In their latest Halloween-themed, ‘Scary Fast’ event, Apple has unveiled their latest lineup of MacBook Pro laptops. All powered by the brand new Apple M3 family of silicon—the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max—the new MacBook Pro laptops will come in two sizes, a 14-inch and a 16-inch model.
The new MacBook Pro’s defining feature is its major upgrade under the hood, and unlike before the MacBook Pro 14 will be available with the base Apple M3 processor too. This is likely because Apple has seemingly retired the 13-inch MacBook Pro. You’ll be able to equip the MacBook Pro 14 with the Apple M3, M3 Pro and the M3 Max, while the larger MacBook Pro 16 will come with just the M3 Pro or M3 Max under the hood.
The M3 is an 8-core chip with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, a 10-core GPU and you can configure it to up to 24GB of memory and up to 2TB of SSD storage. With the M3 Pro, you can choose between an 11-core CPU with 5 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, or a 12-core version with one additional performance core. The latter M3 Pro also comes with an 18-core GPU compared to the former’s 14-core GPU; the 11-core M3 Pro is only available on the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Lastly, the M3 Max comes in two flavours too, with the base M3 Max featuring 14 CPU cores split between 10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, with a 30-core GPU tagging along. The more powerful M3 Max offers a 16-core CPU with two more performance cores, and a more capable 40-core GPU. You’ll be able to configure up to 36GB of memory and 4TB of SSD storage on M3 Pro laptops, with the M3 Max able to take up to 128GB of memory and up to 8TB of SSD storage.
Elsewhere, the new MacBook Pros retain the notched display, with the MacBook Pro 14 getting a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display pushing a 3024 x 1964p resolution while the larger MacBook Pro 16 has a 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with a 3456 x 2234p resolution. They both feature a pixel density of 254ppi, with a higher SDR brightness of 600nits, a peak brightness of 1,600nits, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, full coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and ProMotion for adaptive refresh rates of up to 120Hz.
During the event, Apple was very keen to target users still on Intel-based MacBook Pros, proudly exclaiming a battery life of up to 22 hours, 11 hours more than the fastest Intel MacBook Pro. That 22 hours though is only what the MacBook Pro 16 and the M3-powered MacBook Pro 14 can do, with the M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro 14s rated for up to 18 hours of Apple TV playback only. This is because the smaller MacBook Pro has a smaller battery—70Whr on M3 MacBook Pro 14 and 72.4Whr on M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro 14—compared to the 100Whr battery on the MacBook Pro 16. The larger MacBook Pro also support 140W fast charging, while the 14-incher supports 96W fast charging.
As for I/O, the MacBook Pro comes with the MagSafe 3 port for charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a HDMI port, an SD card reader and two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports on the M3 MacBook Pro, with the M3 Pro and M3 Max versions getting three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports instead. You’ll also find a high fidelity six speaker setup with force-cancelling woofers and support for Spatial Audio, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and support for WiFI 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity. Those getting the M3 MacBook Pro can choose between Silver and Space Grey, while the M3 Pro and M3 Max options will come in silver and a darker Space Black colourway.
As for availability, Apple Malaysia’s website currently states that it’s still unavailable and will be coming soon. However, we do how much it’ll cost, with the MacBook Pro 14 with M3 starting at RM7,499, while the MacBook Pro 14 with M3 Pro starts at RM9,999 with the most powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max coming in at RM14,799. If you need the two extra inches, the MacBook Pro 16 will only be available with the M3 Pro and M3 Max, with the former starting at RM11,999 and the latter at RM15,999.
