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It’s safe to say that Apple is on a roll with the Mac family. The 15-inch MacBook Air with M2, as well as Mac Studio with M2 Max, arrived this past June, and Apple dropped the M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros in January of 2023 to kick off the year.
Now, at what might be the technology giant’s last event of 2023, Apple unveiled its next generation of chips, the M3 family, as well as three new Macs. You can read all about the upgraded iMac here, but ahead, we’re focusing on the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3, as well as the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro or M3 Max.
It’s an exciting drop, showcasing the Liquid Retina XDR display, chunkier builds, and more ports available at a lower price point with the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 that starts at $1,499, in addition to delivering next-level performance with the M3 Pro and M3 Max in a stunning new shade, “Space Black.”
14-inch MacBook Pro with M3: Everything to know
Apple has a slew of laptops in the lineup: the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1, 13-inch MacBook Air with M2, and 15-inch MacBook Air with M2. Each of these offers some mix of performance with various design choices; the 15-inch MacBook Air, for instance, gave users great performance with a larger screen for less.
The newest option is the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M3 Chip. Essentially, it offers an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine with 512GB of solid-state storage and 16GB of RAM for a starting price of $1,599 and can make those chips work even harder with an onboard cooling system.
Now, Apple’s M3 chip is also the first 3-nanometer chip and takes big leaps in the graphics world. For starters, it has Dynamic Caching, which will allocate memory in real-time based on which apps you’re using but also supports ray-tracing and mesh-shading. All of that will improve performance for gaming, video editing, and 3D rendering. As a whole, performance is up to 60% faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1.
You also get the 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, which not only immerses you in content with vibrant pops of color and stark contrast points, but also has an adaptive refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz, thanks to ProMotion. Suffice to say, it’s one of the nicest displays we’ve ever tested on a laptop.
Built into the chunkier, more modern aluminum design of the 14-inch MacBook Pro is an excellent keyboard with great key travel and a large enough trackpad to navigate macOS. You also get a MagSafe 3 port, as well as two USB-C ports on the left side. The right keeps an HDMI port and an SD card reader like the more expensive 14-inch MacBook Pro but ditches the additional USB-C port.
For $1,599, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 is an excellent middle-of-the-road option for those who need extra performance for sustained tasks and those who value a better display or more ports. It’s also an excellent option for someone rocking a 13-inch or 15-inch MacBook Pro powered by an Intel processor.
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, $1,599 at Amazon
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3, 8GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, $1,799 at Amazon
14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro or M3 Max: Everything to know
Like the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3, the more powerful 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro boasts the universally loved, and TheStreet acclaimed, rounded and bulkier design that Apple ushered in a few years back. It not only delivers a more premium experience with excellent, visually immersive displays, but also packs in many ports and great user interface controls.
All of the design elements of the 14-inch and 16-inch Macbook Pro remain the same, except for colors. “Space Gray” is out, and the lovely and effortlessly sleek “Space Black” is in. It might make you reminiscent of the classic black polycarbonate MacBook of years ago, but it’s simply a sleek shade that screams “Pro.” Apple also developed a special anodized coating to make it resistant to fingerprints, something that the “Midnight” shade of the MacBook Air could use a coat of.
We’re eager to see how “Space Black” fares out in the wild, but know that it does look great in person. Aside from this new color that lives alongside “Silver,” the only other change is under the hood. The M2 Pro chip is swapped for the M3 Pro, which delivers even more power for intensive creative tasks and gaming, as well as the ability to let you fly through other processes.
It starts with a 12-core CPU and up to a 16-core GPU coupled with a 16-core Neural Engine, and just like the base-M3, this chipset is capable of all the extra endurance graphical functions. Creative tasks, like video and photo editing, will fly here, as will 3D renders for game development and building well buildings. The M3 Pro chip is up to 40% faster than the M2 Pro.
Those who need Pro-desktop grade workflows available anywhere could consider the M3 Max, which is—as of now—Apple’s most advanced chipset in a laptop. This iteration of the Max is up to 11 times faster than a top-of-the-line Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 2.5 times faster than the M2 Max. With the latter, even generation over generation, that means less time spent waiting. You can easily plow through an export of a massive movie project with various titles, elements, and raw video in Final Cut Pro and even breeze through 3D modeling in other applications.
Both the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips aim to deliver an experience that doesn’t leave you waiting with a next-level amount of power to get through any task. It won’t come cheap, though, especially for the M3 Max.
Luckily, the M3 Pro variants still start at $1,999 for the 14-inch and $2,499 for the 16-inch. They also pair that with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of solid-state storage. You can upgrade the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max up to 128GB of RAM.
Either route, the M3 Pro and M3 Max aren’t necessarily a mandatory upgrade if you have an M1 or M2 device. Rather, it’s an excellent time to upgrade from an Intel-based Mac to see a tremendous leap forward in terms of processing power and daily usage.
If you’re sold, orders are open now for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro and M3 Max, with deliveries beginning on Nov. 7.
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro, 18GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, $1,999 at Amazon
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro, 18GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, $2,399 at Amazon
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max, 36GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, $3,199 at Amazon
- 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro, 18GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage $2,499 at Amazon
- 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro, 36GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, $2,899 at Amazon
- 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max, 36GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, $3,499 at Amazon
- 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max, 48GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, $3,999 at Amazon
We’d also keep an eye on Amazon for discounts on the M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pros. We’ll share those below.
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, $1,799 (was $1,999) at Amazon
- 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, $2,349 (was $2,499) at Amazon
Prices are accurate and items are in stock at the time of publishing.
