcam is a major upgrade. Expansion port options and SD card slots are very popular. Unlike previous models, the 14-inch and 16-inch versions have the same chip, so size is the key choice, not power.
The machine is not perfect. I hope it has a USB-A port, the HDMI port is not the latest standard, the webcam does not have Apple's excellent Center Stage technology, which allows users to stay in the picture during video calls, and the lack of Face ID is puzzling. Unfortunately, these days you cannot upgrade RAM or storage after purchase. But these are minor issues.
MacBook Pro is no longer a consumer laptop. On the contrary, it is the best compact professional-grade workhorse I have ever used. If you are a creative person using Apple or a developer who needs to upgrade, then this is the machine for you. You will pay a high price for this, but it is absolutely wonderful.
Pros: Very powerful, very long battery life, excellent miniLED ProMotion screen, large number of ports, SD card slot, excellent speakers, Touch ID, excellent keyboard and trackpad, MagSafe, competitive power supply price, 14-inch size Very big.
Disadvantages: no USB-A, no Face ID, no Center Stage camera, no HDMI 2.1 support, RAM or SSD cannot be upgraded after purchase, no BootCamp/Windows support, some niche applications may run problems before the update.
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