While Apple silicon has been a game changer for the Mac line up, it hasn't been easy to know which MacBook to recommend to which user in recent years. With the M2 chip hitting the MacBook Air before the Pro, we found ourselves in the strange position of having a less powerful laptop with a newer chip – but with the advent of the new M3 MacBook Pro, everything suddenly makes sense.
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro is the first Apple laptop to feature the brand new M3 chip (along with the M3 Pro and M3 Max), which means for the first time, the Pro has beaten the Air. And with the M3 providing next-level speed and performance, it seems we finally have an obvious choice for creatives (it's a shoo-in for our best laptop for video editing roundup, but if you don't need this much power, the 2022 M2 MacBook Air is at a record low price right now).
The M3 chips are the first chips for a personal computer built using the industry-leading 3-nanometer technology – perfect, in Apple's words, for "users pursuing their passions — from students and business owners to aspiring musicians and video editors."
At the top end, the M3 Max is "up to 2.5x faster than the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max" (it's curious that Apple is comparing with the M1, not the M2). This supports those with extreme workflows like machine learning programmers, 3D artists, and video editors, "enabling creators to easily work on large and complex projects spanning multiple pro apps and plugins, or compose huge film scores where entire orchestral libraries are instantly available from memory." In other words, the M3 chip is the ultimate choice for creatives – and right now, the MacBook Pro is Apple's only laptop to sport it.
Of course, with great power comes a great price – the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro starts at £1,699, while the 16-inch model starts at £2,599. The new models are released on 7 November, with pre-orders starting right now.
