Apple MacBook Pro 14.2" M4 Pro Space Black 2024

The M4 Pro MacBook Pro is a performance beast with a stunning display and all-day battery that stays cool and quiet. The 512GB SSD is the only real weak spot, so budget for external storage. If you can grab this refurb at the low end of its price range, it's a killer deal for creative pros.

The M4 Pro 12-core CPU lands in the 91st percentile, making it one of the best laptop chips on the market for raw productivity. It's a genuine workhorse. The 16-core integrated GPU is solid, sitting well above average, but it's not a gaming chip. Our gaming score of 53.1 tells the real story: you can play some titles, but this machine is built for creative work, not fragging. The 24GB of unified memory handles dozens of browser tabs and multiple pro apps without a hiccup. The only real bottleneck is the 512GB SSD, which falls behind most competitors in its class. You'll likely need an external drive sooner rather than later if you work with large media files.

Stacked against the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, the MacBook Pro trades blows. The ASUS will smoke it in gaming with a dedicated GPU, but the Mac's build quality, screen, and battery life are in a different league. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a desktop replacement beast with more raw power, but it's a chunky boy next to the Mac's 1.6kg frame. For pure content creation, the MSI Prestige is a decent budget alternative, but its screen and speakers don't come close. The Microsoft Surface Laptop is a sleeker ultrabook, but its ARM chip can't touch the M4 Pro in sustained heavy lifting. This MacBook sits in a sweet spot of power and portability that Windows machines still struggle to nail.

Pricing on this refurbished model bounces between $1600 and $1999 across vendors, with Best Buy being the place to grab it. At the lower end of that spread, it's a fantastic deal for a laptop with this much power and a screen this good. You're getting a nearly flawless machine for a solid discount off a new one. At the high end, you're creeping into new M4 Pro territory, which makes the shorter 90-day warranty a tougher pill to swallow. If you can snag it closer to $1600, the value is hard to beat.

The M4 Pro chip in this 14-inch MacBook Pro is an absolute monster for work. It chews through code compiles, 4K video edits, and heavy multitasking without breaking a sweat, and it does it all while staying cool and dead silent. The 24GB of RAM in this config is the sweet spot for most pros, though the 512GB SSD feels a little stingy at this price. The real star here is the Liquid Retina XDR display. It hits 1600 nits peak brightness for HDR content and the 120Hz ProMotion makes everything from scrolling to gaming feel buttery smooth. This is a Geek Squad Certified Refurbished unit, which means it's been tested to work like new and comes with a 90-day warranty, a solid way to save some cash if you don't need a sealed box.

Gamers should look elsewhere, period. The integrated GPU just isn't built for it, and you'll get far more frames per dollar from a Windows machine with a dedicated graphics card. Also, if you work with massive media libraries and hate carrying dongles or external drives, the 512GB storage will frustrate you daily. Look for a config with at least 1TB, or consider a laptop with user-upgradeable storage.

This is the laptop for developers, video editors, and designers who want top-tier performance without being chained to a wall outlet. The M4 Pro chip, gorgeous display, and marathon battery life make it a near-perfect workhorse. Just be ready to invest in cloud storage or an external SSD, because that 512GB internal drive will fill up fast. If you're a gamer or someone who needs terabytes of local storage on day one, this isn't your machine.