Apple M3 Max MacBook Pro - A Long Term User Review

The Apple M3 Max version of the MacBook Pro is supposed to be the best laptop in 2024 for creators and other demanding users. But in this long term review I used it for over 4 months as my only laptop and came to some interesting conclusions about the MacBook Pro battery life, keyboard, temperatures, performance and noise. And what will happen when the MacBook Pro M4 is released?

Buy the M3 MacBook Pro from Best Buy below:

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Why does the M3 Exist?
1:49 - Size Matters
3:06 - Worse Battery Life for the MacBook Pro?
4:20 - Thermal Management
5:37 - M3 Max is a BEAST!
6:54 - Design & Build Quality
8:23 - Keyboard & Trackpad
10:05 - MacOS Experience
11:53 - I’m switching back…

Review unit provided free of charge by Apple. As per Hardware Canucks guidelines, no review direction was received from manufacturer. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

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[rare]

Maybe they should offer reasonable memory and storage base specs and upgrade prices, might help them sell more laptops

[sairithvickgummadala]

0:32 I hope Apple lowers the stupidly excessive money they charge for RAM and Storage upgrades so that people will actually find some meaning to buy a laptop that can never be upgraded

[ninjatogo]

The battery life comparison is weird. You're comparing your 16" model with a bigger battery and M2 Pro chip against the 14" model with a smaller battery and the most power hungry M3 chip. Other reviews have shown that the M3 Pro is more efficient than the M2 Pro.

[vedantdesai]

I upgraded from a 2020 base MacBook Pro with an M1 to the M3 Max 14 inch - couldn’t be happier. The CPU outperforms my 13900K desktop, and the GPU even knocks my cousin’s 4080 laptop in productivity. All of this while the fans stay completely silent in office work, and put almost every windows laptop to shame in battery life… and maybe even performance because as I said, the M3 Max is a beast!

[akin]

Woah! 4k 10-minute video rendered in under 2 minutes seems crazy when factoring in older laptop performances. It used to take between 30 to 60 minutes.

[WidePhotographs]

Just bought the 13” MacBook Pro M2 24GB/1TB because Best Buy has it on sale brand new for only $1, 299!! There’s no way I was going to let this price to specs pass up.

People say 13” is too small but I tell them if I ever need more space, I’ll just connect to my desk monitor.

[rickystafford]

16” is just better…battery life, screen, sustained performance, speakers, but why didn’t you compare yours to a 16” M3 Max?

[JarrodsTech]

Still using the MacBook Pro 14 with M2 Max, can't imagine I'd have any reason to upgrade for years!

[ariqahmer]

People really underestimate how much USD 7, 000 is. You said it, it can buy you a car. Where I am staying, I can buy a relatively new car that went 5, 000km with that money. It's bonkers

[narutodayo]

“The keyboards aren’t the best, but they do get the job done.” Thank you for actually telling the truth about Mac keyboards and not pretending they’re amazing like most reviewers do.

[johnvaleanbaily]

Wouldn't it make more sense to compare the M3 16" to the M1 16" ?

[paulwoodward]

I think the 14” chassis can better handle the thermal load of the M3 Pro chip. If you want the Max, the 16” is pretty much required to be able to cool it. What you have there is not a great configuration, and leads to high fan noise and lower battery life.

[velvetthundr]

This has got to be THE WORST comparison video I’ve ever seen from a tech YouTube channel. Comparing the the mid-tier M1 Pro in the 16-inch chassis with the top-end M3 Max in a 14-inch chassis is like saying you prefer a 4-year old Range Rover Sport over your brand new Aston Martin DB12 because it’s got a more seats and cargo space 🤦‍♀️

[FullMetalPanicNL]

Apple should just lower their RAM and SSD prices if they want to sell more.

[sloanNYC]

There were so many weird things about the M3 that I decided to hold off until the M4 at least. The Performance vs Efficiency mix, the weird power consumption, but then the GPU architecture advancements do seem quite nice. The M1 being silent was such a huge feature, hope they can get back to that. (they really hold back sales with their insane RAM/SSD mark ups, and it hurts their brand loyalty, it makes EVERYONE upset and it is obviously just greed on Apple's part)

[jimtipton]

I actually went from a 16 M1 Max to a 14 M3 Pro MBP. For me portability was the driver. Actually have yet to regret the decision. Battery is actually pretty crazy on the 14 M3 Pro.

[slizzle.]

calling a four months use --long term-- is a bit out of touch

[kemc]

One mistake on the comparison, the M3 pro memory bandwidth is 150, while M3 max is from 300 to 400 .

Apple experienced 30% drop in sales just because M1 family was just soo good! Thats why. You have to see the full picture, not just take out things out of context

[ryangray]

Had mine for about 4 months now… its amazing