Did anyone make the jump from the M1 13" to the M2 14"? I'm on the OG 13" m1 so it's 3yrs old now. Was debating moving to the 14". Honestly what I'm most looking at is the extra inch of screen and the quality of the display. How much of a difference do you really see in it? What about when watching HDR movies on plex or something else?
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13" MBP m1 vs 14" MBP m2
- Thread starter FlyingTexan
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The 14” MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro/Max or M2 Pro/Max is a very different class of computer than the 13” MacBook Pro with a regular M1 or M2. The 14” is basically just a smaller 16” MacBook Pro, where the 13” is basically a MacBook Air in different clothes.
In general the 14” gets you a much improved mini-led XDR display, and it is a significant step up from the regular Retina display of the 13”. You get more RAM and storage out of the gate and both top out higher than you can upgrade the consumer Macs. You get about 1.5x - 4x the GPU power depending on which configuration you get. You also get at least 2 additional performance CPU cores.
In my opinion, the base 14” it is the absolute star of the Apple Silicon lineup. They regularly go on sale for just a little more or the same cost as a MacBook Air with the same RAM/Storage, and it is no contest at that point unless you need the thinnest/lightest laptop possible.
In general the 14” gets you a much improved mini-led XDR display, and it is a significant step up from the regular Retina display of the 13”. You get more RAM and storage out of the gate and both top out higher than you can upgrade the consumer Macs. You get about 1.5x - 4x the GPU power depending on which configuration you get. You also get at least 2 additional performance CPU cores.
In my opinion, the base 14” it is the absolute star of the Apple Silicon lineup. They regularly go on sale for just a little more or the same cost as a MacBook Air with the same RAM/Storage, and it is no contest at that point unless you need the thinnest/lightest laptop possible.
I'll admit as far as I can tell the 8GB 13" MBP M1 I'm on has done the job. It's mostly web surfing, documents/expense reports, loads of youtube and plex. I travel for a living so I take a mac because it's simply the best device out there for me. I love the trackpad and the keyboad. The MacOS integration to use with my iphone is stellar. I hate the MacOS file system setup (wish I could make it like windows 7 explorer) but outside of that I like it. I'm not really hurting for more power but I watch tons of content through my plex server and online streaming apps so the base model 14" pro would be my go to. In all honesty if they'd just put the new screen on the 13.3" MBA I'd probably be perfectly happy with that. But my 13" is still in great shape and I see the refurbs on apple's website so could just kind of swap go for that deal. I'm not a content creator. I do have steam installed for a few titles I mess around with (Civ V, Tropico 6, etc). But mostly this is my daily driver and I'm really wondering if from a daily use and media consumption standpoint if the new screen is a noticeable upgrade. I currently have about 400k points on my Chase Sapphire card and could use those to get some apple gift cards at another 10% off. I also don't follow the rumors that well. Are there supposed to be new macs this month?
One interesting point is that the 14" MacBook Pro is only 0.3 inches larger (in width and length) than the 13" Pro. Because they shrunk the bezels so much.
The new screen would be pretty nice for you, but I don't know if it's worth $1000 if you don't need any more performance.
See if you can find a deal on one, or find a refurbished one. Also, look into an M1 Pro 14" model. They have the same screen and almost as good of a chip (M2 is only ~20% better than M1), but they're often hundreds of dollars off.
The new screen would be pretty nice for you, but I don't know if it's worth $1000 if you don't need any more performance.
See if you can find a deal on one, or find a refurbished one. Also, look into an M1 Pro 14" model. They have the same screen and almost as good of a chip (M2 is only ~20% better than M1), but they're often hundreds of dollars off.
Yea trying to see if apple will have any M1 versions refurbished but doesn't look like it. Really would be awesome if they'd just give the HDR screen on the Macbook Air 13.3". That would be perfect for me.
I jumped from the M1 13" (8GB RAM/512 SSD) to the 14" M2 Max (32GB RAM/1TB SSD) and haven't regretted it for a second. One big reason I made the decision to upgrade was that I started hitting red memory pressure when editing 4k video in FCP and compiling some code. Because I was able to sell the M1 13" at a decent price, I had the flexibility to go with the M2 Max instead of the base config with M2 Pro. While I don't use the MBP for watching a lot of movies or videos, the screen is more comfortable to work on for extended periods of time.
Compared to the 13" Pro, there really isn't much difference between it and the 14" in terms of overall dimensions or weight, which makes the 14" just as portable as its smaller cousin. I also don't miss the touchbar at all, which is the one thing I originally thought I'd miss the most when moving to the 14" model. Having the additional USB-C and HDMI ports along with the SD card reader is also a major benefit of the 14" and 16" Pros compared to the 13" Pro.
You are obviously a professional user. I'm Joe blow lol. While that may make people want to tell me to go the cheapest the thing is that when you're on the road like I am you don't want just anything. I don't watch TV in hotel rooms and I spend most my time on the internet because I'm bored lol. So it's my daily driver but in that sense I put A LOT of miles on them.
I hadn't even thought about it but Apple will give me $630 to trade my current 2020 13" in. That seems like a pretty good deal. Now I just have to sit on the edge of my seat for a couple weeks to see if they announce new models.