The M3 Pro fingerprints, color comparrison, and Final Cut test - Space Black!

This is the Space Black M3 Pro MacBook Pro, the one everybody says you probably shouldn’t buy, not because of the color but because people say the M3 Pro isn’t much of a step up. Are they right? I don’t know yet, but over the next couple of weeks I’ll find out. This video isn’t sponsored.

Why I bought it

I bought the M3 Pro to be more price-conscious, since I know I no longer need the Max for my workflow, and because Max chips have run quite a bit warmer than Pro chips in recent years, and I could use a slightly cooler daily laptop. I also wanted to know whether it has the same problem as my regular M3: not being able to export Final Cut Pro projects.

This is the 14-inch M3 Pro with a 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU, 36 GB of memory and a 2 TB SSD, which I find is the sweet spot for me.

Unboxing

You get a Space Black MagSafe cable, which looks color-matched, and the Pro model includes the 96 W charger. And, because it’s contractually obligated for every YouTuber, the Apple stickers (I’m joking). The laser-etched MacBook label at the bottom looks nice. I never know how these will look in person, but it looks fantastic. I freaking love the look of this Space Black.

Fingerprint test

Apple says a new anodization process limits fingerprints on this darker color. I put a big thumbprint on the Apple logo, then got it all greasy. On the blue MacBook Air, this would be absolutely disgusting by now; here it looks not too bad and wipes away pretty easily, even with greasy fingers. I did the same to my Space Gray MacBook Pro: you can see a bit more on the Space Gray, but they look similar, which is good, since the darker color is performing better than it normally would.

How black is Space Black?

A comparison of MacBook colors: Space Black in the center looks very different from the Silver and the Space Gray, which look very similar in this light. Is it really black? Next to a black Samsung T7 SSD, a black metallic iPhone stand, a black Dell mini PC and a black plastic Dell laptop: less black than those, I guess, but still pretty darn cool.

Inside it’s a MacBook Pro as expected, with a large trackpad and perfect keyboard. On the left: two Thunderbolt ports, MagSafe, and audio. On the right: the SD card slot, another Thunderbolt port, and HDMI.

The Final Cut Pro export test

I set it up, then did what I always do: Export with Multipass H.264 for decent quality, about 2.14 GB, saved to a temp folder, with Activity Monitor open.

• This computer has 36 GB of memory, so it probably won’t have the same issues as the base M3, though I didn’t have problems with 8 GB on the M2 or even M1 Air, so I don’t think memory was the real issue on the M3. Hopefully an update to Final Cut or macOS fixes it. I also tested Premiere Pro on the base M3, and it exported with no issues.
• Memory use was about 19–20 GB in total at the start (4–5 GB for Final Cut and the export processes), then dropped to about 11–12 GB, with zero swap, the benefit of real physical memory.
• Past 50%, 65%, 85%, the CPU and GPU were nowhere near 100%.

It finished in 14 minutes 9 seconds for a 14-minute-8-second video: basically real time, not super great. There was no memory pressure, and the GPU and CPU looked fairly underutilized. But it did complete the export, which is better than the regular M3 MacBook Pro managed.

First look verdict

I love the color and will test it over the next few days against my M2 Max. Hopefully I didn’t waste my money, but we’ll find out.

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