14-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Max) review: Familiar, but better than ever

Note: This review was first published on 7 November 2024.

A familiar sight

The M4-powered MacBook Pros are finally here. Let me state outright that if you bought a new MacBook Pro last year, you can save your money because there’s no good reason to update to this year’s model. The new MacBook Pros are faster, yes, and they are also improved in a couple of areas, but that doesn’t make your last year’s purchase bad. With that out of the way, let’s talk about what’s new with the M4 MacBook Pros and how it moves the game ahead for Apple’s flagship laptops.

The TL;DR version:



These are some of the best laptops money can buy. It has a fantastic screen, blazing-fast performance, and just about all the features you could want. Pricey, yes, but it’s well worth it.



Note: You can find the new MacBook Pro on Apple’s official stores on Lazada, Shopee, and the Apple Online Store.

The unit I’m testing is a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 Max chip. It has 128GB of memory and a 4TB SSD. Its display also has the nano-texture option (more on that later). It's clearly a very highly spec system, and if you configure similarly on Apple’s website, you’d find that it costs – wait for it – S$8,519. Ouch.

I’ll cut to the chase. The big news is the processor. The M4 family of chips now power the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro. You have three options: M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max. Apple claims significant increases in performance and that’s entirely believable. In synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench and Cinebench, I recorded double-digit percentage increases in performance across both the M4 and M4 Max. In fact, its numbers weren't that far off from a Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra chip. Head over to the next page to see the results of my tests.

In the real world, the improvements are perhaps less obvious. The new MacBook Pro is fast, but so was the last one and the one before that. The performance limits of MacBook Pros with Apple Silicon are so high that few professionals and even fewer casual users found them. That limit is even higher with this new generation of MacBook Pros.

Like all Apple Silicon Macs, the new MacBook Pros are extremely quiet. Under most circumstances, you’ll never hear the fans spin up. Battery life remains stellar. It could easily last an entire day at work even with the display brightness set to a rather bright 60%. 

The screen is a Liquid Retina XDR display, which means it uses a mini-LED panel. Blooming can still be an issue, but otherwise, it’s a great display. It gets really bright, has great contrast, and it’s sharp and crisp. Speaking of brightness, it now goes up to 1000 nits (up from 600 nits) when showing SDR content.

The new MacBook Pros can be ordered with a nano-texture finish on the display. This S$220 option gives the display a matte-like finish and significantly reduces glare and reflections. There’s no doubt it provides a more consistent viewing experience. But it’s no miracle worker – it won’t help if you are outdoors in harsh sunlight. It also comes at the cost of some sharpness. 

The notch in the middle of the screen is still there but the webcam that it houses has been improved. It’s now a 12MP ultra-wide camera. Video quality is better only if you go looking so I’m not sure how many people in your Zoom calls will notice. The improved camera enables a new feature called Desk View which shows the desk area in front of your MacBook Pro. It works as advertised and it’s remarkable how Apple can use the webcam to capture what’s on the desk. But the laws of physics are immutable, and the quality of footage from Desk View is noticeably poorer. Still, it’s a nifty feature and could be useful for some users.

All MacBook Pros will now come with three USB-C ports – including the base M4 model. However, models with the M4 Pro and M4 Max will support the newer Thunderbolt 5 standard. This enables data transfer rates of up to 120Gbps – three times faster than Thunderbolt 4. Though Thunderbolt 5 accessories are rare, users who demand the best should be pleased that Apple is supporting it now. The base M4 model’s USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4.

I was expecting the new MacBook Pros to support Wi-Fi 7 – just like the iPhone 16 series – but they only support Wi-Fi 6E. Seeing how the industry is slowly but surely adopting Wi-Fi 7 as the wireless networking standard of the future, this is a bit of a disappointment. If you are new to Wi-Fi 7, read our guide.

And despite all the hype and buildup, I'm afraid Apple Intelligence doesn't drastically change the Mac user experience. Some Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools are certainly nice to have, but apps like Grammarly already exist for that. They neither make or break the device.

Buying advice & final thoughts

Apple should be applauded for making the MacBook Pro a little cheaper. Prices now start at S$2,199, which is S$100 less. Depending on which model you pick, you could be paying as much as S$150 less than what you’d have compared to the last-generation model. It’s not a big amount but it’s something. Moreover, Apple has finally acquiesced and outfitted every new MacBook with at least 16GB of memory. No more fussing over whether to spend a few hundred bucks to upgrade. These are all good news.

One thing to know is that although the starting price seems palatable, it starts to add up quickly once you add more memory, storage, or spec a better processor. The nano-texture display is a S$220 option while going up from a 14-core M4 Max chip to a 16-core one is going to set you back S$450. Every additional 8GB of memory is S$300 and so is stepping up from 512GB of storage to 1TB. Options are not cheap at Apple.

If it’s any consolation, you do get what you pay for. The fact is: the MacBook Pro is a truly excellent laptop. I say the same thing in every MacBook Pro review but only because it's an irrefutable fact. It ticks so many boxes. The display is fantastic, its performance cannot be faulted, the battery life is incredible, and it’s very well built. My only gripe with this generation is the lack of Wi-Fi 7 support, but seeing that Wi-Fi 7 routers and mesh networking systems are still rather pricey, I don’t consider it a dealbreaker – yet. 

Even though there’s no question that the newest MacBook Pros are more powerful and have better features, my buying advice remains the same. If you already own an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro, ask yourself if you have already reached its limits and if the newest M4 chips can make a significant improvement to your workflow. For 99% of these people, I’m guessing the new MacBook Pros are nice to have, not a need to have. Folks still using an Intel-based Mac can and should upgrade without hesitation. Why haven’t you upgraded already?

Should you consider a base model 14-inch MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air? I think you definitely should if your budget allows for it and you don't mind the extra heft. The base model MacBook Pro not only has a newer processor, it also has a better display, more ports, and more storage. The S$600 premium is worth it.

The bottom line is this: these are fantastic laptops and anyone who buys one will be very happy with their purchase. 

Note: You can find the new MacBook Pro on Apple’s official stores on Lazada, Shopee, and the Apple Online Store.

Benchmark results

Here are the results of the benchmarks I ran. To recap, the system I’m testing has an M4 Max chip that’s been upgraded with a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU, it also has 128GB of memory, 4TB of storage, and the nano-texture display option. This configuration will cost you S$8,519.

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