Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M3) vs Apple MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)

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MacBook Pro 14″ (M3) compared with MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)

	AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M3)	AppleMacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
Overview
Released
Released	November 2023	February 2011
Display
Screen size
Screen size	14.2″	17″
Resolution
Resolution	3024 × 1964 (better)	1920 × 1200
Panel
Panel	Mini-LED	–
Refresh rate
Refresh rate	120 Hz	–
Brightness
Brightness	600 nits	–
HDR peak brightness
HDR peak brightness	1,600 nits	–
Touchscreen
Touchscreen	No	No
Display type
Display type	Liquid Retina XDR display with mini-LED backlighting	17-inch LED-backlit glossy or optional antiglare display at 1920 × 1200. Exact panel technology, brightness and refresh rate are unpublished in the maker sources read.
Pixel density
Pixel density	254 ppi	–
Colour range
Colour range	Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours	–
Display features
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	–
Performance
Processor
Processor	Apple M3	Intel Core i7 2.2 GHz (MacBook Pro Early 2011) or Intel Core i7 2.3 GHz (MacBook Pro Early 2011)
CPU cores
CPU cores	8	4
Graphics
Graphics	10-core GPU	AMD Radeon HD 6750M (1 GB GDDR5) + Intel HD Graphics 3000
Memory
Memory	8 GB, 16 GB or 24 GB (better)	4 GB or 8 GB
Storage
Storage	512 GB to 2 TB (better)	128 GB to 750 GB
CPU
CPU	8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores	Quad-core Intel Core i7 at 2.2 GHz with 6 MB shared L3 cache or optional 2.3 GHz with 8 MB. Generic maker-clock records avoid an unverified Intel SKU assumption. TechRadar identifies Turbo Boost up to 3.3 GHz for the tested 2.2 GHz model; unpublished optional-processor peak clocks are omitted.
GPU
GPU	10-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing; media engine supports H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW, video and ProRes encode/decode, and AV1 decode	AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1 GB GDDR5 plus Intel HD Graphics 3000 using at least 384 MB shared DDR3 memory; automatic graphics switching.
AI engine
AI engine	16-core Neural Engine	–
Memory type
Memory type	Unified memory; 8 GB or 16 GB, configurable to 24 GB	4 GB or 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM in two SO-DIMM slots.
Memory bandwidth
Memory bandwidth	100 GB/s	–
Storage type
Storage type	SSD; 512 GB or 1 TB, configurable to 2 TB	750 GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; optional 500 GB 7200-rpm hard drive or 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB SSD with either processor. 8× SuperDrive with double-layer DVD writing.
Battery and size
Battery life (maker's claim)
Battery life (maker's claim)	Up to 22 hours	Up to 7 hours
Battery capacity
Battery capacity	69.6 Wh	95 Wh (better)
Weight
Weight	1.55 kg (better)	2.99 kg
Thickness
Thickness	15.5 mm (better)	25 mm
Width × depth
Width × depth	312.6 × 221.2 mm	393 × 267 mm
Battery life detail
Battery life detail	Up to 15 hours wireless web; marketed as 70 Wh, with actual rating 69.6 Wh in Apple’s footnote	Built-in lithium-polymer battery; up to seven hours in Apple wireless-web testing. Reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process.
Charger
Charger	70 W USB-C Power Adapter	85 W MagSafe Power Adapter
Fast charging
Fast charging	With optional 96 W USB-C Power Adapter	–
Materials
Materials	100% recycled aluminium enclosure	Aluminium unibody enclosure and glass trackpad
Colours
Colours	Silver, Space Grey	Silver
Connections
Ports
Ports	2 × Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack	3 × USB-A, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, headphone jack, MagSafe
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 6E	AirPort Extreme 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	5.3	2.1 + EDR
Webcam
Webcam	1080p FaceTime HD	FaceTime HD camera (720p, Macworld)
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Port detail
Port detail	Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 up to 40 Gb/s; HDMI; SDXC slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm jack with high-impedance headphone support	One Thunderbolt port up to 10 Gbps, three USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, ExpressCard/34, separate combined optical digital audio input/line input and optical digital audio output/headphone output. No SD card slot.
External displays
External displays	One external display with the built-in screen active; macOS Sonoma 14.6 or later supports two with the lid closed: primary up to 6K 60 Hz (or 4K 144 Hz), secondary up to 5K 60 Hz (or 4K 100 Hz), according to Apple’s updated display support page; original tech specs state HDMI up to 4K 120 Hz	Supports an external display up to 2560 × 1600 alongside the built-in screen. Thunderbolt provides native Mini DisplayPort output; optional DVI, VGA or dual-link DVI adapters and third-party HDMI adapters provide other connections.
Keyboard
Keyboard	Backlit Magic Keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, including 12 full-height function keys	Backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys and four arrow keys.
Trackpad
Trackpad	Force Touch trackpad	Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate and three/four-finger gestures.
Speakers
Speakers	Six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; spatial audio with Dolby Atmos	Built-in stereo speakers with subwoofers
Microphones
Microphones	Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming	Omnidirectional microphone under the left speaker grille; supports an iPhone headset microphone.
Biometrics
Biometrics	Touch ID	–
In the box
In the box	14-inch MacBook Pro, 70 W USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable (2 m)	MacBook Pro, 85 W MagSafe Power Adapter with AC wall plug and power cord, display cleaning cloth, software DVDs and documentation. Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife ’11 and FaceTime; Apple Remote and display adapters sold separately.