Review: Apple’s MacBook Pro with M4 – get the Nano Texture screen!

I’ve been using the Apple MacBook Pro with M4 Pro chip for a week now, having used the M3 model for some time, and while I’d love to tell you this is a comprehensive benchmarking review – it’s not.

This is a simple review, a guide to tell you if it’s worth heading down to look at or to order online, or avoid.

Put simply, this is a cracker.

Yep, with M4 Apple Silicon the performance is enhanced. Not enough for you to rush out and replace your M3 or even M2 MacBook Pro, but when cashflow allows, we’ll be upgrading Stig’s laptop from M1 to M4 for sure there’s a fantastic leap in performance no question.

I did my weekly edit last night of Two Blokes Talking Tech, The Private Feed and Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars – the longest is a one hour show. The edit was done with ease, and the export took just 7-8 minutes. The shorter 30 minute shows were around 5 minutes.

This is just remarkable when you compare to 3, 4 or 5 years ago.

Now, that’s a given. It’s faster and has better performance than previous generations. Of course.

It’s identical to the previous too, same ports, same size, same everything.

BUT – and this is critical, the MacBook Pro now has the option of a nano-texture display, something Apple started with the Studio Display some years ago.

It’s a $230 option and my advice is – take it.

The matte look of the screen is stunning, I really love the look of this every time I open it.

But more importantly, the screen diffuses any light that reflects on it.

I sat this alongside my previous generation 16 inch MacBook Pro and the diffusion was clear.

It’s not like the light doesn’t appear – for sure you know there’s a light there, but you can still see the screen and do your work.

Love it.

And it’s probably not a reason to upgrade from last year’s model, but it’s certainly a reason to tip you over the edge if you’re thinking about it!

Head into an Apple Store if you don’t believe me.

MacBook Pro with M4 starts at $2,499 but let’s call it $2,729 with the nano texture. Of course, if you’re making Hollywood movies, you can spec it to the hilt and spend $11,529 for this:

• 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display²
• Nano-texture display
• Apple M4 Max chip with 16‑core CPU, 40‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 128GB unified memory
• 8TB of SSD storage
• 140W USB-C Power Adapter
• Three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI port, SDXC card slot, headphone jack, MagSafe 3 port

What’s Lotto this week?

New M4 MacBook Pro models go on sale today!