M4 MacBook Pro review 🔥

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It’s almost four years to the day since Apple started using its own chips in Macs, and boy, what a journey it’s been.

Not only does Apple silicon run rings around the competition in terms of benchmarks, but it’s also forcing competitors like Qualcomm, Intel and AMD to adopt Apple’s ARM-based system-on-a-chip approach.

Just this weekend, it was revealed that even chip giant Nvidia is getting into ARM-based SoCs.

It’s no exaggeration to say Apple silicon upended the chip industry. Once again, Apple is leading the way.

And Apple silicon is long-lasting. Even if you own an M1-based Mac or iPad, it’s still likely chugging along just fine.

This leads to the all-important question — if you have an M1 Mac, should you upgrade to one of the new M4-based machines?

That was the question faced by David Snow, one of Cult of Mac’s writers, who just traded in his trusty M1 MacBook Pro for a new M4 MacBook Pro.

Dave didn’t really need to upgrade — his M1 MacBook worked fine for his needs — but as he explains in his review, he’s very glad he did.

Also in today’s newsletter:

• Apple added a clever trick to make iPhones even more secure and harder to crack by cops or repressive regimes.

• A big part of Apple’s growth after Steve Jobs' death came from rapid expansion in China. Now that the incoming Trump administration is threatening big China tariffs, Apple is rapidly expanding its manufacturing facilities in India. Apple is already making more iPhones in India than you might think, and the huge subcontinent also promises a lot of sales.

• Several new M4 Macs are already discounted in early Black Friday sales.

• PSA: If you bought a new iMac, be very careful opening the box!

• Today’s featured setup is owned by someone else who swapped an M1 MacBook Pro for an M4 model. Oh, no wait, it’s David Snow’s setup! Dave’s been writing our setups posts for years, and now it’s time to feature his own. What’s he learned?

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

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Today’s poll

Results from last Friday’s poll: Should you be able to upgrade Mac mini storage?

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