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Advice Needed: MacBook Pro purchase

gilliang3

gilliang3

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 24, 2016
13
2
I was planning on buying a 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro base model with 24GB of RAM and 1TB storage.

Then the M5 dropped.

I can get a refurbished M4 model from Apple discounted for $2,159 or else buying the M5 with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is $2,699.

I’ve never bought a refurbished product before. Are there any downsides to it?

I would mostly be using the laptop for watching videos and browsing but I would also be using the Adobe Creative suite but just for Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. So would 24GB of RAM be enough to run those 3 programs simultaneously without much freezing/slow down? And I assume the M4 base chip is good enough to handle those use case situations? From what I can tell the M5 chip isn't too much of an upgrade over the base M4 chip.

For added context I will be upgrading from an early 2015 MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch with 16GB of RAM and an Intel core i5 processor that I’ve had for like 10 years but is on its last legs.

Any and all advice/suggestions are welcome. I always have a lot of anxiety when it comes to making a large purchase like this so I want to make sure I'm going for the best option.

Thanks in advance!
 
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Refurbished is the way to go if the model you want is in stock. A lot of people here will opt for refurbished first. They're as good as new.

If you're getting by on a 16GB Intel MBP, I think it's pretty safe to say you're gonna be free and clear for a long time on a 24GB Silicon MBP. It should be more than fine, with the caveat that without knowing exactly what you're working on, we can't say for sure.

I run Photoshop and Illustrator side by side all the time on 24GB with a lot of programming tools also running at the same time.
 
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One thing to keep in mind is, if you plan to use this system for many years, Apple will likely support the M5 Macs with OS updates for one year longer than the M4 Macs.

(This is speculative since Apple doesn't actually announce in advance how long they will support each generation for. You have to wait for WWDC each year and see which models are cut off from the next version of macOS.)

If that's not worth $500 to you, then I'd say the refurb is fine. Base M4 with 24 GB RAM would be fine for the workload that you described.
 
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I almost always buy Refurb. @PotentPeas has a valid point that they're potentially going to fall out of updates a year earlier, but the cost savings is significant enough to offset that.

Upside is obvious: Save money. Warranty is the same.

The only downsides are if you NEED the latest/greatest, or if you NEED a custom configuration that's hard to find on the refurb store. Even if you have a specific configuration in mind but aren't in a hurry - www.refurbtracker.com will alert you when a particular option is available.
 
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I will recommend go for M5 as it more GPU performant, and have a matrix multiplication hardware acceleration (it will dramatically improve working with graphics in some ways). But refurb is fine too, if you okay with obsolete model and 30% slower graphics.
 
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awsom82 said:
if you okay with obsolete model and 30% slower graphics.
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Depending on your workflow, you’ll never know it slower graphics. If you need the power, you know you need the power. Paying for computing or graphics power you’ll never use or may use in the future is a personal financial choice. Personally, I think it is a waste of money.
 
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gilliang3 said:
I would mostly be using the laptop for watching videos and browsing but I would also be using the Adobe Creative suite but just for Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.
Click to expand...
How important are the MacBook Pro characteristics (e.g., miniLed, better speakers, longer battery life, active cooling) to you?

If you're price conscious and find those more on the "nice to have" versus "totally necessary" end of the spectrum, would you consider a refurbished MacBook Air instead? I see an option for a refurbished 15" Air with M4, 24GB, 1TB from Apple for $1529 USD, which is $630 less than the M4 MacBook Pro and $1170 cheaper than the M5 MacBook Pro.

And considering the age of your current MacBook Pro, any of these machines will be radically faster. I wouldn't sweat the difference in performance between active vs passive cooling nor M4 vs M5 for your workloads. Besides, you could always buy it, try it out, and just return it if it doesn't work for you. If that's the case, then you'll feel good about spending the extra money versus the hesitation you feel currently.

As for refurbished, I've only had good experiences with refurbished from Apple, though I'd be hesitant to pick up a refurb from anyone else. You still get AppleCare and can add on AppleCare+/AppleCare One, and everything feels brand new one (though you get a more nondescript box, if it matters).
 
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gilliang3 said:
I would mostly be using the laptop for watching videos and browsing but I would also be using the Adobe Creative suite but just for Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. So would 24GB of RAM be enough to run those 3 programs simultaneously without much freezing/slow down? And I assume the M4 base chip is good enough to handle those use case situations?
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Absolutely. In my last job I was juggling those exact three programs (plus a bunch of other stuff) on an M4 iMac with 24 GB of RAM. It's incredibly snappy and fast, and will be a massive upgrade from your old i5 MacBook Pro.
 
I use a 16" MacBook Pro M1 with 16 gig, granted I don't do design as much as I used too, but I don't have any issues with it being slow. I am fixing the to upgrade to the latest but am trying to decided on the 15" or stick with the 16" Pro.
 
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I bought a refurb 14" MBP (M3 24 GB, 2 TB) last year and couldn't be happier. It was just like new, as was the buying experience with the refurb store with delivery to my local Apple store. All the packaging was just like a new MBP.

So make your decision based just on your configuration or performance needs - no reason at all not to buy from Refurb store. And the $$$ you save are significant.
 
gilliang3 said:
I was planning on buying a 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro base model with 24GB of RAM and 1TB storage.

Then the M5 dropped.

I can get a refurbished M4 model from Apple discounted for $2,159 or else buying the M5 with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is $2,699.

I’ve never bought a refurbished product before. Are there any downsides to it?
Click to expand...
If you buy a refurb from Apple, it will most likely be indistinguishable from brand new. And the M4 is only one year old, so you aren't gambling with an old computer in any case.

The M5 MacBook Pro uses the M5 chip, which has a 10-core CPU and 10 GPU cores.
But the current M4 MacBook Pro is available with 10/10 cores, or as an M4 Pro with 12/16 cores.

It is a little confusing: The laptop is called MacBook Pro, but it can have an M4, an M4 Pro, or even an M4 Max ship. So re-check the specs of the refurbished M4 MacBook to see if it comes with the M4 or M4 Pro. An M4 Pro chip will be faster than the standard M5 chip in multi-threaded applications.

Another benefit of the M4 Pro is that it has Thunderbolt 5, which offers twice the speed for attached SSD drives. This is also true with M5 -- the standard M5 chip has the older Thunderbolt 4, while the Pro version will almost certainly have Thunderbolt 5.

The other thing is that it's easy to attach SSD drives but you can't increase memory.
 
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