Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) | AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M4) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | June 2012 | November 2024 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 13.3″ | 14.2″ |
| Resolution | 1280 × 800 | 3024 × 1964 (better) |
| Panel | TN LCD | Mini-LED |
| Refresh rate | – | 120 Hz |
| Brightness | – | 1,000 nits |
| HDR peak brightness | – | 1,600 nits |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy display, 1280 × 800 native resolution and millions of colours. TN panel identified by Notebookcheck’s exact-model review; brightness and refresh rate unpublished by Apple. | Liquid Retina XDR display |
| Pixel density | – | 254 ppi |
| Colour range | – | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours |
| Screen finish | – | Standard, or nano-texture as an option |
| Display features | – | 1,000,000:1 contrast; 1,000 nits sustained full-screen XDR brightness; ProMotion up to 120 Hz, with fixed 47.95, 48, 50, 59.94 and 60 Hz rates; True Tone |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Intel Core i5-3210M or Intel Core i7-3520M | Apple M4 |
| CPU cores | 2 | 10 |
| CPU threads | 4 | – |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 10-core GPU |
| AI engine (NPU) | – | 38 TOPS |
| Memory | 4 GB or 8 GB | 16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better) |
| Storage | 128 GB to 1 TB | 512 GB to 2 TB (better) |
| CPU | 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz and 3 MB L3 cache, or 2.9 GHz dual-core Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 3.6 GHz and 4 MB L3 cache. i5-3210M identified by Notebookcheck; i7-3520M by EveryMac. | 10-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores |
| GPU | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 10-core GPU; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode |
| AI engine | – | 16-core Neural Engine |
| Memory type | 1600 MHz DDR3 in two SO-DIMM slots. Core i5 has 4 GB, configurable to 8 GB; Core i7 has 8 GB. | Unified memory |
| Memory bandwidth | – | 120 GB/s |
| Storage type | Core i5 has a 500 GB 5400-rpm hard drive, configurable to 750 GB or 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB SSD. Core i7 has a 750 GB 5400-rpm hard drive, configurable to 1 TB or the same SSD capacities. Rows follow the CPU-specific maker storage sections. 8× slot-loading SuperDrive supports DVD±R DL, DVD±RW and CD-RW. | SSD, configurable up to 2 TB |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 7 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Battery capacity | 63.5 Wh | 72.4 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 2.06 kg | 1.55 kg (better) |
| Thickness | 24.1 mm | 15.5 mm (better) |
| Width × depth | 325 × 227 mm | 312.6 × 221.2 mm |
| Battery life detail | Built-in 63.5 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to 7 hours wireless web in Apple’s test. Reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. | Up to 16 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery |
| Charger | 60 W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management | 70 W USB-C Power Adapter included |
| Fast charging | – | With the 96 W USB-C Power Adapter |
| Materials | Aluminium unibody enclosure and glass trackpad | – |
| Colours | Silver | Space Black, Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 2 × USB-A, MagSafe, headphone jack, SD card slot, Ethernet, Thunderbolt | 3 × Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g | Wi-Fi 6E |
| Bluetooth | 4.0 | 5.3 |
| Webcam | 720p FaceTime HD camera | 12MP Center Stage |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | One Thunderbolt port up to 10 Gb/s, two USB 3 ports up to 5 Gb/s, one FireWire 800 port up to 800 Mb/s, Gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card slot, MagSafe, headphone port with digital/analogue audio line output and iPhone headset support and Kensington lock slot. Thunderbolt provides native Mini DisplayPort output; DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI require separate adapters. | 3 × Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) with charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 (up to 40 Gb/s); HDMI with multichannel audio output; SDXC card slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support |
| External displays | Built-in display plus one external display up to 2560 × 1600, both at millions of colours; dual display and video mirroring. | Up to two at 6K 60 Hz over Thunderbolt, or one at 6K 60 Hz over Thunderbolt and one at 4K 144 Hz over HDMI; or one at up to 8K 60 Hz or 4K 240 Hz over HDMI; alongside the built-in display |
| Keyboard | Full-size backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor, 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys and four arrow keys. | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (US) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys |
| Trackpad | Multi-Touch trackpad supports inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three- and four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag. | Force Touch trackpad |
| Speakers | Stereo speakers with subwoofer | Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos |
| Microphones | Omnidirectional microphone | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming |
| Biometrics | – | Touch ID |
| In the box | MacBook Pro, display cleaning cloth, 60 W MagSafe power adapter, AC wall plug, power cord and documentation; OS X Lion and iLife. | 14-inch MacBook Pro, 70 W USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only) |
More comparisons
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M5 Pro or M5 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5)
- Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M5)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4 Pro or M4 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M3) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M1 Pro / M1 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M4 Pro or M4 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M3 Pro / M3 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M3 Pro / M3 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M2 Pro / M2 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M2 Pro / M2 Max)
- Apple MacBook Pro 13″ (M2) vs Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4)
- Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M1 Pro / M1 Max)

