MacBook Pro 14″ (M4 Pro)

We just acquired a “base” (24 GB RAM / 512 GB SSD) MacBook M4 Pro 14″ (MSRP $1,999) model from BestBuy during their Memorial Day sale.

Along with price matching against Microcenter ($1,699), a BestBuy members-only $75 rebate, “free” AppleCare+ for members, and 2% cash back from the Apple Card, it was a no brainer.

We’re loving it so far. It could be the perfect “in-between” our old MacBook Pro (MBP) 16″ M1 Pro  and a MacBook Air (MBA) 15″ M2.  In terms of overall power, it’s 30-45% faster than both older machines.

If you’re upgrading from any M1 Pro to M4 Pro machine, below are some of the gains you can see.
Note: data from these graphs are “averaged” out M4 Pro data from three different Mac models*:

Overall Performance (Normalized Combined Geekbench Score):

Checkout our three way specs shoot out between our new MBP 14″ M4 Pro vs. MBP 16″ M1 Pro vs. MBA Air 15″ MBA (Inc. weight, and more).

Why we chose the 14″ Pro vs. another 15″ Air (or 16″ Pro)
Our main motivation for the MBP 14″ was for its weight (3.5 lbs). After getting spoiled by the weight of the MBA 15″ (3.3 lbs), we became a lot more hesitant to take the MBP 16″ (4.7 lbs) out of the house.

We decided to get the Pro variant because having a non-binned Studio M1 Max, we needed something in our suite that was more powerful than it. The M4 Pro is approximately overall 20% faster than a full M1 Max. To be fair, the MBA 15″ M2 never seemed like it was slow even with over a dozen browser tabs and multiple web developer apps running.

We also got annoyed at occasionally forgetting to bring our SD card reader dongle with our MBA 15″ Air on some trips. The MBP 14″ with built in SD card reader means one less thing to remember. Also having a built-in HDMI port can be super convenient at times.

So, the MBP 14″ Pro hits all these notes: weight, speed, and ports. And with the current sale at $1,699, it also a slam dunk on price.

And finally the screen with its “in-between” size of 14″ versus the Air 15″ and Pro 16″. Plus the Pro 14 has Pro Motion (120 Hz) and extra brightness (1,000 nits) which the Airs lack.

*Three M4 Pro equipped Macs: MBP 14″ vs. Mac mini vs. MBP 16″ – Want to compare them?

On a side note: as of late May 2025, we have one representative of every M-series Generation (M1, M2, M3, M4) in our MacNerd Lab now.

Stay tuned for one, three, and six month updates. Will the MacBook Pro 14″ M4 Pro be all that we hoped for?