this M4 MacBook Pro has been to Seven Cities over the past 3 months and even though I originally said that the M4 Pro MacBook Pro would be the one that I would keep a lot has changed so in this video I want to discuss my roller coaster ride with the M4 and the M4 Pro MacBook Pro after 3 months of usage okay so the M4 MacBook Pro was a big upgrade even over the M3 MacBook Pro for several reasons but one of the main practical reasons that really opened my eyes just this past month is the fact that I don't need to carry around a dongle anymore and that's because with the M4 MacBook Pro both the base model and the m4 model get three USBC ports last year the base model only got two and they were both on that left-and side and this has been so handy when I'm away from home and I have multiple devices to either charge or transfer data from and I have my SSD the three USBC ports have been a big deal for me and I don't do this very often but it was really nice to know that the base Auto M4 MacBook Pro could support a dual external monitor setup when in clamshell mode or not so I could have my MacBook open and using the keyboard and trackpad while I have a dual display setup that was not possible last year because I had to be in clamshell mode with the Bas M3 but that's not the only practical and visual change on the M4 MacBook Pro that I've really grown to love over the past few months we also need to talk about the Nano texture display because to be honest I was was kind of skeptical of this at first like yes I loved it don't get me wrong but I was still skeptical not because of its anti-reflective properties I I loved that from the beginning but because I was worried that it might cause the display to be less vibrant and more kind of washed out and I'm somebody who color grades my own videos in Final Cut Pro I do a lot of Lightroom editing you know and I need the most accurate color possible so if I was not getting the most accurate color possible you know it'd be a deal breaker for me I could not use this MacBook Pro with the nanotexture display but I'll tell you right now this display has not had that effect on me and I basically stopped noticing that I even had nanotexture after about 2 weeks of use and that is until I actually went outside and left the office because you know when I hit the bright lights in the hotel lobby when I was in the airport lounge and the sun was was coming through the windows or even when I was just in direct sunlight there was no reflection on my screen like I could actually work without any type of distraction so it seems like a small thing like a first world problem but you don't really realize how amazing Nano texture is until you actually use it in a scenario where you have those distracting lights and you can see people walking by in your screen like when I'm in an airport lounge I can see people in my screen like a mirror walking by me you know behind me because of the reflections I didn't have that with Nano texture so it was amazing now keep in mind this is a $150 upgrade when you do get the MacBook Pro and I would say that you know yes I'm loving this yes I'm saying that it's great and everything but to be honest you're going to have to make the decision for yourself I'm not going to try to sell you on this because this is completely personal opinion it's your own personal you know decision to make I would go into the Apple Store and look at them side by side you know watch some videos do some video editing if you do that you know do whatever you do normally and see if you can you know notice a big difference in the colors and if you really like the nanotexture display or not now as for the display itself I'm rocking the 14-in model instead of the 16-inch model because it just works better for my on thee-o use with this MacBook especially when it comes to those airplane trays It just fits better in there it doesn't fit you know perfectly I wish it was smaller but it fits a lot better than the 16in and we do have the same 120 HZ mini LED display the same one as the prior M series MacBook Pros but now with a bump in SDR brightness up to 1,000 nits when outdoors and that's a big jump from the 600 nits on the M3 model and I have Absolut abolutely noticed this on many occasions not just here in Florida but also when I was out in California and other areas when I was using this outside a lot I could tell the difference and again this was noticeable for me because I use my MacBook Outdoors a lot whether it's going to a coffee shop whether it's just working Outdoors at like a food truck you know I did that out in California you know whatever the case may be I use my MacBook outside a lot if you don't use yours outside a lot this probably won't make a big difference to you now speaking of working in public places security is always top of mind for me not just when connecting to public Wi-Fi or anything like that but also when making phone calls or signing up for things when I'm out and about such as marketing or just anything that I would do online and that's where surf shark's alternative phone number service comes in this new service is built into the surf Shark app and it allows you to generate a random Us phone number to use for discounts when maybe negotiating a deal with somebody on Facebook Marketplace or just anytime you feel unsafe using a real number this is great for security and it ties in perfectly with their alternative ID feature which generates an alternate name email and address when signing up for things online and the best part is that everything stays organized in the surf Shark app and there's also a Chrome extension for autofilling your information while browsing so if you want to get an alternative phone number or ID to prevent spam and stay secure online check out surf shark's latest offering with my link down in the description below if you use my link you'll get 4 months for free now don't worry we're going to talk about the M4 and M4 Pro chips and the starting 16 gigs of ram in a moment but let's first talk about the design and honestly not a lot has changed here again we do have the three USBC ports on the base model which is nice those are Thunderbolt 4 ports and we also have an SD card reader and the HDMI port and then we also have the beautiful space black color on the base model M4 you no longer need to get the pro chip to get the space black color oh and also I'm super thankful that Apple kept the headphone jack on on the MacBook Pro since I only edit my videos with these wired siser headphones in now hold up we need to go back to where I said Thunderbolt 4 ports because Thunderbolt 4 is only on the base model M4 the M4 Pro MacBook Pro gets Thunderbolt 5 ports for the first time ever on a Mac and I have to say that I wasn't really too compelled or intrigued when Apple announced Thunderbolt 5 on the MacBook Pro because there wasn't anything out there that used or supported Thunderbolt 5 but honestly in the past like month or so there's been more Thunderbolt 5 accessories that have released than I expected so it does give me a little tiny bit of fomo but I'm not quite where I need to get the M4 MacBook Pro because of Thunderbolt 5 just yet so Thunderbolt 5 will undoubtedly be a significant upgrade for the most power of power users and of course for anybody who needs to access the crazy speeds for their display so maybe like a you know eventually a 6K you know 120 HZ display you might need to have Thunderbolt 5 for that you will need to have Thunderbolt 5 for that but that does not exist just yet now I have a question for you what is the most overdue MacBook Pro feature before the M4 came out what was the most overdue feature if you said 16 gigs of RAM you are correct so yeah 16 gigs of standard Ram is a first for apple on the MacBook Pro and it sounds insane just saying that out loud because this is a pro device and it never had 16 gigs of RAM starting but yes that is the case with the m before and honestly I really have noticed day-to-day improvements going from 8 gigs to 16 gigs of RAM despite saying before like last year the 8 gigs was enough for most people I didn't say it was like the best thing ever you know and it was going to work for everybody but for most people 8 gigs was enough but now with 16 gigs it's definitely enough for most people in my opinion and this is really one of the main reasons I decided to stick with the M4 over the M4 Pro because you know it's not just related to photo and video editing I also noticed an improvement with web browsing and when I had several apps opened up at once like I constantly had numerous tabs and windows opened while out traveling and I never had a beach ball or really any type of slowdown whatsoever now I didn't go crazy with like a full stress test or anything like that like I did in my initial video with the M4 M4 Pro MacBook Pro but they both performed just fine over these past few months but I will say that the chip itself might be where you consider spending that extra $400 because the M4 Pro chip is over powered like I could not slow that thing down to save my life and that's really one of the big reasons I just stuck with the M4 over the M4 Pro but don't get it twisted the M4 the base model M4 MacBook Pro is a beast like you know in the past I could not edit videos efficiently on any base model MacBook Pro I actually used the M4 Max MacBook Pro up until this year but in the past 3 months I've edited several videos on M4 with you know a lot of motion VFX plugins blur effects and multiple layers in my projects and I've not had any issues however the more intense your project gets obviously M4 Pro will be better and it will export the video faster as well as shown in my comparison but you know I never really had a problem with M4 and once again like I said earlier if you think you'll benefit from the additional GPU cores it might be worth it a go M4 Pro but if not I think the M4 is just fine now I will say there is a big downside with the M4 MacBook Pro and that is the fact that it has one cooling fan inside whereas the M4 pro has two cooling fans which means means that the M4 is going to be louder I did a test on this and the M4 MacBook Pro is significantly louder the fan noise is significantly louder than the M4 Pro MacBook Pro so that could be a downside depending on how you work you know the fan doesn't kick on too often for me unless I'm like running a benchmark or doing something insane but it is still worth mentioning so something I did not expect over the past 3 months is that the M4 battery life is amazing like it's better than M3 it's better than any other MacBook I've used and I've noticed that the M4 MacBook Pro gets better battery life than the M4 Pro MacBook Pro I really haven't used the M4 Pro in like over a month but for the first couple of months I was using them back to back you know the M4 did get better battery life by like at least an hour additional on screen time which is pretty impressive now we do also have an upgraded 12 megapixel webcam on on both models so we do have center stage and desk mode which is nice especially since you probably take a lot of calls on your MacBook Pro and of course the microphone is great as well on both models the 14-in and 16-in model both have excellent studio quality microphones and man the speakers are insane on the 16-in model so I only have the 14-in model but I did test out the 16-in and of course the speakers are going to be better on that bigger frame but the speakers are still great on the 14-in model so all in all after 3 months I'm even more confident in my statement that the M4 Pro MacBook Pro is the better bang for your buck purchase over the base model M4 MacBook Pro that's what I said in my initial one week later video and I still feel that way now I think you get the most performance for your money with the M4 pro model but that does not necessarily mean it's the right choice for you because it was not the right choice for me like $400 is still $400 like yes that could be the best bang for your buck but it may not be worth it for you it may not be worth the extra $400 for you because it wasn't for me and that's coming from somebody who does predominantly photo and video editing so if you're somebody in my you know boat if you're somebody who has the same type of workflow you may want to you know use the base model M4 for a couple of weeks within the return period and see if it's sufficient enough for you and plus you have to factor in like I wanted the nanotexture display that's an extra 150 I didn't want to have to you know spend all the money on the M4 Pro the extra $400 and and the extra 150 on top of that you know what I mean so for me the M4 just made a lot more sense for what I'm using this MacBook for and I could not be more happy with my purchase because I've not used the MacBook Pro like this since the M1 Max like the M2 and M3 I I basically just used them for the first couple of months and that was it I kind of didn't use them again so this has been a very big breath of fresh air for M4 and I just I really love it so I hope it came through in this video because I'm a big fan of this I actually use this more than my MacBook Air which has not been the case for the past at least 2 years anyways hope you guys enjoy this video let me know your thoughts down there in the comments below do you have the M4 MacBook Pro do you have the M4 Pro MacBook Pro or do you want to purchase one of them let me know all your thoughts down there in the comments below if you like this video If you disagree with some of my points let me know all your thoughts in the comments below but anyways guys be sure to subscribe if you want to see more MacBook videos and I'll see you in the next one