Apple's 'Scary Fast' event revealed a new MacBook Pro 16-inch - now equipped with the powerful new Apple M3 Pro and M3 Max chips.
Although WWDC 2023 let us down by failing to include any M3 goodness, Apple has now given us what we've been waiting for: the M3 chip, and a trio of new products featuring it. The most powerful of the bunch is the new model of Apple's largest laptop, the MacBook Pro 16-inch - which actually won't feature the standard M3 chip, but rather its more powerful Pro and Max variants. The smaller MacBook Pro 14-inch will be available with all three new chips, however.
The world's first mainstream laptop processor manufactured on a 3nm fabrication process, the M3 series chips are expected to offer a significant jump in generational performance - something that might upset recent buyers of the 2023 M2 MacBook Pro models.
The MacBook Pro 16-inch also feature Apple's Liquid Retina XDR display and will support more unified memory, with the M3 Max version capable of being configured all the way up to a beefy 128GB of RAM. The M3 Pro and M3 Max versions will come in a new 'Space Black' colorway, too. Our review of the MacBook Pro holds an impressive four and a half stars, thanks to the incredible performance capability and the surprisingly good gaming performance.
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch with M3: at a glance
- Available now
- Greater power than current-gen MacBook Pros
- Space Black is a welcome new color option
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch with M3: release date
The MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3) was announced at Apple’s Scary Fast event on October 30, and is released on November 7, 2023. That makes it little over nine months since the last model was released, on January 24, 2023. You can walk into any Apple Store now and grab one yourself, or order online.
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch with M3: price and availability
The MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3) starts at $2,499 / £2,599 / AU$4,299, the same starting price as the previous model which is rather refreshing from Apple.
The launch may well have set a record (and not a terribly good one) for shortness of lifespan for a new device, as the 16-inch MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips were discontinued as soon as Apple announced the new M3 Pro and M3 Max versions. That’s sure to annoy a lot of people who only bought what was the latest and most powerful MacBook Pros less than a year ago.
Other extras like a larger SSD or Apple's software bundles will naturally cost extra, but we'd be surprised if those see a price increase compared to current-gen MacBooks.
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch with M3: Specs and performance
The M3 Pro model is stated to be 30 to 40 percent faster in image editing, scientific sequencing, and text-based editing workloads than the fastest M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16-inch. Meanwhile, the M3 Max version of the laptop is 2.5x faster than the MacBook Pro 16-inch with M1 Max in rendering tasks.
We got our hands on the 16-inch MacBook Pro featuring the top-tier M3 Max variant, flaunting a 16-core CPU and a 40-core GPU, along with a hefty 48GB of unified memory. This configuration stands as the priciest prebuilt option for the MacBook Pro 16-inch.
While there are more budget-friendly models available, you also have the flexibility to customize the 16-inch MacBook Pro with additional memory and SSD storage. I'd advise you to carefully consider your specific needs before settling on a configuration. The unit I tested might be overkill for many users, unless you're diving into graphics-intensive tasks and video editing. Keep in mind that, being an Apple device, upgrading it yourself is a near-impossible feat. Hence, the specs you choose at the time of purchase will be the ones you're stuck with.
We'll be back here to update this page as soon as Apple releases more detailed spec sheets, which should give us a better idea of how these new laptops will stack up against Apple's current MacBook offerings.
