Forget about the new MacBook Pro. Apple has better products.

Update Apple Intelligence deployment details on October 20th.

Apple is preparing the next generation of MacBooks, and in the run-up to the important holiday shopping season, they’re going to make a big deal about their next computer being a MacBook Pro. They will definitely mention that it is designed “from the ground up” to use Apple Intelligence. But the real question consumers should be thinking about isn’t which MacBook Pro to buy. The question is whether you should consider the MacBook Pro in the first place.

Later this month, Apple will launch three new powerful MacBooks (M4-powered MacBook Pro, M4 Pro MacBook Pro, and M4 Max MacBook Pro) ahead of launch in the first week of November. These will bring the new M4 Apple Silicon chipset to the Mac platform, but Apple made the interesting decision to debut the chipset inside the iPad Pro in May.

The focus remains on the MacBook Pro brand, offering consumers a typical Apple choice of three processors with varying performance.

There is an audience that requires a significant level of computing power in their lives, and many of those audiences need computing power in the portable form factor of a laptop. For others, the best answer is the lighter, more affordable MacBook Air.

Eagle-eyed observers will note that Apple has no plans to launch an M4-powered MacBook Air at its next event. Instead, those looking for a new laptop for the holidays will be pushed toward the consumer-grade MacBook Pro with the base M4 chipset.

Updated: Sunday, October 20th: Mark Gurman, writing for the Power On newsletter, highlights how late Apple is in its generative AI efforts. The launch of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro handsets in September put a big focus on the company’s AI efforts, gathered under the awkward pseudonym Apple Intelligence. Last week, the latest iPad Mini was launched via a press release. The upgraded chipset is designed to support Apple Intelligence.

Neither iOS nor iPadOS can take advantage of Apple intelligence. Customers will have to wait until the week of Halloween to be able to download Apple Intelligence software. Still, we’ll only get a small taste of Apple intelligence, as we’ll be forced to release it in stages.

When the MacBook Pro laptops launch, they too will lean heavily toward AI, but like the iPhone and iPad, the first phase of Apple’s generative AI won’t be fully available until March 2025. As Garman points out, Apple is pushing AI: The next great revolution. But it is years behind its competitors, and “in fact, some within Apple believe their generative AI technology is — at least for now — more than two years behind industry leaders.” There are some people.”

Apple Intelligence won’t fully arrive until March, so there’s no way to directly compare Apple’s system to Windows 11’s. Those who buy a MacBook Pro will, in part, be determined by whether Apple releases it in March.

Anyone making this decision must realize that the M4 Pro and M4 Max are too powerful for the average consumer. While the M4 MacBook Pro may seem like the best choice, the actual laptop is interesting. Given that every MacBook Pro running a vanilla M-series chipset is built around a MacBook Air chassis, it essentially adds a fan to cool the M-series chipset and extract an extra few percent of its power. Therefore, the laptop is complete. It sits uncomfortably in the middle of the portfolio.

If you need more power, you’ll obviously want to look further up the portfolio, but the extra few hundred dollars will pay for itself over the life of the laptop.

If price is important to you, the MacBook Air is the way to go. Previously, there was a distinct feeling that budget laptops were far less capable and that it was impossible to do more than simple office work on a corporate entry-level laptop.

Apple’s portfolio changed when it moved from x86-based Intel chipsets to its own Apple Silicon series of chips. Performance advantages in computing power, battery life, and thermal control have redefined the MacBook to the point where even the M1 MacBook Air outperforms Windows laptops sold at twice the price.

The argument that you can’t get performance at base price no longer applies. The MacBook Air could comfortably lose against the best consumer laptops from its competitors. That’s certainly true today, considering Apple’s bizarre quest to regain control in the consumer generative AI space runs comfortably on that four-year-old MacBook.

If you’re one of the few people who really needs the most power, the M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro laptops are up to the task. But advances made with Apple Silicon mean that even the entry-level Macbook Air can meet the enterprise needs of IT departments around the world while providing enough power and flexibility for professional content creators, developers, and artists. means.

If so, skip the upcoming MacBook Pro and buy the M4 MacBook Air. If your needs are high and you need to buy now, I would seriously consider the current M3 MacBook Air.

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