back in black — Review: Apples 16-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro crams Ultra-level speed into a laptop A solid generational upgrade for a laptop that wouldn’t be possible with Intel.
Andrew Cunningham – Nov 6, 2023 2:00 pm UTC Enlarge / Apple’s 16-inch, M3 Max-powered MacBook Pro. Andrew Cunningham reader comments 319 with
The next year or two will be a turning point for people who bought into the last few generations of Intel Macs. AppleCare+ subscriptions will expire, batteries will begin to lose a noticeable amount of capacity, software updates and security fixes will gradually dry up, and normal wear and tear will slowly take its toll.
Further Reading2021 MacBook Pro review: Yep, its what youve been waiting forEvery new generation of Apple Silicon Mac is another opportunity for Apple to get those people to update, which may or may not help to explain why Apple is introducing its new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max MacBook Pros fewer than 11 months after releasing the M2 versions. Apple MacBook Pro M3 $1599 14-inch M3 at Best Buy $1999 14-inch M3 Pro at Best Buy $2499 16-inch M3 Pro at Best Buy $3499 16-inch M3 Max at Best Buy (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)
Like the early 2023 MacBook Pros, these late 2023 models are iterative improvements to the 2021 redesigns. They keep the things that made those laptops such a big improvement over the late-model Intel MacBook Pros while adding just a little more performance and one or two other minor improvements to entice people who still haven’t made the Apple Silicon switch.
We can only paint a partial picture of these new notebooks’ performance since we were only able to get a fully loaded M3 Max version of the 16-inch MacBook Pro for testing. But the short version is that two years of updates and the brand-new, more-efficient manufacturing process that the M3 uses should make these an appealing upgrade to anyone who couldn’t quite justify paying for an upgrade before now. Just get ready to shell out because top-end MacBook Pro configurations are more expensive than ever, thanks to the new 128GB RAM option. Table of Contents Look and feel: Still a MacBook Pro Notes on the $1,599 MacBook Pro Making sense of M3 Performance, compared to Macs and modern PCs Power efficiency Conclusions The good The bad The ugly Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next → reader comments 319 with Andrew Cunningham Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Advertisement Channel Ars Technica ← Previous story Next story → Related Stories Today on Ars