14in MacBook Pro (M1 Pro)

Price as reviewed: £2,799 from fave.co/30WBU2h

Let’s go back to the autumn of 2020. Remember that thundering ‘boom’ that shook up the tech industry? That was Apple’s M1 making its debut. It exploded on the scene and amazed the Mac and PC world with its astounding performance.

After the M1’s debut, the question was, how can Apple follow up such a successful launch? Well, it’s now a year later, and Apple has delivered another thundering ‘boom’ that is shaking up the tech industry, this one possibly even bigger. This time it’s two System-on-Chips, the M1 Pro and M1 Max, and they blow away the M1. After spending some time with the 14in MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro, it’s clear that Apple is on a roll with its silicon. The M1 Pro is simply an incredible chip.

If this were just about the processor like last year, the new MacBook Pro would be a big story. But there’s a lot more to this laptop from the inside and out, and the result is a MacBook Pro that is truly built for professionals who make the highest demands of their hardware.

This 14in MacBook Pro I tested has the following specifications:

• 10-core CPU (eight performance cores and two efficiency cores)
• 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM
• 200GB/s memory bandwidth
• 16-core Neural Engine
• 16-core GPU
• 1TB SSD

This laptop is a custom configuration of the £2,399 model with 32GB of RAM instead of 16GB, which increases the price to £2,799. (You can’t upgrade the RAM after purchase, since it’s built into the SoC. While Apple silicon computers are much better at handling RAM than their Intel predecessors, you should still get the most you can afford when you place your order.)

DESIGN

After opening the box and taking the wraps off the MacBook Pro, ‘luxurious’. is the first word that came to mind as I held the laptop in my hands. The 100 per cent recycled aluminium case has a smoothness that feels like it has a silky coating (it’s not a coating). When it’s closed, you notice that the edges are rounded so the laptop doesn’t dig into your hand. It’s a stark contrast to the previous design, and it conveys a sense that Apple paid attention to the little details.

The 14in MacBook Pro measures 312.6x221.2x15.5mm,