Apple MacBook Pro M4 review: As good as it gets

Apple MacBook Pro

For years, I’ve been loyal to the MacBook Air — the no-nonsense, do-it-all laptop, that’s perfect for most people. Light, efficient, and whisper-quiet, it’s the device I always end up coming back to. The MacBook Pro has had allure but never really tempted me to move from the comfort of the Air to the power of the Pro. Yet, every two years or so it lands on my review desk and leaves me charmed. Just like the latest from Apple’s MacBook stable -- the M4 MacBook Pro.

With the M4 chip under the hood, it’s the fastest and newest MacBook, built for professionals who demand more—whether that’s video editing, 3D rendering, or running complex code.

The question always has been: Do you really need all this power? For many, the Air is still the best choice. But if you want the best of the best, this might be the MacBook to rule them all.

I have used the 14-inch MacBook Pro for two months as my daily driver and put it under all kinds of tests. Yes, I even played games on it — it’s not as blasphemous as it sounds. Read on to find out how good is the M4 MacBook Pro.

Apple MacBook Pro M4 review: Design, display

Apple hasn’t changed much about the MacBook Pro’s design. It still looks super sturdy and industrial, thanks to its aluminum body. The MacBook Pro and Air are still the easiest to open from the front lip.

What’s new is that Apple has added a new colour to the M4 MacBook Pro lineup - Space Black. It’s a bold choice, and it looks great. The charging cable matches too, which is a nice touch. But, it does attract fingerprints, even though it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.

The MacBook Pro M4 has some cool port options, unlike the M3. The base model now has three Thunderbolt 4 ports, which is a nice upgrade from two last time. You still get an SD Card slot, HDMI port, and headphone jack, which is pretty standard. If you need even more Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth, you’ll have to upgrade to a M4 Pro model.

The M4 MacBook Pro has shed some of the extra flab, measuring 12.31 x 8.71 x 06.1 inches and weighing around 1.55 kg. It’s easy to carry in my backpack but is obviously heavier than the M3 MacBook Air 13, which was my previous ally.

I’m not exaggerating, but the new nano-texture display on the M4 MacBook Pro is a game-changer. When Apple had spoken about it during the launch, I wasn’t too convinced. But the nano-texture display is the one you should get. Granted that it costs a Rs 15,000 extra but it is absolutely worth it. It does an excellent job of reducing glare and reflections, and everything just looks better on it.

When I compared the MacBook Pro M4 and the MacBook Air M3, it was like night and day -- alright, that's an exaggeration but you get the drift. The M4 MacBook Pro had a much brighter screen and wider viewing angles.

I even tried editing articles outside in direct sunlight with the M4 MacBook Pro, and I didn’t even notice a single glare. The Delhi winters’ sunlight was kind but the air pollution wasn’t.

Yet, even with the nano-texture display, Apple seems to be slightly behind competition. The Dell XPS 13 — now, of course it has been renamed — has an OLED panel and it looks fantastic. Apple has already given an OLED panel on the iPad Pro and it is time that the same love is shown to the MacBook — both Air and Pro. And while we are at demanding features from Apple — it’s about time that the notch on the MacBook Pro gets a permanent resident called FaceID. The TouchID is great and all but it’s time for FaceID make its debut on the Mac.

The MacBook Pro M4 has a major upgrade in webcam performance. It now has a 12MP Center Stage camera, replacing the 1080p camera on the M3 MacBook Pro. The Center Stage feature keeps you centered in the frame even when you move around during video calls, which can be helpful when giving presentations.

Apple MacBook Pro M4 review: Performance, AI features

The new MacBook Pro’s M4 chip promises some serious performance boosts. Apple says it’s got the fastest CPU core and better multithreading. Our system has a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, plus 16GB of unified memory and a 1TB SSD.

I tested this M4 Mac and it was super responsive. I had a bunch of Safari tabs open, multiple Slack chats, several documents on Pages and it hardly broke a sweat. I also edited some large images in Affinity and noticed zero lags or stutters. The M4 MacBook Pro is one of the smoothest laptops to have come out in recent memory — or since the M3 MacBook Pro.

I am not the target user for a MacBook Pro as my daily workflow doesn’t put it under too much duress. In fact, for most users, the M4 processor will feel like an overkill. But hey, having a faster processor on board never hurts, does it?

The M4 MacBook Pro is a solid gaming laptop, but it’s not the most bang for your buck. I tried the demo of Resident Evil 4 and it was good fun. The graphics looked great and the display shone throughout the demo. Connecting a PS5 Controller to the Mac also makes gaming a lot of fun. The frame rates are smooth and there can be a case for more than casual gaming on a Mac now.

The MacBook Pro M4 comes with the latest macOS Sequoia, and I’ve been testing the new Apple Intelligence features it has — more on that it a bit later as there are quite a few useful ones.

macOS Sequoia has some great new features. One is easier window tiling. You can just drag and drop the window you want to dock to the left or right side of the screen, and the OS will snap it into place.

Another cool feature is iPhone Mirroring. You can easily use your iPhone on your Mac, even if it’s in another room. I tried it out, and it connected almost instantly, with all my apps and notifications.

Other welcome additions include a new Passwords app for better password management, new effects in messages, and new audio transcription in the Notes app.

Apple Intelligence is the real MVP here, and I  have been using it regularly on the iPhone and the MacBook. There are the Writing Tools, you can quickly summarise a long note in a flash (you just have to select all the text first) and format it in different ways, like key points. Then, you can copy that summary and put it right at the top of your document. Though it must be said that it still feels a bit limited, compared to other AGI tools. For instance, if you give a larger chunk of text — excess of 150 words — it just doesn’t work. Whether you want to rewrite, proofread or anything else, Apple Intelligence didn’t work for me when I fed it a volume of text.

The big improvement comes in the form of Siri. Sure, you could always chat with the assistant but this is the first time in using Siri for more than a decade, it could understand everything I said. Every. Single. Thing. It is kind of a big deal and shows how far Apple and Siri have come.

The M4 MacBook Pro isn’t just powerful—it’s a marathon runner. Apple claims 24 hours of video playback and 16 hours of web browsing, but in our tests, it outlasted even those numbers. This laptop is now the new benchmark against all other premium laptops’ battery life will be compared.

Apple MacBook Pro M4 review: What we think

The M4 MacBook Pro comes really close to being the perfect laptop. It’s fast — blazing fast — thanks to Apple’s latest M4 chip, which handles everything from demanding creative workloads to casual web browsing with consummate ease.

Apple Intelligence is here too, and while its full potential is still rolling out, it’s already proving to be a useful addition for tasks like summarising notes. The ChatGPT integration in Siri also shows promise.

The webcam is finally up to par, making video calls crisp and clear And the battery life? Absolutely ridiculous. You can go an entire workday — or even two — without reaching for the charger.

Alas, near-perfection doesn’t come cheap. The M4 MacBook Pro starts at Rs 1,69,900, and if you want the nano-texture display, be prepared to shell out an extra Rs 15,000.

You may be a creative professional or a power user — most of us want a laptop that will last for years to come. The M4 MacBook Pro is as good as it gets. It is not  a budget-friendly option -- when has the MacBook Pro ever been? --  but if you want one of the best laptops money can buy, the M4 MacBook Pro is the one.