MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max): Is This Perfect?

Apple introduced their very own silicon, M1, in 2020 and changed the landscape of laptops. Not only was the new M1 chip much more powerful than the previously used Intel, but it was also way more efficient. Then, Apple introduced its M2 chip line-up, which further cemented Apple’s reputation as the leading silicon manufacturer. Now, they have introduced their latest chip line-up, the M3, in their MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max). With the new M3 chip, Apple has incorporated a 3nm structure. This has made the M3 chip the one to beat. In this blog, we will review Apple’s MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) to know if the new M3 chip is worth the clout. 

MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) Review: Specs, Price And Performance

Here, you will get all the relevant facts and figures regarding the new MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max). Let’s just get started.
 

Design And Display 

Just like in true Apple fashion, the new MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) looks classy and elegant and features a metal frame and body for better heat dissipation. Along with this, the laptop comes with thinner bezels and two colour options. Although it is the same size as before, the trackpad seems bigger and more responsive with a plethora of gestures. This year, the biggest change is the introduction of a new colour, Space Black. This colour marks the end of a 15-year-long stint without a black colour variant in the Apple MacBook Pro line-up. This is the first laptop since 2008 where Apple has offered a black colour to its customers. 

The display on the other hand is the same as last year’s. A 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display that offers off-the-chart brightness and extremely accurate colours. It is a high-contrast display which Apple uses in its entire MacBook line-up. 

Battery And Efficiency

When Apple used Intel chips, the battery performance wasn't acceptable. The laptop would die just after a few hours of playback. It would charge slowly, and the battery percentage it used to show wasn’t very accurate. All of these caveats disappeared as soon as Apple started using their silicon. This is because Apple makes the M1 and M3 chips in-house, offering them next-level compatibility with their software. This significantly decreases the energy consumption. Another reason for extended battery life is the super efficient nature of the Apple chips. The new MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) is no different. It comes with a 72.4-watt-hour lithium polymer battery, which is all you need to use the laptop for a whole day.

In our review, we found that the latest MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) gives a battery backup of 13 hours and 40 minutes when used in 720p, 12 hours and 28 minutes in 1080p, and around 10 hours at 4K. So, if you are watching a movie at 1080p, you can expect the laptop to run for at least 12 hours. This is so well and beyond anything on the market today. For comparison, a comparable gaming laptop will only last for about an hour or two at max. This number is even less when gaming, usually, a gaming laptop lasts for around 25 to 30 minutes while gaming. 

Performance

Performance is the reason why you all are here, Well, we are here to tell you that you won’t be disappointed with the performance of MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max). The M3 chip is a powerhouse when it comes to benchmark scores, mainly because of the addition of extra performance cores. This chip is designed for creative professionals to run highly demanding software for an extended amount of time. More importantly, for the first time ever, Apple is providing a gaming ecosystem on their Macbooks and the performance is quite decent. Let’s start with gaming and then look at some benchmark scores. 

Gaming  Performance

When it comes to gaming, MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) will not replace your dedicated gaming setup or even your gaming laptop, but this doesn't mean it is not good. 

This table shows that, although the performance is not very good, it's still quite decent, especially for a device that is new to gaming and not made for gaming. Now, let’s have a look at some benchmark numbers of the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max). For this test, we will be comparing the new M3 max MacBook Pro with Apple’s old M2 max MacBook Pro. This is because Apple’s silicon has no direct competitor in the Windows market. We will compare the benchmark scores of the most credible benchmark software available on the internet. 

Cinebench R23

Apple’s M3 Max: For Single Core score, the M3 max gives out a score of 1957, while in multi-core, the score was 24022

Apple’s M2Max: The single-core score was 1626, while the multi-core score was 14838. This is a massive improvement, and the scores show it precisely. 

Geekbench V6

Apple’s M3 Max: The single-core score was 3227 and the multi-core score was 21167.

Apple’s M3 Max: Single-core score was at 2775. However, the multi-core was 14862. 

Passmark

Apple’s M3 Max: Single-core score was 4797, and the multi-core score was 40026

Apple’s M3 Max: In single-core, the score was4149, while in the multi-core the score was 26237. 

These benchmark scores properly show us the difference in performance between the two chips. You can see that, in most cases, the difference is massive. Although the difference in single-core performance is not much, because the new M3 max has more cores than the M2 max, the multi-core scores are like day and night. 

Should You Upgrade To A MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max)

The new MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) is far more capable than the previous year's Macbook Pro. However, everybody needs to understand that this device is for professionals who use heavy, graphic and performance-intensive software for an extended period of time. So, if you want the best device for video editing, graphic designing or animations, the increased performance of the new M3 max chip will help you a lot and upgrading to the new MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Max) can be a good option.