Apple MacBook Pro 14″ (M4) vs Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 14″ (M4) | AppleMacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | November 2024 | November 2016 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 14.2″ | 15.4″ |
| Resolution | 3024 × 1964 (better) | 2880 × 1800 |
| Panel | Mini-LED | IPS LCD |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | – |
| Brightness | 1,000 nits (better) | 500 nits |
| HDR peak brightness | 1,600 nits | – |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Liquid Retina XDR display | Retina display; LED-backlit IPS; millions of colours |
| Pixel density | 254 ppi | 220 ppi |
| Colour range | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours | Wide colour (P3) |
| 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 | Scaled resolutions of 1920 × 1200, 1680 × 1050, 1280 × 800 or 1024 × 640 |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Apple M4 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ, Intel Core i7-6820HQ or Intel Core i7-6920HQ |
| CPU cores | 10 | 4 |
| CPU threads | – | 8 |
| Graphics | 10-core GPU | AMD Radeon Pro 450, AMD Radeon Pro 460 or AMD Radeon Pro 455 |
| AI engine (NPU) | 38 TOPS | – |
| Memory | 16 GB, 24 GB or 32 GB (better) | 16 GB |
| Storage | 512 GB to 2 TB | 256 GB to 2 TB |
| CPU | 10-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores | Quad-core Intel Core i7 at 2.6 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.5 GHz and 6 MB shared L3 cache, or at 2.7 GHz with up to 3.6 GHz and 8 MB cache; both configurable to 2.9 GHz with up to 3.8 GHz and 8 MB cache. Ars confirms the i7-6700HQ, i7-6820HQ and i7-6920HQ identifiers. |
| GPU | 10-core GPU; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode | Intel HD Graphics 530 with automatic switching to discrete Radeon graphics. The 2.6 GHz base has Radeon Pro 450 with 2 GB GDDR5; the 2.7 GHz base has Radeon Pro 455 with 2 GB GDDR5; each is configurable to Radeon Pro 460 with 4 GB GDDR5. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory | 16 GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory. Apple publishes this system speed; Intel lists LPDDR3-1866 in its generic processor specifications. |
| Memory bandwidth | 120 GB/s | – |
| Storage type | SSD, configurable up to 2 TB | PCIe-based onboard SSD; 256 GB base with 2.6 GHz processor configurable to 512 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB; 512 GB base with 2.7 GHz processor configurable to 1 TB or 2 TB. The optional 2.9 GHz processor retains its base configuration's graphics and storage choices. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 24 hours | Up to 10 hours |
| Battery capacity | 72.4 Wh | 76 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 1.55 kg (better) | 1.83 kg |
| Thickness | 15.5 mm | 15.5 mm |
| Width × depth | 312.6 × 221.2 mm | 349.3 × 240.7 mm |
| Battery life detail | Up to 16 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery | Lithium-polymer battery; up to 10 hours wireless web or iTunes movie playback and 30 days standby. Apple's October 2016 tests used the 2.6 GHz Core i7, 16 GB memory and 256 GB SSD. Weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. |
| Charger | 70 W USB-C Power Adapter included | 87 W USB-C Power Adapter |
| Materials | – | Aluminium enclosure |
| Fast charging | With the 96 W USB-C Power Adapter | – |
| Colours | Space Black, Silver | Silver; Space Grey |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 3 × Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 4 × Thunderbolt 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 5 |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 | 4.2 |
| Webcam | 12MP Center Stage | 720p FaceTime HD |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | 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 | Four Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports support charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt up to 40 Gb/s and USB 3.1 Gen 2 up to 10 Gb/s; 3.5 mm headphone jack. VGA, HDMI and Thunderbolt 2 output require separate adaptors. |
| External displays | 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 | Built-in screen plus two 5120 × 2880 displays at 60 Hz with over a billion colours, or four 4096 × 2304 displays at 60 Hz with over a billion colours |
| Keyboard | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (US) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys | Full-size backlit keyboard with 64 US or 65 ISO keys, four arrow keys, Touch Bar and ambient light sensor; second-generation butterfly mechanism |
| Trackpad | Force Touch trackpad | Force Touch trackpad with pressure sensing, Force clicks and Multi-Touch gestures |
| Speakers | Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos | Stereo speakers with high dynamic range |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming | Three microphones |
| Biometrics | Touch ID | Touch ID fingerprint sensor; Apple T1 chip |
| In the box | 14-inch MacBook Pro, 70 W USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only) | 15-inch MacBook Pro; 87 W USB-C Power Adapter; 2 m USB-C Charge Cable |
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