Apple today announced its new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models that feature the same design as the previous models, and these will arrive to customers in a brand new darker Space Gray finish coupled with a price tag that is $200 cheaper than the M2 Pro version of the same model. While that may sound like a steal of a deal, your happiness will be shortlived because there are now three chipset options instead of two from last time, with the M3 serving as the base model.

M3 Pro version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro costs $1,799, making its price unchanged from the previous M2 Pro model

During its ‘Scary Fast’ event, Apple announced the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, making the trio the company’s first 3nm chipsets tailor-made for the Mac. What is even more interesting is that the 14-inch MacBook Pro was introduced at $1,599, making it less expensive than what Apple normally charges for the base model, which is $1,799. However, you forget that now, the new portable Mac can be configured with the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max instead of just the faster M2 Pro and M2 Max unveiled earlier this year.

The M3 Pro version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro costs exactly the same as the M2 Pro, meaning that customers who are not careful in picking out the smaller details may believe that they are being entangled in a sweeter deal, but that is not the case here. With the M3, you get an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, and while that is more than sufficient for the majority of tasks, the M3 Pro and M3 Max will help power users and creative professionals thanks to their higher CPU and GPU core count but are more expensive to configure.

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro might start from $1,599, but that is because you are getting the M3 instead of the faster M3 Pro

It is also important to note that the $1,599 model features 8GB of unified RAM instead of 16GB that Apple offered for the base M2 Pro MacBook Pro before, so this will definitely be viewed as a massive downgrade. Regardless, some consumers may not mind paying Apple the extra premium to bump up that memory to 16GB or even 24GB, but it is important to pay attention to these specifications as that can save you from getting caught in a bad deal.