M4 Max MacBook Pro
Apple's latest silicon monster is here, and it's either the best laptop money can buy or a colossal waste of cash—depending on who you ask.
Design & Build
Let’s be real: the M4 Max MacBook Pro looks almost identical to its predecessor. Same flat-edged chassis, same notch, same heft. It’s not ugly, but it’s not exciting either. The build quality is impeccable—milled from a single block of aluminum, it feels like a tank. At 4.7 pounds (for the 16-inch), it’s not something you want to carry around all day unless you’re getting paid for it. The port selection is finally decent: HDMI 2.1, SDXC card slot, MagSafe, and three Thunderbolt 5 ports. No excuses for dongles anymore. But seriously, Apple, where’s the touchscreen? Every Windows competitor has one, and it’s 2024.
Display & Audio
The Liquid Retina XDR display is still the best in the business. 1600 nits peak brightness for HDR content, ProMotion 120Hz, and now a nano-texture option that actually works—it cuts glare without destroying contrast. Colors are accurate out of the box, making it a dream for photo and video editors. The six-speaker sound system with force-canceling woofers is loud, clear, and has actual bass. It’s good enough that you might skip your Bluetooth speaker. The 1080p webcam is fine—nothing special, but it does the job for Zoom calls.
Performance Benchmarks
Here’s where the M4 Max flexes. In Geekbench 6, it scores around 3,200 single-core and 22,000 multi-core. That’s faster than any Intel or AMD laptop chip we’ve tested. In Cinebench 2024, it hits 175 single-core and 2,100 multi-core. GPU performance is equally bonkers: the 40-core GPU scores over 120,000 in Geekbench 6 Compute, beating the RTX 4090 laptop GPU in some tests. Real-world tasks? Exporting a 4K video in DaVinci Resolve takes under 2 minutes—half the time of the M3 Max. But here’s the kicker: all this power comes with fans that actually spin up under load. They’re not loud, but they’re audible. And the laptop gets warm—not hot, but warm enough to notice on your lap.
Battery Life
Apple claims 22 hours of video playback. In our real-world test (mixed usage: web browsing, coding, light video editing at 200 nits), we got 18 hours. That’s insane. You can leave your charger at home for a full workday and then some. The M4 Max is surprisingly efficient, though heavy GPU tasks will drain it faster—expect about 6-7 hours of sustained rendering. Fast charging via MagSafe or USB-C gets you to 50% in 30 minutes.
Keyboard & Trackpad
The Magic Keyboard is still one of the best laptop keyboards. 1mm key travel, stable scissor mechanism, and a full function row (no Touch Bar, thank god). The trackpad is massive and haptic—no moving parts, just a satisfying click. It’s the gold standard. No complaints here.
Software & Ecosystem
macOS Sequoia runs flawlessly. Stage Manager is still dumb, but the new iPhone mirroring and window tiling improvements are nice. Apple Intelligence is coming later this year, so we can’t judge that yet. The M4 Max handles everything you throw at it without breaking a sweat. But if you’re a gamer, look elsewhere—native game support is still a joke.
The Verdict
The M4 Max MacBook Pro is a masterpiece of engineering. It’s obscenely fast, has incredible battery life, and a display that puts everything else to shame. But it’s also obscenely expensive. If you’re a creative professional who makes money from your laptop, this is the best tool for the job. If you’re a student or casual user, you’re paying for power you’ll never use. Get an M4 MacBook Air instead and save yourself a grand. The M4 Max is not for everyone—and that’s okay.