Time to treat yourself to a new laptop? Apple’s 2024 MacBook Pro is the most enticing of the bunch when it comes to desirability, but trying to settle on an exact specification is akin to rocket science.
The fruity folk are experts at positioning various configurations at incremental price points, and the upsell is often hard to resist for mere mortals. Fear not, I’ve racked my brain and found what I believe to be an optimal configuration, and at a stellar price, too.
My preferred model, officially designated part number MX2J3B/A, is currently available from Amazon for £2,149, representing a welcome 10% reduction early in the product life cycle. A £250 saving is not to be scoffed at, and it’s even more attractive across the pond, where the same model is down 13% from $2,399 to $2,099.
Apple MacBook Pro with M4 Pro
You’ll do well not to succumb to the upsell, but this exact model, with 14-core M4 Pro CPU, 24GB memory and 1TB SSD storage ticks a whole lot of boxes.
Why this specific variant? Well, for me, it ticks almost all the right boxes as a potent workhorse for the office and on the road. The 14.2in device packs a healthy 24GB of RAM and a mid-pack M4 Pro processor touting 14 cores (10 performance plus four efficiency). That’s a whopping 150% uptick in performance cores over the regular M4, making the Pro chip a favoured pick for those looking to future proof.
There’s also a doubling of GPU cores, up from 10 to 20, while memory bandwidth soars from 120GB/s to 273GB/s. M4 Pro is the Apple silicon to go for and also brings with it the added benefit of Thunderbolt 5.
I also happen to use a fair amount of storage and in 2024 view 1TB as my minimum requirement. Chances are I wouldn’t use it all right now, yet I’d want this laptop to serve as my daily driver for the next five years, and I’d rather have the breathing room than need to employ an additional external drive sooner rather than later.
It’s tempting to save three hundred bucks and get a regular M4 model with the same 24GB/1TB setup, but the Pro’s performance prowess is worth it. Worth noting that all M4 Pro variants come equipped with dual fans as standard; the laptop may become louder through intense workloads but should conversely run quieter than single-fan M4 models during regular tasks.
All that’s missing is the goodness of the larger 16in screen. That’d be my ideal but opting for the bigger panel sends prices spiralling into silly territory. And let’s face it, these aren’t cheap machines. I’ve gotten as far as adding MX2J3B/A to my basket yet haven’t yet found the courage to pull the trigger. The temptation is real.