Verdict
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 - column inch M3 Max may not be a freehanded betterment on its predecessor but its a political machine that ’ll comfortable better many ask workflow for the right substance abuser . The screen is absolutely sensational and the keyboard is top - drawer , while the pick of ports is imposingly varied .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
As we enter 2024 , the MacBook Pro 16 - column inch M3 Max remain the most powerful Apple laptop you could buy . It ’s also its largest and most expensive . This edition of the MacBook Pro is mightility impressive , demonstrating just how much the M - series fries are up to of once again .
The 16 - in role model comes with a start monetary value of £ 3599/$3499 , but that can then chop-chop get up towards a price of £ 6000/$6000 and beyond . However , those prices will be guarantee for originative professionals with serious demands , this is a laptop made for productivity or , even , your entry to mid - level creative drug user . It ’s a serious bite of outfit .
The specifications suggest the dominant world power that is to come , with up to a 16 - coreCPU , 40 - coreGPU , 128GBunified memoryand 8TBSSDstorage . There ’s also a fantastic HDR - capable showing , good embrasure selection and Apple ’s upright - in - class keyboard and trackpad . The MacBook Pro 16 - inch M3 Max is well set up to be one of thebest laptopsfor creative professional person on the market place .
Design and Keyboard
Apple firmly sticks by the ‘ if it ai n’t smash , do n’t desexualise it ’ mantra when it comes to design reinvention with its products . annual redesigns are a thing of the retiring and huge changes for the MacBook line are thin .
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 - inch M3 Max keep the same overall design that ’s been around since 2021 , with the only notable difference being a slimly dark Space Black alternative replace the quondam Space Grey hue .
This dark matte color is far better than the MidnightMacBook Air M2at resisting fingerprint and it does n’t involve constant cleaning to keep it looking nice . However , those expecting a proper deep inkiness will be disappointed . This is n’t the same inkiness as the classic polycarbonate MacBook from 2006 , rather , it edges more on the dark gray , specially under bright lights .
There ’s a silver option too , and those front at the ledger entry - level MacBook Pro with M3 lose out on the Space Black totally .
Along with the colour option , there are two screen size to prefer from . I ’ve got the 16 - inch model here , which is a large auto that rivet more on performance , battery life and a good selection of port rather than being the most portable car around . There ’s a 14 - column inch alternative , which I choose due to its great combination of portability and performance .
The design is box-shaped , with rounded corner and flock of flat boundary . look at the performance that can be extracted , the max 2.16 kg ( 16 - in , M3 Max ) weight is absolutely fine by me and it remains a portable simple machine .
Around the sides of the machine , there ’s a good , if not unvanquishable , selection of ports . Apple has refused calls to bring back USB - A ports , but you do get a very welcome SDXC card time slot , aMagSafeport for saddle , an HDMI embrasure , a 3.5 millimetre headphone knave and threeThunderbolt 4(USB - speed of light ) ports . These three ports all keep charging , DisplayPort , USB 4 ( up to 40Gb / s ) and Thunderbolt 4 ( up to 40Gb / s ) .
I appreciate how Apple does n’t limit these larboard , maintain them all the same so you ’re not faffing to find the right one for charging or display output . It ’s also decent ports are on both side , unlike on the MacBook Air where everything require to be plug in on one side .
The keyboard is an absolute joy to type on thanks to well - sized key and a full - sized function rowing . The trackpad is wonderfully responsive too and it ’s dead massive on this 16 - in laptop .
Display and Sound
If you ’ve read either of my reviews of the late MacBook Pros since the large 2021 redesign , then this section wo n’t occur as a surprisal . The showing , whether 14 - inch or 16 - inch , remains the same . This is far from an upshot as the screen used here is wild in just about every way , yet it does leave me longing for the few issues I have to be iron out out .
My biggest issue remains the nick – the obtrusive divet in the exhibit that veil the front - facing 1080p webcam . The mountain pass does n’t get in the room as such as most apps are smart enough to mould around and it does n’t encroach into videos like it does on an iPhone , yet it feels like the space could have been used in a better agency . The webcam is adequate , though far from standout , and it lack any biometric features that would enable Face ID . This is a overlook opportunity .
There ’s also no contact support , a feature found on most of the better laptop computer running Windows .
These gripes apart , the blind is fantastic and it ’s one of my best-loved features of this laptop computer . If I were consider between a MacBook Air and a 14 - inch M3 MacBook Pro , the higher - quality venire on the Pro model would win over me to pay the extra .
When compare to the Air , the Pro models swop the LCD for a far superiorMini LEDpanel and up the refresh rate from a standard 60Hz to an adaptive 120Hz . These two changes make a big difference .
lightlessness are deep and inky – especially noticeable when you ’re watching a video with bootleg bar on the top and bottom – while colours are rich and immersive and just about on equivalence with OLED . On the 16 - column inch poser , the expansive display is an sheer joyousness to work on and I often forget to plug it into an extraneous monitor when I ’m just writing .
If you do require to expand the display onto an external admonisher , the M3 Max chip inside this motorcar can support up to four external displays ( three at 6 one thousand and one at 4 K ) or three displays ( two at 60 honey oil and one at 8 K ) . It can also output 4 super acid at 250Hz over HDMI .
The adaptiveProMotionrefresh pace remains exclusive to the Pro MacBooks too and it ’s even more welcome now the MacBook Pro is more skilled at gaming . It also just makes everything feel a little snatch smoother .
Elsewhere , the speaker system pump out fantastic sound and the microphones trance crisp voices for virtual meetings . The icing on the cake really would be a SIM one-armed bandit , or eSIM support , to allow true fluid work with a 5 GiB connection .
Performance
There are numerous options for the latest MacBook Pro and I will delve into other versions , let in the base 14 - inch MacBook Pro , in future reviews . This review was conducted with a MacBook Pro M3 Max edition with the following specs :
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 - column inch M3 Max is now the most hefty laptop computer that Apple offers , but exactly how much more brawny is it than the previous iteration ? The M3 series was expect to present a big jump forward for Apple Silicon buffalo chip than the reiterative shift between M1 and M2 . The world is somewhere in between loop and conception .
Unfortunately , we were only capable to test an M2 Pro model with the former version of the MacBook Pro so are n’t able to make unmediated comparison in our benchmarking . However , we did quiz an M2 Ultra - poweredMac Studioand it make water for interesting reading up against the M3 Max
Before I dive into the results , it ’s worth making something light with the MacBook Pro ( M3 Max ) , this is not a productivity laptop – no matter how many tabs you wish to have open – and it even put up far more H.P. than most creatives will require . It is only those who work with complex workloads and software should consider forking out the in high spirits union this laptop require – think modern three-D modelling or intensive video and medicine yield .
The benchmarking I carried out of the MacBook Pro ( M3 Max ) gives its most notable effect when compared with previous Apple equipment . It , imposingly , beat Apple ’s most powerful chip from the late generation , the M2 Ultra , across our single - core tests . The same is n’t true for multi - gist where it ’s more of a assorted traveling bag , the M3 Max keep pace with M2 Ultra in a multi - core Geekbench 6 computational test but , when it hail to the Cinebench interpretation and PugetBench for Premiere Pro originative benchmarking , it remains behind .
It ’s this mixed purse that perhaps explains why Apple was concentre on comparisons with Intel and M1 MacBooks during its launch issue . Up against the Mac Studio ( M1 Max ) , the Modern MacBook Pro mash it with results across all our testing come in at between 50 - 100 % better than the older background .
This is n’t all about Mac on Mac though , you may be moot a substitution to or from a Windows laptop computer too . However , when it comes to computational and originative performance , the M3 Max has the rest of the field outwit . Its closest contender in our examination was the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX - wieldingAlienware M16 , which was able-bodied to last out within touching distance in single - core computational testing while falling well myopic in multi - core . But , in the multi - core Cinebench rendering trial , it did manage to top the MacBook Pro M3 Max .
When the MacBook Pro ( M3 Max ) is put up against creator - focused Windows laptops , there ’s also little to put Apple on edge . When taking on the latest Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2,Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16andSamsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra , it bear witness results that were 20 - 60 % high-pitched . It ’s also deserving noting , as with all the M - series chips , the MacBook can perform similarly when not plugged in while rival laptops see importantly scale down execution .
And , what about gaming , where Apple was bully to tout its improvements this year ? MacOS stay limited in the games it offers but Shadow of the Tomb Raider remains a stalwart .
I put the M3 Max up against the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i and its compounding of the Intel Core i7 - 13700H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU . The issue made for a bang-up indicator of what Apple can now achieve in gambling as it was a close - ladder thing , with the Lenovo achieving 91fps in QHD and 135fps in FHD . By comparability , the MacBook Pro hits 81fps and 117fps severally . Interestingly , game do still sense like the area in which Apple ’s chips have to work out the hardest , with the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark creating far more high temperature and noise from the MacBook Pro than any other tests I can – within which the MacBook Pro often remained whisper understood .
Apple ’s SSD speeds are a shade skew - whiff compared to what you ’ll see on a Windows laptop but it ’s no bad thing . You ’ll regain 5,077.9MB / s say and 6,375.2MB / s write hurrying here , while traditionally it ’ll be the read hurrying that runs faster .
However , the speeds are strong nevertheless , greatly surpassing the likes of the MacBook Air M2 but falling abruptly of the read hurrying of high - end Windows competitor and not represent much of a change from M2 . Either mode , the speeds are such that performance will be fitly catered for and file transfer will be a breeze .
Battery Life
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 - inch M3 Max is n’t just a powerful machine , but one that can last for an impressively tenacious time on a exclusive charge . If you ’re get along from a previous M - series machine this will get as little surprisal ; those moving from an older Intel machine ( even older 15 - inch versions ) will discover a serious upgrade .
Of course , how you use the machine will at last ascertain how long it endure and more intensive chore run out it much quicker .
While Apple claims you’re able to require 22 hours of playback from a movie downloaded from the Apple TV app , I make closer to 24 hours . Apple also take you ’ll get 15 60 minutes of web browsing , which I manage to comfortably reach . As someone who work predominantly in a web internet browser , a long 9.30 am to 7:30 pm day left me with 25 % battery leave behind . compare to the M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16 - inch I go over in 2021 , this is a duet of hours of extra succus from a single charge .
There are two way to commove the MacBook Pro . In the box , there ’s a 140W plug and a USB - C to MagSafe cablegram that get across in magnetically . I have intercourse MagSafe as it tally an supererogatory stratum of protection against unintentionally tripping over the charging cable and seeing your laptop go wing . Apple has also colour - match the MagSafe cable ( this Midnight adaptation come with the same colour cable television , for instance ) , yet the charging stoppage remains clean so it looks a bit odd . I think I would have just prefer a white cable television .
Using the MagSafe is the quickest mode of charging and the way I have tended to beat with it . In my psychometric test , a 40 - minute charge took me from 0 - 50 % . Any of the other three Thunderbolt embrasure can be used to charge the laptop too , so if you ’re in a pinch and there ’s a charger from a previous MacBook Pro around it ’ll still work all right .
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Should you buy it?
If you ’ve get the money , and require the functioning , the MacBook Pro 16 - inch M3 Max is a laptop computer that will ticktock all the boxes .
Apple is meliorate the play acquirement of both its software and hardware , but it still lags behind Windows competition .
Final Thoughts
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 - inch M3 Max is a laptop that is n’t made for the mainstream . Despite its theme song Apple reckon , you should only consider pick this up if you have intensive in writing workloads . Think detailed enviroment and model creation , professional movie making and the like . It ’s also made for those types who are on the go too , as machine like theMac Studiowould serve them well , but this machine offers more portability – and , currently , the latest M3 series chip .
We ’re yet to review the more predominate in M3 and M3 Pro models of the latest MacBook Pro , so do keep an eye out for those . But , for now , for most productivity user and even entry - level creatives , theMacBook Air M2(available in both 13 and 15 - column inch sizes ) continue an fantabulous selection and is the cheapest way into the latest edition of MacBooks right now .
But , for those determined to consider this brutish political machine , it impressives with performance often 60 % better than likewise originative - focussed laptops , fantastic bombardment life and a silver screen that continues to affect even with minimum upgrades , this is thebest high - end laptopI have ever see .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a serial of uniform checks designed to gauge primal affair , admit build quality , performance , screenland quality and battery life .
These let in formal man-made benchmarks and scripted test , plus a series of existent - macrocosm checks , such as how well it runs pop apps .
FAQs
Inside the box you get the MacBook Pro , a 2 m USB - C to MagSafe 3 cable and a 140w USB - deoxycytidine monophosphate power adapter .
