The MacBook Pro Is Getting an M4 Upgrade (but Not the MacBook Air)

The new MacBooks for 2024 are finally here, although casual users might be a little disappointed. As expected, the MacBook Pro is getting a whole suite of upgrades, both to specs and the build itself, but the MacBook Air is leaving with just one change. 

M4 comes to the MacBook Pro

The biggest upgrade? New chips. This year’s MacBook Pros can be configured with either the base M4 chip released with the iPad Pro earlier this spring, the M4 Pro announced alongside the new Mac Mini just yesterday, or the newly revealed M4 Max. That’s par for the course for Apple at this point. The company also confirmed it’s done with major Mac announcements for now, so it’s likely desktop power users will have to wait until next year for the M4 Ultra and an upgraded Mac Studio or Mac Pro. (Don’t ask me why “ultra” is supposed to be more powerful than “max.”)

Apple gave prospective buyers a small idea of what M4 Pro performance will look like alongside its Mac Mini reveal yesterday, so let’s skip straight to the M4 Max. According to Apple, MacBook Pros equipped with an M4 Max are anywhere between 4.6 to 30.8 times faster than MacBook Pros with an M1 Max in rendering, processing, and building performance, depending on the program. That’s a pretty big delta, and while it isn't compared against the M3 Max, take it to mean Apple is gearing this computer towards hardcore productivity workloads. On that note, the M4 Max can be configured with up to 16 CPU cores and 40 GPU cores, as opposed to the 10/10 core limit on the base M4. More reliable numbers will have to wait until reviewers get their hands on the devices, but generally, Apple says the M4 Max is “2.2 [times] faster than the CPU in M1 Max and up to 2.5 [times] faster than the latest AI PC chip.”

Also, while the M4 Max still only supports 128GB of memory (more than most people will need), it has slightly faster memory bandwidth, at 546GB/s vs. 400GB/s on the M3 Max. There’s also Thunderbolt 5 support for faster data transfer speeds on compatible accessories.

As for the laptop itself, like on past models, it’s available in 14 inches and 16 inches. Both sizes can be decked out with any of these three M4 chips, so your choice is down to comfort: Do you prefer a bigger screen or a more portable laptop?

Regardless of what you pick, you’ll get a mini-LED liquid retina XDR display (a shame that there’s no OLED option like on the M4 iPad Pro) and what Apple promises is the “longest ever” battery life in a Mac, with an advertised 24 hours. There’s also a new 12 MP Center Stage webcam, and optionally, you can configure the screen to have an anti-glare “nano-texture” upgrade. MacBook Pros with either an M4 Pro or M4 Max chip will also have Thunderbolt 5 support on all three of their USB-C ports.

MacBook Air only gets one "upgrade"

Again, this is generally in line with Apple’s past MacBook Pro strategy, but what’s a bit disappointing is the company’s approach to the Air this time around. The MacBook Air is not getting any M4 chips as of yet, although the M2 and M3 MacBook Air are bumping their memory up to 16GB (with no change in price), to match the MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini. Maybe Apple doesn’t want to cut into iPad Pro sales, or maybe we’ll see an M4 MacBook Air later on.

At any rate, that extra RAM might be there to support Apple Intelligence, which launched on Mac with macOS Sequoia 15.1 earlier this week, but it could also just be a sign of the times—8GB often doesn’t cut it anymore, even for casual web browsing.

The 2024 MacBook Pro is available (in black or silver) now and will ship on Nov. 8th, while M2 and M3 Macs with 16GB of memory are already heading out to customers. M4 MacBook Pro models start at $1,599, while a model with an M4 Max will run you at least $3,199. M4 Pro options begin at $1,999. If you go all out with every upgrade available, you’ll wind up paying $7,848, but hey, at least you’ll get Final Cut Pro thrown in.