MacBook Pro 14 & 16 (2021)
Apple’s new M1 Pro and Max processors pack a punch, but is the 2021 MacBook Pro really the perfect package?
Specifications
14.2-inch 3024x1964 or 16.2-inch 3456x2234 pixel 120Hz Liquid Retina XDR display at 254ppi; Apple M1 Pro with 14 or 16-core GPU, or Apple M1 Max with 24 or 32-core GPU; 16 to 64GB of Unified Memory; 512GB to 8TB of SSD Storage; 69.6Wh battery (15h movie playback) or 99.6Wh battery (9.5h movie playback); 31.3x22.1x1.55cm, or 35.6x24.8x1.7cm; 1.6 or 2.2kg.
The late 2020 Macbook Pro 13 and MacBook Air models introduced the revolutionary M1 processor, which fundamentally shifted the parameters of laptop efficiency. Many, however, predicted that the next iteration of Apple’s in-house SoC would test just how far Apple can push the M1’s performance envelope. Turns out the RISC processors that were almost exclusively found in smartphones and tablets before the M1, can actually be amazingly powerful, at least when Apple is building them.
On the handful of benchmarks where you can actually compare them, both the 10-core M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are capable of outpacing the most powerful laptop processors from either AMD or Intel. That’s a five percent performance bump over the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS and a 12.9 percent improvement on Intel’s i9-11980HK in Cinebench R23 scores. If you add this to the even bigger jumps you’ll see in Geekbench 5 scores, we can definitively say that if you want the most powerful consumer laptop CPU today, you’ll have to buy an Apple.
Low power, high performance
What’s perhaps even more amazing is that the M1 Pro and M1 Max achieve this result with a 30W CPU power draw, which is 5W lower than the AMD 5900HS TDP and 15W lower than Intel’s top 11th gen i7 and i9 laptop CPUs. Apple’s 5nm chips can beat some current 8-core 11th gen i7 laptops using 70 percent less power. Intel’s 10nm SuperFin Tiger Lake processors and even AMD’s TSMC 7nm FinFET are a way off the M1 chip’s efficiency – especially when not running full tilt – so it means that you’re getting both more computer power and longer battery life on the MacBook Pro 2021, from an equation where one is normally traded for the other.
While you can get an 8-core M1 Pro CPU on the MacBook Pro 14 for a $300 saving, all other models of the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors use the same 10-core CPU. Comprised of eight high performance cores and two efficiency cores, the 10-core M1 CPU offers an average 70 percent performance bump over the original M1 processor and an 18 percent improvement over the late 2019 MacBook Pro 16 (9th gen Intel i9). While the CPU component is relatively consistent across these two chips, the GPU capacity and memory configuration vary considerably across the two.
The M1 Pro comes with either a 14- or 16-core GPU and either 16 or 32GB of Unified Memory that runs at a max speed of 200GB/s, while the M1 Max features a 24- or 32-core GPU with 32 or 64GB of Unified Memory at a 400GB/s bandwidth. Apple’s GPUs are arguably better suited to graphical work than they are for gaming thanks to the generous allocation of Unified Memory available to it, but even the original M1s were capable of entry level gaming on the selection of titles available for MacOS. The 16 Core M1 Pro GPU was around 85 percent better in graphical benchmarks than the original M1, which translated into around 35 percent better framerates in Sid Meier’s: Civilization VI. The 32-core M1 Max on the other hand offered over three times the graphical performance of the original M1 in benchmarks and Total War Saga: Troy framerates. In terms of comparative performance, the M1 Pro 16-core GPU offers about twice the performance of Intel’s integrated Iris Xe Graphics while the Max 32-core GPU performs roughly the same as an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU.
Looking good
The other major update on the new MacBook Pro range is the display. Apple has always offered an excellent colour gamut and professional level DCI-P3 colour certification, but the company is leveraging its Liquid Retina LCD display technology used on some iPhones and iPads for a new screen that roughly doubles the average peak brightness of its predecessors. The new tech uses miniLED backlighting to dramatically
enhance the brightness from around 500 nits on the 2019 MacBook Pro 16, to a sustained 1000 nit brightness on the new screens. While this does make the screen a little brighter, what you notice most is really the improved colour sharpness and deeper blacks thanks to the localised backlighting.
While neither the 14.2-inch 3024 x 1964 pixel, nor the 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 pixel Liquid Retina XDR displays are quite 4K resolution; both offer much higher resolutions than QuadHD in an aspect ratio of somewhere between 16:10 and 3:2. Combine this with the new 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate and the 254ppi displays really do look a lot like an OLED display.
It’s not just the major areas that have seen improvement, Apple has also overhauled all those smaller mundane features to ensure the best day-to-day performance possible. First up is the reintroduction of the MagSafe power cable, which will be a major sigh of relief for anyone needing to charge their laptop somewhere other than their desk. The keyboard on the MacBook pro 14 and 16 models is a little different to what the company has been doing the past few years, too. Apple’s quietly ditched the Touch Bar in lieu of a trusty set of ‘dumb’ function buttons that have features baked into them. The power button includes a fingerprint reader that now sits inside a recessed disk to increase accuracy – an important addition since the MacBook Pro laptops don’t have the Face ID sign in features of the iPhone and iPads. Perhaps the most striking feature is the ‘double-anodised’ black well that the chiclet keyboard sits in, making the keys appear more uniform with their surroundings, without losing functionality.
Apple’s GPUs are arguably better suited to graphical work than they are for gaming thanks to the generous allocation of Unified Memory available to it, but even the original M1s were capable of entry level gaming on the selection of titles available for MacOS. The new MacBook Pros are the most powerful and efficient Ultrabooks available for pro workloads and light gaming, if you’re happy to pay a premium for battery life. Joel Burgess
Ticking all the boxes
The late 2020 MacBook Pro 13’s had revolutionary battery life and while these new devices have really efficient processors, they just aren’t going to last quite as long as the original M1 devices. That said, we were able to stretch to just over 15 hours of 1080p movie playback from the MacBook Pro 14 and nine and a half hours from the MacBook Pro 16. That MacBook Pro 14 score is a longer lifespan than we’ve got from any other ultrabook manufacturer, even if it is a few hours behind the MacBook Pro 13. It is worth noting that this processor’s efficiency means you can get a little over four hours of battery while gaming or under intense workloads on the M1 Pro, a feature that you’ll struggle to find elsewhere.
There’s also a suite of other dedicated processors and software optimisations that mean everything from the 5GB/s+ transfer speeds to the AI processing and Media encoding are top notch. You will be able to find alternate ultrabooks with better graphical capabilities (at least for gaming), but none with a battery that’ll last more than a few hours under load.