Apple’s new M4 MacBook Pro is already $250 off ahead of Black Friday – and I highly recommend it

After a year of rumors and speculation, Apple’s M4 processor came to the MacBook Pro laptop line earlier this month. The new lineup improves upon the already powerful M3 Pro and M3 Max with even faster performance, a more efficient battery, and the new Thunderbolt 5 port for blazing-fast data transfer speeds. 

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Better yet, the new M4 MacBook Pro starts at the same price as last year’s M3, making it that much easier to consider. But ahead of Black Friday, we’re already starting to see some deals, namely this one at B&H offering the MacBook Pro M4 for $1,749, which is $250 off the regular price. 

Besides the improvements to Apple’s proprietary AI, Apple Intelligence, the MacBook M4 Pro and M4 Max have some hardware upgrades — notably, the USB-C Thunderbolt 5 ports — becoming some of the first laptops on the market to support faster than 120Gbps transfer speeds, 240W charging, and even better performance with external monitors. For professional creatives who use external GPUs and need a portable system that can move large files in a flash, this alone could make the MacBook Pro M4 a worthy upgrade. 

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Speaking of displays, the mini LED on the MacBook Pro M4 — with 1,000 nits of brightness at SDR and 1,600 nits at HDR — pairs well with the nano-texture coating, resulting in one of the best-looking laptop displays I’ve seen. The matte layering reduces glare to look better under indoor lighting, while the sheer level of brightness makes for a high-end visual experience for entertainment and creative tasks. 

The battery life on the M4 also is improved over its predecessors. Apple advertises up to 24 hours of battery life, a first for any Mac. Both the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro or M4 Max get the full-day rating, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro or M4 Max falls just short at 22 hours.

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The new MacBook Pro M4–> regularly starts at $1,999 for the 14-inch version with 24GB of RAM and 512GB SSD, while the 16-inch starts at $2,499. This sale brings the cost down to a more accessible $1,749, a solid price for what is essentially a top-of-the-line device that’s less than a month old. 

For folks who have been on the fence with the new M4, this deal will likely swing in favor of buying. That means that inventory might not last long, with B&H specifically calling out limited supply at this price. 

Source: Robotics - zdnet.com