I bought my wife a base model Mac Mini in 2018. 128 GB storage, 8 GB RAM.
I've heard no complaints.
When the M1X Mini comes out, I'll give her my 16 GB/512 GB Mini.
A lot of people don't need much storage or RAM.
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256GB ssd is bull
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I bought my wife a base model Mac Mini in 2018. 128 GB storage, 8 GB RAM.
I've heard no complaints.
When the M1X Mini comes out, I'll give her my 16 GB/512 GB Mini.
A lot of people don't need much storage or RAM.
256GB is a good base, although upgrade should be cheaper.
They even sell a 128GB option to educational facilities. That would’ve been terrible as a general base amount.
The other advantage of the 256gb is that it’s suitable for people who need masses of storage and would be adding an external drive regardless. No need to force these guys to pay extra for a 512gb mac
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I agree, a lot of people don’t. Many can even get away with just owning an iPad. And those are the people who keep Apple’s customer satisfaction rating high, because they’re happy with what they got.
But there are those who will spend more money to get that extra bit more, and that’s where Apple makes the bulk of their profit.
As the OP stated, they think Apple should start at 512GB. So any well-run business will say, “Let’s start at 256GB.”
Back when that 128GB 2018 Mini came out, people were saying Apple should start at 256.
You don’t have to be a Mac nerd to know 256GB is like, maybe two AAA titles, and for video editing storage in a 4K resolution? Simply not enough. Do people really buy a $2.5k machine to browse the Internet and post a few photos? That seems crazy to me. (I came from a Razer pro 17” laptop, basically the same price for a lot more storage/“better” specs for what I was doing at the time and ran out of the 512GB space and had to upgrade to 2TB, half of which was filled by the time I sold it for a Mac computer to match my phone/aesthetic, but the resolution was only 1080p for ~13 second looped videos). I’m not doing an insane amount, but to run out of space that quickly definitely means the 512GB should come standard. Makes me irritated that it isn’t, as a 2TB SSD from the top manufacturer is only $400, max. Being charged $800 for 2TB? Come on. At least allow internal accessibility for upgrades, Apple!
I bought my previous mac for DJing. I basically just needed the laptop to install Traktor DJ on. All my music was on a passport drive so I could take it to clubs. 256gb was perfectly fine. If people want more they can pay for more. I really don’t see what the issue is.
Besides it’s not like Apple lied or anything. We know full well what the storage options are so we can make an informed choice before purchasing.
Besides it’s not like Apple lied or anything. We know full well what the storage options are so we can make an informed choice before purchasing.
@andrewstirling You know, I think the problem there is that yes, we’re all informed buyers but we’re not in the mid 2010s anymore. The base model is good for light browsing and moderate downloads, but what about the people that don’t like paying for a cloud subscription or just want the functionality that comes with the Mac in the first place or can’t afford the higher levels of the product but it’s required for their workflow and tasking configuration? I guess the answer would be “get a windows”, but Mac does a lot of things better on a Mac, at least in my experience (Adobe photoshop, premier pro, after effects, Adobe Lightroom, etc). To me, it’s about the price tag, mostly. So I guess, what’s your opinion on the external SSDs? My main concern with them is table space and being able to carry them around if I need to go somewhere. I can honestly see myself packing up my 24” iMac and taking it my mothers house for when I need to get some work done there, since it’s so light but an external SSD complicates that, along with the stand for the iMac being awkward to pack. ?
I hate carrying around something that has to be plugged in and where you have to set it down on something.
The M1X MacBook Pros will come with an SD Card Reader so you can get an extra 512 GB on the cheap. It just won't be really fast. But it's extra storage.
My pro programs are Think or Swim or Active Trader Pro. My settings are stored in the cloud and the PC is just a thin client to access SAAS. You don't need a lot of space for that.
it is odd imo that the 500gb (granted hdd vs ssd) has been around since the iPhone was around at 4gb
Now we have 1TB iPhones and still 256/512 SSD computer drives
It used to be easy to do local backups of iOS devices on machines, now not as easy, especially if more than one iOS device
I feel 1TB should be the base on every computer at this point in 2021
Now we have 1TB iPhones and still 256/512 SSD computer drives
It used to be easy to do local backups of iOS devices on machines, now not as easy, especially if more than one iOS device
I feel 1TB should be the base on every computer at this point in 2021
Yeah, but you’re using it for something totally different from what I’m using it for. I’m not doing light browsing, I’m editing video compositions in 4K resolution 60% of the time while ALSO playing youtube. I can’t really use the cloud for that functionality, because if I have no internet, I have no storage… so physical is the only way I can go, I guess.
or a full on computer.
Most people who only web surf or watch Netflix could easily get by with a Chromebook
@andrewstirling The base model is good for light browsing and moderate downloads, but what about the people that don’t like paying for a cloud subscription or just want the functionality that comes with the Mac in the first place or can’t afford the higher levels of the product but it’s required for their workflow and tasking configuration?
So….the first part of your question is easily answered as those people can get the 512gb (or higher) model. The latter part of your question again comes back to price. So… the main issue seems to be that people think the 512gb is too expensive. That’s fair enough but it’s pretty much up to Apple what they charge for the MacBooks and market forces will ultimately decide if they got that wrong.
My main argument is that there are plenty situations where a 256gb is sufficient so why should Apple withdraw it from sale and force those people to buy a 512gb model. The original poster of this thread appears to be arguing that Apple shouldn’t offer choice to people because he bought a laptop which didn’t have enough storage for his needs.
My solution for a lot of storage is building a Windows Desktop with 128 GB RAM, 5 TB of SSD, thinking of getting another 2 TB for $200. That's a $2,500 system though. I can run a macOS Virtual Machine on it if I need to do something with a lot of RAM or a lot of storage on macOS.
I'm done with Android. Their device support policies are awful. Quite disappointed with how short "supported" means.
But you also have 128gb phones and 2tb computers. Because … choice again.
I’m struggling with this argument. It’s essentially people arguing that the base laptop should be a maxed out mac for the current price of the base model. That just isn’t gonna happen!
Personally, I went with 256GB internal, though I do a lot of graphics inking comics. That stuff, though, I keep on external drives because I’ve been screwed by the one point of failure of the internal drive going bad. Plus, when I upgrade, I just swap out the machine (a 2018 Mini), plug in my work, and then I’m back to work.
I only use half of my 256GB in my machine, upgraded the RAM to 32GB myself (too bad you can’t do that anymore), and I barely use cloud storage. (Vector illustrations, thankfully, are not the space hogs as video.)
I only use half of my 256GB in my machine, upgraded the RAM to 32GB myself (too bad you can’t do that anymore), and I barely use cloud storage. (Vector illustrations, thankfully, are not the space hogs as video.)
Except that it’s not. Not for many or most people. Or Apple wouldn’t be selling any.
Now their upgrade prices kinda suck.
256gb was a reasonably tight fight for most people 6-7 years ago even when 128gb was the silly standard.
1tb/16gb or 1tb/32gb should be more affordable for everyone at this point.
With more moving to the cloud 512gb/16tb isn't a totally unreasonable baseline, but it's just becoming a scam compared to where we were at in even 2014, particularly for $1500-$3000 machines.
1tb/16gb or 1tb/32gb should be more affordable for everyone at this point.
With more moving to the cloud 512gb/16tb isn't a totally unreasonable baseline, but it's just becoming a scam compared to where we were at in even 2014, particularly for $1500-$3000 machines.
Given the price of NAND flash is no longer consistently falling year over year (more up and down like a commodity that's reached equilibrium) and that Apple (as far as I know) still use relatively expensive MLC chips, and quite high speed ones at that, I don't necessarily agree 256GB in a $999 computer is unreasonable. If they were using bargain basement QLC stuff, I think this would become more of an argument.
I do agree 256GB is tight for a main computer, but honestly probably to the point that 512GB wouldn't help. You'd still need external storage for a 2-300GB photo and video library, which is easy enough to accumulate with live photos and 4K60 recording. The main thing is 256GB gives you enough wiggle room to have what you need on the computer, without blocking updates, and without needing to manage files weekly if not daily.
It looks like actual dGPUs are going away, though the Apple Silicon equivalents sound like they will be more than a match anyway. Given the M1 can already match a GTX 1050Ti, doubling, or quadrupling that performance is still likely to land us miles ahead of anything barring perhaps the 5600M...
I personally don't have any problems and I use an external hard drive as well. You should know what you're getting before buying the product.
256GB is much better than 128GB or those junk Fusion drives hybrid things. That Apple neutered their products with such things for so long is a marketing strategy to force you to upgrade. 256GB takes away a lot of the marketing dept ability to arm twist people buying the machines into the more expensive middle tier.
Eh no complaints here, I'm a software developer with nearly 20 years in and with cloud storage I have no problem using a 256 GB MBA as my portable machine and getting the job done. I have a fully loaded iMac 27" 2020 for any heavy lifting.