The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024) is a premium workstation laptop. It replaces the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). This 2024 model is configurable with an M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max SoC, up to 128GB of RAM, and up to 8TB of storage. It has a 120Hz Mini LED Liquid Retina XDR display, which, unlike previous MacBook Pros, is now available with a glossy or nano-texture finish. Also new on this M4 model is a 12 MP camera with Center Stage support. Ports include three USB-C/Thunderbolt 5s (Thunderbolt 4 on base M4 model), an HDMI 2.1, a full-size SD card reader, a headphone jack, and a MagSafe charging port. There's no longer a Space Gray color—only Silver and Space Black.
See our unit's specifications and the available configuration options in the Difference Between Variants section.
Our Verdict
The Apple MacBook Pro M4 is excellent for general productivity. It's an incredibly well-built laptop that's easy to carry, and its battery lasts over 15 hours of light use, perfect for those who travel a lot. It has a sharp display, a large, easy-to-use haptic touchpad, an excellent webcam, and tons of ports. You also get a fingerprint sensor, so you can log in quickly and avoid typing in your password in public spaces. The keyboard feels spacious and tactile, but heavy typers may not like it, as its short key travel can cause fatigue. Performance is superb; this laptop can easily handle general productivity tasks like text processing, but is also ideal for editing photos and videos. Unfortunately, none of the components are user-replaceable, and there's no USB-A port, so you'll need an adapter for your wired peripherals or dongles.
Exceptional build quality and compact design.
All-day battery life.
Provides amazing user experience with its bright display, tactile keyboard, and large haptic touchpad.
Wide port selection.
Outstanding 1080p webcam with Center Stage support.
Soldered RAM and storage.
Heavy typers may not like the keyboard's short travel.
The Apple MacBook Pro M4 is outstanding for media consumption. It's very portable, and its battery lasts over 13 hours of video playback, giving you plenty of time to get through multiple full-length movies and TV show episodes. The display looks incredibly sharp, colorful, and well-calibrated, and it gets bright enough for use in most settings, even outdoors in broad daylight. It can produce deep blacks, but because its Mini LED backlight doesn't have pixel-level control like OLED panels, you'll see some blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. The speakers sound well-balanced and full, with a good amount of bass, and they get very loud with minimal artifacts at max volume.
Exceptional build quality and compact design.
All-day battery life.
Sharp, colorful, Mini LED display.
Loud speakers sound natural and clear, with a good amount of bass.
No touch input support.
Some blooming around bright objects in dark scenes.
While the Apple MacBook Pro M4 has the processing power to run demanding games, it still isn't ideal for gaming. This is because many games don't run on macOS, and only a handful of those that have macOS support run natively on Apple silicon, meaning performance will vary a lot depending on the game. Additionally, while its Mini LED display's 120Hz refresh rate gives smoother motion and increased input responsiveness, its response time is on the slow side, causing noticeable ghosting in fast-moving scenes. On the upside, it has a fast SSD to help shorten loading times, and it doesn't get overly hot or loud under load.
CPU and GPU can handle demanding tasks.
120Hz display.
Minimal throttling under load.
Doesn't get overly hot or loud.
Soldered RAM and storage.
Heavy typers may not like the keyboard's short travel.
Limited number of games with macOS support.
Performance varies, as many games lack optimization for Apple silicon.
The Apple MacBook Pro M4 is a great workstation laptop. It can handle nearly every type of workload, including demanding tasks like video editing, 3D graphics, AI development, and scientific simulations. You can also do all of your color-sensitive work on the built-in display, as it has full coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and superb factory calibration. There's a wide port selection for peripherals and external monitors, including three USB-C/Thunderbolt 5s and an HDMI 2.1. Thermal throttling is minimal under load, and the laptop doesn't get overly hot or loud. Unfortunately, none of the components are user-replaceable, so you need to get the configuration that best suits your needs upfront.
CPU and GPU can handle demanding tasks.
Wide port selection.
Display is suitable for content creation and other color-critical work.
Minimal throttling under load.
Doesn't get overly hot or loud.
Soldered RAM and storage.
Heavy typers may not like the keyboard's short travel.
Changelog
-
Updated Nov 27, 2025:
Added mention of the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M5, 2025) as an alternative to the base model in the CPU section.
-
Updated Nov 17, 2025:
We've retested the Geekbench 6 - GPU Compute benchmark to re-validate the score. The result remains in the same ballpark as our original measurement, raising only slightly from 98,654 to 101,346.
-
Updated Oct 30, 2025:
We've updated text throughout the review after converting to Test Bench 0.9.
- Updated Oct 30, 2025: We've updated the review to Test Bench 0.9, which adds several test boxes in the performance section, including CPU/RAM Performance, Low Tier Graphics, High Tier Graphics, Professional 3D (GPU accelerated), CPU-Intensive Game Performance, GPU-Intensive Game Performance, and Ray Tracing Performance. See the 0.9 changelog here.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Apple MacBook Pro 14 with a standard glossy display, a base M4 Pro SoC (12-core CPU and 16-core GPU), 24GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. The display, SoC, RAM, and storage are configurable; see the table below for all available configuration options.
Note: We've also purchased a second unit with a nano-texture display, a base M4 SoC (10-core CPU and 10-core GPU), 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage to test the nano-texture display. You can see more information in the display and performance sections of the review.
SCREEN
- 14.2" Mini LED 3024 x 1964 120Hz (Standard Glossy Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion)
- 14.2" Mini LED 3024 x 1964 120Hz (Nano-Texture Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion)
SoC
- M4 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 120GB/s memory bandwidth
- M4 Pro 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 273GB/s memory bandwidth
- M4 Pro 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 273GB/s memory bandwidth
- M4 Max 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 410GB/s memory bandwidth
- M4 Max 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 546GB/s memory bandwidth
Memory
- 16GB LP-DDR5x 8533MHz (M4 only)
- 24GB LP-DDR5x 8533MHz (M4 or M4 Pro)
- 32GB LP-DDR5x 8533MHz (M4 only)
- 36GB LP-DDR5x 8533MHz (M4 Max with 32-core GPU)
- 48GB LP-DDR5x 8533MHz (M4 Pro or M4 Max with 40-core GPU)
- 64GB LP-DDR5x 8533MHz (M4 Max with 40-core GPU)
- 128GB LP-DDR5x 8533MHz (M4 Max with 40-core GPU)
STORAGE
- 512GB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD (M4 and M4 Pro)
- 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD
- 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD
- 4TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD (M4 Pro or Max)
- 8TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD (M4 Max)
COLOR
- Silver
- Space Black
See our unit's label.
Popular Laptop Comparisons
The Apple MacBook Pro M4 is one of the best laptops on the market. Its performance is industry-leading compared to other current-gen laptops, and it also delivers a fantastic user experience, thanks to its gorgeous Mini LED display, large haptic touchpad, full-sounding speakers, and high-quality webcam. Its build quality is second to none, and its battery life is also among the best you can find on such a powerful device. That said, it isn't as versatile as Windows devices, as the lack of macOS games and titles optimized for Apple silicon makes it less ideal for gaming.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best workstation laptops, the best video editing laptops, and the best laptops for music production.
The Apple MacBook Air 15 (M4, 2025) and the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024) are very different offerings. Get the Air if you want a sleek ultraportable that's ideal for general productivity tasks, and get the Pro if you need a mobile workstation fit for resource-intensive tasks like 3D rendering or simulation work. The specifications vary accordingly; the Air uses the base M4 SoC and is available with up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage, while the Pro is configurable with either the base, Pro, or Max M4, and up to 128GB of RAM and 8TB of storage. The Pro also comes with a much brighter Mini LED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Both laptops are exceptionally well-built and provide excellent user experiences: spacious keyboards, responsive haptic touchpads, and class-leading speakers.
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M5, 2025) is a newer version of the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024). However, the M5 is only available with a base M5 chip, so it only replaces the base M4 MacBook Pro. Compared to its predecessor, the M5 is basically the same device with better performance. That said, the M5 SoC still lags behind the M4 Pro/Max chips.
While the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024) is a much better device than the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4, 2025), they aren't intended for the same audience. The Air is an ultraportable designed for light to moderately intensive workloads, while the Pro is a much more powerful device aimed at professionals, like content creators. The Pro has a nicer Mini LED display, more ports, and longer battery life. If you want the niceties of the Pro model but don't need the extra processing power, know that the Pro is also available with the base M4 SoC.
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024) is a newer version of the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). The 2024 model is largely the same design-wise, though there are a couple of upgrades and new features over its predecessor, including a higher display brightness of up to 1000 cd/m² when viewing SDR content (outdoors) and a nano-texture display option that further cuts down glare. There's also a new 12 MP camera with Center Stage support, a feature that keeps you centered in the camera frame when you move around. The base M4 model gains a third USB-C port with the same external display support as the M4 Pro models, and the Pro/Max models now support Thunderbolt 5, allowing for up to 120Gbps data transfer speeds. Performance-wise, the M4-series chips are considerably faster than the M3s, but unless you have an extremely intensive workload, you probably don't need to upgrade if you already own an M3 model.
Test Results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
