M4 MacBook Pro review roundup: fantastically fast — but no real surprises

The first reviews are in for Apple's new M4 MacBook Pro, and they all enthuse about the performance and the battery life, but some regret that there's no striking redesign.

Apple announced the new M4 MacBook Pro in its week of Mac announcements, and the first pre-orders will be shipping to customers for Friday, November 8.

While the new models have the same design as the ones they supersede, there are key improvements. One is that of course the M4 processor, and its M4 Pro and M4 Max variants, are the latest and the fastest Apple Silicon processors.

There is also that the new models have three Thunderbolt ports, with the base M4 supporting Thunderbolt 4, and the higher price ones having Thunderbolt 5. Plus the new MacBook Pro is now available in Space Black.

But perhaps the most unexpected update was that for the first time in a MacBook Pro, there is now an option to have the antiglare nano-texture display. Reviewers who mention this — and not all will have received models with it — have tended to say that it works fine, but not dwelt on it.

Whereas a surprising number are still complaining about the notch, even when it's hard to figure out how they managed to make it a problem. "It's still an eyesore," says Wired, which is a point of view, but the reviewer unfathomably also complains that "during my testing, it covered up dialog boxes more than once."

Gizmodo is also not a fan. "[That] hat bloody notch spearing through the center of the display," says its review.

Been there, done that

"The excellent design is largely unchanged," agrees The Independent in its report, " though now everyone can choose the handsome space black finish and connectivity is improved."

"This is an expensive laptop, but Apple crams in so much, with exceptional components and dizzying power, it offers strong value," it continues.

"The M4 Pro CPU pushes the performance envelope," says Wired. "But when the only real competition you have is with yourself, what then?"

Wired concentrates on how the design is unchanged, and so "is the new MacBook Pro... getting you $3,649 worth of better?" It concludes no, if you're currently using an M3 model.

Plus "there's room for improvement" in the design. Specifically, the arrow keys "I use all the time and can barely operate because they're so small."

The reviewer in Wired also seemingly never uses gestures on the trackpad, and apparently has only found that you can tap the trackpad instead of pressing down on it. Apple shouldn't hide that feature, it should make it the default, but it's still the first setting to change on any Mac.

"[The] gargantuan trackpad gets in the way— and it's very stiff to depress for a click," says the reviewer. "I ultimately had to dial the click force down to the lightest level and turn on tap-to-click to make it usable."

Performance praise

"This is the best 14-inch MacBook released thus far, but that was inevitable," says Gizmodo. "Apple still manages to keep the lead on performance and battery life in laptops, even if its edge is narrowing yearly."

"These devices are truly becoming so powerful that most of you will never be able to fully even use the entire system to its max performance," says iJustine on YouTube.

"While many users will find the more affordable MacBook Air is enough," says The Independent, "if you want the best laptop around, this is it."

The M4 14-inch MacBook Pro starts from $1,599, and the 16-inch starts from $2,499.