What 14 MB pro should I get

[Bison1207]

Not sure which 14 inch model I should get. I know for certain I want a pro and I tested it out and found the 14 to be the most comfortable.

My usage case will be

- GTA Vice City, Democracy 4

- Emulators like visual boy advance and Dolphin

- Logic/Ableton I want to learn to make Trance EDM music and post it on Soundcloud.

- some basic video editing to upload on YouTube for fun. Nothing serious btw low end stuff m

- Basic media consumption and general productivity.

The 14 inch pro has the best form factor, speaker and battery life for me and I know for storage I'm probably looking at 2TB. My current MacBook is a 2015 MacBook pro I7 512GB 16GB of RAM. I'm in Canada btw.

If I get the M4 model I'd get the top m4 and the following configurations

-M4 10/10/16
-24 GB of RAM
-2 TB of storage

If I were to go for the M4 Pro I'd
-2Tb of storage
- Base processor
-24 GB RAM

Cost difference is $350 cad between the M4 pro and M4 option I'm looking at.

 

[Basic75]

For people not sure what they need the answer is frequently "the smaller one".

 

[jabbr]

you'd be served more than well with just a 16GB Air, I'd go for the cheaper Pro for your usage

 

[Bison1207]

you'd be served more than well with just a 16GB Air, I'd go for the cheaper Pro for your usage

I tested the air and while I like a 15inch laptop I want the speakers on the pro and the 120hz display.

 

[Realityck]

M4 vs. M4 Pro vs. M4 Max Chip Buyer's Guide: Which Should You Choose?

Apple this week debuted its M4 Mac models, unveiling the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. So how do the three latest-generation Apple silicon chips compare...

www.macrumors.com

Just look at the large memory bandwidth difference which affects performance. Then there is difference in cores between M4 and M4 Pro. Also as you know the base M4 battery is rated 24 hours vs M4 Pro is 22 hours. Not that much difference to write off the M4 pro doing casual usage.

 

[jabbr]

yeah of course, that's understandable. As someone happily using a 2021 M1 Pro I can vouch that you'd have zero trouble going with the more affordable base M4 MBP

 

[Realityck]

For another perspective

 

[FrozenDarkness]

i don't know why anybody would get a m4 macbook pro. the m4 pro is significantly better and at that thickness, i wouldn't want that form factor for non pro machine.

the 120hz on the laptop screen is probably the least noticeable thing for me and i'm someone who uses an ipad pro and iphone all day and could not use a non-120hz iphone/ipad

 

[dmccloud]

i don't know why anybody would get a m4 macbook pro. the m4 pro is significantly better and at that thickness, i wouldn't want that form factor for non pro machine.

the 120hz on the laptop screen is probably the least noticeable thing for me and i'm someone who uses an ipad pro and iphone all day and could not use a non-120hz iphone/ipad

I wouldn't consider the 14" Pro a "thick" machine by any definition. While it is thicker when compared to an iPad or iPhone, the MacBook Pro does not fit into either category of device.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

I wouldn't consider the 14" Pro a "thick" machine by any definition. While it is thicker when compared to an iPad or iPhone, the MacBook Pro does not fit into either category of device.

it is significantly thicker than a macbook air which has essentially the same power

 

[CalMin]

Ordinarily for your workflow, I'd say M4 is fine and I would recommend that but after watching today's MaxTech video, the argument for spending the extra for an M4Pro is quite compelling.

That said, your stated use case will be absolutely fine on the M4. And most of the time, you wouldn't even be able to tell. My M1Pro from 3-years ago is still more than enough for anything I can throw at it!

 

[Realityck]

Ordinarily for your workflow, I'd say M4 is fine and I would recommend that but after watching today's MaxTech video, the argument for spending the extra for an M4Pro is quite compelling.

That said, your stated use case will be absolutely fine on the M4. And most of the time, you wouldn't even be able to tell. My M1Pro from 3-years ago is still more than enough for anything I can throw at it!

From that Max Tech video is a nice teardown to show how much the MacBook Pro thermals are different on the 14" M4 model (left) vs M4 Pro model (right). if you play games or do creative stuff that heats up the laptop a bit, something to consider that you are also getting improved thermal abilities. In reference to either older M3 MBA they don't even have a fan.

 

[CalMin]

From that Max Tech video is a nice teardown to show how much the MacBook Pro thermals are different on the 14" M4 model (left) vs M4 Pro model (right). if you play games or do creative stuff that heats up the laptop a bit, something to consider that you are also getting improved thermal abilities. In reference to either older M3 MBA they don't even have a fan.

View attachment 2451697

What's interesting is how different the layouts are. I mean, you'd think they would make them the same just with a different socket for the CPU, the layout is really quite different.