2021 MacBook Pro (16.2-inch, M1 Pro chip with 10‑core CPU and 16‑core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - Space Gray

I tend to use my laptops a LOT, and I could probably be more gentle with them, so I tend to wear them out before they would otherwise need replacement... Leading to this being my 4th MacBook Pro. (It would be helpful if Apple could make better keyboards, but that's outside what I can control.) My last one, a mid-2019 model, had the Touch Bar (which I hated) but the "improved" keyboard which worked well until it began failing one key at a time. I was finally driven to replace it when other problems began to occur. This "new" MacBook Pro is, so far, a definite improvement on its last 2 predecessors. -- KEYBOARD: It took a day or two for me to get used to the feel of the keyboard, but now I'm actually able to touch-type more easily than in the past and it's quiet enough for me to not bother anyone sitting on either side while I work. (It's also very nice to have all the keys work!) The fact that the Touch Bar has been replaced with "old fashioned" function keys is, for me, a major plus because I tended to accidentally activate commands on the Touch Bar when my fingers got too close (maybe I carry too strong an electrical charge?) without my being aware I might be touching it, so having actual physical keys that only react when I actually press them is wonderful. I miss the ability to easily adjust keyboard brightness on the keyboard (it was actually through the Touch Bar), but that's easily taken care of via the Menu Bar. -- SCREEN: The black "notch" at the top of the screen still looks a little odd, but does not affect me or my work negatively in any way; the narrow black bezel around the screen is especially welcome when watching movies or scrolling through social media in bed. Image resolution is very good and brightness is easily adjustable. -- PORTS/CONNECTIVITY: I'm a little torn about the change (from the mid-2019 model) in ports; I frequently find myself wishing I still had 2 USB-C ports on *both* sides but absolutely love the return of the original MagSafe power port (the damage protection of which I've accidentally availed myself of a couple of times already). As far as WiFi is concerned, I've had zero problems to date while connecting to devices in multiple locations. -- FORM FACTOR: After all these years I don't know why I'm always surprised at how hefty this laptop is, but the balance is good enough that it's not noticeable when resting on my knees in a doctor's waiting room. Also, although the edge of the body still seem sharp, this one doesn't seem as prone to leaving painful creases in my wrists & hands as the previous one did. -- OVERALL: I've been living inside the Mac ecosystem a long time; my first desktop unit was an SE30 and my first laptop a 1998 PowerBook G3, so I have a *lot* of Macs to compare this one to... and so far it's sitting very close to the top of my list. My only real argument is with the current version of MacOS, but that's a totally different can of worms. I know there are newer models of the MacBook Pro on the market, but (especially when looking at price) this is one I hope to be using through (at least) the 2020s.

Yes, you read that right, I bought a brand new 2021 MacBook Pro in 2025. And before you scratch your head, let me explain. When Apple says “brand new,” they technically mean zero battery cycles. Mine came with 2 battery cycles, which means that somewhere between manufacturing and me opening it, someone powered it on and charged it. But here’s the twist; the laptop was completely factory sealed when I got it, and cosmetically it looked 110% new. Performance-wise, it’s everything you’d expect from an untouched MacBook Pro. No wear, no marks, no surprises — just that crisp new Mac smell (yes, it’s a thing). Here’s where it gets better: AppleCare+. Thanks to Apple’s newer Apple One program, I was able to get AppleCare+ on a MacBook that rolled off the line in 2021. The trick? You need to be on the latest macOS update, then run Apple’s built-in diagnostics. If it passes - boom - you can enroll in AppleCare just like a current-year model.

Perfect. The M1 Pro MacBook Pro is a more than capable, extremely capable machine even in 2025 due to its 8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores for a total of 10 cores. There is no need to upgrade to an M4 Pro if you can find one of these in excellent condition. Mine was described as being like new, and it did indeed arrive in like new mint condition. It appears that someone opened the box and left the computer alone as all the accessories were still wrapped as new and untouched. I checked the battery cycles, it was at 1. That’s a new machine and a steal at only $900 since I was able to get it tax free. I use mine for music production and video editing. Logic Pro works extremely well, I also use Ableton, Reason and Pro Tools with zero issues. Sessions run smoothly. Battery lasts all day too! Keys feel nice, not too heavy but it is a sturdy machine. Get one!

It needs to be about $1000 cheaper, especially if you don't get the pro max. It feels crazy to spend 3 grand on a laptop with no offboard 3d video card. However, once you get past the price, this is hands down the best laptop I've ever owned. It almost breaks the laws of physics we've gotten used to with portable devices. You can have battery life, or you can have speed, but you can't have both. Well you get both. This thing will happily do the most intensive rendering, gaming, whatever, on battery power and not bat an eyelash. I don't even recharge it daily or even bi daily. I charge it a few times a week....It's THAT good at running on battery. If you're not using it, it can go weeks in sleep mode and still wake up with lots of battery left. The display is amazing and there is little to no halo. If you took a photo of the screen and processed the image to make it brighter, sure you'd probably find a little blooming against black backgrounds, but in front of it, your eyes only see very bright highlights, and inky blacks. The sound is amazing. It isn't just a full sound, it's pretty flat and accurate sound considering it's a laptop. I often don't even reach for my headphones because there is nothing at all offensive about the built in speakers. It is a little chonky and on the heavy side compared to the Macbook Air I'm used to, but still very portable and a solid build. Gaming. It can do it. I don't know what gaming on Mac's is like with a Radeon card, but the apple silicon is more than capable of running games like Kerbal Space Program and Heroes of The Storm at 60+FPS and that is good enough for me. The on board storage is BLAZING fast, like >2000MB/s fast. If you have the space, this is a video editing power house between the fast on board storage, and ultra fast RAM speed.

Apple made a bunch of missteps over the course of designing the more recent MacBook Pro computers, most notably the poor keyboards followed by the god-awful Touch Bar. (Props to Apple for trying to innovate and the Touch Bar was a cool idea, but it was a solution that created more problems than it solved.) Eliminating more of the ports on more recent MBPs was also problematic, limiting everything to USB-C/Thunderbolt only, even down to killing the very popular MagSafe power plug. After getting one of those more recent models from my employer for work, I was able to find out first hand just how bad they really are. This new model reverses SO many of those poor design decisions. MagSafe has returned (while still retaining the ability to also charge over USB-C), the keyboard is far better, the Touch Bar has been eliminated and physical function keys have been brought back to replace it (YAY ESC), and a built-in HDMI port and SD card slot have also returned. As soon as I saw in the release announcement showing off what Apple had done with this machine, I ordered one immediately as I knew this was going to be a perfect replacement for my 2015 MBP - which I'd kept rather than upgrading to the subpar designs mentioned above. I don't regret the purchase at all. This is a fantastic machine. The only downsides I've experienced are due to the transition to the M1 processor. For 99% of users this won't matter one bit as the performance of the M1 Pro is exceptional. My individual problem is the migration of architecture; moving from x86/x64 to ARM meant instantly losing the ability to run VirtualBox and VMWare. VirtualBox will likely never run on the M1 architecture, and while VMWare is working on a new ARM version and Parallels is also available, they only allow for virtualization of ARM guest systems. Good enough for ARM builds of Linux (and limited versions of Windows), but Intel virtualization is now dead on the Mac. Again, this is not something that most people will ever run into, but for me it's a bit of an inconvenience. The trade-offs, however, are worth it.

I was a bit concerned about the fact that Apple has moved away from Intel and is now producing their own M1 processor but I have to say it is incredibly fast. My company provides me with my computer of choice for work and in 2020 I received a top of the line MacBook Pro with an Intel 8 core i9 processor and 64GB of memory and 4TB SSD that retailed for close to $5,000 and I have to say this new MacBook pro with the 10 core M1, 16 core GPU, 1TB SSD and only 16GB of memory at almost half that price seems much faster. The display is just stunning. The graphics quality is among the best I've seen and video performance is flawless. it's everything a MacBook pro should be. High performance in a sleek aluminum case. A couple of things to note if you are not familiar with this computer and thinking of buying one. It only comes with 3 USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 interfaces. So you are going to need adapters if you plan on using any wired peripheral devices like keyboard, mouse, external drives etc.. that have standard USB interfaces. And at a minimum you should be backing your system up to an external drive. So, I’d recommend buying a USB-C to USB hub as I'm not big on adapters. There's several here on Amazon in the $20-30 range. Also, like most other manufacturers, Apple has dropped the DVD/CD. It's not even an option. If burning DVDs and CDs is still a thing for you, again you can connect an external device with a hub or adapter. I'd also recommend buying a cooling tray, especially if you are going to leave this computer on a desk powered up perpetually or for long periods of time so you can protect the CPU and more importantly the GPU from heat. Lastly, a few words on MacOS Montery that shipped with this computer. The most recent OS I was using was Sierra on my MBP 2013 and the learning curve was not difficult at all. My only complaint is Monterey turns on a lot of stuff I don't need or even want. For example, as soon as I signed in with my Apple ID to sync my music from iCloud, I started getting texts, Facetime and even phone calls for my entire family on my computer. We use the same Apple ID for all our devices for a number of reasons and while it wasn't too difficult to disable, I'd rather Apple leave that up to the user. I'll post an update more geared toward the performance and reliability of this system as time goes by but for now, I have to say I'm very pleased and would highly recommend this new MacBook Pro. One final comment on the purchase process. I actually ordered one directly from Apple. I live about 60 miles from an Apple store and wanted it shipped to me. I was given a projected ship date about 3 weeks after placing my order. After waiting almost the full 3 weeks, my order was still processing and hadn't moved toward the preparing to ship status. I then realized Apple has a store here on Amazon, they had exactly what I wanted in stock. So after canceling my order with Apple, I bought my computer here on Amazon and it arrived in 2 days.

This review is on Amazon not the MacBook Pro 16 M1. This item will very likely be out of warranty so buyer beware. If you have any issues that normally would be covered under the 1 year manufacturer's warranty Apple will not cover it and Amazon will do nothing to help. I bought this item 8 months ago and the screen when out. Normally an issue that would be covered under the 1 year standard warranty but since Amazon bought the item from Apple in 2022, that is when the warranty started, even though I bought it new, only 8 months ago. Amazon did nothing to help me out or make it right and it costs $900.00 to replace the screen on these. Just an FYI.

Cannot believe how smokin' fast this MacBook Pro runs! No problem handling multiple tasks such as McAfee in the background, Opera web browser, Face Time, and Adobe Photoshop all at the same time with zero lag! My very first computer was a second hand, Apple IIe (Circa 1986?) Since then, I have owned everything from a custom built desktop, Gateway desktops, Dell and HP laptops, and an Acer gaming laptop. Right out of the box, the MacBook Pro leaves them all in the dust! There was a bit of a learning or relearning curve after decades of being enslaved to PC's but that challenge is trivial compared to the phenomenal performance of the Mac. Also, this is the first time in many years that I have purchased a new computer that was not preloaded with a bunch of "try it then buy it" software! Most if not all the PC's, no matter the brand, come loaded with that crap. Not having to delete and uninstall all the junk software on a typical new PC is just one more reason to go with a Mac. The one thing I would like to have seen different is for Apple to include a bit more documentation along with the hardware. Not that it is all that difficult to download it from their support web site but a few more pages of basic operational instructions would be of great help for most PC users. Even with the sparse documentation, the MacBook Pro is, by far, the best computer I have ever owned and I look forward to many hours of highly productive use of this superior product!