Apple will release the new Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and iMac with the M4 chips tomorrow. After unveiling them through press releases last week, Cupertino sent journalists and influencers review units of its latest Mac computers. Here’s what they’re saying about the new M4 Macs and whether they’re worth updating.
M4 iMac reviews
The M4 iMac has new colors, a nano-textured option, faster Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB-C accessories, and more. Here’s what reviews say about the M4 iMac:
SixColors praises the new 12MP Center Stage camera available on the M4 iMac. The publication says it’s better than the one on the Studio Display:
With the M4 iMac, the FaceTime camera has finally been upgraded to Center Stage. And maybe it was worth the wait, because this isn’t the same 12MP sensor as in some previous Center Stage cameras. It’s new and improved—so improved that I could tell the difference the first second that I turned it on.
In a challenging low-light environment, the original Center Stage camera on an Apple Studio Display can look fuzzy, blotchy, and low contrast. The new Center Stage camera on the M4 iMac looks sharper, with more contrast and much more natural-looking skin tones. It’s what Center Stage should’ve looked like all along, and it’s a nice upgrade.
PCMag reviewed the M4 iMac with the nano-texture option. The publication thinks is one of the best in the market:
Going eyes-on with the display was really a testament to how well it works. I’ve seen plenty of matte-finish displays, but the iMac’s better-than-4K screen looked fantastically clear, with none of the sharpness lost.
TechCrunch says this model is an enticing upgrade, as long as you’re coming from an Intel Mac:
The iMac remains a great entry-level desktop, for those who’d rather not be bothered buying an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, et al. It’s also an ideal system for IT departments to deploy at scale in offices — or for the aforementioned dentist front desk.
It’s a big upgrade for those with an older Intel system, but anyone who has bought an iMac since 2021 needn’t bother with an upgrade. It’s not going to make a huge difference for daily tasks, and those who are excited to try Apple Intelligence will be able to on any Mac with an M1 or later.
You can also read reviews by Ars Technica, Tom’s Guide, and Forbes.
Mac mini reviews
Apple overhauled the Mac mini with an all-new compact design. It also offers new M4 and M4 Pro options. Here’s what reviews say about this M4 Mac:
Despite the lack of an SD card slot, The Verge loved the new Mac mini. The budget option is good enough for most users, and the thermal system lets M4 run smoothly:
Apple’s revamped thermal system for the Mini keeps the M4 model running quietly. Even when I’m deep in a Lightroom photo editing session, I don’t hear the fan. I’m certain the M4 Pro’s extra GPU cores would make those RAW edits even faster, but the regular M4 is up to the task for most photo work. Elsewhere, the machine has rarely missed a step, no matter what I throw at it. I’m no videographer, so I can’t speak to whether serious editing work would expose the M4’s limits. If there’s one use case that warrants stepping up to the M4 Pro, it’s likely that.
Engadget also praises the new Mac mini form factor and features. However, upgrading its memory and storage can be crazy expensive:
If you’re just looking for a basic and adorably small Mac desktop, the $599 Mac mini will likely be all you need. And if you’re looking to do a bit more serious work, and can’t justify the $1,999 Mac Studio, the $1,399 model is a decent value compared to PC workstations. Just be prepared to stomach Apple’s upgrade prices: You’ll have to spend an additional $400 just to get 32GB of RAM on the base Mini, and another $400 to get a 1TB SSD. That’s wildly out of step with prices outside of the Apple ecosystem, where you can easily find a decent 1TB NVMe SSD under $100. (That said, unlike a laptop, connecting a cheap but capacious external drive to the mini is a more viable option.)
CNET‘s review of the M4 Mac mini wanted to see if this could be Apple’s budget gaming system. Still, some games definitely required an M4 Pro processor or more RAM:
In my testing, the M4 Mini was fine for casual gaming, especially if you lean toward more mobile-friendly indie games. With more graphically demanding titles, you’ll likely have to dial back to Medium on graphics settings and play at 1440p or 1080p for a more enjoyable experience. On Baldur’s Gate 3, I set it to Ultra and it was not smooth, which is to be expected. No doubt bumping up to the M4 Pro or even going above the 16GB of memory in my Mini would address that.
You can also read M4 Mac mini reviews by TechCrunch, Tom’s Guide, and Wired.
M4 MacBook Pro reviews
The Verge got a chance to review the base model M4 MacBook Pro, which the publication calls “a Pro for everyone.” It says this M4 Mac addresses most of the issues with the previous iteration:
The M4 MacBook Pro fixes nearly every complaint we had with the M3 version. It starts at $1,599 with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD — the same starting price as the M3 model, but with two more CPU cores, twice the RAM, and a third Thunderbolt port. That port is on the right side, just like on the “real” Pro models, so you can finally charge or connect to an external display on either side of the laptop. The Pro also benefits from Apple’s across-the-board bump to 16GB of memory. Apple Intelligence is mostly boring and useless right now, but I thank it for the gift of more RAM.
Fast Company focused its M4 Pro MacBook Pro review on the new nano-textured display. The publication was mesmerized by it:
With the nano texture display option, the MacBook Pro’s screen has finally been freed from the reflective plexiglass prison it has been trapped in. Whether I was working indoors or outdoors, there was never any kind of glare on the screen. This meant that I didn’t have to adjust the MacBook to avoid being under harsh overhead lights, nor did I have to look for a shady area when sitting outside with it at a cafe.
But the lack of glare isn’t even the nano texture display’s best quality. That would have to be the way it looks. It’s hard to describe this, because you really need to see it to understand. The closest I can come to describing it is that it doesn’t “feel” digital. It’s smooth and bright and has even colors, like most displays do, but it looks more like an organic canvas, a beautiful living tapestry in which the physical manifestation of light resides.
Good Housekeeping praised MacBook Pro’s power with increased battery life and the new Center Stage Camera:
I was able to apply complex AI-driven batch edits almost instantaneously across all the images without any noticeable delay and then exported 100 picks, which took just over four minutes. This real-world test felt significantly smoother and faster than anything I’ve done on the Air.
(…) I did also use it for a FaceTime call and found the new “Centre Stage” camera impressive, as it always kept my face in the middle of the frame. (…) Battery life is impressive, as it has been on Mac laptops ever since 2020. It’s rated to get you up to 24 hours of battery life, but the most impressive thing is how efficient it remains when powered by the battery. Honestly, until you do something taxing, it can barely even seem like the battery drains at all.
You can also read reviews by TechCrunch, CNET, and SixColors.
