The MacBook Pro M3 is super fast, pretty pricey and thrilling in Space Black

The M3 MacBook Pro is the latest triumph of Apple silicon, the company’s adventure in making its own computing chips that began three years ago. It’s also the second MacBook Pro of 2023 (farewell, M2 MacBook Pros), and it arrives with a beefier chipset that packs new guts for gaming performance. Yes, I said gaming performance … on a MacBook Pro.

The most interesting part of the M3 MacBook Pro lineup, arguably, is the fact that Apple’s putting a regular, vanilla M3 chip inside of the 14-inch MacBook Pro body. This coincides with the end of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which had a poorly aging design and the Touch Bar that never lived up to the hype. While this fall’s edition looks nearly identical — save for the suave Space Black — to past MacBook Pros, it’s still plenty interesting. So, for the last week, I’ve been testing out two of these MacBooks to help you figure out which is right for you — and if you need to upgrade or not.

Because, while these are some of my favorite laptops and the top MacBooks ever, they’re priced high enough to ensure that you’ll need to do your research before you make a purchase.

What we liked about it

M3 delivers more performance than you might know what to do with

The M3 MacBook Pros often scream “never let ‘em see you sweat.” In my everyday use for the past week of testing, both of the M3 MacBook Pros I used barely flinched when I opened every single macOS and iOS app I use regularly in my day-to-day. Then again, the M3 Pro and Max are built for the incredibly demanding needs of those editing loads of 4K film and rendering high-res 3D visuals as well as those working in medicine, coding and architecture.

Henry T. Casey / CNN Underscored

Henry T. Casey / CNN Underscored

To try to stress these machines, I just opened everything I had on hand. Dozens of tabs in Chrome, Safari and Arc (a new browser based on Chromium), alongside a ton of other apps. How many is a ton? Well, to name a few that functioned perfectly side by side: Discord, Pixelmator Pro, Messages, Reeder, 1Password, Apple Maps (yes, really), Photos, Notes, Apple’s TV app, Apple News, Overcast, Spotify, Carrot Weather and all my productivity apps, such as Gmail client Mimestream, Todoist, Drafts, Slack, Fantastical, Due, Ulysses and Structured. Oh, and even Steam.

Our benchmarks showed the power of Apple silicon, which more than doubled the Dell XPS 15’s multi-core score on Geekbench 6, a test that gauges overall performance. That said, the XPS 15, as configured, is $2,849 — over a grand less expensive than the $3,999 16-inch MacBook Pro we tested.

As for year-over-year improvements, the M3 MacBook Pro’s Geekbench 5 benchmark scores beat the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro’s scores by about 18% to 20%.

14-inch and 16-inch both offer strong battery life

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

I was pleased to discover solid endurance times on our looping 4K video battery test, with the M3 MacBook Pros coming in at around 10 hours, give or take, beating their M2 series brethren by up to four hours. Both outlasted the Dell XPS 15 by at least an hour and 25 minutes.

What changed? Well, the M3 is Apple’s (and the world’s) first computer chip based on 3-nanometer technology, which is meant to improve efficiency. Check out our MacBook Pro M3 vs. MacBook Air M3 face-off for a full comparison of the latest generation of Apple laptops.

The Mac can finally rock modern games — and more are coming

Suggesting that Macs are good for gaming has been a surefire way to start arguments for the last decade or two. Yes, top-tier first-person shooter Halo was originally developed for the Mac. Yes, a select batch of notable games is available on Apple Arcade. But, for many reasons, the biggest video games and Macs mixed about as well as magnets of opposing polarity.

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

Now we’re seemingly at an inflection point in that conversation. Baldur’s Gate 3, one of the biggest games of 2023, hit the Mac less than two months after its PC release. And it looks fantastic in near-Full HD with Ultra graphics enabled on the M3 Max-equipped 16-inch MacBook Pro I tested, especially as the red, horned character Karlach emerged from a pod to try to figure out what the hell was going on. I did see a couple of oddities, though, with a little tearing that was fixed by turning VSYNC on and a stripe pattern showing up on clothing and skin in certain lighting. I could not fix the latter issue on my own, but a patch update installed on November 10th fixed it. This is the kind of flaw that is frequently fixed on PC games, and one that Mac owners will likely get used to as more triple-A titles arrive on macOS.

I loved playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on the 16-inch MacBook Pro so much that I’ve been using this laptop as my primary computing device for the month after I wrote this review. Even when I unplugged this MacBook Pro from its power supply, it ran Baldur’s Gate 3 smoothly in Full HD. The game looked so crisp on the MacBook that I was able to focus on how bad I am at D&D-style games and forget I was playing a major new game on a Mac.

To see how other high-profile games are running on the Mac, I booted up Resident Evil Village (which is sold in Apple’s own App Store, unlike Baldur’s Gate 3, which is sold via Steam). Resident Evil Village, which came out years earlier on consoles and also earlier than Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Mac, ran perfectly at the same resolution on the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Over on the M3-based 14-inch MacBook Pro, however, Karlach’s waking moments suffered from low performance when I tried to play with the same Ultra HD settings.

Benchmarks bore out the difference I saw on screen, with the M3 Max MacBook Pro thumping the M3 MacBook Pro with a Geekbench 6 OpenCL score that’s over 200% higher, and a Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark that’s almost 300% higher. The Dell XPS 15 posted a similar OpenCL score as the M3 Max MacBook Pro, but its Tomb Raider performance is more on par with the vanilla M3 MacBook Pro. Oh, and this version of Shadow of the Tomb Raider is running through Apple’s Rosetta 2 emulation technology, which makes it all the more impressive.

This is just the beginning for AAA-quality Mac games, with the Death Stranding Director’s Cut, the Resident Evil 4 remake and new release Assassin’s Creed Mirage coming soon. But the question of “Will people game on the Mac?” still lingers. Personally, I already have the major consoles, and prefer them because my LG C2 OLED TV is bigger and better than any display I can connect to my MacBook Pro. I chose the Mac for Baldur’s Gate 3 because it’s a game that works best with mouse and keyboard. This makes me wonder if there are other Mac owners like me who simply decided they’re console gamers first and foremost. That said, devout Mac users who are gaming-curious can now get a better taste of modern blockbusters, and they aren’t relegated to playing big-screen mobile games via Apple Arcade. I hope we continue to see major video games hit the Mac around the same time as other platforms, but only time will tell.

Same great display, ports and design — now in stunning Space Black

As the owner of a Space Gray MacBook Pro, and the tester of a Space Black MacBook Pro, I can confidently tell you that Apple’s newer darker hue has me in a covetous mood. Available as an alternative to Silver for M3 Pro- and M3 Max-based MacBook Pros, Space Black is a hue that practically disappears.

While Apple engineered this new finish using new anodization tricks that aim to reduce fingerprints, I can tell you that you will still probably leave a smudge on a Space Black laptop. Because I did. That said, it doesn’t appear to be the utter fingerprint magnet that the Midnight Blue MacBook Air is.

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

As for the rest of the M3 MacBook Pro? Apple didn’t need to change the laptop I love and bought back in 2021. Its Liquid Retina XDR display may not be OLED, but it’s still downright gorgeous. I was reminded of this fact as I watched the climactic series of stunts in “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” noticing the many shades of green and blue in the trees and water around Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell as they ran for their lives atop a falling train. The 14-inch MacBook Pro’s super-sharp 3024 x 1964 panel rendered Cruise’s grimacing face perfectly as he struggled to hang on inside a falling car, and the action star looked equally flustered on the 16-inch MacBook Pro’s 3456 x 2234 panel.

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

That larger display, though, proved to be a much bigger deal in my month with the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Multitasking is so much easier with that extra resolution and screen space, which allows for apps to run side-by-side with more room to breathe. Yes, the bigger MacBook is more expensive, but that extra investment is worth it.

For those of us who use Macs and want a great laptop, the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros have been something of a godsend, and that started with the clicky, comfortable keyboard that I’ll never take for granted after the butterfly keyboard incident.

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

The end of the Touch Bar also means the return of physical function keys across all MacBook Pros, thank you very much. Also, every member of the current MacBook Pro lineup now offers HDMI out and an SD memory reader, as Apple deletes the 13-inch model that was limited to only two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. Those ports could be the big reason why someone upgrades from the MacBook Air too. These can help reduce your reliance on USB-C hubs so you don’t need to see if you packed one every time you leave the house.

On top of all that, you get the same excellent six-speaker sound system of yesteryear’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. That means the MacBook Pros sounded fantastic as I listened to the power pop band Charly Bliss’ single “I Need a New Boyfriend” and rapper Action Bronson’s song “The Chairman’s Intent.” You also get the same 1080p webcam that lets you look great in solid lighting, and a little fuzzy in less-lit rooms.

What we didn’t like about it

It’s quite expensive

As much as I love the MacBook Pro, even I have to admit it’s just expensive. Yes, the $1,299 15-inch MacBook Air exists for those with everyday needs, but if you want a big-screen laptop and want things like faster performance or more robust ports, you’re spending almost twice as much to get the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which starts at $2,499. That’s unless you’re OK with the smaller screen of the 14-inch model, which begins at a more reasonable but still pricey $1,599.

That pricing is even more questionable when you consider that Apple defaults the M3 MacBook Pro to only 8GB of RAM. For those of us who hoard Chrome tabs uncontrollably, we look at the XPS 15 — which starts with 16GB of RAM — and think, “Why doesn’t Apple fill our memory sockets the way Dell does?”

I love my 14-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max, but I wish I didn’t have to spend so much to make it my favorite laptop ever.

The M3 MacBook Pro is lacking

As happy as I am to celebrate the death of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with its gimmicky OLED Touch Bar and poor port selection, not all is right. The new M3 MacBook Pro that replaced it is still a second-class citizen in some regards.

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

Henry T. Casey/CNN Underscored

The vanilla M3 MacBook Pro comes with dual Thunderbolt/USB 4 USB-C ports, while the M3 Pro models pack in a trio of Thunderbolt 4 ports. The former may be enough for some, but it creates confusion in the MacBook Pro lineup — especially when the entry-level M3 MacBook Pro only lets you connect one external display, while the M3 Pro can let you hook up two. You would hope users with the need for two monitors will do the research to know what they need, but that’s hard to assume.

And while the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro is the most affordable Liquid Retina XDR display MacBook Pro yet, it’s also $300 more than its 13-inch ancestor. That said, it does give you a bigger and better screen, twice as much internal SSD storage (512GB, up from 256GB) and many other little upgrades like a Full HD webcam, a six-speaker sound system, an HDMI out port and an SD memory reader.

Space Black is limited to the priciest models

Paying a little more to get a better paint job is both counterintuitive (the best iPhone hues come on the iPhone 15 and not the iPhone 15 Pro) and a part of Apple’s own history. The 2006 Black MacBook was $50 more than a similarly-spec’d white MacBook, but this year’s Space Black MacBook doesn’t suffer from pricey paint. Instead, it’s available only to those who are getting a MacBook Pro that runs on an M3 Pro or M3 Max, which start at $400 more than the entry-level M3 MacBook Pro.

As the proud owner of a Space Gray 14-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip, I can confidently say that Space Black is a superior shade. That said, my MacBook Pro is also covered in stickers, so you only see that hue on the deck and underside. It’s akin to how people often encase their phones, hiding their color. I’d be annoyed if I was denied the hue of my choice because my need for speed wasn’t high enough or my budget wasn’t big enough to blow some more cash on it.

How it compares

Bottom line

The new M3 MacBook Pros are fantastic powerhouse laptops that are already making previous-gen owners envious and considering upgrades. While overall performance is the big story here, I am impressed by the ever-improving state of gaming on the Mac. We’re not at the endgame yet, but we’re further along than I ever expected.

Sure, competing Windows laptops like the Dell XPS 15 start at lower prices and give you more memory, but the MacBook Pro beats it on battery life, and the benchmarks tilt in Apple’s favor as well. Of course, shoppers should always consider the 15-inch MacBook Air, which starts at $300 less than the 14-inch MacBook Pro, but it lacks the larger port selection and is a generation of chips behind until Apple inevitably upgrades it.

For those who want a portable MacBook with a ton of speed and a few more ports than the Air offers, go for the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro. But if you want to game in 4K or get serious creative work done? Well, look toward the M3 Pro or — to be safe and as future-proof as can be — the M3 Max.