“One look at the screen was enough to wipe a way all thoughts of the cost”

Well, my 16in MacBook Pro finally arrived. It was with trepidation that I unpacked it and got it ready to boot. Then I opened the lid and fell in love. The only word to use is “wow”. I accept that I ticked most of the boxes when it came to this purchase, going for the M1 Max processor, 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. That came in at around four grand, only for me to realise that I hadn’t paid for AppleCare (which I have on all my daily-use devices), so that upped the price even further.

But one look at the screen was enough to wipe away all thoughts of that cost. It has blacks that are blacker than black. The peak white brightness on HDR content is eye popping. The keyboard is a significant improvement, although I might be the only person in the world that rues the loss of the Touch Bar.

After a quick install, I decided to download some apps. On went Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro from Apple, and DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic. I loaded up some complicated video and audio test projects, and then started giggling. It’s so quick it’s positively stupid. 4K HDR video? Pah, it doesn’t care. Even higher resolution? No problem. A hugely complicated music mix with a three-figure number of tracks? It didn’t blink. Photo editing? It laughs at it.

Then I actually cackled. There was no loud whirring of the fans that I get on the 2019 Core i9 MacBook Pro. Just silence. The i9 device spins up its jet-like fans at the merest provocation. With the M1 Max chip,