I’ve been using the 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 (18GB RAM/512GB SSD) for about two weeks, after upgrading from my 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro. That old MacBook wasn’t exactly failing—aside from the random fan noise and a battery that barely made it through the day—but it was time to move on.

I debated the new 15-inch MacBook Air (16GB RAM/512GB SSD) and the 16-inch Pro. I even bought both to see which one felt right. The Air had some serious perks. It’s lighter and more portable, and the weight difference was noticeable in my backpack, though not enough to make a huge impact. Plus, it’s more than powerful enough for what I do—research, writing, email, and the occasional heavy-lift task.

But here’s the thing: the Pro’s display hits differently. The 120Hz refresh rate on its own didn’t blow me away. But when you combine that with the overall improvements in brightness, contrast, and color accuracy, it adds up. It’s the kind of upgrade that’s subtle initially, but the differences quickly become impossible to ignore.

Using the 16-inch Pro feels like a new experience. The Air’s 15-inch screen is solid, no doubt, and coming from my old 13-inch, it was a big improvement. But the Pro’s display transforms how I interact with a laptop entirely. It’s like going from an iPhone 5 to an iPhone 7—suddenly everything looks and feels better in a way that’s hard to quantify but impossible to go back from.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with the 16-inch Pro, or can you relate to how the display changed your overall laptop experience? Would love to hear your thoughts!

I got a new 16 inch M1 Max (32 core gpu), with 32gb ram, and 1 TB storage from Microcenter for $1800. Got to say, even though it's was released a couple of years, and the M4 is already out - this thing blew me away. I understand why you guys love them so much now :)

In the next few months, I’m planning on buying a MacBook Pro 16-inch M4 Pro with 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, also with 24GB of RAM and 512 GB. So I’m asking if it would be enough or an overkill, especially the 512 GB (if it’s enough). I will be using the laptop for software development while I’m learning it, so nothing big, just basic and mid-projects in the most difficult circumstances. Also, I will be doing some gaming, which is just one game, and it would be 100 GB in size with some other games but not that much to be mentioned, and thats all what I’m going to use this machine for, at least in the time that I will be having it, which is 2 years from maybe September this year.

So what do you think? Do you think it’s overkill to have all of that for such a kind of basic needs, or not, and if not, which one should I get, which I want to be a little bit more than enough but not an overkill, just in case I need that much, because you never know.