What a difference the past six to seven years have made for the state of Mac hardware. My 2017 MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar had to make several trips to the repair shop to replace malfunctioning key caps, and even on a good day, it was loud, warm, and started to feel slow after just a year or two. In contrast, my 2021 MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip served me well for five years of almost daily use before I decided to replace it. During that time, the hardware was rock solid. I replaced it not because it failed on me, but because I decided it was time to upgrade to something faster.
From the outside, my new MacBook Pro 14” with the M4 Max chip is almost indistinguishable from the five year old laptop it replaces, if you ignore the switch from silver to space gray aluminium. It’s not until you open the lid and turn it on that you notice any difference between the two, starting with the new, brighter ProMotion display with improved color accuracy and support for refresh rates up to 120 Hz.
The second thing you’ll notice is the speed. I got it with the M4 Max chip to future proof it for years to come, and if I’m being honest, the things I do on a daily basis would have been more than manageable for the baseline M4 chip. I’m not sure what I’d have to do to actually put this thing through its paces. Maybe install Cyberpunk 2077? If there ever was an opportune moment for Apple to get serious about bringing game developers to the Mac, it’s now, because the hardware is definitely up for it.
For running Figma, Visual Studio Code, a few dozen tabs in Safari, and Apple Music, this thing is beyond overkill. I don’t think Apple hardware has ever been as good as it is right now. If only I could say the same about the state of macOS.
