The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021) is a premium laptop featuring Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs (System on a Chip). It has a 16 inch display like its predecessor, the Intel-based Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019); however, this newer model has a Mini LED backlight, and it can adaptively ramp up the refresh rate up to 120Hz for smoother motion. The display is sharp and color-accurate, and it gets more than bright enough to deliver a true HDR experience. The keyboard feels great to type on, the touchpad is large and responsive, and the webcam's video quality is outstanding, producing a well-exposed and detailed image for video calls. It has a wide port selection, including a full-size HDMI port, USB-Cs with Thunderbolt 4 support, and an SD card reader. Its M1 Max SoC can handle nearly every type of workload with ease, and due to its power efficiency, the battery life is fantastic, lasting 15 hours of light productivity. Although the M1 chip has enough graphical horsepower to run demanding games, performance can vary wildly as very few games are optimized for its ARM-based SoC. Also, the display's response time is slow, causing noticeable blur trails behind fast-moving objects.
Our Apple MacBook Pro has an M1 Max SoC with 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, 32GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage. If you have a lighter workload that doesn't require as much graphical processing power, you can configure the MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip with 16 GPU cores or an M1 Max chip with 24 GPU cores. However, the choice of the SoC limits the memory configuration options as you can only pair the M1 Pro models with 16GB or 32GB of memory, while the M1 Max models are available with 32GB or 64GB. The M1 Max chip has other features like a wider memory bandwidth and more video encoders and decoders, so depending on your workload, it might be worth getting the M1 Max over the M1 Pro.
Our Verdict
The Apple MacBook Pro is excellent for school use. It feels exceptionally well-built thanks to its full-aluminum chassis, and its battery lasts easily through a typical school day with plenty of charge to spare. It's on the heavy side, though, so it's a bit cumbersome to carry around. The display gets bright enough to combat glare, the keyboard feels great to type on, and the touchpad is responsive. Its M1 SoC can handle graphically demanding workloads, making it suitable for students in fields like graphic design or 3D animation.
- Exceptionally well-built.
- Battery lasts 15 hours of light productivity.
- Display gets bright enough to combat glare.
- Large and responsive touchpad.
- Excellent webcam video quality for video calls.
- Heavy weight makes it less portable.
- No USB-A ports for wired peripherals.
The Apple MacBook Pro has the hardware to run demanding games; however, very few games are optimized for its ARM-based M1 SoC, and running games through Rosetta 2 may result in poor performance or graphical glitches. Also, the response time is quite slow even though it has a 120Hz panel, resulting in noticeable ghosting in fast-moving scenes. On the upside, there's very little performance loss over time, and it doesn't get overly hot or loud under load.
- Excellent port selection includes a full-size HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
- SoC can handle demanding workloads like video editing and gaming.
- Fast storage drive.
- Minimal performance loss over time.
- Slow response time causes noticeable ghosting.
- Few games optimized for ARM-based M1 SoC.
- No USB-A ports for wired peripherals.
The Apple MacBook Pro is great for media consumption. It has a sharp and colorful display that gets bright enough for a true HDR experience, and thanks to its Mini LED backlight providing local dimming, it can display deep blacks. The speakers get reasonably loud, and they sound full and well-balanced with minimal compression artifacts. Battery life is excellent as it lasts over 8 hours of video playback, enough time to get through a couple of movies and TV show episodes. As for portability, it's relatively thin and compact for a 16 inch device, but it's on the heavy side.
- Screen displays accurate colors and supports wide color gamut.
- Can display deep blacks for better dark room viewing experience.
- Gets very bright in HDR.
- Full-sounding speakers.
- Battery lasts over 8 hours of video playback.
- No touch input.
The Apple MacBook Pro is excellent as a workstation. Its M1 Max SoC can handle nearly all types of workloads, including demanding tasks like video editing and 3D rendering. It also doesn't get overly hot or loud under load and doesn't throttle much over time. It has plenty of ports, including a full-size HDMI, USB-Cs with Thunderbolt 4 support, and an SD card reader, though you'll still need dongles for your USB-A peripherals. Unfortunately, you can't upgrade the memory or storage after purchase as the battery is the only user-replaceable part.
- Excellent port selection includes a full-size HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
- Screen displays accurate colors and supports wide color gamut.
- SoC can handle demanding workloads like video editing and gaming.
- Fast storage drive.
- Minimal performance loss over time.
- No USB-A ports for wired peripherals.
The Apple MacBook Pro is great for business use. Even though it's slightly heavy, it's still fairly thin and compact for a 16 inch device and should fit into most bags. The keyboard feels comfortable to type on, the touchpad is gigantic and responsive, and the webcam's video quality is excellent. Its port selection includes a full-size HDMI port should you need to connect to an external display for presentations, but you'll still need dongles for your USB-A peripherals. Its M1 Max SoC can handle most tasks like text formatting, web browsing, and spreadsheets with ease, and thanks to its power efficiency, the battery lasts easily through a typical 8-hour day with plenty of charge to spare.
- Exceptionally well-built.
- Excellent port selection includes a full-size HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
- Battery lasts 15 hours of light productivity.
- Display gets bright enough to combat glare.
- Large and responsive touchpad.
- Excellent webcam video quality for video calls.
- Heavy weight makes it less portable.
- No USB-A ports for wired peripherals.
Changelog
- Updated Dec 07, 2023: Converted to Test Bench 0.8.2.
- Updated Nov 03, 2023: Converted to Test Bench 0.8.1.
- Updated Aug 01, 2023: We've uploaded a new photo in the Touchpad section because the laptop wasn't properly aligned with the grid in the previous photo.
- Updated Nov 08, 2022: Added mention of the MSI WS76 (2021) in the Screen Specs section as an alternative with a larger display.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Apple MacBook Pro 16 with an M1 Max SoC (10 CPU cores, 32 GPU cores), 32GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. The SoC, memory, and storage are configurable; you can see the available options in the table below. This review only applies to the 16 inch model as we'll review the 14 inch model separately.
| Screen |
|
|---|---|
| CPU |
|
| GPU |
|
| Memory |
|
| Storage |
|
| Color |
|
Our display and performance results are only valid for the configuration we tested. If you come across a different configuration option not listed above, or you have a similar Apple MacBook Pro 16 inch that doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update it. Some tests, like black uniformity and color accuracy, may vary between individual units.
You can see our unit's label here.
Popular Laptop Comparisons
The Apple MacBook Pro is a premium laptop that stands out for its build quality, performance, and power efficiency. It also has arguably one of the best displays on the market, and it continues to set the standard when it comes to laptop speakers and touchpads. However, it's very expensive compared to Windows laptops with similar performance. Also, while it can handle graphically demanding games, few titles are optimized for its ARM-based SoC, so it isn't the best option if your main goal is to play games.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023) is a newer version of the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M1, 2021). Except for a new Space Black color, they're identical in design, as all the improvements are internal. The M3 MacBook Pro 16 has a slightly brighter display, better performance, and longer battery life. The M3 Pro/Max SoCs also add hardware-accelerated ray tracing, AV1 decoding, and increased memory support (up to 128GB).
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M1, 2021) is a smaller variant of the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M1, 2021). They're nearly identical in many aspects, but there are a few differences. The MacBook Pro 16's display is larger, giving you more screen space for multitasking. Its bigger chassis allows for a larger touchpad, better-sounding speakers, and more effective cooling on the SoC, leading to better performance over time. That said, it's more cumbersome to carry around. The MacBook Pro 16 has longer battery life for productivity, but it doesn't last as long for video playback. As for the configurations, the MacBook Pro 14 has a lower-end M1 Pro option with 8 CPU cores and 14 GPU cores that isn't available on the 16 inch model.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M1, 2021) is much better than its predecessor, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019). The 2021 model features Apple's ARM-based M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs, which are significantly more powerful than the Intel 9th Gen Core CPUs on the 2019 model. The M1's integrated graphics perform better than the dedicated GPUs available on the older model. The M1 MacBook Pro's display is much better as it has a Mini LED backlight that provides local dimming and gets a lot brighter in HDR. The M1 MacBook Pro's keyboard feels better to type on, its webcam's video quality is better, and its wider port selection includes a full-size HDMI port and SD card reader. Last but not least, the M1 MacBook has significantly longer battery life, lasting five hours more than the 2019 model for light productivity.
While the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) is better than the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M1, 2021) for most uses, they're very similar devices. The MacBook Pro 16 is a larger device, which gives you more screen space for multitasking, albeit at the cost of portability. You also get better-sounding speakers. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro 14 features Apple's M3 SoC, which is significantly faster than its initial M1 offering found in the 2021 Pro model and offers support for new features like hardware ray tracing and AV1 encoding. The Pro 14 also has better battery life.
Test Results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
