We currently expect Apple to unveil its latest M4-powered MacBook Pro models at the beginning of November, but that doesn't mean we'll have to wait through the rest of the month before hearing more about it.
Following a recent series of alleged leaks, including a claimed full unboxing of the MacBook Pro 14 by Russian YouTuber Wylsacon, a second Russian YouTuber by the name of Romancev768 has also claimed to be in possession of the new M4 MacBook Pro, appearing to corroborate Wylsacon's original claims (though that doesn't decisively prove them to be true, more on that in our wrap-up).
Beyond the supposed unboxing and first impressions of Apple's upcoming laptop, we're also beginning to see benchmark results appear online, from early Geekbench reveals to Romancev768's own Cinebench 2024 scores captured on video.
If these results are anything to go by, Apple can once again place its MacBooks back at the top of the pile when it comes to all-around superior performance. Here's what we know so far.
M4 Apple Silicon benchmarks: What they reveal
If Romancev768's scores are to be believed, this makes Apple's base M4 chip a genuine powerhouse in graphically demanding tasks (by measuring its 3D performance in rendering, where a higher score is better). The results show the M4 effortlessly brushing aside several of the most recent chipsets that have challenged the performance and efficiency of the Apple M3 by powering several laptops within our best AI PCs category.
The claimed Cinebench results show a noticeable uptick in single-core performance for the M4, as well as multi-core performance that rivals AMD and Qualcomm's higher-grade Ryzen AI 9 and Snapdragon Z Elite CPUs which may be better compared to eventual M4 Pro-level chipsets.
Looking at early Geekbench results, we see the Apple M4 really take flight, crushing the competition in both single-core and multi-core performance. This benchmark rates a device's performance in simple and complex computing tasks where the higher the score the better the outcome.
With these early Geekbench results in mind, it seems clear that Apple is once again onto a winner with the M4 chip, which will leapfrog over some of the most recent Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD processors and reclaim its spot at the top.
It's also worth highlighting just how much of an improvement is on display with the M4 chip. Comparing these results to those we captured during our M3 MacBook Pro 14 review, there's a sizeable leap in both single-core and multi-core performance.
In terms of performance, a ~22% increase in single-core performance, and a further ~28% boost in multi-core potential places the M4 MacBook Pro around halfway between the standard M3 MacBook Pro 14 (11,968) and the M3 Max MacBook Pro 16 (20,863) with its score of 15,288 in terms of multi-core scoring — offering slightly increased performance to the M3 Pro variant of the MacBook Pro 14.
As for single-core performance, the new M4 chip's 3,864 score places it above and beyond even the MacBook Pro 16's M3 Max.
Outlook
While these scores are impressive, the legitimacy of the Russian YouTuber's videos is still up in the air. While on their surface they seem compelling, it's important to note that everything showcased by the duo so far could be clever misdirection, with each of the supposed M4 MacBook Pros looking a lot like the space black M3 Pro variant of the MacBook Pro 14 — even the box art would suggest so.
That said, there's no real way of telling one way or the other, and we'll need to wait until Apple's Mac and iPad event takes place on November 1 (according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman) to find out for sure.
