Should you upgrade from M1 to M4 MacBook Pro? I did, and it was totally worth it

On Amazon, each single M4 MacBook Professional configuration is on sale. You should purchase Apple’s newest flagship laptop computer for as little as $1,299.

I have been utilizing the M4 MacBook Professional for just a few months now, and it is essentially the most boringly superior machine in my every day arsenal.

With out making my 14-inch M1 MacBook Professional jealous, the most recent mannequin is Apple’s most polished and full laptop computer but, to the purpose the place the bottom M4 configuration may be ok for 90% of customers. Most individuals will likely be delighted by the M4 MacBook Professional’s total computing expertise, particularly in the event that they’re coming from an Intel-based system.

A smaller share — the fanatics — will completely salivate over the finer touches, from the modifications to the USB-C ports to the brighter display screen in SDR mode. In reality, the bottom M4 mannequin — not the M4 Professional or M4 Max — is exactly the one I have been lugging round city, and it is acquired all of the bells and whistles I have to push by way of rigorous quantities of video and photograph modifying, gaming (with all of the rays traced), and content material consumption.

I am on hour 11 since final cost, and this laptop computer has 20% of battery left within the tank. That is not precisely the “24-hour battery life” that Apple touts in its advertising and marketing, however keep in mind that the corporate benchmarks by hours of video playback solely. With numerous artistic duties and background apps operating, I have been very impressed with the M4 MacBook Professional’s endurance. If it had been my M1 MacBook Professional, my battery nervousness would’ve kicked in a lot earlier.

The brand new M4 Professional and M4 Max MacBook Professionals characteristic USB-C Thunderbolt 5 ports, turning into a number of the first laptops available on the market to help sooner 120Gbps switch speeds, as much as 240W charging, and extra sturdy monitor help. For skilled creatives who use exterior GPUs and storage options and want a conveyable system that may swiftly transfer giant recordsdata, paying for the additional processing energy is justifiable.

In any other case, the bottom M4 MacBook Professional is greater than competent, with its now three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports. Not solely is the extra USB-C port located on the best facet of the laptop computer, which performs nicer with all of the monitor and charging cables that naturally reside on the best facet of my workplace desk, however the brand new processor permits the pc to increase as much as two displays whereas the lid is open. Beforehand, you’d have to shut the MacBook lid in an effort to energy two exterior displays.

Moreover the ports, the one main {hardware} distinction between the bottom M4 MacBook Professional and the M4 Professional and M4 Max variants is the variety of cooling followers, with the higher-tier choices having two as an alternative of 1. Whereas I have not been capable of take a look at the distinction in throttling and warmth dissipation of all three programs, I have been glad with the bottom M4’s efficiency. Whether or not I used to be operating benchmarks or enjoying Myst on excessive graphical settings and with ray tracing lively, the laptop computer’s fan by no means hissed in a distracting, “tapping out” method.

Earlier than I soar into benchmarks, I would like to present a nod to the M4 MacBook Professional’s show. The 14-inch mannequin does not have the identical punchiness and depth because the tandem OLED on the M4 iPad Professional, however the brand new brightness score — 1,000 nits at SDR and 1,600 nits at HDR — paired with the elective, costly, and satisfying clear nano-texture coating makes this the best-looking laptop computer show I’ve used. The matte-frosted layering considerably reduces glare, whereas the brighter panel simply manages to beat out the November solar, which nonetheless thinks it is summer time.

With the M1 MacBook Professional — and each different laptop computer with a shiny show — I typically discovered myself smudging the webcam space when lifting the lid or wiping off a mud mark. On the M4 MacBook Professional, after every week of intensive use, the show stays clear and pristine.  

So, is the $150 upcharge for the nano-texture show price it? For most individuals, no. As an alternative, take into account selecting up a matte display screen protector from Amazon for lower than $20. You will be almost as glad for greater than a fraction of the price.

Now, here is a breakdown of the M4 MacBook Professional (with a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage) benchmark scores:

Unsurprisingly, the M4 MacBook Professional outperforms its predecessors, in addition to a number of the newest Home windows machines operating on Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Core Extremely (Sequence 2) chipsets. It is fairly spectacular to see the $1,599 M4 MacBook Professional outpacing a 16-inch MacBook Professional with an M1 Professional chip that I paid nearly $3,000 for.

It helps that each MacBook mannequin (together with the M3 and M4 Air) now begins at 16GB of RAM; We now have AI to thank for that. I have been toying with the MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2 to get a style of what life is like once I spend much less time pondering whereas utilizing the MacBook (learn: counting on Apple Intelligence as an alternative). Here is a short tier checklist of the perfect new options:

• ChatGPT-powered Siri (A tier): It is fairly game-changing when Siri can truly reply extra refined queries as an alternative of populating search outcomes. It is also been nice having the ability to entry a floating Siri menu by double-pressing the command key, although I would love to have the ability to routinely begin a voice immediate with an extended press. 
• Writing Instruments (B tier): From occasion invites to actual property messages, I have been needing to handle numerous conversations and have vastly benefitted from the AI-assisted responses. The one factor is, my pure tone is someplace between the “Skilled” and “Concise” variations, so there’s all the time a factor or two that must be dialed down or spiffed up.
• Picture Playground (C tier): Moreover the output from the picture generator trying like variants of the Jetpack Joyride icon, I have been struggling to discover a sensible, real-world use for it. Oftentimes, sending an emoji will get the identical level throughout as an AI-generated thumbnail, and for a lot much less time.

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

For a similar worth because the earlier era MacBook Professional fashions, the M4 variants — significantly the bottom configuration — supply notable upgrades in efficiency, utility, and battery life. The introduction of Thunderbolt 5 ports, an M4 processor that is higher constructed for machine studying, a extra succesful webcam, and a brighter show funnel right into a type issue that ought to play properly with workplace employees, digital nomads, college students, skilled creatives, and extra.

For many customers, the 14-inch M4 MacBook Professional is the way in which to go. When you want extra inside storage than the 512GB, bumping as much as the 1TB tier for $200 shouldn’t be the worst concept. Past that, I would advise selecting up an exterior SSD, which provides you extra storage than what Apple does and for considerably much less cash.

When you’re after portability and might dwell with out options just like the ProMotion show and an SD card slot, you will not miss out on a lot by choosing the cheaper (however nonetheless succesful) M4 or M3 MacBook Air, which even help the upcoming Apple Intelligence options.

This text was initially revealed on November 7, 2024, and was up to date on August 5, 2025.