Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3: everything we know so far

Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event has revealed that we’re getting a shiny new MacBook Pro 14-inch – supercharged with the new Apple M3, Apple M3 Pro, and Apple M3 Max chips.

While WWDC 2023 failed to impress when it came to Mac product launches, with Apple releasing the somewhat unnecessary M2 Macbook Air 15-inch, this is what users have really been waiting for. The M3 chip promises a major step up in performance against its predecessor, something the Apple M2 didn’t quite achieve in comparison.

Manufactured with a 3nm fabrication process, M3 is expected to deliver better performance and better power efficiency thanks to the smaller distance between its transistors – offering a nice upgrade from the current 5nm M2 SoC.

While we haven’t yet received full spec sheets for Apple’s new M3 products (which also feature a new MacBook Pro 16-inch and iMac 24-inch), we do know that the new MacBook Pro 14-inch will feature Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR display and up to a whopping 22 hours of battery life (dependent on configuration). The M3 Pro and M3 Max versions will come in a new ‘Space Black’ colorway, too. We’ll dig more into the specs further down, so get scrolling!

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3: at a glance

M3-powered MacBook Pros available to pre-order Official release on November 7                                                                       Greater power than current-gen MacBook Pros

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3: release date

The MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3 is available to pre-order now, October 30 – just head on over to Apple’s website (assuming it doesn’t crash).

As for the official release date, that’s November 7 – if you pre-order, you should receive your new laptop around that date, and that’s also when it’ll be available in stores. Apple notes that the initial rollout will be across ’27 countries’ including the US, so you may need to wait a little while if your region isn’t included in the initial list of countries to receive the new MacBooks.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3: price and availability

(Image credit: Apple)

Although Apple didn’t give us the full price breakdown during its ‘Scary Fast’ live event, we know that the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3 will start at $1,599. Configurations with extra RAM or the M3 Pro/M3 Max chips will be more expensive.

That’s a fair lick cheaper than any currently available 14-inch Pro laptop from Apple, but there’s an important caveat here: those laptops start with the M2 Pro chip. You can get a MacBook Pro with the standard M2 chip, but it’s the (apparently now deprecated) 13-inch version, which starts at $1,299.

In other words, we’re looking at a generational price bump of sorts here, although you do get a bigger display – and a more powerful chip – for your money. The main downside is that the entry-level price for MacBook Pros just went up, but the entry-level price for a 14-inch MacBook Pro technically just went down.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3: Specs and performance

We don’t know a huge amount when it comes to detailed specs right now (though of course, we’ll be back to update this page once we can get our grubby little mitts on some spec sheets), but we do know that the M3 chip offers much better performance than its M1 and M2 predecessors.

The MacBook Pro 14-inch with M3 will – according to Apple’s own internal testing – beat the M1 MacBook Pro by up to 60% in rendering workloads, and up to 40% in code compilation and spreadsheet tasks. Although we do wish Apple had provided a more recent comparison point (it also compared the new M3 MacBook Pros to old Intel i7 models, which are practically ancient history at this point), that’s still some impressive performance.

One interesting aspect of the new MacBook Pro models is that they use 100% recycled aluminum for the external chassis. Apple was keen to emphasize the environmental benefits of the design during its livestream event, furthering its goal of reaching net zero pollution.