The MacBook Air stays the same from a distance, but you now get 16GB RAM with even the base models. Apple’s MacBook Pro gets the biggest upgrade, with new features alongside the Apple M4 chipsets.
But should you upgrade if you own an older MacBook? Here are the arguments for and against a MacBook Pro with M4 chipset.
Pro: They now come with 16GB RAM as standard
Apple now provides double the RAM with its base MacBooks, 16GB in place of 8GB. This is bigger news than it would be from another manufacturer, because Apple used to charge a small fortune, £200, for that additional 8GB RAM.
That extra RAM means your laptop will run smoother when more processes are happening, allowing for better multi-tasking.
In the past, Apple has argued 8GB RAM in a Mac is like 16GB RAM in a Windows PC. But It clearly doesn’t think 8GB is quite enough any more. Why? Apple Intelligence, most likely.
Con: Older MacBooks still support Apple Intelligence
However, you don’t need one of these new MacBooks or Macs to make use of Apple Intelligence. MacBooks as old as M1 units from 2020 can be used with Apple’s AI tools.
But will there be a benefit with 16GB if you don’t have that amount already? Sure. Generative AI tools like chatbots consume a lot of RAM as you need to load the entire model into this kind of ultra-fast storage to make it feel remotely like it’s running in real-time. A fast processor is not enough.
An older MacBook with 8GB RAM may feel limited, then, but you’re not locked out of Apple Intelligence altogether.
Con: Performance boost probably won’t mean that much to many
The latest MacBook Pros get an upgrade to the Apple M4 family of processors. Unless you are a real power user, though, using raw performance as a reason to upgrade may be faulty if you already own a Mac with an Apple M-series processor. They were introduced in 2020.
While there have been significant performance uplifts with each successive generation, a 2020 Macbook with M1 CPU is still more than powerful enough for more light and work uses. And even fairly heavy ones, by mainstream standards.
If you own one of these and are finding basic performance issues, it may be because you have overfilled your storage – or because you have apps that load automatically on start-up and hog resources.
Pro: Battery life gets a bump
Our favourite part of the Apple M4 is not the jump in raw performance, which is useful to some but not that exciting to most, it’s the increase to efficiency.
Apple says the MacBook Pro with M4 can deliver the performance levels of the previous models while using less power. And that’s why claimed battery life has risen to 24 hours in the base MacBook Pro with M4 (14 inch).
That is four hours more than the original Apple M1 version of the MacBook Pro announced in 2020.
Con: It basically looks the same as before
Want an exterior style upgrade to go with your internals upgrade? The MacBook Pro with M4 doesn’t offer one. Not really, anyway.
Its dimensions, and 1.55kg weight (14in model) are exactly a match for those of last year’s version. MacBooks rarely get a visual update, but this point may be one way to tone down those upgrade-itis pangs.
There are three smaller external changes. You get one extra port (now specced to the faster Thunderbolt 5 standard in the top-spec models), while the Space Black finish is available across all specs. And the screen can now go brighter without needing to show HDR content, from 600 nits last generation to 1,000 nits this time.
That means it’s as bright as a good phone now, although it will only reach that level when the MacBook detects it’s in a very bright environment.
Pro: The webcam is much improved
The upgrade you may notice most, at least at first, when using a new MacBook Pro M4 is a feature you might assume would not even factor into your decision – the webcam.
Previous (but recent) MacBook Pros have 1080p webcams, equivalent to two megapixels. The latest MacBook Pro has a 12MP camera, the resolution Apple used to use in its iPhones, for the primary camera.
The idea is not that we’ll all start having meetings in 4K. It still only records video at 1080p. However, it has a massively wide field of view that enables two neat features.
Center Stage crops in on you and follows you around, should you move around the room while on a video call. Desk View is kind of mind-bending. It provides a top-down view of the area in front of your MacBook – a view some content creators use – even though the camera itself is sat where webcams usually are.
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops are available to pre-order now, and are available from November 8. They start at £1,599 (14in) and £2,499 (16in).