It took 7 long years of waiting, but I finally upgraded..

[sparkie7]

..from a MacBook Pro 15" 2017 touch bar, to a MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max, 64GB, 1TB, Nano-screen.

The MBP 15 TB was the worst MBP I have ever owned, and it took 7 years for Apple to bring back all the good features they had on the 17" MBP back to the MBP 16" M4 like a Nano-texture display option (anti-glare equivalent), MagSafe, and remove the Touch Bar.

Combined with Apple silicon (low heat, low energy consumption, high performance) – the wait is Finally over.

Looking forward to using it, it's good to have a proper MacBook Pro back.

Are there any cons/negatives about these M4's apart from the price tag?

 

[raythompsontn]

Are there any cons/negatives about these M4's apart from the price tag?

As you mentioned, the prices for upgrades are really annoying. And that is across all Mac lines. I find no fault with my use of my 14" M4 Pro. They keyboard is fine and does not get shiny keys like the AIRs. Speakers are OK. Screen is good. Multiple monitor support is good. Battery life is good. Fans are quiet the few times they activate. It does everything I need. Even the notch does not bother me and software menus conform around the notch.

 

[sparkie7]

As you mentioned, the prices for upgrades are really annoying.

Yeah, I had to upgrade to 64GB RAM as anything less for me would be restricting, and it can’t be upgraded later. The internal SSD upgrades are so expensive I couldn’t justify going above 1TB. I’ll have to make do with external SSD’s.

Only had my MBP for less than a week so will get a better idea of it’s capabilities over the next 6 months

 

[PotentPeas]

Can't think of much of a "con" list when comparing this to the system you are coming from, unless you use Intel-specific things like running Windows software in Boot Camp. This system should be a dream upgrade.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I went from a mid 2009 15" MBP to a M2 16" MBP. Countless repairs on the 16yr old machine that I've still kept and the charging circuit died (again) just a few days ago.

 

[throAU]

..from a MacBook Pro 15" 2017 touch bar, to a MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max, 64GB, 1TB, Nano-screen.

The MBP 15 TB was the worst MBP I have ever owned, and it took 7 years for Apple to bring back all the good features they had on the 17" MBP back to the MBP 16" M4 like a Nano-texture display option (anti-glare equivalent), MagSafe, and remove the Touch Bar.

Combined with Apple silicon (low heat, low energy consumption, high performance) – the wait is Finally over.

Looking forward to using it, it's good to have a proper MacBook Pro back.

Are there any cons/negatives about these M4's apart from the price tag?

congrats

i’m on my second apple silicon macbook pro. love them.

negatives? as you say, pricey upgrades. add to that: no external gpu and lack of ability to run native x86 windows. neither of which i did on my last intel machine but some do.

that’s it.

flip side - good internal gpu, windows in an arm VM runs better than windows does natively on a lot of machines. i’m not joking, apple silicon virtualisation performance is amazing.

 

[sparkie7]

Can't think of much of a "con" list when comparing this to the system you are coming from, unless you use Intel-specific things like running Windows software in Boot Camp. This system should be a dream upgrade.

The specs & features are what I have been waiting for, especially an anti-glare equivalent screen option. Can't stand looking all the reflections with the "glassy" MBPs. And with it being M4, and low heat, and consequently less fan activation (and noise) and longer battery life from a more power efficient chip this should be like night and day

 

[sparkie7]

I went from a mid 2009 15" MBP to a M2 16" MBP. Countless repairs on the 16yr old machine that I've still kept and the charging circuit died (again) just a few days ago.

Heck, you really waiting it out a very long time, not sure how you managed that with the OS being limited by Apple on older machines

 

[sparkie7]

i’m on my second apple silicon macbook pro. love them.

negatives? as you say, pricey upgrades. add to that: no external gpu and lack of ability to run native x86 windows. neither of which i did on my last intel machine but some do.

Awesome, which silicon MBPs did/do you own?

External GPU? – thought the internal GPU options were pretty powerful..

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Heck, you really waiting it out a very long time, not sure how you managed that with the OS being limited by Apple on older machines

True, as a sole machine I used for 13+ yrs. Last years with dosdude's Catalina as support ceased after ElCapitan. So due to lack of dev and many many hardware repairs (my insurance eventually kicked me out). Fair enough.

But yes, the M2 Max with 64GB and 2TB to get at least 7 years out of it. I still have the SE OG that I used fro 6 years before a 13Mini replaced it

 

[5167767]

I do the same, I usually don’t replace my MacBook until it breaks.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

..from a MacBook Pro 15" 2017 touch bar, to a MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max, 64GB, 1TB, Nano-screen.

The MBP 15 TB was the worst MBP I have ever owned, and it took 7 years for Apple to bring back all the good features they had on the 17" MBP back to the MBP 16" M4 like a Nano-texture display option (anti-glare equivalent), MagSafe, and remove the Touch Bar.

Combined with Apple silicon (low heat, low energy consumption, high performance) – the wait is Finally over.

Looking forward to using it, it's good to have a proper MacBook Pro back.

Are there any cons/negatives about these M4's apart from the price tag?

I too had a 17" 2011 MBP and liked it a lot despite the weight. My MBP is now an M2 with 96 GB RAM and to answer your question no, I have found no anomalies. It is a superb box. I would however like to have the nano texture display now available.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Enjoy your m4 max MBP for long time.

 

[sparkie7]

True, as a sole machine I used for 13+ yrs. Last years with dosdude's Catalina as support ceased after ElCapitan. So due to lack of dev and many many hardware repairs (my insurance eventually kicked me out). Fair enough.

Never heard of dosdude's Catalina. Can't stand how Apple obsolete's Macs

But yes, the M2 Max with 64GB and 2TB to get at least 7 years out of it. I still have the SE OG that I used fro 6 years before a 13Mini replaced it

That's a good spec. I couldn't eat the 2TB upgrade. Hope I can manage with 1TB

 

[sparkie7]

I do the same, I usually don’t replace my MacBook until it breaks.

I never sell my Mac laptops. I repurpose them for gaming machines or for browsing, watching TV and movies

But it's usually the lack of OS support means you can't upgrade the browsers that makes them limited / obsolete

 

[sparkie7]

I too had a 17" 2011 MBP and liked it a lot despite the weight. My MBP is now an M2 with 96 GB RAM and to answer your question no, I have found no anomalies. It is a superb box. I would however like to have the nano texture display now available.

I don't mind the weight, just workout more lol. M2 with 96GB RAM is luxe. I contemplated for weeks to upgrade to 128GB RAM (+ 2TB SSD) but couldn't justify it or want to spend that much. The Nano-texture option is worth every cent and more. Looking at the screen for 8+ hours a day, it's definitely worth it

 

[sparkie7]

Enjoy your m4 max MBP for long time.

Thank you. I hope to.

Then Apple brings out a 16" foldable OLED MacBook Pro (in less than 5 years) = 32" inch screen portability, – very tempting!

 

[throAU]

Awesome, which silicon MBPs did/do you own?

External GPU? – thought the internal GPU options were pretty powerful..

M1 Pro 14" and now M4 Max 14" (based on my Pro experience, I decided to commit to a Max and use the Max as a "it does everything I need" machine - 64GB, 16/40 core, 2TB, nano texture).

And yeah, the internal (especially max) GPUs are pretty powerful, but even so they're not as fast as what you could plug in via a thunderbolt enclosure if that was still possible.

It's all relative. The MBP M Pro/Max series SOC is designed to run entirely within approximately 100-150 watts including both CPU and GPU. Thats not much power to share between a high performance CPU and high performance integrated GPU.

In discrete GPU land, thats something like a single intel CPU with no discrete graphics or an add-in card at say x050 class desktop Nvidia GPU (last 050 card Nvidia made was a 3050 I think and they run in like 150 watts for the GPU alone).

The Max will outperform a 4060 in most things and probably a 4070 maybe 4080 in particular unified memory friendly/apple framework friendly workloads. If heavily VRAM bottlenecked (e.g., running LLMs locally or massive amounts of textures), it has more VRAM available than a 4090, assuming you go for a higher memory capacity Max.

But just don't expect to game on the thing at better than 4080 frame rate in games because that's not what it is primarily aimed at, and the laws of physics dictate that you're just not going to compete with a desktop card consuming 300-400 watts outside of the very specific types of workloads above. Additionally, any games you're likely going to throw at it are port and NOT making use of the advanced features in the M4 series yet (like mesh shading, etc.).

Nvidia are no slouch and there's just no competing with something on a similar manufacturing process at 5-6x the power available to the GPU and 10-20x the thermal dissipation capacity.

Apple's integrated GPUs are amazing within the power and thermal budget they operate in, but they aren't literally magic no matter what the marketing team or fanboys will say.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

..from a MacBook Pro 15" 2017 touch bar, to a MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max, 64GB, 1TB, Nano-screen.

The MBP 15 TB was the worst MBP I have ever owned, and it took 7 years for Apple to bring back all the good features they had on the 17" MBP back to the MBP 16" M4 like a Nano-texture display option (anti-glare equivalent), MagSafe, and remove the Touch Bar.

Combined with Apple silicon (low heat, low energy consumption, high performance) – the wait is Finally over.

Looking forward to using it, it's good to have a proper MacBook Pro back.

Are there any cons/negatives about these M4's apart from the price tag?

My first macbook pro... I held off M1, M2 and M3 knowing M4 would be the leap and I was right.

I felt the 16" M4 Max MBP with Nano Texture was the seal of the deal to go all in. 64GB/1TB* also so same as you.
Had a lot of gift cards waiting [5k worth which I've been accumulating but never found a proper place to use it [phone, ipad can all buy outright]] so actual MBP cost me 1.3k out of pocket which made sense.

Personally while I can justify the RAM [48GB to 64GB] for an extra 270$, I wasn't okay with up-speccing storage [2TB from 1TB is nearly 600$ for me so i decided to run external SSD's. a 4TB T9 was around 500$ for me and the MBP sits on my desk all day for the most part and goes out once a fortnight or month, aka i don't need portability but 14" screen was still too small just for me.]

also not to mention 16" has better thermals/dissipation esp for Max Chip so was a no brainer, plus nice balance of screen estate. IF need larger, can plug into my 4K 27" gaming monitor lol

Does everything so quick can render and browse, where as PC would hang if you were rendering you couldn't do anything else but leave it alone [dumb ass AMD/intel is so crappy]

The waiting actually paid off, my PC was still functioning but now it's very slow with rendering/AI removal stuff in Lightroom/Photoshop and some Davinci resolve.