PRO ACTIVE
All-new Space Black finish, all-new M3 power, all-new price: the 2023 MacBook Pro is out-of-this-world impressive
From £1,699 apple.com
It feels like only a heartbeat ago we were reviewing the last MacBook Pro – the 16-inch M2 Pro model, 10 months ago, back in March 2023 – and quickly realising it was not only among the best MacBooks money could buy, but ultimately one of the best laptops on the planet.
That a new MacBook Pro has arrived so soon after seems somewhat peculiar, but we’re not complaining: the all-new M3 silicon (as revealed in the ‘Scary Fast’ event) is here to reign supreme and, in the 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max model we had for review, it’s truly outstanding.
Not only that, dressed in the also all-new Space Black finish (which we’re mildly obsessed with – all Apple products should offer Space Black), and with a lower entry-level price, can the late 2023 MacBook Pro M3 series do no wrong? We’ve been using it for a full week and there’s no doubt in our minds it delivers an almost out-of-this-world experience.
In today’s economic climate, all products’ prices seem to rise by big percentages generation to generation. So what’s this? The M3 MacBook Pro is cheaper than the M2 equivalent? That’s right – and by quite a margin. The 14-inch M2 models were priced from £2,149, but the M3 at its entry-level configuration is priced from £1,699.
Of course we have the M3 Maxtoting MacBook Pro on review here, so it’s towards the top end. An entry-level Max in the 14-inch body will set you back £3,299. But ours has the upgraded chip with 16 ‐core CPU, 40 ‐core GPU and 16 ‐core Neural Engine, plus 64GB unified memory – bringing the total to a rather handsome (or not) £3,999. The 16-inch model maxed out can almost double that.
But there’s a proposition of value here – and in this user-configurable format you can build a MacBook Pro that suits your needs and, to some degree, budget. What it delivers makes it well worth it, just don’t overreach for no distinct reason. The most disappointed people, however, are likely to be recent M2 buyers whose MacBook Pro models are no longer part of the line-up – it’s almost as if they never existed.
