Reviews of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are out and across the board, the performance, battery life, and availability of more ports have received two thumbs up.
For professional consumers who require more powerful machines for demanding workflows like 8k video rendering, photos editing, and other needs, Apple launched two new models of MacBook Pro at the October 18, 2021 event. Powered by advanced Apple Silicon designed for professionals, the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips deliver “game-changing” performance which outshines the M1 chip, let alone Intel processors. In addition, the new pro notebooks feature a mini-LED display with 120Hz ProMotion tech, notch, 1080p webcam, SD card slot, HMDI, MagSafe support, and more. After using the machines, reviewers are blown away by how incredibly fast the new MacBook Pros are.
Here is the roundup of first impressions of 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro/Max chips – great performance and unbelievable power efficiency
Engadget is impressed by the fast performance of the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, by the “excellent” mini-LED display branded as Liquid Retina XDR Display, keyboard, battery life, improved speakers and mic systems, and most importantly, more ports.
However, the review believes the high retail prices, no option to expand memory or storage and the notch might be cons of the new MacBook Pro models for some consumers.
Gizmodo calls the new pro models “top-notch” pro notebooks finally giving users everything they want from pro machines. Acknowledging that these new powerful MacBook Pros are expensive, the reviewer says that the users must consider what workflows they will need the machines for before spending thousands of dollars.
Most people don’t choose a laptop based solely on performance, though if you do, the MacBook Pro with M1 Max is one of the absolute best you can buy right now…..
But in addition to its power, the Pro’s incredible display, useful ports, perfect keyboard, and high-definition webcam make the new MacBook a compelling package. Yes, it’s expensive. It might be more laptop than most people need. I’m eager for these features to trickle down to the cheaper MacBooks so you don’t have to pay for more performance than you require just to get an amazing screen and the webcam we all deserve.
The Verge is reserving its conclusive judgment for a full review after spending more time with the machines. But its first impression of the mini-LED display, video rendering, speaker, webcam, and other features is “great”. And says that the presence of the notch becomes unnoticeable during usage.
We’re going to spend a lot of time testing the new Mini LED display that supports 120Hz refresh rates in the full review, but in early use it looks great, with claimed peak brightness up to 1,600 nits in the default profile out of the box. …..And yes, the display has a notch, which we know will be polarizing, but I very quickly stopped noticing it, just like everyone stops seeing the iPhone notch. We’ll see how I feel after another few days with this thing.
Inside the notch, there’s a new 1080p camera that takes advantage of Apple’s image processing system on its chips. It’s noticeably clearer and crisper than the miserable quality of previous Apple webcams, but it’s still a laptop webcam.
The sound quality on these machines is incredible — there are six speakers, and they sound great and support spatial audio. And they can get very loud. ….I can tell you right now that the 16-inch Pro with M1 Max clocked the fastest time ever in our Adobe Premiere 4K export test… by over a minute.
