Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009) vs Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M4 Pro or M4 Max)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009) | AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M4 Pro or M4 Max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | June 2009 | November 2024 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 15.4″ | 16.2″ |
| Resolution | 1440 × 900 | 3456 × 2234 (better) |
| Panel | TN LCD | Mini-LED |
| Refresh rate | – | 120 Hz |
| Brightness | – | 1,000 nits |
| HDR peak brightness | – | 1,600 nits |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Glossy LED-backlit widescreen display with millions of colours. TN panel technology is identified by the exact-model Notebookcheck review; maker refresh rate and brightness are unpublished. | Liquid Retina XDR display |
| Pixel density | – | 254 ppi |
| Colour range | – | Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours |
| 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 |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz (MacBook Pro Late 2008), Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz (MacBook Pro Mid 2009), Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz (MacBook Pro Late 2008) or Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz (MacBook Pro Mid 2009) | Apple M4 Pro or Apple M4 Max |
| CPU cores | 2 | 14 or 16 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (256 MB GDDR3) + GeForce 9400M or NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (512 MB GDDR3) + GeForce 9400M | 20-core GPU, 32-core GPU or 40-core GPU |
| Memory | 4 GB or 8 GB | 24 GB, 36 GB, 48 GB or 128 GB (better) |
| Storage | 128 GB to 500 GB | 512 GB to 8 TB (better) |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.53 or 2.66 GHz with 3 MB shared L2 cache, or 2.8 and optional 3.06 GHz with 6 MB; 1066 MHz frontside bus. The optional 3.06 GHz processor belongs to the upper discrete-graphics group. No unverified Intel SKU assumptions. | M4 Pro: 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores; M4 Max: 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, or 16-core CPU with 12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores |
| GPU | The 2.53 GHz model has GeForce 9400M integrated graphics only. The 2.66 GHz model also has GeForce 9600M GT with 256 MB GDDR3; 2.8 and 3.06 GHz have 512 MB. GeForce 9400M uses 256 MB shared system memory. | 20-core (M4 Pro), 32-core or 40-core (M4 Max) GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode, with two video encode and two ProRes engines on M4 Max |
| AI engine | – | 16-core Neural Engine |
| Memory type | 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM in two SO-DIMM slots, supplied with 4 GB and configurable to 8 GB. | Unified memory; M4 Pro takes 24GB or 48GB; M4 Max takes 36GB (14-core CPU) or 48GB, 64GB or 128GB (16-core CPU) |
| Memory bandwidth | – | 273 GB/s (M4 Pro), 410 GB/s (M4 Max with 32-core GPU) or 546 GB/s (M4 Max with 40-core GPU) |
| Storage type | Base hard drives are 250 GB at 2.53 GHz, 320 GB at 2.66 GHz and 500 GB at 2.8 GHz, all 5400 rpm. Configurable 320 GB and 500 GB hard drives offer 5400 or 7200 rpm; 128 GB and 256 GB are SSD options. Higher processor groups omit an unconfirmed 250 GB choice. 8× SuperDrive with double-layer DVD writing. | SSD, configurable up to 4 TB (M4 Pro) or 8 TB (M4 Max) |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 7 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Battery capacity | 73 Wh | 99.6 Wh (better) |
| Weight | 2.49 kg | 2.14 kg (better) |
| Thickness | 24.1 mm | 16.8 mm (better) |
| Width × depth | 364 × 249 mm | 355.7 × 248.1 mm |
| Battery life detail | Built-in lithium-polymer battery. Apple reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. | M4 Pro up to 24 hours video streaming and 17 hours wireless web; M4 Max up to 21 hours video streaming and 14 hours wireless web; 100-watt-hour (99.6 Wh actual) lithium-polymer battery |
| Charger | 60 W MagSafe Power Adapter for 2.53 GHz; 85 W for 2.66, 2.8 and 3.06 GHz configurations. | 140 W USB-C Power Adapter included |
| Fast charging | – | With the included 140 W USB-C Power Adapter |
| Materials | Aluminium unibody enclosure and glass trackpad | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure; 40% recycled content overall |
| Colours | Silver | Space Black, Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 2 × USB-A, SD card slot, Ethernet, headphone jack, MagSafe | 3 × Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack |
| Wi-Fi | AirPort Extreme 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g | Wi-Fi 6E |
| Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 5.3 |
| Webcam | Built-in iSight camera | 12MP Center Stage |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | Two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, Mini DisplayPort, SD card slot, combined optical digital audio input/line input and combined optical digital audio output/headphone output. No ExpressCard slot. | 3 × Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) with charging, DisplayPort 2.1, Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4 (up to 120 Gb/s); HDMI (up to 8K 60 Hz or 4K 240 Hz) with multichannel audio output; SDXC card slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support |
| External displays | Supports the built-in display and an external display up to 2560 × 1600 pixels simultaneously. Mini DisplayPort adapters for DVI, dual-link DVI or VGA are sold separately. | M4 Pro 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 8K 60 Hz or 4K 240 Hz over HDMI; M4 Max up to four (three at 6K 60 Hz over Thunderbolt and one at 4K 144 Hz over HDMI), or three (two at 6K 60 Hz plus one at 8K 60 Hz or 4K 240 Hz over HDMI); all alongside the built-in display |
| Keyboard | Backlit keyboard with 78 US or 79 ISO keys, 12 function keys and four arrow keys. | Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (US) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys |
| Trackpad | Glass Multi-Touch trackpad supporting two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate and three/four-finger gestures. | Force Touch trackpad |
| Speakers | Built-in stereo speakers | High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos |
| Microphones | Omnidirectional microphone beneath the left speaker grille. | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming |
| Biometrics | – | Touch ID |
| In the box | MacBook Pro, MagSafe Power Adapter with AC wall plug and power cord, display cleaning cloth, install/restore DVDs and documentation. Mac OS X Leopard and iLife ’09; Apple Remote and display adapters sold separately. | 16-inch MacBook Pro, 140 W USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m), polishing cloth (nano-texture display only) |
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