Apple MacBook Pro 16″ (M1 Pro / M1 Max) vs Apple MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMacBook Pro 16″ (M1 Pro / M1 Max) | AppleMacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | October 2021 | February 2009 |
| Display | ||
| Screen size | 16.2″ | 17″ |
| Resolution | 3456 × 2234 (better) | 1920 × 1200 |
| Panel | Mini-LED | – |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | – |
| Brightness | 500 nits | – |
| HDR peak brightness | 1,600 nits | – |
| Touchscreen | No | No |
| Display type | Liquid Retina XDR display with mini-LED backlighting | 17-inch LED-backlit widescreen display at 1920 × 1200, glossy or optional antiglare. Exact panel technology, brightness and refresh rate are unpublished in the maker sources read. |
| Pixel density | 254 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 M1 Pro or Apple M1 Max | Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz (MacBook Pro Mid 2009) or Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz (MacBook Pro Early 2009) |
| CPU cores | 10 | 2 |
| Graphics | 16-core GPU, 24-core GPU or 32-core GPU | NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (512 MB GDDR3) + GeForce 9400M |
| Memory | 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB (better) | 4 GB or 8 GB |
| Storage | 512 GB to 8 TB (better) | 128 GB to 320 GB |
| CPU | M1 Pro or M1 Max with 10-core CPU, comprising 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores | Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.66 GHz or optional 2.93 GHz, with 6 MB shared L2 cache and a 1066 MHz frontside bus. Maker-clock records avoid unverified Intel SKU assumptions. |
| GPU | M1 Pro with 16-core GPU; M1 Max with 24-core or 32-core GPU; hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW with video decode and encode engines and ProRes acceleration; M1 Max has two ProRes accelerators | NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 512 MB GDDR3 plus GeForce 9400M with 256 MB shared system memory. Switching between the discrete and integrated graphics requires logout, as reported by LaptopMag. |
| AI engine | 16-core Neural Engine | – |
| Memory type | Unified memory; 16 GB or 32 GB with M1 Pro, 32 GB or 64 GB with M1 Max | 4 GB or 8 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM in two SO-DIMM slots. |
| Memory bandwidth | 200 GB/s (M1 Pro); 400 GB/s (M1 Max) | – |
| Storage type | SSD; M1 Pro starts at 512 GB with 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB or 8 TB options; Apple lists M1 Max starting at 1 TB with 2 TB, 4 TB or 8 TB options | 320 GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; optional 320 GB 7200-rpm hard drive or 128 GB or 256 GB SSD with either processor. 8× SuperDrive with double-layer DVD writing. |
| Battery and size | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 21 hours | Up to 8 hours |
| Battery capacity | 99.6 Wh (better) | 95 Wh |
| Weight | 2.1 kg (better) | 2.99 kg |
| Thickness | 16.8 mm (better) | 25 mm |
| Width × depth | 355.7 × 248.1 mm | 393 × 267 mm |
| Battery life detail | Up to 21 hours Apple TV app movie playback or 14 hours wireless web; marketed as 100 Wh, with actual rating 99.6 Wh in Apple's footnote | Built-in lithium-polymer battery. Apple reference weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process. |
| Charger | 140 W USB-C power adapter included | 85 W MagSafe Power Adapter |
| Fast charging | With the included 140 W USB-C adapter and USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable | – |
| Materials | 100% recycled aluminium enclosure | Aluminium unibody enclosure and glass trackpad |
| Colours | Silver, Space Grey | Silver |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 3 × Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, SD card slot, MagSafe 3, headphone jack | 3 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack, MagSafe |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6 | AirPort Extreme 802.11n; compatible with 802.11a/b/g |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 2.1 + EDR |
| Webcam | 1080p FaceTime HD | Built-in iSight camera |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Port detail | Three Thunderbolt 4 ports with charging, DisplayPort and USB 4 up to 40 Gb/s; HDMI; SDXC slot; MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm jack with high-impedance headphone support | Three USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, MagSafe, Mini DisplayPort, ExpressCard/34, separate combined optical digital audio input/line input and optical digital audio output/headphone output. No SD card slot. |
| External displays | M1 Pro supports up to two external displays at 6K 60 Hz; M1 Max up to three at 6K 60 Hz plus one at 4K 60 Hz; HDMI supports one at 4K 60 Hz | Supports an external display up to 2560 × 1600 pixels alongside the built-in display. Mini DisplayPort to DVI, dual-link DVI or VGA adapters are sold separately. |
| 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 | Force Touch trackpad | Glass Multi-Touch trackpad supporting two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate and three/four-finger gestures. |
| Speakers | Six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers; wide stereo; spatial audio with Dolby Atmos | Built-in stereo speakers |
| Microphones | Studio-quality three-mic array with directional beamforming | Omnidirectional microphone beneath the left speaker grille; supports an Apple Stereo Headset with microphone. |
| Biometrics | Touch ID | – |
| In the box | 16-inch MacBook Pro, 140 W USB-C 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, install/restore DVDs and documentation. Mac OS X Leopard and iLife ’09; Apple Remote and display adapters sold separately. |
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