Jumped last month to 16” M1 Max 32 GB from the same config of 2019 i9 intel. The main difference for me is battery life. All of the threads worrying about M1 Pro vs Max battery differences seem to forget that the Max is about triple the battery life in real world usage (for me at least) compared to the 2019. Love the new machine.
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Are you replacing your 2019 MBP 16" with M1 Pro/Max MBP 16"?
- Thread starter ArcticBlue00
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What percentage of the original new price are you trying to sell it for?
Which GPU? 5500M with 8GB?
I'll be replacing my 2019 MBP16 32GB/1TB/5500M+8GB with a 14" M1 Max 32GB/1TB/24-core GPU.
The 2019 MBP16 turned out not to be a great purchase decision for the following reasons:
1) It cost a lot (the most I've ever spent on a computer) and I'm replacing it "early" (I normally estimate 4-5 years' use), so my ownership cost per year will be higher (particularly if resale prices drop). It might cost me $1000/year to have owned it.
2) The M1 Mac launch in 2020 showed that Apple Silicon could effectively replace the MBP16 in many tasks at a third of the price.
3) I up-specced the GPU for video editing, but it is still only just "OK" for 4K editing. I still need to create proxies the get stutter free playback
4) The thermal issues, fan noise and battery life, are much worse than I expected. Realistically I only get 4-5 hours battery for my normal workloads. For video editing (hardly ever do this on battery) it can be as little as one hour.
It's quite a good computer even today, and is still does well compared to others in the same category (I have a similarly specced work Dell laptop that is awful in comparison).
It's just that Apple took a quantum leap with Apple Silicon and the Intel Macs are now very much in the "last-year's model" category in terms of bang for buck.
The 2019 MBP16 turned out not to be a great purchase decision for the following reasons:
1) It cost a lot (the most I've ever spent on a computer) and I'm replacing it "early" (I normally estimate 4-5 years' use), so my ownership cost per year will be higher (particularly if resale prices drop). It might cost me $1000/year to have owned it.
2) The M1 Mac launch in 2020 showed that Apple Silicon could effectively replace the MBP16 in many tasks at a third of the price.
3) I up-specced the GPU for video editing, but it is still only just "OK" for 4K editing. I still need to create proxies the get stutter free playback
4) The thermal issues, fan noise and battery life, are much worse than I expected. Realistically I only get 4-5 hours battery for my normal workloads. For video editing (hardly ever do this on battery) it can be as little as one hour.
It's quite a good computer even today, and is still does well compared to others in the same category (I have a similarly specced work Dell laptop that is awful in comparison).
It's just that Apple took a quantum leap with Apple Silicon and the Intel Macs are now very much in the "last-year's model" category in terms of bang for buck.
I see quite a few private ads where I am (Australia) that seem to have very optimistic pricing for used MBP16s with some asking for over 70% of the original new purchase price.
I'm thinking that closer to 50% is probably more realistic. Apple trade-in price is well below 40% of the new price.
Yup, I priced it low to attract buyers. I am also not willing to the the Apple trade-in since it's just way too low for what I want.
Haha I am just hoping for someone who really needs an Intel Chip in their Macs to grab mine up.
I just hope that there are potential buyers out there who don't read Macrumors or look at Mac-related blogs and YouTube videos too closely.
There *are* a few reasons to look for an Intel Mac these days, but probably not for the majority:
1) Boot Camp to Windows for games or just because you prefer Windows OS but like Mac hardware (there are a few people in this camp)
2) Able to run Windows, Linux x86 VMs or Docker images - might be a number of developers with this needs.
3) Have some vital software that is incompatible with Apple Silicon and Rosetta, or runs poorly.
4) You prefer the "slim design" of the older MBPs to the chunk, heavier look of the new ones...or just can't get past "the notch" /s
I'm maybe gonna sell my 2019 i9 16 inch MacBook Pro.
Buy a 17 Inch Windows 12th Gen i9 Laptop with Windows 11.
I can't live without access to Windows.
If I want Mac I can install Monterey on this laptop as a Hackintosh.
APPLE has really been screwing up on reliable MacOs without many bugs
It started with Catalina and has not let up. Monterey is a complete mess with memory leaks.
Why would I wanna invest in the future of MacOs with 3 straight releases of MacOs full of bugs??
And no way to boot Windows 11???
NO THANK YOU.
Buy a 17 Inch Windows 12th Gen i9 Laptop with Windows 11.
I can't live without access to Windows.
If I want Mac I can install Monterey on this laptop as a Hackintosh.
APPLE has really been screwing up on reliable MacOs without many bugs
It started with Catalina and has not let up. Monterey is a complete mess with memory leaks.
Why would I wanna invest in the future of MacOs with 3 straight releases of MacOs full of bugs??
And no way to boot Windows 11???
NO THANK YOU.
For me, it was (in no particular order):
Preference of smaller form factor
Battery life
M1 Pro performance gains
Higher refresh rate screen
Similar audio performance
Full warranty (the 16" expires Feb 2022)
MagSafe was nice to have back
No Touch Bar prone to fail (though I actually do enjoy using it)
Education discount + no loss on the 16" cost
I could go on and on. For the cost ($75/mo for 12 months) it was a no-brainer. I am more of a "prosumer" type user, I don't need anything super crazy, so luckily I was able to keep the specs to almost a minimum. I honestly could've gotten away with an M1 Air 1TB but the price difference was no issue. I ended up going for the base specs again but with 1TB storage and the 96w adapter. I placed the order on 12/02 and I believe it arrives tomorrow. ?
For me it was purely around fan noise. With the work I was doing on the old one fans would often kick into max (causing a bit of disruption for co-workers... back when multiple people worked in the same room).
Also when plugging in an external monitor occasionally it would freak out for a good 10 seconds before it settled down on having two displays.
With this one I haven't even caught the fans turning on, most things are pretty instant.
This is a good lesson about future proofing though. You can spend a lot of money future proofing a Mac, but then a new model comes along that's better in fundamental ways. (I personally always like to future proof, but Apple prices for RAM and HD always make that a tougher decision than it has to be - still had to go 32GB for the new one though).
Also when plugging in an external monitor occasionally it would freak out for a good 10 seconds before it settled down on having two displays.
With this one I haven't even caught the fans turning on, most things are pretty instant.
This is a good lesson about future proofing though. You can spend a lot of money future proofing a Mac, but then a new model comes along that's better in fundamental ways. (I personally always like to future proof, but Apple prices for RAM and HD always make that a tougher decision than it has to be - still had to go 32GB for the new one though).
As some have said, there is no such thing as "future proofing"....there is just making a calculation of your future needs for the time you expect to have the machine. The future will inevitably catch up with you at some point and the computer will become relatively less capable.
However, I would expect that in most cases, the requirements of applications and OS will not grow by the same percentage as the available upgrade steps (generally factors of two) that Apple offers.
In other words, if you need, say, 16GB RAM now, you are unlikely to suddenly need 32GB for the same workloads within the usual life of the machine (say 3-5 years), unless you are currently under-specced.
I would bet that many people who over-spec in the name of future-proofing, end up upgrading the whole machine to something newer at an earlier date than they expected their future-proofing to last. They would probably be better off just "right-sizing" for a limited period (say up to 2 years) and assessing whether product progression during that time has been enough to make an upgrade attractive or worthwhile. The is quite a subective view though - some people may think a 10% upgrade is enough, for others it needs to be twice as fast before they would bother. I'm somewhere in the middle - a 50% improvement is significant for a lot of tasks and worth having.
As an aside, these tricky hardware decisions are why cloud computing platforms are such a game-changer for enterprises. You can easily scale up/down vertically (size of machines) or scale in/out horizontally (number of machines) based on the actual application load, so that you are always right-sized and only paying for what you need.
Cheaper, lower-specced machines are easier to sell too. Learned that the hard way.
I'm going to chine in here even though I traded in my 2016 fully spec'd out model to Apple and not a 2019. The same things apply. Battery life, heat, and video editing performance. Last year I had to create a 4K video for a client and the Fully spec'd out 2016 15" model I had was just painful to use. Slow, Hot, and loud. I have a similar project coming up and I felt it was time to upgrade. I will say the 16" model does get warm too, just not as hot. And so far it's been silent. Unfortunately apps like Adobe Bridge still don't support M1 so battery life takes a hit on Rosetta 2. The Display lag time is worse than the 15" model I had even with promotion which sucks, keep that in mind.
If you dislike Monterey so much, why would you want to run your new machine as a hackintosh?
BTW, get used carrying around that ginormous power brick ... you're going to need it to keep the performance with that x86 processor and discrete GPU.
I used to carry that stuff in my 2019 Intel MacBook Pro 16 and I don't miss it at all.
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Bought my Intel MacBook Pro 16", core-i9 2.3 ghz, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB for $3,499 from Adorama on a AppleInsider deal. Sold it in April 2021 to BuyBackTronics for $2170.
Bought my new MacBook Pro 16", M1 Max with 32 GPU cores, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD for $3899 from Apple (no AppleInsider $200 discount) which means it's pretty much the same price - this is the top of the line M1 Max model whereas my 2019 was one tier down in the core-i9 CPU (not 2.6 ghz since I didn't believe the chassis could take advantage of that CPU).
So far, I really love this computer.
Transcodes fly now that Handbrake has fixed their VideoToolbox support, and my few video edits/renders have been smooth as silk. The machine is certainly the snappiest computer I've ever used, and its all set for videoconferencing (including portrait blur) right out of the box.
The sound is great, the webcam very nice, microphones great, and it plays HDR video unlike anything else I've ever seen.
Unlike my 2019, when I go out with the computer I no longer haul the laptop and accoutrement in a backpack (charger, power cable, USB hub) - I just use a Leatherology sleeve because I know the battery will last pretty much no matter what I do.
Very solid quality of life improvement here.
Did I mention that this thing doesn't sound like a jet engine taking off when you look at it the wrong way?
Bought my new MacBook Pro 16", M1 Max with 32 GPU cores, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD for $3899 from Apple (no AppleInsider $200 discount) which means it's pretty much the same price - this is the top of the line M1 Max model whereas my 2019 was one tier down in the core-i9 CPU (not 2.6 ghz since I didn't believe the chassis could take advantage of that CPU).
So far, I really love this computer.
Transcodes fly now that Handbrake has fixed their VideoToolbox support, and my few video edits/renders have been smooth as silk. The machine is certainly the snappiest computer I've ever used, and its all set for videoconferencing (including portrait blur) right out of the box.
The sound is great, the webcam very nice, microphones great, and it plays HDR video unlike anything else I've ever seen.
Unlike my 2019, when I go out with the computer I no longer haul the laptop and accoutrement in a backpack (charger, power cable, USB hub) - I just use a Leatherology sleeve because I know the battery will last pretty much no matter what I do.
Very solid quality of life improvement here.
Did I mention that this thing doesn't sound like a jet engine taking off when you look at it the wrong way?
These two points are why I went for a "just above base" model by only upgrading to what I felt like I truly needed, which was more storage than 512GB. I (typically) don't keep my main computer too long (1-2 years) - especially when companies like Apple begin making such huge improvements from generation to generation. So for my case, it makes more sense to spend as little as possible on upgrades. I don't currently need them, and I get the most return value in the next couple years or so when it's time to sell/trade.
However, I can also understand why you'd max it out if you have the means, or the need to, though I agree that higher specs sometimes makes it harder to sell and get your value back. Apple charges a lot for upgrades and I doubt the secondhand market pays the same markup for them on used Macs. I think many people who order high specs don't care about that though. And that's perfectly reasonable. If my MBP was my source of income I would've gladly upgraded it more, but it's not, it's just my personal + school laptop. I'll be learning web development and app coding with it, but I imagine these specs are more than enough for my needs.
If my plan was to keep it for 5+ years, I probably would have ordered a 10-core, 32GB, 2TB. But the extra $540 for the CPU and RAM upgrade alone just wasn't worth it to me if I plan to upgrade within the next M-chip or two. But who knows! With how impressive these are now, even with the mostly base specs I have, I may keep it a lot longer this time.
What are you talking about? It's the first generation that it's leap and bound better than the previous one. One time doesn't set a trend.
I was personally patiently waiting for a Mac with an Apple chip while using my 2015. I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't know when it would happen. Now I should be good for another 6+ years.
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This ^ . We've had two "big leaps" in Mac performance with the introduction of the M1 in late-2020, and its evolution, the M1 Pro/Max.
I think the next few years will see more modest performance increases more in line with those seen on the iPhone and iPad, or possibly less. These are still pretty good in overall terms, but I don't think we will see the 70-100% increases in CPU & GPU performance again, at least not in the short term. Apple has done a great job with Apple Silicon, and the next few years will be incremental improvements.
My prediction is for:
1) Modest performance improvements (up to 10-20% per year) in core performance - with larger improvements when smaller silicon fabrication processes are introduced.
2) Improved power efficiency (which might in turn lead to higher frequencies or more cores)
3) More custom ASICs built into the SoC to optimize specific workloads.
I won't expect another 70-100% improvement over the current M1 Pro/Max for another 5-6 years.
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