Say someone needs or is set on buying a new 14" M3 Macbook Pro (M1/M2 machines aside for the moment). What do you think for most varied professional/semi-professional use case scenarios is the best value in terms of function/speed/aesthetic/resale/longevity/etc dollar for dollar?
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Best Overall Value New M3 Macbook Pro?
- Thread starter Two Appleseeds
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I picked the binned Max. If we're looking at actual performance improvement over the previous Apple silicon generations, it really is the sweet spot, benching only about 10% less than the unbinned, but a good 25+ percent over the Pro chip, consequently leading to much larger improvements relative to the M1 series.
For the M1/M2 generations Pro's were clear as the only differentiation in compute was the binned Pro variant.
For the M1/M2 generations Pro's were clear as the only differentiation in compute was the binned Pro variant.
Yeah the binned Max looks great. If cost weren't an object I'd definitely consider it. Basically, you get most of the benefits of the Max with a significant discount over the 16c/40c unbinned version. Personally, thinking about just getting the binned Pro 11c/14c though. The combo of battery life + full strength ports + decent power has me intrigued. The reviews for the battery life look great too:
Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch (2023, M3 Pro) Review
Apple's 2023 14-inch MacBook Pro strikes a winning balance between premium design and M3 Pro-powered performance, for a compact mobile workstation that trounces similarly priced Windows machines.
If going 16”, binned Max.
If going 14”, unbinned Pro - yes not a big improvement over M2 but until reviews say otherwise I can’t see how 10 performance cores won’t ruin the 14” battery and heat profile. 1TB space also covers having only 18GB ram imo and one extra efficiency core over binned Pro could only be a good thing!
If going 14”, unbinned Pro - yes not a big improvement over M2 but until reviews say otherwise I can’t see how 10 performance cores won’t ruin the 14” battery and heat profile. 1TB space also covers having only 18GB ram imo and one extra efficiency core over binned Pro could only be a good thing!