Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M3) vs Apple MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M3) | 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 | Intel Core i5-5257U, Intel Core i5-5287U or Intel Core i7-5557U |
| CPU cores | 8 | 2 |
| CPU threads | – | 4 |
| Graphics | 10-core GPU | Intel Iris Graphics 6100 |
| Memory | 8 GB, 16 GB or 24 GB (better) | 8 GB or 16 GB |
| Storage | 512 GB to 2 TB (better) | 128 GB to 1 TB |
| CPU | 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores | 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 | 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 | Intel Iris Graphics 6100 integrated graphics |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory; 8 GB or 16 GB, configurable to 24 GB | 8 GB of 1866 MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory, configurable to 16 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 100 GB/s | – |
| Storage type | SSD; 512 GB or 1 TB, configurable to 2 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 22 hours | Up to 10 hours |
| Battery capacity | 69.6 Wh | 74.9 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.55 kg (better) | 1.58 kg |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm (better) | 18 mm |
| Width × depth | 312.6 × 221.2 mm | 314 × 219 mm |
| Battery life detail | Up to 15 hours wireless web; marketed as 70 Wh, with actual rating 69.6 Wh in Apple’s footnote | 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 Power Adapter | 60 W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter with cable management system |
| Fast charging | With optional 96 W USB-C Power Adapter | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure | Aluminium enclosure |
| Colours | Silver, Space Grey | – |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 2 × Thunderbolt 3, 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 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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