Everything You Need To Know About The New Apple MacBook Pro

As Apple are technological innovators, we’re always excited to find out what they have up their sleeve. Even if we’re not planning a purchase, it’s handy to understand their direction of travel as that shapes tech for years to come. Their latest announcement had plenty of intel for us, as they launched three new next generation chips to help power and process everything we do on a computer. This new family of chips benefit the iMac, which gets the M3 chip, and the MacBook Pro, which gets the M3 Pro and the M3 Max.

What does this mean exactly? For starters, the M3 iMac is two times faster than its predecessor. When it comes to the MacBook Pro, we see more significant updates – from speed to battery life. Let’s take a closer look at what the new Apple MacBook Pro has to offer.

The chips

This is the first time Apple have announced three new chips at once, so it’s a significant reveal.

The Apple MacBook Pro benefits from two of the three new chips: it gets the M3 Pro and M3 Max. Apple tells us this makes the MacBook Pro 60 per cent faster than the M1 processor, though they fell short of revealing the difference between the new chip family and the M2. As the M2 only came out in January this would have been a more useful comparison to make.

The M3 Max ramps things up even more with ‘dynamic coaching’. This basically means only the exact amount of memory needed for each task your MacBook pro needs is used, because the GPU allocates the use of memory in real time. You’ll see the improvement in makes in speed, performance, and the complexity of visual scenes it can portray.

This new chip set also means battery life is increased up to 22 hours – the longest ever in the MacBook range. And you can order your MacBook Pro with up to 128GB of RAM, which is a brand new high for Apple’s laptops.

The design

If you’re a sucker for a new colour and a new finish that feels delicious in your hands, the new MacBook Pro brings it. This stylish new laptop comes in ‘space black’, a new and unique laptop finish which not only looks great, but also has a practical benefit. Apple have used a particular kind of aluminium in the finish on this laptop, with an anodization seal that means the surface of the laptop doesn’t pick up fingerprints. Some people will still prefer silver, which doesn’t show as many scratches and scuffs as black, but the space black does look very powerful.

The graphics

The new generation chip family doesn’t only mean faster performances, it also means improved graphics. The revamped graphics architecture in the MacBook Pro adds hardware acceleration for its ray tracing and mesh shaders, which means it can deliver more realistic light rendering and reflections in apps and games. Mesh shaders do more upfront processing by calculating object visibility and rendering characteristics. All this is a big improvement on predecessors, and gamers will really see a difference.

Sound, display and connection

It’s worth pointing out that the speakers remain the same as its predecessors. It still features the same HDMI port and SD card reader and MagSafe connector for charging, and the same bright mini-LED display. But what has changed is the brightness itself. The new MacBook Pro screen is now 20 per cent brighter than its predecessor, reaching up to 600 nits of brightness.

Price and availability

The new MacBook Pro is available to buy from the 7 November 2023 and comes in at £1,699 for the 14” space grey 8GB memory, 512GB storage model. You’ll pay £1,899 for the 1TB of storage option and £2,099 for the space black 18GB memory, 512GB storage model. Take these up to a 16” screen and you’re looking at £2,599 for the lowest spec, and £3,599 for the highest spec in space black. That’s quite a price range, which offers lots of choice in this all-new MacBook Pro range.

With immediate cover, 24/7 online claims and fast repairs and replacements Switched On’s Gadget Insurance offers feature packed cover from as little as £3.50 per month. Plus, if you take out an annual policy you’ll get two months FREE. Find out more on our website by clicking here.