MacBook Pro M4: Minor improvements on near-perfection

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 — Every year the MacBook Air gains on the MacBook Pro models to the point it gets harder to justify getting the latter if you're mostly word processing and browsing.

Now that AI is here, everyone and their uncle is trying to develop either their own language learning model (LLM) or some new app that claims to do a better job of harnessing one.

I'm sorry, but if that's your speed the MacBook Airs aren't going to cut it for that usage model.

Base models getting a little better

This year's review unit is the base MacBook Pro with the basic (not Pro, not Max) chip with 16GB of RAM (hallelujah) and 1TB of storage.

Every year tech reviewers all unanimously complain that no laptop should get shipped with less than 16GB of RAM and it's nice Apple finally caught up in that aspect.

Even when Apple was insisting, no, the M-chips don't need as much RAM, you'll be fine unless... you think maybe you wouldn't mind paying a little more, maybe?

Now I don't have to complain about the RAM, what are my feelings about the base M4 chip?

It's a bit tricky when you see the base options online.

I think perhaps Apple is trying to target financial controllers who don't want to spend too much — for work that doesn't require more than the base M4 chip's 10-core GPU (spreadsheets, coding) — I could see this being a standard option.

However, if you need to do either production-level 3D programming, heavy work in Adobe software (famously known for being as much of a resource guzzler when I was still training people in it, and now when I just write about it) or anything else you would buy a huge graphic card for if this was a desktop PC... upgrade to the M4 Pro chip.

That's only if you intend to futureproof your laptop as upgrading later to more RAM or a different chip won't be an option.

That being said for most regular use case scenarios (single-core processing) I found the M4 MacBook Pro base model zippy and it ran a lot cooler than the M3 Pro, taking a bit longer to get the fans engaged.

You're a student or indie solo programmer? The base model will probably suit you just fine.

Who doesn't love having more ports? — Picture by Erna Mahyuni

Probably not for gaming

The reality is that a lot of new titles aren't automatically available on MacOS and instead what we're seeing are much older titles coming to the Mac platform.

Sure, you get some exceptions such as the brilliant Baldur's Gate 3 RPG and Lies of P but otherwise many gamers resort to software such as CrossOver to get non-Mac ported games to work on a Mac.

The problem with CrossOver et al is that you automatically will need more system resources to play a game that would only need 2/3rds of that on a Windows PC.

I solved that problem ages ago by just getting a PS5 because sometimes a girl wants to play the latest Dragon Age because Bioware isn't going to bother trying to port it.

As I mentioned earlier, if you do intend to run Crossover or even run a few virtual machines, get at least an M4 Pro chip.

Running games such as Stray or the Lies of P that were ported natively to the Mac however won't be an issue.

Daily drill

Having experienced the Intel MacBook Pro (that sounded like a plane taking off when I just surfed over to YouTube) and the first iterations of the Silicon chips, the new M4 does run cooler than the previous gen (though I only hate the M3 Pro to compare it with).

Yes, it's heftier than the MacBook Air but surprisingly the 1.55kg hasn't felt difficult to port around, which is a testament considering how many hospitals I've had to visit in the last few weeks (long, unrelated story).

Unlike the first and second generations of the M-series MacBook Air, the MacBook Air M3 hasn't felt like a big performance downgrade in comparison with its larger and hotter-running M3 counterpart.

I've been getting more into editing video these days and getting used to the newer Blender updates and exciting plug-ins that make rigging and the like easier so it made sense to spend more time with the MacBook Pro M4.

Spending time with the MacBook Pro M4's XDR display also made me realise how much I missed the better display fidelity on the MacBook Pro models as compared to the MacBook Air

Sure, the Liquid Retina displays are decent but video playback and editing is just visually more satisfying, especially when you factor in color tweaking.

I did not expect to like the nano-texture display (you get a special cloth for cleaning it too) but for an extra RM640 you get a lot less glare (something I struggled a lot with on all the Air models) outdoors.

Bonus: With nano-texture models you also get a handy cleaning cloth, which Apple recommends you use to clean the display.

Battery-wise depending on load, I can plow through a regular eight-hour shift without anxiously reaching for the charger without any background throttling being too obvious.

he nano-texture screen makes a lot of difference if you work outdoors a lot. — Picture by Erna Mahyuni

AI or no?

I've been on all the software betas for Apple devices for a few years now because it just makes it easier to review new devices later.

The thing about the new Apple Intelligence is that while the way it's implemented in, say, Notes, where you click a button and it offers proofreading and rewriting can be handy, it might go over the heads of people who (unlike me) don't live in their Notes app.

Siri is also less smart than I'd like a virtual assistant to be and generally I find Apple Intelligence more usable on the phone especially for minute tasks such as erasing objects from pictures or summarised notifications.

Where the MacBook Pro would be most useful as far AI is concerned is for the people who develop with it and need a reliable laptop that can keep up with the demands of working with AI models.

Who is this for?

The MacBook Air is for you if you only do word processing, presentations, light video editing or the kind of coding that doesn't require GPU usage.

If you have to deal with that work demon called Excel, you will need that extra boost of a MacBook Pro to deal with huge files loaded with macros but the base M4 chip should be enough.

For production-level usage the M4 Pro chip should be your pick if you almost exclusively work on either video, graphics editing or music production and 24GB of RAM will futureproof your machine for at least four years.

Who is the M4 Max chip for? Realistically, the people who are either controlling rocket launches or scoring entire feature film productions, perhaps the people at Pixar (though for them it might just be lots of Mac minis instead).

If you need raytracing (a very specific feature not needed outside the graphics/3D/video realm) then upgrading from an Intel, M1 or M2 model makes sense.

You still have an M3 Pro or Max laptop?

Keep it, it's still a great machine as the M4 is nice to have but not enough of an update.

In a nutshell, the new MacBook Pro M4 base model is a solid machine for those who need more power than the Air can provide — for just a little bit more weight as well as three Thunderbolt 5 ports, SD card reader and an HDMI port.

You get improved performance whether single or multi-core, improved battery life thanks to said chip improvements and personal reservations aside, a better laptop than most to deal with AI use cases outside of the browser.

The new MacBook Pro models are available in various configurations online and at official retailers with prices starting from RM6,999 for the base M4 model, RM8,499 for the M4 Pro chip and RM13,999 for the Max models.