Apple wrapped up Macweek (Mac half week) on Wednesday by announcing an updated MacBook Pro. Apple's most premium laptop has caught up with its peers with the addition of the M4 chip. The Pro and Mini are the first two Macs with the new chip. The Pro will be the first to feature the just-announced M4 Max as an upgradable option.
The new Pro comes with 14-inch and 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR displays with up to 1,000 nits of brightness. Both sizes come with M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max options and a 12-megapixel webcam. M4 Pro and Max models upgrade their Thunderbolt 4 ports to Thunderbolt 5. Apple rates battery life at a full 24 hours. This is claimed to be the longest of any MacBook.
Image credit: Apple
Of course, Apple Intelligence is also a big piece of the puzzle. Monday's macOS Sequoia 15.1 release brought the first wave of features, including writing tools, image cleanup, article summaries, and typing input for a redesigned Siri experience. The upcoming 15.2 release will deliver most of the remaining features Apple promised at WWDC in June, including Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, Image Wand, and ChatGPT integration.
Both models start with 16GB of base memory. The same goes for MacBook Air. Apple's ultraportable has received its upgrades in both the M2 and M3 models, but the system remains unchanged from last year. The base price for the M2 version also remains the same as last year at $999.
14-inch prices start at $1,599 for the M4 and $1,999 for the M4 Pro. Prices for the 16-inch start at $2,499. Both are available for reservation on Wednesday. It is scheduled to begin shipping on November 8th, along with the new iMac and Mac mini announced earlier this week.