2021 Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, Apple M1 Pro chip with 10‑core CPU and 16‑core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) - Space Grey

Have you been putting off upgrading that Retina MacBook Pro? I've been reluctant to upgrade to Apple Silicon because, well, most of my Macs are eight or nine years old and they still work fine. There's a familiarity - but also if you look at the benchmarks of typical Intel machines the benefits of upgrading are quite small. My late-2014 i7 is not significantly slower than the company 2019 i7 on many tasks and benchmarks.The M1 Pro version of the MacBook Pro, however, is an immense leap and I'm very happy I went for it! Returning to a 14" form factor is a brilliant move, with a large, lush screen that has excellent colour rendition and sharpness, and this MacBook Pro regains the SDXC card slot and HDMI connection so vital for work (and play) on the road. You will want to play, as I've found that despite the unified memory and unfamiliar architecture the gaming performance on the few titles I've tried from Steam and WoW is amazing. I'd happily hook this up to a TV and use it to play some rally games.Battery life is great. I charged it up on delivery and have used it for a few hours in the evening, including downloading and installing games on the first evening, and it's very much on target for four evenings of use with power to spare. Apple rate it for 17 hours of Apple TV streaming - or 11 hours of wireless internet - but that seems to be a rating for 'solid hours' and it's efficient when not actively working. For word processing and other traditional applications it seems quite happy to trot along for a typical working weekend. Very impressive indeed (and easy to charge - if you forgot your MagSafe cable, just hook up a USB-C cable to one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports!).The return of the MagSafe charger is very welcome (my work MacBook is USB-C all around and I fear for the longevity of the ports), but unlike past models the cable is a USB-C lead going into the PSU and can be swapped into readily-available 96W USB chargers, so having more than one is not very expensive at all. In terms of other changes - I like the black keyboard surround, though must admit the lack of Touch Bar feels like a backwards step; on the other hand Touch ID works so well.This MacBook Pro is the first I have used that supports sidecar with an iPad as a second display. It's brilliant! You can use the iPad as a substitute for a Cintiq or similar graphics tablet if you have the pencil (if you don't you have to control the iPad with the Mac's mouse - you can't touch-screen control the Mac apart from the substitute Touch Bar the iPad provides. Forgot to charge the iPad? Just plug it into the Mac with a USB-C to C cable.Sound quality is amazing. Deep bass with remarkable clarity, lovely crisp reproduction. I use a lot of soft synths on my main Mac and have to admit, I'm leaning towards moving Reason or Korg Gadget 2 to the M1 MacBook Pro because it just sounds so good (and can easily swap to my phone's AirPods). It even has a conventional headphone port that supports line-level output as well, and the MacBook Pro's built-in DAC operates up to 96kHz. However, it looks like you need a USB or Thunderbolt interface for audio in - many modern synths and gadgets already output USB audio.Most of all, this MacBook Pro has already proven extremely usable. The form factor, screen clarity, weight and battery life mean I've returned to using a laptop on my lap, rather than as a desktop machine. I've already ordered a protective shell for It, anticipating taking it more places and letting it be a more personal, essential device than any laptop I've owned since... well, since the plastic G4 iBook really.Downsides? I'm struggling to think of any. The battery is sealed in, but my experience of this has been that the batteries in my past MacBook Pros (2012, 2014) have lasted well over six years and ultimately have not been the drama to replace it first seemed. So far none of the apps I've wanted has been slow, unsupported or unavailable (the critical Apple and Adobe ones fly along, the latter is notably quicker than on Intel). The cost of storage upgrades is high - I chose 16GB RAM and 1TB and that's a big price jump, but one that I think future-proofs the Mac for a long life.It even has wider, deeper feet than the old models for better protection from desks.As a long-term Apple and Mac users (since 1980 and 1984 respectively) I generally find the high cost of the machines is offset by a much longer useful life than I've associated with Windows machines of various makes; it is not impossible that I'll still be using this MacBook Pro in 2032. So if you're unsure if the cost is worth it - in my opinion it really is. If nothing else it's a highly usable machine with speed, ease of access and essential apps all included out of the box, and the best investment in a computer is in one you will actually use. This is one of Apple's best laptops yet - incredible performance for the cost, excellent finish and build quality and a great keyboard, and enough connectivity not to feel limited.

I upgraded from a 2016 15 inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro, and its a huge step up. The new screen is amazing, I don't think there are many other laptop screens that could compete with it. HDR content looks perfect on it and pretty close to the quality that OLED can offer. Don't be put off by the notch that people have been complaining about, I really don't even notice it while working. the extra space provided either side of it are used by the menu bar, if it wasn't there the menu bar would be taking up screen space (and if you really don't like the look of it, there are apps you can download that will blackout the menu bar to hide the notch and still use the menu bar).The performance is realistically more than I need, it is huge! The basic M1 wouldn't quite have done it for me and the step up between that and the M1 Pro is big, but hopefully that means it will be more than enough for years to come. The speed of the Mac is fast! it wakes up from sleep instantly like an iPhone would, apps load in seconds and the SSD speeds are faster than anything I've ever used. I'm still yet to hear the fans spin up, which compared to my 2016 one that would sound like a jet taking off doing the most basic of tasks, its really noticeably quiet.The ports are back! something that really shouldn't have been taken away the first place on the 2016 model. having MagSafe back is very nice and its fast charging capability is a nice bonus, but the fact the MacBook can still be charged with USB C through its other 3 ports gives flexibility to charge in other ways with different devices or external battery packs. My external LG display can charge and transfer all the data still over one USB C cable. Having the SD Card slot built back in is perfect for me and photography as my camera uses SD Cards, less so for some of the newer pro cameras that have moved onto different formats. The HDMI port is nice for the odd time that I might connect to a borrowed external screen when out and about but will probably rarely be used. The fact that there is no USB A port is not an issue to me at all, I replaced the cables for external drives and accessories when I got my 2016 model, much better than using dongles and worth the one time spend to do it (most cables I needed are in the Amazon Basics range for a few pounds each).The new design seems chunkier but is actually the same thickness as my 2016 MacBook Pro (at its thickest point) I really like the more old school design and think it looks a lot more sturdy and 'Pro'. and there is more space inside for batteries and cooling without the taper. The new black keyboard surround is a nice touch, it just looks nice, I do think it looks better on the space grey one with less of a contrast between the metal and keys.All in all it is the best computer I have ever owned, Apple has finally given a Pro labelled laptop Pro level insides and it really shows. I would highly recommend it and am glad I went for the upgraded version with 1TB, the extra performance and the faster, more powerful charger.