Apple MacBook Pro 16-Inch (M3 Max)

Apple MacBook Pro 16-Inch (2023, M3 Max)

Taking it to the max in performance and price

4.5 Excellent
Apple MacBook Pro 16-Inch (2023, M3 Max) - Apple MacBook Pro 16-Inch (M3 Max) (Credit: Brian Westover)
4.5 Excellent

Bottom Line

Apple's 2023 16-inch MacBook Pro is a fully loaded laptop that goes from premium consumer desktop replacement to elite professional workstation with the M3 Max chip.
US Street Price $2499.00
  • Pros

    • Fiery M3 Max processor
    • Beautiful Liquid Retina XDR display
    • Ample configuration options
    • Abundant ports and connectivity
    • Superb battery life
  • Cons

    • Expensive, particularly for higher configurations
    • Inconsistent GPU performance in testing
    • No touch screen

Apple MacBook Pro 16-Inch (M3 Max) Specs

Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) 8
Boot Drive Type SSD
Class Desktop Replacement
Class Workstation
Dimensions (HWD) 0.66 by 14 by 9.8 inches
Graphics Processor Apple M3 Max (40-core GPU)
Laptop Class Desktop Replacement
Laptop Class Workstation
Native Display Resolution 3456 by 2234
Operating System Apple macOS
Panel Technology Mini LED
Processor Apple M3 Max
RAM (as Tested) 128
Screen Refresh Rate 120
Screen Size 16.2
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes) 27:53
Variable Refresh Support ProMotion
Weight 4.8
Wireless Networking Bluetooth 5.3
Wireless Networking Wi-Fi 6E

Apple's third-generation M3 processor lineup is here, and with it, the largest and most powerful laptop the company makes. Packaged in a snazzy black finish, the 2023 edition of the 16-inch MacBook Pro (starting at $2,499) contains class-leading parts with prices to match. Configured with an M3 Max processor rocking 40 GPU cores, 128GB of memory, and 8TB of storage, the fully decked out model we tested rings in at an eye-watering $7,199. Make no mistake, this laptop is for the most demanding professionals. It's the MacBook Pro to get for media makers, data scientists, engineers, and animators—people who need top-of-the-line performance and are willing to pay top dollar to get it. Naturally, the 16-inch MacBook Pro drives some of the best performance we've seen, earning it our Editors' Choice award for Mac workstation laptops.


Configurations: From Conservative to Crazy

With a price ranging between $2,499 and $7,199, it's obvious that you have plenty of options for customizing your MacBook build at purchase. Let's discuss just a few.

The most basic model, selling for $2,499, is outfitted with an M3 Pro processor, Apple's middle child in the M3 processor family. With 12 CPU cores (six performance cores and six efficiency cores), it's a capable system for most office workers, and the stock model comes with an 18-core GPU, 18GB of memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and enough power to drive dual external monitors at up to 6K resolution and as fast as 60Hz.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

All models of the 16-inch MacBook Pro come with a 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display and a full complement of ports. But this base model also supports up to 36GB of memory and as much as 4TB of storage, bringing the price to $4,099.

Stepping up to the more powerful M3 Max processor bumps the price to $3,299, and it comes with a more powerful 14?core CPU, a beefy 30?core GPU, and it starts with 36GB of unified memory and 512GB of SSD storage.

However, this can be upgraded considerably (as seen in our review unit) with options for a more powerful 16-core M3 Max chip and 40-core GPU, up to 128GB of memory, and your choice of 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB of SSD storage. Add it all up, and this top model sells for $7,199. That's a 188% increase in price from the basic M3 Max version, but this fully loaded model promises massive gains in speed and capability, not to mention more than triple the RAM and a 16-fold increase in storage space.


Design: Back In Black

The overall design of the 16-inch MacBook Pro is more or less identical to the previous model from January of 2023, which was powered by the M2 Max chip, and even the 2021 M1 Max model before that. So, let's start by noting what's different: This one comes in black.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

That's not a throwaway line, either. Apple has not only added Space Black as a color option alongside the usual Silver finish of the aluminum chassis, but with the new hue is a new anodization process. Aside from looking cool with a darker shade of bare metal, the new process alters the surface of the metal so that it is more resistant to fingerprints.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

The aluminum is 100% recycled, as are all of the metals and magnets used inside. The machined chassis is a slim 0.66-inch thick and has a 14.01-by-9.77-inch footprint that's roughly the same as older 15-inch MacBooks used to occupy, despite having a larger display.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

The flat design is less rounded than older, pre-2021 models, but the squared-off profile still features comfortably rounded corners and a satiny smooth surface that's a pleasure to hold. It's slim enough to be portable, but at 4.8 pounds, you might not want to carry it everywhere.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

It also comes with the biggest power brick of any MacBook laptop. The included 140W USB-C Power Adapter is clad in white plastic and chunky 5.52 by 4.64 by 1.28 inches. It weighs 0.75-pound, bringing the total carry weight of the laptop to just over 5.5 pounds. Apple does include a color-matched MagSafe power cable, so you can plug it in to power up in style.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

Ports and Connectivity: That's Rich

The 2023 MacBook Pro 16 also has the best connectivity of Apple's laptops. On the left side of the chassis, you'll find the MagSafe 3 power connector, two Thunderbolt 4 ports (with up to 40GBps throughput, along with DisplayPort support and optional charging to and from the MacBook), and a 3.5mm headset audio jack.

(Credit: Brian Westover)
(Credit: Brian Westover)

On the right, you get even more ports, with a third Thunderbolt 4 port, a full-size HDMI output, and an SDXC card slot. Given how many premium laptops we've tested with only Thunderbolt 4 (and sometimes not even a headphone jack!), it's refreshing to see Apple keeping more physical connections on the laptop.

For wireless networking and accessories, the MacBook has Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, matching what we saw in the M2-based Pro earlier in 2023.


Display: What's In a Name?

While I may grumble about Apple's penchant for branding every given feature of a laptop, the Liquid Retina XDR display—Apple's name for the MacBook's 16.2-inch screen—is a singular type of panel in the laptop world. It's not the only high-end, high-resolution display out there, but the mix of technologies is distinctive.

The 3,456-by-2,234 pixel IPS panel achieves almost 4K resolution, with 254 pixels per inch, and it's backed with 10,000 mini-LED backlights. Those tiny but mighty pinpoints of light allow the panel to deliver OLED-like contrast levels, with deep, rich black levels and bright, vibrant color. Apple claims that the brightness for HDR content can reach 1,600 nits, with 1,000 nits of sustained brightness, but our tests showed that most of the time, it hovers just shy of 400 nits. Anecdotally, I've seen it handle HDR content with the brightness claimed, but our display tests don't measure momentary HDR brightness.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

On top of that, everything looks ultra smooth on the display thanks to the 120Hz maximum refresh rate. Using Apple's ProMotion technology, the responsive panel adjusts the refresh rate depending on what's on the screen and what you're doing, adjusting on the fly for gaming, scrolling, streaming, and more. This is one of those situations where the apparent ease with which it handles these disparate demands suggests a lot of work went into making it look so effortless.

But Apple's laptops still have one key feature missing: touch screens. For whatever reason, the company that brought us the iPhone and the iPad still refuses to put a proper touch display on a MacBook. If you want that, you'll definitely need to stick with Windows…or even a Chromebook. Seriously, Apple, some people want touch screens!

The accompanying audio is just as well done as the display, with a six-speaker sound system that features Dolby Atmos audio for spatial, three-dimensional sound. One interesting aspect of the audio design is the use of force-canceling sound, which pairs two downward-facing woofers with two upward-facing tweeters to drive more volume with less battery drain. It's a cool trick that sounds booming.


Using the MacBook Pro 16-Inch: Webcam, Keyboard, and Touchpad

Apple's 1080p FaceTime camera looks decent, especially compared with the 720p cameras that Apple used to put in its laptops. The color capture looks accurate enough, the details are crisp, and Apple bolsters the whole arrangement with features like Center Stage, which auto-centers your face even if you move. Sometimes, the added filtering and image enhancements look a little unnatural, but it's not bad.

However, for the best camera on a MacBook, Apple gives you the option of using your iPhone camera.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

Apple's keyboard is the same one we saw on the previous MacBook Pro: the updated Magic Keyboard. A fingerprint reader in the power button makes it a cinch to securely sign in with Apple ID, a feature we've appreciated for years. The square, backlit keys feel comfortable to type on, if a bit shallow, and the backlight keeps everything clear and legible, adjusting automatically for better visibility in darker rooms. With just 1mm of key travel, the Magic Keyboard lacks the depth that I've enjoyed on competing systems, like the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1, which has a 1.5mm range of motion. It's fine if you're already an Apple user and like the keyboard, but even with the Magic Keyboard's snappy typing feel, I miss the extra depth.

Obviously, that preference is subjective, but so is the appeal of the layout. Apple keyboards use a different selection of modifier keys in addition to a standard QWERTY setup. The MacBook Pro does have full-size function keys, and the inverted T-shaped arrow cluster is a bit easier than the awkward, cramped row used on HP and other Windows systems.

Finally, I come to the Force Touch trackpad. The pressure-sensitive controls allow for all sorts of contextual functions and multi-touch gestures, but the real treat is just how big it is. The haptic surface is accurate and responsive, and I never have any problems with it misregistering a grazing palm as a swipe or click.


Apple Inside: Upgrading to M3 Max

The biggest change to the MacBook Pro isn't the cool black finish, but the processor within. Apple unveiled the new M3 chip lineup at the same time it announced the newest MacBooks, and the third generation of Apple silicon is the real scene stealer here.

(Credit: Apple)

The chip itself is enhanced with more cores—12 performance cores and four efficiency cores—giving you four more processing cores and an extra 25 billion transistors than the M2 Max. It also ramps up the memory support, letting Apple cram 128GB of memory into the MacBook Pro.

On top of this, Apple has updated the GPU with more cores, dynamic caching, and advanced capabilities, like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. (All of those features are explained in the above-linked coverage.) That's a big benefit for anyone who wants to use the MacBook Pro as a proper workstation.


Testing the MacBook Pro 16-Inch: Winning Performance, But Not Perfect

Speaking of workstations, that's where the bulk of our comparison models are found. With the MacBook Pro 16's hefty price and powerful CPU and GPU capabilities, it's built to take on competitors like the MSI CreatorPro X17, the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1, and the Dell Precision 5680. Each one is not only an Editors' Choice winner, but was also tested with top-of-the-line configurations that push prices into the most premium strata. Suffice it to say that these are the best machines around, and they're priced accordingly.

We also threw in one of our favorite desktop replacement laptops, the Dell XPS 15 (9530) (2023), but don't expect this flagship system to put up a challenging showing against the maxed-out M3 Max MacBook Pro.

Naturally, we brought in recent Apple laptops: the 14-inch MacBook Pro (with M3 Pro), and the previous top dog, the MacBook Pro 16-Inch (2023, M2 Max). Less than a year has passed since we gave the prior Max-powered Pro a five-star rating, so we're eager to see what performance gains M3 Max brings to the table.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests 

We use a number of tests in our evaluations, designed to measure everything from peak processing power to battery life. You can get a decent idea of what we're running on our test bench in our guide to how we test laptops, but Apple machines use a slightly different mix of software than we use on Windows machines. Because some of our standard tests are Windows-only and several of the best Apple-silicon-friendly tests aren't available for PC laptops, we're left to mix and match tests to compare Apples to Apples and Apples to Windows.

First, we start with a trio of cross-platform tests: HandBrake 1.4, Cinebench R23, and Geekbench 5.4.1 Pro. In our HandBrake video transcoding test, we use the open-source video utility to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

Cinebench R23 then uses Maxon’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, to test multi-core and multi-threaded processing. After that, we have a processor-intensive test in Geekbench 5.4.1 Pro by Primate Labs, which simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning.

We usually run Adobe Photoshop under Rosetta 2 paired with the PugetBench for Photoshop test, but this time around some installation errors prevented us from testing it in the window of time we had before publishing. We'll keep working on it and update this review with scores just as soon as we get the issue sorted out.

In HandBrake, the M3 Max-powered MacBook Pro finished our transcoding test with one of the fastest times we've ever seen. In fact, the only system to do it quicker wasn't even in our comparison list, but was Apple's own Mac Studio desktop with the uber-powerful M2 Ultra, a 76-core behemoth of a chip. On the laptop side of things, the new 16-inch MacBook Pro came in more than a full minute faster than the nearest competitor, the MSI CreatorPro X17.

Similarly, the Cinebench R23 test saw the MacBook Pro blow past every workstation we compared it with, and coming in ahead of every Mac laptop we've ever tested. Anecdotally, we also ran the newer Cinebench R24 on the new machine. Where top consumer systems scored in the 400-to-500 point range, the MacBook Pro with M3 Max scored 1,700 points, proving that this configuration is miles beyond anything we recommend to the average user.

Finally, in Geekbench, we saw a similar distribution of scores, with the MacBook Pro M3 Max leveraging its chip's 16 cores to dominate the rest. The closest competitor was, again, the MSI CreatorPro X17. When it comes to exporting projects and other raw output tasks—not to mention the usual use cases—this MacBook Pro will do it faster than just about anything else you can buy.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

For an Apple-specific graphics test, we use 3DMark's Wild Life Extreme running in Unlimited mode. Unlike our usual 3DMark tests, Wild Life runs natively on Apple silicon, letting us measure graphics performance among different Mac systems. The higher the score, the better.

For cross-platform testing, we use a version of our standard GFXBench test, here running on Apple’s Metal graphics API. It stress-tests both low-level routines, like texturing, and high-level, game-like image rendering. We run two subtests, Aztec Ruins (1440p), which relies on the OpenGL application programming interface (API), and Car Chase (1080p), which uses hardware tessellation. We record the results in frames per second (fps); higher numbers are better.

For gaming, we turn to one of the few AAA titles on Mac that also provides a built-in benchmarking tool, Rise of the Tomb Raider. Yes, it's an older game, but it's one of the few in the Steam library that will both run on a Mac and includes a built-in benchmark utility. We record the average fps at different detail settings; higher numbers are better.

Graphics and game tests presented some interesting performance numbers. The scores were always high, and the MacBook Pro 16 continued to be one of the better laptops we've seen, but despite the M3 Max getting an upgraded GPU and leading in the GFXBench Aztec Ruins subtest, it wasn't as consistent, with other systems edging ahead in other tests. 

In the GFXBench Car Chase subtest, for example, the Dell Precision 5680 took the lead, thanks to its Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada workstation GPU and 16GB of VRAM. Even more curious was what we saw in Rise of the Tomb Raider, where the newer MacBook Pro 16 fell behind the previous M2 Max-powered model at all settings.

It's possible that the GPU improvements in M3 are better suited to newer games, and we'll test the broader gaming capabilities of the M3 Max chip in the near future, but it's interesting to see that the clear lead in productivity wasn't consistent across our gaming tests.

Workstation Performance Tests

Going a step beyond the usual gaming or media processing tests, we also fired up the seminal Blender utility to see how well the 16-inch MacBook Pro could handle true 3D rendering. Using the open-source 3D suite, we record the time it takes for its built-in Cycles path tracer to render two photorealistic scenes of BMW cars, one using the system's CPU, and the other relying on the GPU.

Despite the inconsistent performance in standard graphics tests, the MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max) still led the pack in our Blender workstation tests. In both CPU and GPU render tests, the MacBook Pro edged ahead of top workstation laptops with heavy-duty GPUs. The difference may only be a few seconds in our tests, but when those seconds add up across a larger project with multiple complex renderings, that difference will compound into hours saved.

Battery and Display Tests

All the power in the world doesn't mean much in a laptop if you can't take it anywhere, but mobility is usually sacrificed to deliver the kind of power we've seen above. Despite this, Apple claims some impressive energy efficiency for the newest batch of M2 chips, promising as much as 22 hours of battery life. I am most eager to see how the system balances the power demands of the muscular CPU and GPU with the efficiency needed for long-lasting mobility.

We test laptop battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge panel performance, we use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

Apple claims that the MacBook Pro 16 has the longest-lasting battery of any MacBook, and specified up to 22 hours of Apple TV app movie playback. But in our video playback test, we saw even better endurance, stretching for nearly 28 hours off of the charger. We were expecting a long-lasting battery, but that's an hour longer than the previous Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2 Max), which lasted an already astonishing 26:51. Pretty impressive, considering all of the hardware inside is more powerful.

Obviously, power-intensive tasks like video editing will chew through the battery much faster, but you'll still be able to get work done without a power adapter, and simple video playback will keep you going for more than a day off a full charge.

Oddly enough, even though the specs and technology of the displays used in the new MacBook Pro 16 look identical to those of the M2-based model from earlier this year, the results were a smidge behind, with 100% sRGB color, but only 94% in the DCI-P3 color space. This is even more curious given that we saw matching results on the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro that we also tested. 

In a category where 100% or 99% scores across the board are common and machines are frequently relied on by pros needing accurate, high-gamut displays for color-critical work, it's odd to see Apple's best laptop turn in a less-than-stellar result. Don't misunderstand, it's still within the range of acceptable performance for even demanding professionals, but it's objectively less impressive than we expected.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

Verdict: Incredible Power You Pay For

The last time we tested an Apple MacBook Pro 16, we called it "as close to perfect as any laptop we have reviewed." With so little changed in the design and only more powerful hardware inside, does the new MacBook Pro 16 still warrant a perfect five-star score? Not quite.

For starters, the vaunted GPU enhancements don't seem to deliver better gaming performance. Granted, that's in just one test, and the new capabilities may not line up with the demands of it. We'll keep investigating, but we expected a clear win, and it just isn't there. But the real issue here is the price. Where the previous model was $5,299 with maxed-out memory and storage, the new M3 Max version ratchets the price up to $7,199. Does the value of the performance boost match the increase in cost?

Make no mistake, the M3 Max MacBook Pro 16 is undeniably the best Mac laptop available and is better equipped than the previous model. If you're coming from an M1 or even an Intel MacBook Pro, expect a substantial level-up. So while you're definitely paying for all the performance gains you get there, this is unequivocally the best version of the best Mac laptop, and our latest Editors' Choice winner for Apple workstations.

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About Brian Westover