Apple MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max

Let me perhaps start by saying that I don't mind that Apple's latest M3 variants of the two core MacBook Pro models are similar in almost every key parameter. After all, the broad redesign they introduced a couple of years ago was ground-breaking, especially for them, as they pretty much admitted that the slim profile, lacklustre IO and pesky battery life wasn't good enough.

So what did we get? A bigger battery, more traditional ports, an elimination of the touch bar in favour of regular function keys and much, much more. That design is still going strong today, so we don't need to dwell on it too much.

Everything is as it used to be. The big, fantastic Force Touchpad, the wonderful, responsive and tactile keyboard with the excellent fingerprint reader in the upper right corner, the magnificent battery life that really comes close to 12 hours of use, even with the M3 Max variant I used during the test period. There are very few points of criticism to make here as a starting point. On almost every parameter, whether it's weight, performance, daily use, screen brightness and refresh rate and everything else, a MacBook Pro, and perhaps especially the MacBook Pro 14, is an expensive but well-established giant.

What's new from the outside, however, is the new Space Black colour, only available if you buy a Pro with at least an M3 Pro. Apple has promised that the process they use to colour their machines is not the same as a coating that Razer, for example, repeatedly claims will fix all the fingerprints you leave on a brand new Blade just seconds after unboxing it. No, fighting fingerprints is part of the process, and it's actually noticeable. It should be noted that this process is only used on the lid itself, not inside the keyboard, where the machine does pick up a little more fingerprint grease. But overall, it's actually an effective result, and if you were mildly disappointed by how much dirt and grime last year's M2 MacBook Air picked up in its dark blue colour variant, this is infinitely better.

Okay, M3 time. This is Apple's brand new SoC generation, but like the previous couple of times, it is, naturally, an iterative progression rather than a transformative one. The tested variant is equipped with an M3 Max, which means 16 CPU cores, 40 GPU cores, 64GB of RAM and 92 billion transistors. Of the 16 CPU cores, 12 are high-performance and four are efficiency, all made through TSMC's brand new 3nm process. A smaller node size results in higher transistor density, which in the long run results in both better performance and endurance.

So what does it actually look like? In CineBench 2024, we're looking at just over 15% compared to M2 Max, and about 30% compared to M1 Max. That's single-core though, and over in the multi-core test it looks a little different, where our M3 Max managed 1702 compared to 1022 with the M2 Max. Now we're talking. Apple has also proclaimed that the GPU part of the SoC has been the biggest area of focus, and it's easy to see why. In CineBench's 2024 GPU test, the M3 Max scored 12932 compared to 6201 on the M2 Max - a doubling. The same is pretty much true for GeekBench 6.2.1 in both single-core and multi-core.

Of course, these are both synthetic benchmarks specifically optimised for Apple Silicon, and one could easily argue that if you continue to use software for work or play that doesn't specifically support this architecture, you're not going to see these benefits play out on screen, it can be an uneven experience.

But if you use either Apple's own proprietary programmes like Final Cut, it's a pretty magical experience. This 14" in particular is so infinitely thin, weighs so infinitely little, and offers battery life of at least 16 hours of steady use, while performance shines.

The tested device will set you back just under £3,300. It's a lot of money, but a top edition of Dell's XPS 15 actually costs exactly the same, and even though a ThinkPad Z1 is significantly less if you upgrade everything, it's only with 16GB RAM and a Ryzen 5 Pro.

So is the MacBook Pro 14" with M3 Max out of line for what you get? No, I actually don't think so. I actually think it's pretty brilliant. It still depends on whether your workflow is optimised for MacOS, and specifically for Apple Silicon, as other than that, there's not much to get excited about.