Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021): A Comprehensive Laptop Review| PhilNews

A Detailed Review Of The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021) Laptop

APPLE MACBOOK PRO 14 (2021) – Here is a detailed review of the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021), highlighting its positive aspects as well as its drawbacks.

The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021) is a high-end laptop featuring Apple’s M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs (System on a Chip). Its design closely resembles its larger counterpart, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021), and it boasts the same robust aluminum construction. The Mini LED display offers a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz for smoother motion, delivering impressive HDR performance with deep blacks and vivid highlights.

Its wide color gamut makes it a suitable choice for content creators. The keyboard provides a comfortable typing experience without causing fatigue, the large haptic touchpad is responsive, and the webcam delivers excellent video quality. The M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs excel at handling demanding tasks such as video editing and 3D animation, and their exceptional power efficiency ensures over 12 hours of light productivity and 9 hours of video playback on a single charge. However, it’s worth noting that the only user-replaceable component is the battery, and upgrades to other parts are not possible.

The Apple MacBook Pro 14 is an ideal workstation, capable of handling a wide range of workloads, including resource-intensive tasks like video editing and 3D rendering. It experiences minimal performance throttling under heavy loads, and while the keyboard can get a bit warm, the fan noise remains relatively low. The storage drive delivers swift file transfers, and the port selection is extensive, featuring a full-size HDMI, an SD card reader, and USB-Cs with Thunderbolt 4 support. Unfortunately, the laptop’s components, aside from the battery, are not user-replaceable.

PROS

Aluminum chassis feels exceptionally well-built.
Easy to carry around.
Battery lasts over 12 hours of light productivity.
Wide port selection includes full-size HDMI and USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 support.
Keyboard feels comfortable to type on, and touchpad is large and responsive.
Outstanding webcam for video calls.

CONS

Keyboard gets hot under load.
Memory and storage aren’t user-replaceable.

Differences Between Sizes And Variants

Screen	14.2″ IPS 3024 x 1964 120Hz (Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion)
CPU	M1 Pro (6 performance cores, 2 efficiency cores, 200GB/s memory bandwidth) M1 Pro (8 performance cores, 2 efficiency cores, 200GB/s memory bandwidth) M1 Max (8 performance cores, 2 efficiency cores, 400GB/s memory bandwidth)
GPU	M1 Pro (integrated, 14 cores) M1 Pro (integrated, 16 cores, 10-core CPU option only) M1 Max (integrated, 24 cores) M1 Max (integrated, 32 cores)
Memory	16GB LP-DDR5 6400MHz unified memory (M1 Pro only) 32GB LP-DDR5 6400MHz unified memory 64GB LP-DDR6 6400MHz unified memory (M1 Max only)
Storage	512GB PCIe NVMe SSD 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD 4TB PCIe NVMe SSD 8TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Color	Space Gray Silver