Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M3) vs Apple MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M3) | AppleMacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | November 2023 | October 2013 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 14.2″ | 15.4″ |
| Resolution | 3024 × 1964 (better) | 2880 × 1800 |
| Panel | Mini-LED | IPS LCD |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | – |
| Brightness | 600 nits | – |
| HDR peak brightness | 1,600 nits | – |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Liquid Retina XDR display with mini-LED backlighting | Retina LED-backlit IPS display, millions of colours; native 2880 × 1800, with scaled modes of 1920 × 1200, 1680 × 1050, 1280 × 800 and 1024 × 640. Refresh rate and brightness unpublished by Apple. |
| Pixel density | 254 ppi | 220 ppi |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours | – |
| 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 | Apple M3 | Intel Core i7-4750HQ, Intel Core i7-4850HQ or Intel Core i7-4960HQ |
| CPU cores | 8 | 4 |
| CPU threads | – | 8 |
| Graphics | 10-core GPU | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 or NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (2 GB GDDR5) |
| Memory | 8 GB, 16 GB or 24 GB (better) | 8 GB or 16 GB |
| Storage | 512 GB to 2 TB (better) | 256 GB to 1 TB |
| CPU | 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores | Quad-core Intel Core i7-4750HQ at 2 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz, i7-4850HQ at 2.3 GHz with up to 3.5 GHz, or i7-4960HQ at 2.6 GHz with up to 3.8 GHz; all with 6 MB shared L3 cache. Exact identities documented by EveryMac and cross-checked against Intel. |
| 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 Pro Graphics 5200 on all configurations; the higher base adds NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2 GB GDDR5 and automatic graphics switching. Upgrading the lower base processor does not add the NVIDIA GPU. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory; 8 GB or 16 GB, configurable to 24 GB | 1600 MHz DDR3L onboard memory; 8 GB with the Iris Pro-only base, configurable to 16 GB; 16 GB with the NVIDIA-equipped base |
| Memory bandwidth | 100 GB/s | – |
| Storage type | SSD; 512 GB or 1 TB, configurable to 2 TB | PCIe-based flash storage; Iris Pro-only base has 256 GB, configurable to 512 GB or 1 TB, with any of its three processor choices. NVIDIA-equipped base has 512 GB, configurable to 1 TB, with the 2.3 GHz or 2.6 GHz processor. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 22 hours | Up to 8 hours |
| Battery capacity | 69.6 Wh | 95 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.55 kg (better) | 2.02 kg |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm (better) | 18 mm |
| Width × depth | 312.6 × 221.2 mm | 358.9 × 247.1 mm |
| 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 95 Wh lithium-polymer battery; up to 8 hours wireless web, 8 hours iTunes movie playback or 30 days standby under Apple's test conditions. Reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. |
| Charger | 70 W USB-C Power Adapter | 85 W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter with cable management |
| Fast charging | With optional 96 W USB-C Power Adapter | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure | Aluminium enclosure |
| Colours | Silver, Space Grey | Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 2 × Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 2 × USB-A, 2 × Thunderbolt 2, MagSafe 2, headphone jack, SD card slot, HDMI |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E | 802.11ac (draft specification); compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n |
| 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 USB 3 ports up to 5 Gb/s, two Thunderbolt 2 ports up to 20 Gb/s with native Mini DisplayPort output, HDMI, SDXC, MagSafe 2 and headphone jack; support for digital/analogue audio line output and Apple iPhone headset remote and microphone. Ethernet and FireWire require separate Thunderbolt adapters. |
| 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 | Built-in screen plus up to two external displays at 2560 × 1600, with millions of colours; HDMI supports 1080p at up to 60 Hz, 3840 × 2160 at 30 Hz or 4096 × 2160 at 24 Hz. DVI, VGA and dual-link DVI adapters sold separately. |
| 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, four arrow keys and ambient light sensor |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Multi-Touch trackpad with inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap and drag |
| 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 with Retina display, MagSafe 2 Power Adapter, AC wall plug and power cord; OS X Mavericks, iLife apps and qualifying free iWork apps |
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