Should You Upgrade From M1 To M4 Macbook Pro? I Did, And It Was Totally Worth It

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The M4 MacBook Pro starts astatine $1,799 and features improvements successful nan astir subtle places.
• Upgrades to graphical performance, artillery life, and transportation speeds are nan astir notable.
• Be prepared to overpay for almost each spec bump.

On Amazon, each azygous M4 MacBook Pro configuration is connected sale. You tin bargain Apple's latest flagship laptop for arsenic debased arsenic $1,299.

I've been utilizing nan M4 MacBook Pro for a fewer months now, and it's nan astir boringly awesome instrumentality successful my regular arsenal.

Without making my 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro jealous, nan latest exemplary is Apple's astir polished and complete laptop yet, to nan constituent wherever nan guidelines M4 configuration whitethorn conscionable beryllium bully capable for 90% of users. Most group will beryllium delighted by nan M4 MacBook Pro's wide computing experience, particularly if they're coming from an Intel-based system.

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A smaller percent -- nan enthusiasts -- will perfectly salivate complete nan finer touches, from nan changes to nan USB-C ports to nan brighter surface successful SDR mode. In fact, nan guidelines M4 exemplary -- not nan M4 Pro aliases M4 Max -- is precisely nan 1 I've been lugging astir town, and it's sewage each nan bells and whistles I request to push done rigorous amounts of video and photo editing, gaming (with each nan rays traced), and contented consumption.

I'm connected hr 11 since past charge, and this laptop has 20% of artillery near successful nan tank. That's not precisely nan "24-hour artillery life" that Apple touts successful its marketing, but retrieve that nan institution benchmarks by hours of video playback only. With various imaginative tasks and inheritance apps running, I've been very impressed pinch nan M4 MacBook Pro's endurance. If it were my M1 MacBook Pro, my artillery worry would've kicked successful overmuch earlier.

Also: Should you bargain nan iPhone 16 aliases iPhone 17? How to determine which exemplary to buy

The caller M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pros characteristic USB-C Thunderbolt 5 ports, becoming immoderate of nan first laptops connected nan marketplace to support faster 120Gbps transportation speeds, up to 240W charging, and much robust show support. For master creatives who usage outer GPUs and retention solutions and request a portable strategy that tin swiftly move ample files, paying for nan other processing powerfulness is justifiable.

This year, nan guidelines MacBook Pro gets nan Space Black treatment, and it looks fantastic.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Otherwise, nan guidelines M4 MacBook Pro is much than competent, pinch its now 3 USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports. Not only is nan further USB-C larboard situated connected nan correct broadside of nan laptop, which plays nicer pinch each nan show and charging cables that people reside connected nan correct broadside of my agency desk, but nan caller processor allows nan machine to widen up to 2 monitors while nan lid is open. Previously, you'd person to adjacent nan MacBook lid successful bid to powerfulness 2 outer monitors.

Besides nan ports, nan only awesome hardware quality betwixt nan guidelines M4 MacBook Pro and nan M4 Pro and M4 Max variants is nan number of cooling fans, pinch nan higher-tier options having 2 alternatively of one. While I haven't been capable to trial nan quality successful throttling and power dissipation of each 3 systems, I've been satisfied pinch nan guidelines M4's performance. Whether I was moving benchmarks aliases playing Myst on precocious graphical settings and pinch ray tracing active, nan laptop's instrumentality ne'er hissed successful a distracting, "tapping out" manner.

Also: Is a refurbished MacBook worthy it? I did nan math, and here's my buying advice

Before I jump into benchmarks, I'd for illustration to springiness a motion to nan M4 MacBook Pro's display. The 14-inch exemplary doesn't person nan aforesaid punchiness and extent arsenic nan tandem OLED connected nan M4 iPad Pro, but nan caller brightness standing -- 1,000 nits astatine SDR and 1,600 nits astatine HDR -- paired pinch nan optional, expensive, and satisfying cleanable nano-texture coating makes this nan best-looking laptop show I've used. The matte-frosted layering importantly reduces glare, while nan brighter sheet conscionable manages to hit retired nan November sun, which still thinks it's summer.

With nan M1 MacBook Pro -- and each different laptop pinch a glossy show -- I often recovered myself smudging nan webcam area erstwhile lifting nan lid aliases wiping disconnected a particulate mark. On nan M4 MacBook Pro, aft a week of intensive use, nan show remains cleanable and pristine.  

Here's nan iPhone 16 Pro's glossy sheet versus nan M4 MacBook Pro's nano-texture glass.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

So, is nan $150 upcharge for nan nano-texture show worthy it? For astir people, no. Instead, see picking up a matte surface protector from Amazon for little than $20. You'll beryllium astir arsenic satisfied for much than a fraction of nan cost.

Now, here's a breakdown of nan M4 MacBook Pro (with a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage) benchmark scores:

Unsurprisingly, nan M4 MacBook Pro outperforms its predecessors, arsenic good arsenic immoderate of nan latest Windows machines moving connected Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) chipsets. It's rather spectacular to spot nan $1,599 M4 MacBook Pro outpacing a 16-inch MacBook Pro pinch an M1 Pro spot that I paid almost $3,000 for.

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It helps that every MacBook exemplary (including nan M3 and M4 Air) now starts astatine 16GB of RAM; We person AI to convey for that. I've been toying pinch nan MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2 to get a sensation of what life is for illustration erstwhile I walk little clip reasoning while utilizing nan MacBook (read: relying connected Apple Intelligence instead). Here's a little tier database of nan champion caller features:

• ChatGPT-powered Siri (A tier): It's rather game-changing erstwhile Siri tin really reply much blase queries alternatively of populating hunt results. It's besides been awesome being capable to entree a floating Siri paper by double-pressing nan bid key, though I'd emotion to beryllium capable to automatically commencement a sound punctual pinch a agelong press. 
• Writing Tools (B tier): From arena invitations to existent property messages, I've been needing to negociate various conversations and person greatly benefitted from nan AI-assisted responses. The only point is, my earthy reside is location betwixt nan "Professional" and "Concise" versions, truthful there's ever a point aliases 2 that needs to beryllium dialed down aliases spiffed up.
• Image Playground (C tier): Besides nan output from nan image generator looking for illustration variants of nan Jetpack Joyride icon, I've been struggling to find a practical, real-world usage for it. Oftentimes, sending an emoji gets nan aforesaid constituent crossed arsenic an AI-generated thumbnail, and for overmuch little time.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

ZDNET's buying advice

For nan aforesaid value arsenic nan erstwhile procreation MacBook Pro models, nan M4 variants -- peculiarly nan guidelines configuration -- connection notable upgrades successful performance, utility, and artillery life. The preamble of Thunderbolt 5 ports, an M4 processor that's amended built for instrumentality learning, a much tin webcam, and a brighter show chimney into a shape facet that should play good pinch agency workers, integer nomads, students, master creatives, and more.

For astir users, nan 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro is nan measurement to go. If you request much soul retention than nan 512GB, bumping up to nan 1TB tier for $200 is not nan worst idea. Beyond that, I'd counsel picking up an outer SSD, which gives you much retention than what Apple does and for importantly little money.

If you're aft portability and tin unrecorded without features for illustration nan ProMotion show and an SD paper slot, you won't miss retired connected overmuch by opting for nan little costly (but still capable) M4 aliases M3 MacBook Air, which moreover support nan upcoming Apple Intelligence features.

This article was primitively published connected November 7, 2024, and was updated connected August 5, 2025.