Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M3 Pro / M3 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M3 Pro / M3 Max) | AppleMacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | November 2023 | March 2015 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 14.2″ | 13.3″ |
| Resolution | 3024 × 1964 (better) | 2560 × 1600 |
| Panel | Mini-LED | IPS LCD |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | – |
| Brightness | 600 nits (better) | 300 nits |
| HDR peak brightness | 1,600 nits | – |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Liquid Retina XDR display with mini-LED backlighting | Retina display; LED-backlit IPS; millions of colours |
| Pixel density | 254 ppi | 227 ppi |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours | Standard colour gamut (sRGB) |
| Display features | 1,000,000:1 contrast; 1,000 nits sustained full-screen HDR brightness; ProMotion adaptive refresh up to 120 Hz; fixed 47.95, 48, 50, 59.94 and 60 Hz rates; True Tone | Apple specifies a 900:1 contrast ratio; scaled resolutions of 1680 × 1050, 1440 × 900 or 1024 × 640 |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Apple M3 Pro or Apple M3 Max | Intel Core i5-5257U, Intel Core i5-5287U or Intel Core i7-5557U |
| CPU cores | 11, 12, 14 or 16 | 2 |
| CPU threads | – | 4 |
| Graphics | 14-core GPU, 18-core GPU, 30-core GPU or 40-core GPU | Intel Iris Graphics 6100 |
| Memory | 18 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB, 64 GB, 96 GB or 128 GB (better) | 8 GB or 16 GB |
| Storage | 512 GB to 8 TB (better) | 128 GB to 1 TB |
| CPU | M3 Pro: 11-core CPU (5 performance, 6 efficiency) or 12-core CPU (6 performance, 6 efficiency); M3 Max: 14-core CPU (10 performance, 4 efficiency) or 16-core CPU (12 performance, 4 efficiency) | Dual-core Intel Core i5 at 2.7 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz, Core i5 at 2.9 GHz with up to 3.3 GHz, or Core i7 at 3.1 GHz with up to 3.4 GHz. Exact i5-5257U, i5-5287U and i7-5557U identifiers confirmed by Notebookcheck; Core i5 processors have 3 MB shared L3 cache and Core i7 has 4 MB. |
| GPU | M3 Pro: 14-core or 18-core GPU; M3 Max: 30-core or 40-core GPU; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW media engine with AV1 decode; M3 Max has two video encode and two ProRes encode/decode engines | Intel Iris Graphics 6100 integrated graphics |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory; M3 Pro supports 18 GB or 36 GB; 14-core M3 Max supports 36 GB or 96 GB; 16-core M3 Max supports 48 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB | 8 GB of 1866 MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory, configurable to 16 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 150 GB/s (M3 Pro); 300 GB/s (14-core M3 Max) or 400 GB/s (16-core M3 Max) | – |
| Storage type | SSD; M3 Pro starts at 512 GB and supports up to 4 TB; M3 Max starts at 1 TB and supports up to 8 TB | PCIe-based flash storage; Apple lists 128 GB and 256 GB bases with 2.7 GHz processors, each configurable to 2.9 GHz Core i5 or 3.1 GHz Core i7. The 512 GB base has a 2.9 GHz processor, configurable to Core i7 and 1 TB storage. Its general configure-to-order list also says up to 1 TB without specifying every processor/storage combination. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 18 hours | Up to 10 hours |
| Battery capacity | – | 74.9 Wh |
| Weight | 1.61 kg | 1.58 kg (better) |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm (better) | 18 mm |
| Width × depth | 312.6 × 221.2 mm | 314 × 219 mm |
| Battery life detail | Up to 12 hours wireless web; Apple’s main specification states 72.4 Wh, but the generic footnote gives 69.6 Wh for the 14-inch model; capacity omitted from the main comparison because these figures conflict | Lithium-polymer battery; up to 10 hours wireless web, 12 hours iTunes movie playback or 30 days standby. Apple tested 2.9 GHz Core i5 systems for web and movie playback, and 2.7 GHz Core i5 systems for standby. Weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. |
| Charger | 70 W USB-C adapter with 11-core M3 Pro; 96 W adapter with 12-core M3 Pro or M3 Max, optional on the entry configuration | 60 W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter with cable management system |
| Fast charging | With 96 W USB-C Power Adapter | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure | Aluminium enclosure |
| Colours | Silver, Space Black | – |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 3 × Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 2 × Thunderbolt 2, 2 × USB-A, HDMI, headphone jack, SD card slot, MagSafe 2 |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 5 |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 | 4.0 |
| Webcam | 1080p FaceTime HD | 720p FaceTime HD |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | Three Thunderbolt 4 ports with charging, DisplayPort and USB 4 up to 40 Gb/s; HDMI; SDXC slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm jack with high-impedance headphone support | Two Thunderbolt 2 ports up to 20 Gb/s with native Mini DisplayPort video, two USB 3 ports up to 5 Gb/s, HDMI, SDXC card slot, MagSafe 2 power and 3.5 mm headphone jack with digital/analogue line output and iPhone headset support; separate Thunderbolt Ethernet and FireWire adaptors available |
| External displays | M3 Pro supports two at 6K 60 Hz over Thunderbolt or one at 6K 60 Hz plus one at 4K 144 Hz over HDMI; M3 Max supports three at 6K 60 Hz plus one at 4K 144 Hz, or two at 6K 60 Hz plus one at 8K 60 Hz or 4K 240 Hz; HDMI alone supports 8K 60 Hz or 4K 240 Hz | Two external displays up to 3840 × 2160 alongside the built-in screen; HDMI supports 1080p at up to 60 Hz, 3840 × 2160 at 30 Hz or 4096 × 2160 at 24 Hz. Mini DisplayPort adaptors provide DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI. |
| Keyboard | Backlit Magic Keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, including 12 full-height function keys | Full-size backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys, inverted-T arrow keys and ambient light sensor |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Force Touch trackpad with pressure sensing, Force clicks and Multi-Touch gestures |
| Speakers | Six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; spatial audio with Dolby Atmos | Stereo speakers |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming | Dual microphones |
| Biometrics | Touch ID | – |
| In the box | 14-inch MacBook Pro, 70 W or 96 W USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable (2 m) | MacBook Pro; MagSafe 2 Power Adapter; power cord; AC wall plug |
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