Review Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Pro, 2023) review: Awkward middle child?

[admin]

The M3 Pro MacBook Pro is a great laptop on paper, but its greatness is somewhat subdued when compared to its cheaper sibling in the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3 Pro, 2023) review: Awkward middle child? : Read more

 

[cameronbosch]

This review misses a critical point. It's not $400 between the M3 & M3 Pro MacBook Pros. It's $200 for a similar amount of RAM and storage.

The biggest problem with the M3 MacBook Pro is that 8 GB of RAM on Apple Silicon is unified between the CPU & GPU and macOS takes around 4 - 5 GB at a cold boot as shown by Max Tech, one of the best known Apple reviewers on YouTube. So once you open around 5 or so Chrome tabs, the system already has to use swap SSD, which is not only slower and thus slows the entire system down, but also will wear the non replaceable SSD, and once it exhausts its read/write cycles, congratulations, you now own a brick.

Once you upgrade the M3 model to 16 GB, the minimum I would consider okay for not only the price in 2023 but also for a "Pro" laptop, you are now only $200 from a M3 Pro MacBook Pro with 18 GB of RAM, an extra Thunderbolt 4 port, actually usable external monitor support (two instead of just one), HDMI 2.1 instead of 2.0, and the better CPU & GPU performance of the M3 Pro. So in my opinion, spending $200 more (or just 10% more money) on the M3 Pro MacBook Pro actually is a no brainer for MacBook Pro shoppers. If you don't want to spend $2000, either get a refurbished M2 Pro MacBook Pro, which can often be had for the same $1600 price tag, or wait for the M3 MacBook Airs to come out, which will be cheaper and you can spend the difference to upgrade the RAM.

TL;DR, the MacBook Pro M3 is just an upselling strategy by Apple; don't buy it.

 

[Jian007]

I think that the 14 inch M3 Pro MacBook Pro is a great value. It's not meant to be a compelling upgrade from the M2 Pro, or maybe even the M1 Pro for lots of people. It is a great MacBook to pick up if coming from any Intel based MacBook or Windows laptop, or if you're just now getting a MacBook Pro. The performance difference between the binned version and the unbinned version is only around 10% in most cases, and the unbinned version costs 25% more. Currently Best Buy is selling the binned 14 inch M3 Pro MacBook Pro for $1799, which is a great value for what you're getting, as that's only $100 more than the MSRP of a 15" MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, and you're getting a lot more features (and performance) for that money.

So many reviewers continue to try and say the M3 Pro MacBook Pro is some kind of crappy MacBook, just because it doesn't blow the M2 Pro away like the M3 Max does to the M2 Max. People who really need ultimate performance and need the absolute fastest for their use case, are not even considering the M3 or M3 Pro and will be getting the Max anyways. But for the rest (and majority) of the users, the M3 Pro represents a decent value if shopping for a new MacBook Pro, as it will do many tasks very well, and not force you to pay much higher prices for the Max variants. But I agree with what cameronbosch said in the previous comment, and that's that the base model M3 MacBook Pro is really not a good value for anyone, and shouldn't have been released, other than a way to get users to upgrade to the M3 Pro or Max (which is good for Apple and sucks for the consumers).

 

[cameronbosch]

But I agree with what cameronbosch said in the previous comment, and that's that the base model M3 MacBook Pro is really not a good value for anyone, and shouldn't have been released, other than a way to get users to upgrade to the M3 Pro or Max (which is good for Apple and sucks for the consumers).

Yeah, not every laptop generation is going to offer 30% performance gains over a single generation; these "reviewers" need to step into the shoes of actual users; many of them know that CPU & GPU gains are usually smaller gen on gen, and while that's certainly the case here, that's just the facts. Also, most Apple consumers just looking for a MacBook will not notice a serious difference between the M2 MacBook Air, the upcoming M3 MacBook Air, the M3 MacBook Pro, and the M3 Pro MacBook Pro. You don't need 15% - 30% more performance just to surf the web and type up documents. What would be nice is more battery life, and that's what the M3 lineup brings with the die shrink.

Like we've said, the M3 MacBook Pro shouldn't exist. 8 GB of RAM in 2023 for $1600 is an embarrassment, and almost all users would be better off with 16 GB of RAM. But once you do so, you're only $200 (or 10%) from the far better M3 Pro MacBook Pro. Like you said, the M3 model is just a decoy meant to entice users to pay more for a usable system. Because 1 external display, 8 GB of RAM, and other compromises for $1600 are embarassing. If a Windows OEM tried to do this, they'd be dragged through the coals. But because it's Apple, it's okay? Nope, it's not. Reviewers need to keep calling out Apple for this type of behavior, especially when the M2 MacBook Air can be had on sale for less money with a 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage upgrades, and it's honestly enough for most Apple consumers.