Apple M4 MacBook Pro 16-inch: everything we know so far

We might have already seen Apple’s M4 chip in the new iPad Pro, but now it’s time for the main event: the M4 MacBook Pro, which is landing with both the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips and promises to take the performance of Apple’s flagship professional laptop to never-before-seen heights.

I’m going to be primarily discussing the 16-inch version of the new MacBook Pro here; if you’re more interested in its little brother the M4 MacBook Pro 14-inch, just click that link for our coverage of the smaller laptop.

With pre-orders now open for the M4 MacBook Pro 16-inch, I’ve collated everything we know about the new laptop right here for your browsing convenience. From the performance boost offered by the mighty M4 Max chip to the MacBook Pro’s newly enhanced battery life, this looks set to be a slam dunk from Apple.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The next-gen MacBook Pro
• When is it out? Pre-orders open October 30, full release on November 8
• How much will it cost? Starting at $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999

Apple M4 MacBook Pro 16-inch: release date and price

The M4 MacBook Pro 16-inch will land in stores on November 8, but pre-orders from the Apple Store are already live (with delivery dates set to align with the physical launch) if you want to get your order in early.

Pricing will start at $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999 for the base configuration, which comes with the M4 Pro chip and 24GB of unified memory. If you want the M4 Max chip, it’ll start at $3,499 / £3,499 / AU$5,699. As with the previous-gen M3 MacBook Air 16-inch, there’s no configuration using the base M4 chip – you’ll need to downsize to the 14-inch model if you want a lower entry price.

If you want to expand the memory or storage (or opt for the new display configuration – more on that further down), the price of this premium Pro laptop will climb rather quickly, but that’s standard fare for Apple at this point.

Apple has also seen fit to update all of its ‘Magic’ Mac peripherals with new USB-C ports to replace the old Lightning connector models, all of which launched alongside the new M4 Mac mini and the M4 iMac. The Magic Keyboard starts at $99 / £99 / AU$149, the Magic Trackpad at $129 / £129 / AU$209, and the Magic Mouse at $79 / £79 / AU$149.

Apple M4 MacBook Pro 16-inch: features

The 16-inch variant of Apple’s hugely successful MacBook Pro lineup is always the powerhouse model, and this year’s iteration is no exception to that rule. Even the base configuration will pack the M4 Pro chip, which offers a significant performance jump over last year’s M3 Pro.

The M4 chip family, from the standard M4 up to the M4 Max (and perhaps beyond to an as-of-yet unannounced M4 Ultra) boasts the ‘world’s fastest CPU core’, delivering market-leading performance in single-core workloads while also offering strong performance in multithreaded tasks. The integrated GPU also receives a power boost, with a core speed increase over its last-gen counterpart along with double the ray-tracing performance, further paving the way for macOS to finally become a genuinely viable platform for gaming.

AI is unsurprisingly also a focus here, with the M4 Pro and M4 Max both benefitting from Apple’s next-gen Neural Engine, which offers twice the AI processing speed compared to the M3 iteration. With Apple Intelligence taking the stage, it makes sense that Apple is gearing up to deliver further improved on-device AI performance.

The new MacBook Pro 16-inch will feature Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports (replacing the deprecated Lightning connectors), enabled by the boosted transfer capabilities of the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. There’s also a shiny new ‘nano-texture’ display configuration for that gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR screen, and finally Apple claims that both sizes of the new MacBook Pro will feature the longest battery life of any MacBook – up to a phenomenal 24 hours.

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