MacBook Pro 14 (2023) with M3 chip, analysis and opinion: one of the best Apple laptops, but the performance improvement is an unknown
After the surprise on Halloween with the launch of three Apple M3 processors and the update of the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro, as well as the iMac with M3, Apple is preparing for a complicated year because Mac sales have not been very good. well—even having what I think is one of the best laptops in years from Apple, the 15-inch MacBook Air—.
Everyone bought a laptop in 2020 with the pandemic or extended the life of their equipment a few more years, but now, at the gates of 2024, it is time to change many of those pandemic laptops and Apple has one of the best bets for a sector that seeks good quality of design, construction, power and autonomy.
I’ve been testing this 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 chip, the base and cheapest model with an idea, will this be the laptop that after trying it makes me sell my 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 chip and finally upgrade? Will it be worth the more than 2,000 euros that you would have to pay?
The promise of the performance of the M3 chip, the design change, the fact that it finally has more ports and an autonomy that is expected to be the best from Apple, should be enough to make the leap. Will they be?
- Features and data sheet of MacBook Pro 14 with M3
- Design and connectivity: a laptop without changes in design that is missing a port
- Screen and sound: The screen of this laptop is still the best, but the sound is even better
- Performance: M3 is a very fast processor, but not that fast compared to M2
- Autonomy: a battery that refuses to die
- Versions, offers and price of MacBook Pro 14 with M3
- Conclusion: Is it worth upgrading to a MacBook Pro with M3?
Features and data sheet of MacBook Pro 14 with M3
A laptop without changes in design that is missing a port
The laptop on which my experience is based is the cheapest model with an M3 chip, it is a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an 8-core M3 chip (4 for efficiency and 4 for performance), 10-core GPU, 8 GB of memory RAM, 512 GB SSD and in silver.
I am left, for now, without trying the new space black color that according to Apple does not leave fingerprint marks on the chassis, I am also testing a laptop with 8 GB of RAM, something quite limited nowadays, no matter how much Apple says they are equivalent to 16 GB on a laptop.
We will not find any more design changes. It has the same 14.2-inch screen Liquid Retina XDRwhich translates to a Mini LED screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 3024 x 1964 pixels. Still one of the best screens on a laptop.
It has a 1080p webcam that in good light makes you look like a real person and not a bunch of pixels the size of your fist, a durable and well-built aluminum design, a keyboard that is a pleasure to type on, and a trackpad large size that maintains first place in quality of sensitivity and gestures.
In terms of connectivity, you have a MagSafe 3 magnetic port, an HDMI port, an SDXC card reader and USB-C connections with Thunderbolt and USB 4. The problem? Laptops with M3 only have two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3, while with the M3 Pro and M3 Max chip you have 3 ports and with Thunderbolt 4.
That Apple has hijacked a greater number and speed of ports in the M3 Pro and Max does not make sense. It is equating the number of ports to a more traditional device like the MacBook Air.
It has Wi-Fi 6E which manages to reach the limit of my Wi-Fi 6 compatible router and my 600 MB/s fiber optic connection. It also has bluetooth 5.3.
The screen of this laptop is still the best, but the sound is even better
Many things can be blamed for Apple, such as the fact that in 2023 they will finally have their first phones with USB-C, but when we talk about laptops, the truth is that they nail it. And there are two features that really draw attention, its screen and the quality of the speakers.
The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is a marvel. If you come from laptops with lower resolution, such as Full HD or even 1440p, the difference is so abysmal that it is normal for you to be amazed seeing the quality and details of the macOS interface.
It has a peak brightness of 1600 nits –which you only reach at very specific times, such as outdoors with direct light–, but normally it reaches an average of 1000 nits when you play HDR video or a maximum of 600 nits by default.
The webcam has a resolution of 1080p In good lighting the exposure is correct, but when it is night or you have poor lighting, the quality drops significantly even with the help of the chip’s AI. It also has a microphone system that captures the voice very well.
Although I am one of those who prefer to use headphones whenever possible to listen to music or make video calls, I even prefer to use wired ones rather than using speakers, MacBook Pro audio quality It is still spectacular, which reminds me a lot of the quality of the Apple Studio Display.
M3 is a very fast processor, but it is not sooooo fast compared to M2
According to Apple, this chip – remember, we are talking about the base model M3 with 8 cores – is 20% faster than M2 and 35% faster than M1.
When I compare this laptop to my MacBook Pro with M1 or even a 15″ MacBook Air with M2, there are differences, but I don’t think they are that profound differences. In my benchmarks There is a jump, but in real day-to-day use, I don’t think I have noticed a big difference.
| MacBook Pro 14 M3 | MacBook Pro M1 (2020) | MacBook Air 15” M2 (2023) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| RAM | 8GB | 16 GB | 8GB |
| BlackMagic Disk Speed (write) | 2962.1 MB/s | 1,754 MB/s | 1,636.5 MB/s |
| BlackMagic Disk Speed (Read) | 2387.2MB/s | 3,251 MB/s | 1,566.6 MB/s |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 3,120 | 1,739 | 2,547 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 11,710 | 7,671 | 8,968 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU (Open CL) | 30,359 | – | – |
| Geekbench 6 GPU (Metal) | 47,192 | – | – |
| 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme | 8,287 | 4,895 | 6,889 |
| 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme (FPS) | 49.6 FPS | 29.3 FPS | 41.3 FPS |
| Cinebench R23 (Single) | 139 | – | – |
| Cinebench R23 (Multi) | 666 | – | – |
| FinalCut Pro (4K@60-6:32min) | 9:16 | 8:49 | 9:34 |
The reading and writing speed of the SSD is higher than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 and 15-inch Air, Geekbench gives a better score, 3DMark also notes an improvement in graphic performance. But these are static tests.
My biggest surprise is when I exported the same project from Final Cut Pro, a 4K video at 60 FPS. He did it in 9:16 seconds. A MacBook Air with M2 in 18 more seconds. Even with the new system Dynamic Caching where the GPU decides how much memory to give to the application based on each process, you are not saving time. Of course, it is true that while you export video with an M2 you can’t do much else, with this M3 you can have another application open, like Chrome, and it works fine.
During all my days of testing I have only gotten the fans to turn on when running the Cinebench graphics performance test. I haven’t even been able to get them to turn on with games. This is how efficient and quiet this MacBook Pro with M3 is.
A battery that refuses to die
How have I measured autonomy? There are many ways to do it, but in my case, to have a base, I have set the screen to 50% brightness, I have left YouTube videos playing in 1080p with Safari and I have disabled battery saving mode.
With this base I have managed to make this MacBook Pro 14 with M3 The battery lasts around 13:50 hours.
This result will change a lot when using other browsers, opening another series of programs or the type of work you do, exporting video or using graphics consumes more battery, also video playback and depending on what codec it uses.
On a normal work day, where Chrome, Slack, Telegram and Apple Music are always open. Where I have also used Final Cut Pro to edit and export video and, above all, do a lot of writing (like this and other reviews), the battery just didn’t want to die. It has covered my work day and still has 60% of the battery left.
Versions, offers and price of MacBook Pro 14 with M3
It’s chaos. Choosing a MacBook Pro can only be described as chaos. Not only do you have 3 processors, each processor can also have more CPU or GPU cores, RAM and SSD capacity. It is a puzzle that you have to configure according to your needs. These are all the 14-inch versions you can buy.
- MacBook Pro 14 with M3 8-core, 10-core GPU, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD per 2,029 euros
- MacBook Pro 14 with M3 Pro 11-core, 14-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 18 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD per 2,549 euros
- MacBook Pro 14 with M3 Pro 12-core, 18-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 18 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD per 2,819 euros
- MacBook Pro 14 with M3 Max 14-core, 30-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 36 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD per 3,819 euros
- MacBook Pro 14 with M3Max 16-core, 40-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 36 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD per 4,394 euros
In the 16-inch version these are the available models.
- MacBook Pro 16 with M3 Pro 12-core, 18-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 18 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD per 3,049 euros
- MacBook Pro 16 with M3 Max 14-core, 30-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 36 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD per 4,069 euros
- MacBook Pro 16 with M3 Max 16-core, 40-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 48 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD per 4,669 euros
Conclusion: Is it worth upgrading to a MacBook Pro with M3?
The MacBook Pros have an audience in mind and they put it in their name, the professionals. But what kind of professional would buy a MacBook Pro with M3?
This is one of the best Apple laptops, with a fast, very efficient chip and a battery that doesn’t want to die. It is the perfect tool for professionals who occasionally use programs with Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere for videos, who use Photoshop or PixelMator Pro, also for programmers and who distribute the rest of the tasks in their browser and Slack/Microsoft Teams.
But if you’re the kind of professional who uses intensive video editing, photo editing or 3D modeling programs, even an application developer who needs performance to compile their apps, the M3 chip falls short. I recommend that you make the jump to M3 Pro with 18 GB of RAM (2,549 euros).
And if you are that video/photography/3D professional, the MacBook Pro you should choose is with an M3 Max chip and 36 GB of RAM (3,819 euros). If you still decide to opt for this MacBook Pro 14 with M3 chip, at least double the RAM.
