At Apple’s recent announcement event, the company unveiled 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pro laptops available in various configurations, all equipped with the new M3 chips.
The base model is now a 14″ laptop featuring the standard M3 chip but without the Touch Bar. This model serves as the natural successor to the 13″ M1 MacBook Pro but with a larger form factor and a higher price point.
The key upgrades lie in the new chips, delivering improved performance. Additionally, the external design receives a notable change, with only the M3 Pro and M3 Max variants introducing a Space Black option. This color, darker than the previous Space Gray, is touted by Apple as being less prone to fingerprint smudges.
Here is what it looks like in person, courtesy of Gizmodo.
Equipped with a new chipset, these laptops are expected to have some changes in battery life. Apple claims that the 16″ MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip can last up to 22 hours on a single charge. In contrast, the 14″ models feature smaller battery cells, resulting in a lower expected battery life.
The M3 Max variants, on the other hand, are likely to offer shorter battery life due to the beefier GPU and higher power usage.
The most budget-friendly 14″ M3 MacBook Pro represents a bigger upgrade. It ditches the thicker bezels found on the 13″ MacBook in favor of a notch design. Joining the family of larger laptops, it boasts a Liquid Retina XDR display and incorporates the new AV1 decode feature. These screens are reported to achieve a brightness of 600 nits, marking a 20% improvement over the previous models.
In terms of ports, you get the same array as the M2 MacBooks, featuring three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a MagSafe connector for charging.
The base 14″ M3 MacBook Pro commences at $1,599, offering 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. Opting for the 1 TB storage configuration adds $200 to the price.
The 14″ MacBook Pro equipped with the M3 Pro chip is available at a starting price of $1,999, including 18 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. There is also a pricier alternative that includes 1 TB of storage and a 96W USB-C Power adapter, priced at $2,399. Further up the pricing ladder is the M3 Max model, offering 36 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, which is available at $3,199.
The M3 and M3 Pro models are available on Apple’s website already, but the M3 Max MacBooks will appear later this year.
the notch is so so annoying that our office team still happy to keep the M1 or moved to Lenovo