M1 Max MacBook Pro Review: Truly Next Level! 

me who just edits some school documents and watch RU-vid all day: yes i need that performance

Carrying imac while trevelling was actually mind blowing😂

I think one thing to keep in mind with performance is future proofing. When I was 18 I bought a $1900 MacBook Pro with the upgraded processor, memory and RAM. I was just going to use it for college and didn’t need all the power, but that computer ended up lasting me 7 and a half years before the performance was too slow. You may not need the power now, but if you pay up now, this could easily last you 5-7 years.

Great review, concise, articulate and fun to watch. I have been using the 16 inch MacBook Pro for a couple of weeks. I've been able to consolidate all of my audio and video production work on this machine, and without any of the performance issues I've had on previous laptops and desktops. Pretty amazing.

You traveling with your iMac was the first thing I thought when I saw how this handled 8K. And the silent fans on Red raw might be the most impressive demo I’ve seen of what these can do, way more surprising than the ProRes performance

I have a M1 Air and all I use it for is college classes. That being said, the battery life is a game changer. I can go be on my laptop all day for studying, classes and media at night and still be above 50% the next morning. Being able to go into a class with only 15% battery and not really worry that its going to die is amazing.

Excellent review. Thanks for breaking things down so honestly and clearly. I'm on the 2019 16" MacBook Pro and the battery life when doing editing video or photos is terrible. It's a beautiful machine, but not a good mobile workstation.The portability, battery life and performance of the M1 Pro and Max chips seems like an incredible upgrade.

Just bought the 16" Max Pro myself. Can't wait to edit on it!

"If the next version of this laptop still has a notch this big and doesn't add face ID, I'll wear socks and sandals for a day like Linus" - MKBHD Nov 2021

my man casually says "my mac pro has 768 gigs of ram" like he's talking about an ssd 😦

I’m very impressed with both your ability to speak on task for so long without multiple takes and the smooth editing/splicing when you do. Great work!!!

We have 16' M1 Max macbook pros as editing stations at the video production firm I work at and first time I used it it was JAW DROPPING Having it perform better than the huge, high power usage, RTX 2070 tower PCs I used before it is still incredible to me Edit: Just bought myself a base 14' M1 pro and I am absolutely loving it

1:42 “these laptops have top notch design” i see what you did there

Yea I couldn't agree more. Been using the maxed out Macbook 16 inch M1 Max for a week now, editing my content in Resolve 17 and wow...lets just say i"m finally getting rid of my 10 Core iMac pro. This thing is an editing beast

I've been using an M1 Pro MBP 16" for nearly a month... and wow. A significant upgrade form my last MacBook Pro. Really loving everything about it!

The fact that a laptop with a chip you can get in a $3,500 configuration can beat the load times of a $50,000 machine when rendering video is insane. That is such a quick jump with Apple Silicon. Makes me excited for the future with M2, M3, etc. The power per watt is insane.

"Top notch design." Well played sir, well played.

Btw fun fact: while they look thicker another reviewer actually measured and turns out the 14” is thinner than the old 13” MBP at the thickest point- the clever tapered edge design just made the old ones look even thinner.

Amazing review and definitely getting one of the 14" M1 Pro Max. Check your external monitor needs before you choose your version! I don't do a lot of video editing but I do use a workstation with either dual (or more) monitors and I've been experimenting with the larger curved monitors at the higher 220hz refresh rate. I nearly purchased a 13" M1 but thankfully someone pointed out that the M1 (on the laptop) only supports one external display. I did a little digging and: M1 - 1 External display M1 Pro - 2 External displays M1 Pro Max - up to 4 external displays That was a game changer for me.

I've been clinging to my early 2013 Macbook Pro Retina, but at 9 years old, it's definitely showing signs of it's age. I haven't liked any of the Macbooks that have come out in recent years, but this new 2021 Macbook looks awesome!

"I'll wear socks and sandals, like Linus" spoken like a punishment 😂

“Top notch design” Marques, you have done it again. 😂

Just got the 16inch M1 Max and it's crazy how noticeably faster it is than the last one I had (2017). Using mainly for graphic design 🤙🏽

14" Pro is the first Mac I've owned, it replaces a Surface. And in that capacity it's also next-level.

The long awaited review 👏👏👏

I love how the MKBHD solution to shooting and editing on the road was not to sacrifice 8K video or anything like that, it was just brining a whole iMac We've come a long way lol

As someone starting college in January as a IT Major this is the machine I’m going with. I will be getting the 14 with the best Pro processor with the 1tb of storage. My 2009 Unibody Mac Pro doesn’t even work with the software my school requires. I feel old but this will be a welcome upgrade. I really like the M1 Chips. Seems Apple did something right and really nailed it this time around. Also giving the M1 Chips to the 13 was a good way to force users to get the Air or the 14 because the 13 is about useless right now.

Marques Brownlee, I sooooo genuinely enjoy watching your reviews and yes, I just ordered the MacBook Pro 14" with 32GB Ram. All I'll be using it for is purely for music composition. This is the first time to have a MacBook Pro as normally I'm based on iMac's, MacPro and iPad Pro. I have had MacBook in the passed along time ago, but I was advised that the best for a small home music studio will be a MacBook Pro 14". Thank you for your brilliant and positivity you bring to us in a happy and sincere way. Jean-Claude from Melbourne, Australia ...

‘I’ll wear socks and sandals for a day, like Linus’ had me laughing

Marques: "I'm not sure why the space grey laptop doesn't also come with a space grey magsafe connector... that would've been a nice touch" Apple: *Takes notes*

I just love the intro, especially the music. It's stuck in my head

I got the absolute base model 16” M1 Pro model, and even there, it’s been a complete beast. By far, even to this day, if someone asked me what my favourite Apple product was, it’s this. I tested the waters on the final Intel 16” MBP to see if the largest spec’d model could facilitate my workflow of OBS streaming, Photoshop/Final Cut Pro, multi-tab Chrome browsing, and other little small-bite apps doing work like FTP/chatting/etc. in the background. It absolutely couldn’t even do the first step of OBS streaming, immediately ramping up the fans when opening the app, and by the time the app even started to render a preview window, it started to throttle down to a point where it’s unusable. The base 16” M1 Pro MBP not only never ever kicks up the fan enough for me to hear them, but it now runs my 100+ layer Photoshop documents (multiple), 10-15 usual tabs on Chrome, every single extra dock/full-res preview and actual streaming on OBS, and all my other apps like Discord, Transmit (FTP), Music, and even a queue’d up demanding Handbrake video conversion. It does all of this at once, whisper silent, with a maximum of some very slight warmth when you touch the aluminum right next to the fan. I couldn’t even imagine how much better this works for even more complex workflows with the higher spec options, considering mine is the absolute lowest-end M1 Pro chip running off of 16GB of RAM. Just madness, fantastic work Apple.

Haha a new "Top Notch" design, clever :-)

"I'll wear socks and sandals for a day, like Linus." 😂

You did an amazing job with this review. I’ve been trying to find something detailed since this would be my first MacBook purchase. I will be using it for my crafting business since my 8 year old laptop is dying on me 😆thank you so much

Best review I have seen of these two yet. Great work.

Never knew how much I appreciated your reviews until I found myself refreshing this channel since the new MacBooks came out!! Awesome. Got the 16” max, can’t wait.

The power efficiency is the most insane part of these chips imo

Thanks dude, awesome walk-through. Made it easy for me to buy this laptop with custom options - 16" 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD.

Love the way you covered al in an unbiased way! You rock!

5:28 one thing worth noticing is they've moved the headphone jack to the left, so as most headphones have their cable running from the left earpiece, it prevents a lot of cable mess

"I'll wear socks and sandals for a day like Linus" 😂🤣😭

I just bought mine and it will be here before my birthday in March. I use Photoshop and do design work for my job and in my leisure time. I can't wait to play around with it!!

I started as an amateur audiophile years ago when I found this channel. I was probably in middle/highscool school and I'm 24 now. That headphone jack brought me some old school excitement even though I'm completely happy with my airpods/ATH M50s

I've been having the audio waveform issue too. I didn't have this issue on my M1 MBP 13" in the previous version of FCP. So I have a feeling it's a FCP issue, not an issue with these new Macs.

I'm absolutely saddened by the fact that engineering software like AutoCAD, SolidWorks, GIS programs and new drone mapping programs can't be run on MacBooks without the use of BootCamp and running Windows. The potential for increased performance and productivity by running those with MacOS is incredibly high. There's nothing I want to see more than that as a person in the engineering field.

I just got a 32gb 1tb m1 max macbook pro and I freaking LOVE it!! This thing is my baby. Using it for music production and graphic design is amazing. Super fast, quiet, and cool.

Good Job .. You gave some much needed information that no other channel that I have seen cover.

I’m a dev. The primary project I work on at the moment took 6 minutes to build on my 2016 15” MBP. Now with the 16” M1 Pro MBP with 32GB of RAM it takes < 2 minutes. Bonkers. That right there makes it worth the price tag. Not to mention the other design updates. I’ve also been really enjoying the thermal efficiency- it’s the first time in a long time where I’ve been comfortable sitting on a couch working for a long time with the machine on my lap because it just doesn’t get hot!

"So, there will be a lot of professionals like me who are really happy with these. There is also gonna be a lot of people who totally dont need this power but just have a lot of money to spend and just want to get a nice laptop". There is no better way to describe it.

Wow what a fantastic review.. thank you so much for your time to make it. so so good!!!

Awesome review. Thanks as always! My work has the 16" M1 Pro Macbook Pro as an option for the refresh! Mine should come in today!

That was such a good review. Not a single second wasted.

“I’ll wear socks and sandals for a day - like Linus” 😂

Thanks so much for the easy explanation Marques! I am excited for when I can upgrade from my little old 2013 Macbook Air (I don't know how this thing is still running, god bless!) to one of these bad boys!!!

I just got a 14in from work (I had a 15in 2017 MacBook Pro prior) and it's such an awesome upgrade. I don't do a ton of super in depth work on it, but I'm exciting for when I have to start using Adobe on it more. Also, a cool little feature of the 2021 MacBook Pros. The USB-C ports also act as chargers. So if you forgot your charger or bought a back up for the USB-C of the prior models, you can use those to charge. In theory you could plug both in, but it'll only pull power from one.

Been waiting to hear your thoughts on the new Macbooks :)

Carrying that giant case everywhere is true dedication to your job 😂

As someone who has never owned an apple product I must say this laptop is really nice especially compared to windows laptops! Only thing that I don't like is the smearing/ghosting when moving anything on the screen at 120hz. I bought this laptop for Blender 3d because Apple joined the dev fund to support Metal. Blenders viewport performance is extremely good and the trackpad support is perfect. I also just found out that Windows 10 Blender releases don't support trackpad gestures like Mac releases of blender do. I tried a trackpad on my windows 10 pc for Blender and it was terrible. But there is a patch D7660 Add support for precision touchpad gestures on Windows which I beleive is just now being integrated into blender on windows 10.

As someone who stated editing in 1981 with 16mm film, then moved to 1” video, ¾” video, Betacam, Avid, Premiere, Final Cut Pro Studio (I was apple’s broadcast guy in Asia PAC for a couple of years working with a whole lotta big houses in the region) I have to agree with you 100%. M1 powered MBPs are the tool that finally frees content creators from a desk in a room…anywhere. I thought we had hit that point in 2004-6, but this makes all that look and feel like serious delusion. I’m running Resolve, for a whole lot of reasons, and I refuse to work with more than 4k, but lately I’ve been including more footage from a GoPro 10 in 265 “just because “. As a test, I have transcoded less of it and my DSLR footage to ProRes, which has been my workflow for almost 20 years just as a way to avoid the unavoidable space bar struggle to play thing. I decided on the 14” purely because I (usually) do my work out of a backpack roaming around South East Asia, and I can slide this into my 30L everyday pack, with cameras, lenses, lights and get on a scooter/bus/train/plane and go to the next location. I totally get what you mean about a few of the ports being not quite as bleeding edge as the could have been, but, as someone who’s dropped far more money than they should have on aluminium shells over the years, there were so often too many over specced ports that were a total waste. Case in point: Thunderbolt. Great standard, piss poor adoption by the marketplace. Apple users were never a big enough demographic for affordable devices to take advantage of it. Finally the rest of the user world has caught up and we’re getting the advantage of usability and reasonable price. So, all things considered, I’m happy as a pig in mud, and once things open up again, I’m really excited to get back on a plane and actually be able to do serious, serious content creation absolutely, unequivocally anywhere I want to lift the lid on my sweet little space grey piece of joy.

I just can't wait for a mac mini pro max or whichever desktop they come up with. These machines seem very very impressive for my music & video work

0:15 It's the little details like matching the pitch of the charging sound to the key of the music that really sets your intros apart. Fantastic work!

Can't wait to buy a maxed one in 3-5 years I got a maxed out 2014 in 2019 and it's still running amazingly. Hdmi and Magsafe return is awesome

Really good analysis and explanation of the Macbook pros. Great great job. Thank you.

On April 1st he posted the best Mac he ever reviewed, little does Marques know that he would actually be doing that in November as well

That intro was 🔥🔥🔥🔥

I love your reviews man! you're great, thank you!

Have not had a working laptop in 7 years when my 2007 macbook pro went down, im ready to jump back in with this one. I definitely feel like the power will suit me, i always edited footage, used ableton live while using tons of plug ins, serato for dj sets, recording live bands and running musical instruments/midi pads through ableton live and other software.

My eyes can't decide whether to stare at the beautiful machine or the adorable Groot plant in the background

16:23 so the macbook has only 64 GB of RAM, compared to 768 GB of RAM, on the mac pro..... that just sounds like something my mom would say, not knowing and throwing some familiar numbers around 😂😭 I'd be like, "noo, that's probably the SSD" 😝🤣 But seriously, I wonder when the general public will be talking about like 1 TB of RAM, like it's nothing 🙃

Mine’s arriving this monday. Absolutely pumped I can finally put my dell to the side and have some actual power in my laptop!

You killed this review..good job and I'm sold!

I truly love watching your videos, especially when your reviews, legitimately, validate my purchase decisions (even with my level of frugality; I usually sit on decisions for up to a year before pulling the trigger). This is my first-ever Macbook Pro and I’m 💯 satisfied with my purchase this year. 👌🏼

I think this is one of your best reviews ever. Wow 🙌🏻

Thank you for always being such a detailed and interesting reviewer! I feel a lot more confident about my purchases after watching your reviews.

Thank you very much for the very professional review. I've being using windows for all my life, but later I have a taste for a Mac, and I think I will go for the MacBook Pro 16 M1 Max. Yes, a power full machine that probably I will not need all that power, but I think never there is too much power or too much money.

i’ve finally been able to consolidate all of my work to one portable device, that maintains battery all day. I have to run CAD, Signal analysis tools, EM field solvers(all X86-64) in Windows(via Parallels). And I can do this on battery, all day long. I have to be at a lot of places during the day and being able to just close the laptop lid in the middle of something, going to some other location, and then being able to jump right back in anytime, with the computer sitting in my lap(if I have to) without my legs melting off… it has added such convenience that I’m able to work much more efficiently. I used to have to use a giant fan pointed at my windows laptop to keep it from thermal throttling.

“I can’t wait for the M1 Mac Pro desktop”. Marques, wtf are you going to be editing. 100k footage or something.

Best review ever hands down! 🔥

Best review and intro out of all your videos

These intros just keep getting better and better. Thought I clicked on an ad

It's as if someone went to the future, stole a MacBook and came back. This is incredible 😲

The editing on that intro is just so good omg

I don't even want a Macbook, but I love watching your videos because they're so informative and easy to watch. Unreal.

I likely will not touch the edges of the power of this laptop, but this is one of the best reviews of a laptop I've ever seen in it's completeness, comprehensiveness and clarity. It covered every conceivable aspect I would be interested in and did it in such a way and with a clear explanation that I am now able to not only be confident of purchasing a new MacBook Pro, but which one and in which configuration. That is a very important aspect, as I work for a non-profit and need to make a definitive decision and not have to regret it - because I'll have it a very long time. Kudos!

"Saving you a dongle" is such a first world convenience 😂 I'm all for it though

Thank You Very Much for the BEST REVIEW I ever heard about these New M1 Mac Books.

Thank you, I needed this video!

Great report and evaluation, Mr.m Brownlee. You made me feel much better about my recent purchase of the MacBook Pro 16-inch. Like you, I do. a lot of video editing and I am super happy with the ease of use and quick rendering time. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for the great report.

I’ve had it for a week and I’m still exited to watch this I’m such a nerd

Marques, I just love your content, man!

“Kinda annoying that such an expensive computer doesn’t have the latest highest end parts”. Apples motto since forever.

@Marques. Your introduction part is getting next level. I have been admiring it quiet long and Specially for this one you nailed it.

Checked daily for your video! So glad you dropped it FINALLY. Enjoyed your interview the other day talking about everything going on. I think this is the start of the old Apple. LOVE this new design language. It’s almost as if the PowerBook G4 Titatium had a child with the 2006 MacBook Pro and had a facelift to look like the 2009 aluminium MacBook.

I was holding on to my MacBook Pro Mid-2015 Retina waiting for this. Got my 14" today and love it.

My new job just sent me this MBP M1 Max. Get it tomorrow. Was bummed at first but now I'm excited.

Love it!!! have mine on order! so freaking excited! Definitely the most excited I've been for any product in a freaking long time!!! I do find it a bit funny that the new Macbook Pros look a looooot like a G4 Powerbook I had way back in the day. Not complaining, since those ports are super nice to have back, but it is funny the design is so early 2000's again. Also I travel with my iMac for work too. Glad to know I'm not alone.

I love how you can have the menu bar stay at the top now all the time when in full screen. It’s a really nice thing to have.

Thanks for the great video! Really spot-on coverage of my interests.

Dang. This was a great review in simple English. Thanks for including the Final Cut Pro section. Thanks again!