If you need pro-grade power without the pro price, jumping on the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro is the move at present. That base configuration, at least in terms of GPU memory, costs the same as a 15-inch model with half the storage, just under its competitors’ list prices. Since launch, for example, I’ve been seeing the base configuration selling for $1,349 — $250 below its $1,599 list — pushing Apple’s most mainstream MacBook Pro pretty solidly into “buy” territory, even as an M5-equipped model fetches full freight for quite modest improvements.
Why the M4 MacBook Pro Is the Wiser Investment Today
The M4’s ceiling is already sky-high for most creators and developers. And video editors cutting 4K timelines in Final Cut Pro, photographers batching through tens of thousands of images in Lightroom Classic, and engineers compiling large Xcode projects will see the only thing that matters most: fast, quiet, sustained performance. Early third-party testing from outlets that benchmark Apple silicon generation to generation has framed these year-to-year jumps as more evolutionary than transformative in day-to-day workloads.
The M5 makes a difference, it is true, but only for those edge cases where time off a heavy render or simulation adds up quickly to billable hours. If you’re not frequently doing multi-hour encoding, running large machine learning models, or rendering complex 3D scenes, you’ll save $250 and feel like you never sidelined yourself to do so.
What You Do Still Get With M4 MacBook Pro
The basics are already top-of-the-line. The Liquid Retina XDR display is still a standout, with 120Hz ProMotion and Apple’s published HDR figures — 1,000 nits sustained, 1,600 nits peak — that reviewers at DisplayMate and other labs have raved about on recent generations of MacBook Pro. Color accuracy and uniformity are fantastically good — the sort of thing that matters greatly to photographers and designers but is not at all helped by a few yards on a synthetic GPU score.
Battery life is another way in which the M4 hits the sweet spot. Apple rates the 14-inch Pro for all-day use, and real-world battery life often meets or exceeds that figure in independent testing from review outlets testing similar-weight Windows workstations. This means more editing, coding, or grading on the move without the wall hunt.
Then there’s the I/O. Three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, a high-impedance headphone jack, and MagSafe 3 make for a frictionless, dongle-light setup. If you record to SD cards, present over HDMI, and dock high-speed storage via Thunderbolt, the current chassis already fits your workflow like a glove.
Real-World Performance Differences Compared with M5
New silicon pretty much always wins the peak throughput race and some GPU-accelerated tasks, so expect the M5 to follow suit. But media engines for ProRes and H.264/H.265 hardware acceleration were already so well developed on M4 that editors moving from an Intel-based or early M-series chip have reported massive time savings — even before considering the absolute newest processor as a factor, and even if you’re ignoring the latest processors entirely. Publications such as The Verge, Tom’s Hardware, and Notebookcheck have often described these jumps as noticeable on paper but subtle to the touch; a difference you wouldn’t really feel unless you live your life in benchmarks.
So basically, the M4 is a sensible choice for most pro users: students who will study CS or maybe design, photographers exporting hundreds of RAWs, and developers building apps that don’t need to sync multi-gigabyte data sets every hour.
They’ll get the same cooled, quiet chassis and the same premium display — for $250 still in the bank.
Smart Ways to Invest That $250 Savings on Upgrades
That discount is more than just a number — it can greatly enhance your setup. It’s almost the price of AppleCare+, which many pros consider mandatory insurance. Here’s an alternative: Put the savings toward a storage upgrade (it generally costs about $200 to jump from 512GB of storage to 1TB), one or two external Thunderbolt SSDs for scratch disks, or perhaps even a calibrated reference screen so you can expand your workspace.
Developers could spend that money on a reliable USB-C hub or a second monitor. Photographers can also look into high-speed UHS-II SD cards. Editors can pick up a high-end pair of headphones or a control surface. These are the upgrades you’ll feel every day — more so than, say, a slight generational nudge in a chip you never push to its limits.
Buying Tips to Know Before You Go to the Checkout
Make sure you’re purchasing the M4 16GB/512GB configuration for $1,349 and are buying it from a seller with good feedback who has a reasonable return period. Cross-reference pricing at big-box stores — it’s competitive territory for the drop to this level. Students and teachers should stack eligible education pricing where available, and owners of recent Macs can mitigate costs with trade-ins — resale trackers say Apple laptops maintain value better than most competitors.
Bottom line: Unless you absolutely must have the latest in silicon at any cost, skip the M5 for now. The M4 MacBook Pro continues to offer the same quality screen, battery life, and build quality at a price that only now feels like an instant buy.
