This article reviews the key differences between the Apple MacBook Pro 14-in (2021) and MacBook Pro 13-in (2020).
On 19 October 2021, Apple launched the MacBook Pro 14-in and MacBook Pro 16-in at a starting price of $1999 and $2499, respectively. Ordering starts on 26 October 2021. Besides a more prominent display, Apple has also significantly bumped up the design specifications, making the MacBook Pro 14 as powerful as its Windows counterpart for creators and designers.
We split the design specifications into three main areas and reviewed the advantages of the new Apple MacBook Pro 14-in (2021). We believe the main reason to buy the MacBook Pro 14-in is the display and processor, and the rest of the specifications will help to finalize the decision.
- Differences in Display Design
- Differences in Processor Chip
- Differences in Storage and Connectivity
- Differences in Size and Weight
Differences in Display Design
| MacBook Pro 13” (2020) | MacBook Pro 14″ (2021) | |
| Type | Retina display | Liquid Retina XDR display |
| Size & Resolution | 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colours Supported scaled resolutions: 1680 by 1050, 1440 by 900, 1024 by 640 | 14.2-inch (diagonal) Liquid Retina XDR display; 3024-by-1964 native resolution at 254 pixels per inch |
| Refresh Rate | 60 Hz | ProMotion technology with adaptive refresh rates up to 120 Hz. Fixed refresh rates from 47.96 Hz to 60 Hz. |
| Brightness | 500 nits | XDR (Extreme Dynamic Range) 1000 nits (sustained) 1600 nits (peak brightness) |
| Colour | The wide colour (P3), 1 billion colours | The wide colour (P3), 1 billion colours |
| Features | True Tone Technology | True Tone Technology |
| Max. External Display |
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The MacBook Pro 14-in uses the same Liquid Retina XDR display as the latest iPad Pro, which has the adaptive refresh rate ProMotion technology. The ProMotion helps to push up the refresh rate if any application demands it, and then lowers it to save battery when not required. The XDR increases the display’s brightness by more than two-fold and also features the True Tone Technology used in most Apple devices.
For external display support, the new MacBook Pro 14-in can connect up to three Apple 6K Pro Display XDR monitors and add another 4K monitor such as a TV. The three 6K displays connect via the three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the 4K monitor can connect via HDMI. There is no mini DisplayPort on the new MacBook Pro 14-in.
Buy 32-in Apple Pro Display XDR with Retina 6K Display
The advantage of attaching three 6K external monitors is that it is good for stock investors, talented creators, and power gamers, but it comes with the disadvantage that no free USB-C port is left to use. So we wondered if it is possible to find docking stations or USB-C multiport adapters that connect to the 6K monitors and allow us to use the USB-C connectors. Most of the docking solutions only support up to 4K maximum and uses the HDMI port instead, but we will update this article when we find any. We even checked Apple, but they do not provide a docking station or USB-C multiport adapters that are compatible with the external 6K monitors.
| By the way, the only advantage of the MacBook Pro 16-in is just a bigger display and a larger battery. Everything else including the CPU, RAM, storage and even connection ports are the same as the MacBook Pro 14-in. |
Differences in Processor Chip
| MacBook Pro 13” (2020) | MacBook Pro 14″ (2021) | |
| Chipset | Apple M1 chip | Apple M1 Pro chip |
| CPU | 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores | 10-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores |
| GPU | 8-core GPU | 16-core GPU (M1 Pro) 24 or 32 core GPU (M1 Max) |
| Neural Engine | 16-core Neural Engine | 16-core Neural Engine |
| RAM | 8 – 16 GB Configurable | 16GB, 32GB (M1 Pro/Max), 64GB (M1 Max) |
| Power Adapter | 61W USB-C Power Adapter | 96W USB-C Power Adapter (for 10 core CPU) 67W USB-C Power Adapter (for 8 core CPU) |
| Battery Life | 58.2 Wh Li-po battery Up to 20 hours (movies) Up to 17 hours (wireless web) | 70 Wh Li-po battery Up to 17 hours (movies) Up to 11 hours (wireless web) |
MacBook Pro 14-in will be great for creators who use applications such as 3D rendering software that fully utilize multiple cores. There is a big jump in the power consumption from 61 or 67W to 96W for the 10-core CPU. Somehow, we felt that the 8-core CPU Is somewhat subdued with just a 67W power supply, and a 96W will be the real deal to unleash the true power of the 10-core CPU.
In the last section, we noted that 24 GPU cores are required for the support of three 6K and one 4K external monitor. However, the applications such as Final Cut Pro, Maxon Cinema 4D, Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio, Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo that make use of GPU for rendering. Such an application will benefit from the additional GPU cores in the M1 Max setup.
The additional RAM of 32GB and 64GB is a norm for power laptops used by creators and power gamers, so there is no surprise here. For the Apple MacBook Pro 16-in (2021), the maximum RAM is also 64GB instead of 128GB, which we feel Apple should at least provide such options.
Just a quick glance shows that MacBook Pro 16-in (2021) is only larger in terms of display and battery, but everything else remains the same as the MacBook Pro 14-in (2021). We would also expect there to be more ports on the 16 inch.
Based on our experience with PC/Windows laptops, there would typically have options for 128GB and designed with additional ports for the 16-inch or bigger model. Even if the RAM comes in standards of 64GB, creator laptops should allow easy user upgrades by swapping the RAM for 128GB versions. Such is the case for HP and Dell workstation notebooks which are excellent powerful creator laptops.
Apple also beefed up the MacBook Pro 14-in with a 20% increase in battery. However, this upgrade does not equate to better battery life than the MacBook Pro 13-in. There is a significant drop in 35% of battery life for wireless web serving.
That said, we opine that the MacBook Pro 14-in is designed with the power creators in mind, and most experienced power creators do not perform intensive design rendering on batteries. This is because most OS usually throttle down the CPU power when the laptop is running on batteries only. As such, we always connect our machine to the power adapter so the laptop can use up all the CPU power.
The 96W power adapter also supports fast charging, a helpful feature to juice up the laptop quickly for urgent meetings, say at a construction site with no power sockets.
Storage and Connectivity[tie_index]Storage and Connectivity[/tie_index]
| MacBook Pro 13” (2020) | MacBook Pro 14″ (2021) | |
| Storage Options | 256GB SSD 512GB SSD 1TB SSD 2TB SSD | 512GB SSD 1TB SSD 2TB SSD 4TB SSD 8TB SSD |
| USB Ports | 2 USB-C Port support Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s) support USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gb/s) support DisplayPort and charging | 3 USB-C Port support Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gb/s) support USB 4 (20 Gb/s) support DisplayPort and charging |
| Wi-Fi & Bluetooth | Up to Wi-Fi 6 IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax compatible Bluetooth 5.0 | Up to Wi-Fi 6 IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax compatible Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Other Ports | None | 1 x HDMI port 1 x SDXC Card Slot |
The Apple MacBook Pro 14-in comes with a whopping 8TB SSD storage which is 4 times the storage offered on the MacBook Pro 13-in. In terms of the connection ports, it added up to three fast USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, and also includes an HDMI port and SDXC card slot. These ports make the MacBook Pro 14-in more competitive to match the other mid-sized PC Laptops.
However, we cannot say the same for the MacBook Pro 16-in, which despite the larger size and price tag, do not come with additional ports.
There is no change in the Wi-Fi specifications; however, we would prefer the latest Bluetooth 5.2 for any new product released at this time, not a 5.0.
If we compare based on this section, the best deal is the MacBook Pro 14-in which beats both the older MacBook Pro 13-in and the new MacBook Pro 16-inch. There is no advantage in buying a bigger laptop since everything is the same in this section.
However, it is weird that Apple chooses to have speakers on both sides of the keyboard, instead of having a number pad. A number pad could have been more beneficial for creators and designers, and the speakers could have been relocated to other non-essential areas instead. We have only seen maybe just a handful of laptops with speakers next to the keyboards in the past 20 years or more.
Differences in Size and Weight
| MacBook Pro 13” (2020) | MacBook Pro 14″ (2021) | |
| Size and Weight |
| Height 1.55cm Width: 31.26cm Depth: 22.12cm Weight: 1.6kg |
The MacBook Pro 14-in has about the same thickness as the MacBook Pro 13-in, while the overall size remains about the same despite the one-inch larger screen size.
The MacBook Pro 14-in has about the same thickness as the MacBook Pro 13-in due to the thinner black border around the display, as shown in the diagram above. The same design trick has also been applied to the Apple Watch 6 where the display area is increased significantly without an equal increase in overall size.
Review Summary
The new MacBook Pro 14-in of 2021 is significantly better and more powerful than the previous MacBook Pro 13-in. The MacBook Pro 14-in is an excellent choice to buy not only for existing MacBook Pro 13-in users but also for PC laptop users who may consider switching from Windows to macOS.
In our opinion, the following are suggested improvements for future models:
- Apple should consider providing an option to upgrade the display to touchscreen capability. The reason is that Apple has only 3 models, unlike PC laptops, with many brands to choose from.
- For the 16-in model, Apple needs to include more connection ports, or at least one more USB-C port will not make anyone in Apple poorer. Don’t be stingy!
