Apple MacBook Pro M3 review: Powerful and versatile

Apple during the Halloween-themed 'Scary fast' event in late October, unveiled the new MacBook Pro with M3 silicon, touted to be the most powerful computer silicon in the industry.

I have been using it for more than three weeks and here are my thoughts on the latest MacBook Pro.

Design, build quality, and display

The new MacBook Pro retains the design language of its predecessor. It looks like a smooth solid slab of metallic tile. On the front, the sturdy aluminum enclosure has the shiny iconic 'bitten Apple' logo. On the opposite side, it has four rubber-based pads on four corners to offer a stable base.

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

The design ensures the metal-based body doesn't fully touch the surface of the table, and yet delivers good stability. And, this also enables the single fan inside to dissipate heat efficiently and keep the device cool when performing heavy-duty tasks.

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

When you open the top panel lid, the MacBook Pro features a remarkable 14.2-inch (diagonal) Liquid Retina XDR display. It has the trademark notch design we see in older iPhones (iPhone 14 and older). It is home to a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and it does an amazing job during video calls, provided one has stable internet connectivity to stream high-quality video.

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

The rest of the display has a uniform bezel and can support 1,000 nits brightness under normal usage, and it can even go up to 1,600 nits for HDR content.

It offers up to 600 nits brightness max for SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) content, more than 20 percent brighter than the previous iteration.

It also supports True Tone technology and ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz.

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

It also boasts three fine-quality microphones with a high signal-to-noise ratio and directional beamforming. It does well in delivering clear and crisp audio during videoconferencing and phone calls too.

Add to that, it has a high-fidelity six-speaker sound system with two pairs of dual force-canceling woofers and two tweeters. It also supports spatial audio and you can notice it when playing any good movie with amazing original soundtracks, like the one on Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy (yes, I still watch them whenever I get a chance.)

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

The Magic Keyboard on the MacBook Pro is really good. It has a top-quality keypad and is tactile too, making typing smooth and joyful. I was able to type fast. Yes, it is a bit different compared to normal keyboards connected to the desktop, but when you spend even a day or two, the muscle memory kicks in, and typing becomes a smooth experience. Thanks to soft and neatly placed keys, you are unlikely to make any silly typos.

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

Apple is very generous with the spacious Force Touch trackpad on the new MacBook Pro. It is very responsive to the touch and the entire trackpad surface can work as a button. This way, the user can just click anywhere on the trackpad to open a file in the system or open a tab on a browser.

The TouchID on the top right corner works like a charm. Once registered, it never fails to recognise the finger impression and instantly opens the home screen.

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

As far as connectivity is concerned, it comes with two Thunderbolt (USB 4.0) ports, one HDMI port, one SDXC card slot, and a MagSafe 3 port. Interestingly, while most of the Apple products no longer feature a 3.5mm jack, the latest MacBook Pro has one to deliver loss-less pure top-quality audio through wired headphones.

Like most of Apple products, the latest MacBook Pro PCs are eco-friendly too. The enclosure is made of custom alloy that uses 100 percent recycled aluminum and promises to be durable too. Apple has also used 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 percent recycled tin soldering and gold plating in multiple printed circuit boards.

And, the MacBook Pro is free of numerous harmful substances such as beryllium, brominated flame retardants, and mercury, and 100 percent of the wood fiber in the packaging is recycled or comes from responsibly managed forests.

Performance

Apple is offering the MacBook Pro in three options-- Standard M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max.

The new M3 silicon is built using 3-nanometer technology. It is said to be a faster, more efficient next-generation GPU, the biggest upgrade over the previous iterations.

It also boasts new state-of-the-art technology called Dynamic Caching, wherein the GPU will be able to allocate the use of local memory in hardware in real-time so only the exact amount of memory needed is used for each task. This significantly improves GPU efficiency and performance for the most demanding apps such as Adobe Photoshop, analyse scientific research data, and also plays power-guzzling games smoothly without overheating issues.

Apple MacBook Pro M3 series.

Like the latest iPhone 15 Pro (review) models, the MacBook Pro M3 supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a first for Mac devices. This will greatly enhance the gaming experience. Graphics-rich games will be able to render more accurate shadows and reflections to create more realistic environments and be able to deliver an enhanced gaming experience on a PC way better than any other competing brands in its class.

MacBook Pro can also connect with accessories such as controllers and is able to deliver the ultimate gaming experience on par with a console when connected to 4K/8K smart TVs.

The powerful machine is best suited for high-duty tasks such as DNA sequencing on Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW and creative video editing.

Our review unit is powered by Apple M3 silicon with an 8-core CPU (4 x performance cores + 4 x efficiency cores), 10-core GPU, 100GB/s memory bandwidth, and 16-core neural engine. It has 16GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage.

I, as a journalist tried simple video editing on Movie Maker and have to say, the native editing app worked smoothly. The entire process from lining photos and video clips to finally completing the project was a delightfully smooth experience.

If you are an amateur vlogger or aspiring artist planning to do any documentaries, this is the best machine to let loose your creativity.

It supports Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW, Video decode engine, Video encode engine, ProRes encode and decode engine AV1 decode.

Add to that, Apple is offering 90-day free trial on Final Cut Pro. For music artists, there is a similar offer on Logic Pro too. Both are really good feature-rich editing tools in the industry.

With M3 Pro and M3 Max chipsets, MacBook Pro can deliver even better performance on all possible frontiers.

With the new macOS Sonoma, Apple has introduced a lot of new features. It brings Game mode, a first for Mac devices.

Once enabled, it can further lower audio latency with AirPods with MacBook Pro and significantly reduce input latency with popular game controllers like those for Xbox and PlayStation by doubling the Bluetooth sampling rate.

With the new Continuity feature, people with iPhones can share their screens on Macs.

macOS 14 Sonoma comes with a whole lot of new features.

Also, with the new macOS Sonoma, users can move around widgets on the home screen and they can replace or add more with ease with an easily accessible widget gallery. Also, the widgets blend seamlessly with the wallpaper to ensure uniformity.

The new macOS 14 also brings an intelligent form detection feature. The device will be able to automatically identify fillable documents and forms across the system, like in Finder, Mail, or scanned documents.

The new Sonoma software offers more control to parents when children are using Macs. It offers the option to blur sensitive videos their children send or receive, in addition to photos.

Key features of macOS 14 Sonoma.

As far as the battery life is concerned, it is a marathon runner of a machine. It can deliver 22 hours of video playback, 11 hours more than any rival branded laptop.

During the testing period, I used to charge only once a week. I used to spend close to two to three hours a day and I only had to charge it only once a week.

The retail box comes with a 70W USB-C Power Adapter.

It should be noted that 14-inch MacBook Pro models with M3 Pro or M3 Max, come with a 96W charger. And, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 series (all variants) come with a 140W Type-C power adaptor.

Final thoughts:

The latest MacBook Pro M3 series is a beast of a computer, tailor-made for heavy-duty tasks.

With every new iteration, Apple's MacBook Pro series has always set faster and higher performance benchmarks over its peers.

But, it lagged in one aspect--gaming. This time, with the M3 MacBook Pro, the Cupertino-based company has addressed it with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and game mode with macOS v14 Sonoma.

It also has a stellar Liquid Retina XDR display and an awesome six-speaker system, which makes consuming multimedia content even more delightful. The long battery life is an icing on the cake.

Apple is offering the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max options— with prices starting at Rs 1,69,900, Rs 1,99,900, and Rs 3,19,900, respectively.

And, with an education plan, they can be bought for as low as Rs 1,58,900. The 16‑inch MacBook Pro is available in M3 Pro and M3 Max options with prices starting at Rs 2,49,900 and with an education plan, it can be purchased for as low as Rs 2,29,900, and respectively.

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