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Have a 13-Inch MacBook Pro? Here's Why You Should Upgrade to the New M3 14-Inch Model

I have a 2020 Intel 13” MBP, which works perfectly fine for what I use it for (mostly web browsing), but the 14” M3 is pretty tempting. ProMotion on my iPhone is probably the biggest quality of life upgrade I’ve had for that device, so I’m wondering if the experience will be similar on the newer MBP. (Maybe it’s less noticeable since it’s not a touchscreen?)

Also they say I can get $475 trade in for my current MBP, which is quite good.
 
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I have an Intel MBP from 2020 (used partially as a Windows machine) and my daily driver (for both work and personal use) is a base config M1 MBA.

Until the MBA decides to kick the bucket or software requirements suddenly become extreme, I don’t think I need to upgrade. That little machine runs circles around the Intel MBP and does everything I need it to do faster than I need it.

And once I do upgrade, it’ll be another MBA because there’s hardly anything for me in the new MBPs that make them more enticing than the MBA.
 
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elemenohme said:
What’s the pixel resolution of the 14” and 16” displays? I haven’t been able to find a spec anywhere.
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13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air M1: 2560 by 1600
13-inch MacBook Air M2: 2560 by 1664
14-inch MacBook Pro: 3024 by 1964
15-inch MacBook Air: 2888 by 1864
16-inch MacBook Pro: 3456 by 2234
 
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Who on earth SHOULD be upgrading from a high end (ie any Apple product) that they just bought 12 months ago??

No one. If you NEED to buy this, and you already have last year's model, then there's something wrong with the previous model. That's not a good sign...
 
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Conjurer said:
[notch] It's like a car with a black spot on the front window: Useless and painful to look at.
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Maybe you’re missing that you can reduce the macOS screen height to exclude the notch, which gets you a 14”/16” 16:10 notchless screen, because Apple actually added ~0.2” on top for the notch.
 
Granted I'm not sequencing DNA or working with 8K ProRes files, but my M1 Mac still runs smoothly with no audible fan noise and doesn't feel slow... certainly not in the "I really NEED a new computer!' sort of way that Intel-based Macs would start feeling slow after a number of years. I'm itching to replace my employer-supplied 2019 MacBook Pro, which does very much feel slow (and noisy) when the workload ramps up, but corporate IT dictates when that happens... which is only a couple of months away.
 
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Upgrading to the base model from a 2016. I'm running Sonoma on it with OCLP, but I'd like to have a supported model and not have to run patches every update.
 
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Have a 13-Inch MacBook Pro? Here's Why You Should Upgrade to the New M3 14-Inch Model

[ . . . ]

There's also a notch that houses the front-facing camera...
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Yeah, I'm going to say the notch is not a good reason to upgrade.


The only real downside with the 14-inch MacBook Pro is the price. It starts at $1,599, making it $300 more expensive than the $1,299 starting price of the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro. If you can afford it, what you get for the extra $300 is worth it, but if that makes it too pricey, you'll need to look at the lower-cost MacBook Air.
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At $1,599, buyers may be better off getting a refurb 14" MBP M2 Pro 16/512 from Apple Refurb store than a 14" MBP M3 8/512. I think the extra memory will server users better in the long run than the 11% higher Geekbench single-core score of the M3.
 
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Conjurer said:
1. A 9000 inch screen with notch.
2. A 14 inch screen without notch.

I would choose number 2. every time, because there is nothing ruining the screen.
It's like a car with a black spot on the front window: Useless and painful to look at.
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I hope the joke was intentional. Every windshield has a "notch" where the rearview mirror is.
 
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kildraik said:
I have a late 2020 13” M1. Trade in is still a solid $650.
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Interesting. Maybe I haven't checked in a while or have just forgotten, but the base M1 Air is $465 trade-in. I only paid $750 so that amount of depreciation over 2.5 years seems very reasonable.
 
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cosmichobo said:
Who on earth SHOULD be upgrading from a high end (ie any Apple product) that they just bought 12 months ago??

No one. If you NEED to buy this, and you already have last year's model, then there's something wrong with the previous model. That's not a good sign...
Click to expand...
You might be upgrading a recent purchase by giving it to a family member with a 5+ year old computer and getting a new toy for yourself :)
 
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