Why I Switched to the 14-Inch M3 Max MacBook Pro!

We may earn compensation from reviewed products. Learn about our editorial policies.

90%

90%

The M3 Max MacBook Pro is mind-blowingly powerful, reserved for only the most strenuous of use cases. That also means it costs an arm and a leg, but if you buy one, it will serve you for many years to come.

The Good

1. Power beyond belief
2. Premium design and feel
3. Excellent dsiplay
4. Loads of ports

The Bad

1. Eye-wateringly expensive
2. Heavy and hard to transport

• User Ratings (1 Votes)
  0.1

I’ve just returned from Las Vegas where I attended CES. My legs are still sore, my feet hurt, my brain is complete mush, and I’ve got what I think is known as ‘the CES bug’ which means I’m spending every day coughing like someone who has just smoked eighteen packets of Benson & Hedges.

It was a superb trip, though, and one during which I learned an awful lot about working at such a huge event. Predictably, I got lots of stuff wrong, but I also nailed one element – the laptop of choice.

My steed for the journey was the M3 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro, and despite it costing me an arm and a leg, it has already proved its worth.

The size

I made a bit of a thing about the size of the 16-inch MacBook Pro I used to wield. I think, at one point, I claimed it was as big as a small country.

It isn’t. Obviously.

But it is a beast to carry around regularly if you travel a lot, and a handful of people appeared to agree with me on that point.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro isn’t. The difference in weight in my backpack compared to its big brother is startling – more so than I thought it might be. On paper, it isn’t much lighter, and I’ve always been conscious of the people who told me I was an idiot for suggesting that the 16-inch version is barely portable. Trust me, though – if you bought the big MacBook Pro and you’re wondering what life is like on the other side, it’s good. Really good.

There are some drawbacks, though – and it’s definitely worth talking about the switch from M1 Max to M3 Max.

M1 Max vs M3 Max MacBook Pro

I have a little test that I run on Macs to see how ‘fast’ they are. As always, I must reiterate that this is entirely non-scientific and doesn’t account for how they might perform in day-to-day usage.

It’s interesting, though, and is about as far as I can be bothered to go with benchmarking.

The test involves rendering and exporting a piece of ten-minute 4K footage in Final Cut Pro. My 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro achieves this feat in a total of four minutes and eight seconds. The 14-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro did it in four minutes.

So, for £4,399, I’ve gained eight seconds in performance time for the most common task I undertake on my MacBook Pro. That’s how brilliant the M1 Max chip is and it’s why it’ll go down as one of the most impressive innovations in Apple’s history of computing. Everything that has arrived since has offered incremental improvements – nothing more.

We’re many years away from a similar leap in performance.

 

My 14-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro is biblically fast. If you’re wondering, I opted for the specced-up M3 Max chip, but ‘only’ topped out the memory at 64GB. It’s more than enough for me. But it is no faster in any meaningful way than the two-year-old machine it replaces.

14-inch vs 16-inch M3 MacBook Pro: the downsides

As much as I love my new MacBook Pro, there are three downsides I’d like to highlight.

Firstly, the fans come on far more often than they ever did on my 16-inch MacBook Pro. This isn’t necessarily an issue, but it’s worth noting because it reveals just how much better the bigger chassis is at dissipating heat. For some, that might be an annoyance.

Secondly, and possibly linked to the above, is the fact that the battery life is noticeably less impressive than the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Don’t get me wrong – the MacBook Pro still takes the crown for the most impressive battery performance of any high-powered laptop I’ve used, but the 14-inch edition does sip those percentage points faster than to which I’ve become accustomed.

Thirdly, I do miss the 16-inch screen estate. I knew I would. But life is all about compromises, and this is tempered by the fact that, since adopting the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the 15-inch MacBook Air has grabbed the role of a large-screened laptop at home. Regardless, when editing in Final Cut Pro without my big monitor in the studio, things do feel more cramped than they used to.

I’m slowly getting used to it.

Overall, these compromises were worth making, due to the increased travel I’m undertaking these days, but they’re worth bearing in mind if you’re considering a similar switch.

How I’m using it

For me, one of the most interesting elements of 14-inch MacBook Pro ownership is how I’m using it.

Due to the size of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, its use rarely extended beyond video production. It just always felt a bit daft to unearth it to write a blog post or bash through a few emails.

That isn’t the case with the 14-inch version. Given its ludicrously portable size, I’ve found myself using it for pretty much everything. It’s a joy to use on trains and planes where space is at a premium, and, unlike the 16-inch MacBook Pro, there isn’t a coffee shop table on which I’ve been unable to place it comfortably thus far. As a result, it already feels like I’m getting far more value for money.

It’s a more fun laptop to carry about, too. I talked a while ago about the ‘slingability’ of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, and now I’m using one full time, I’m all about it. The addition of Harber London’s beautiful Magnetic Envelope Sleeve means it’s protected when not in use and even more satisfying to carry about outside of my backpack. In fact – it spends more time under my arm than it does in the backpack, which is rather ironic, given my moans about the 16-inch earlier.

What about the M4 MacBook Pro?

Apple released the new M4 MacBook Pro in November 2024. With that also came the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips.

These new chips are, as we’ve become accustomed to Apple’s Silicon series, insanely powerful. This is hard to quantify because I’ve just spent the last 1000 words or so writing about how insanely powerful the M3 Max chip is.

The maximum specs for the M4 Max MacBook Pro are exactly the same as the M3 Max, the main difference being that the lowest amount of memory you can get on the M4 Max is 24GB compared to 18GB.

The M4 Max chip has marginally higher memory bandwidth and even marginally faster graphics processing. To put it simply, the difference between the two generations is very small and I can’t think of a use case that would notice it.

Of course, Apple says the M4 series is optimised for Apple Intelligence, but the worth of that is minuscule at best due to a lack of actually useful features.

My advice if you want/need a Max MacBook Pro? Buy the M3 Max version for a lower price from a third party retailer. Right now, you can buy one up on Amazon for $2,599 which is, and I know this sounds ridiculous, a bargain.

Wrapping up

Overall, I’m very happy with the M3 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro. However, I must note that my buying behaviour doesn’t reflect that of a regular consumer – or even a regular business user.

I could have got by with the 16-inch MacBook Pro for several more years. As plenty of people have suggested, I could have just ‘manned up’ and got over how heavy and unwieldily it was. But I’m in a position where buying a smaller replacement is both an investment in user satisfaction and my content plan. These devices are vehicles for storytelling as much as they are tools for me.

So, don’t be swayed by the bright lights of the M3 MacBook Pro unless you absolutely need one. And, I’ll be honest – if you’ve already got an M1 MacBook Pro (of any size), you categorically don’t.

Before you go

Join my newsletter list for a weekly behind-the-scenes video of a tech content creator!

This post includes affiliate links