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

“The 14-inch model is more expensive, but it comes with a number of benefits that make it worth the upgrade for anyone with a 13-inch machine.”​
​
“Anyone”?! ‼️ 🙈 LOL!😁

The article focuses on comparisons with —and upgrading from — the M2 13” MacBook Pro. Better to have said “hardly makes it a worthwhile upgrade for anyone with a 13” M-series MBP…”

I'll wager that the overwhelming majority of people who own an M2 13” MBP — or even an M1 — will not be upgrading, let alone even considering it, save in a fleeting flight of fancy.

Note something else. The 13” M2 MacBook Pro has *better* battery life for wireless web browsing than the 14” MBP — 17 hours vs. 15. MR here has fallen for Apple's misleading hype about 22 hours of battery life — which applies only to Apple TV app viewings, see

www.apple.com

Mac - Compare Models

See what makes each Mac laptop and desktop different. And find the one that’s perfect for your life, your work, and your budget.
www.apple.com

The M2 13” MBP trounces the 14” MBP M3 Pro or Max:

13” M2 MBP: Up to 17 hours wireless web
14” M3 Pro, Max: Up to 12 hours wireless web

13” M2 MBP: Up to 20 hours Apple TV app playback
14” M3 Pro, Max: Up to 18 hours Apple TV app playback

See

www.apple.com

Mac - Compare Models

See what makes each Mac laptop and desktop different. And find the one that’s perfect for your life, your work, and your budget.
www.apple.com

Coreymac84 said:
some of you still dont understand that the notch is ABOVE the screen space you had on a notchless MacBook......you are not getting less space. The notch is inside the old models bezel.....and the task bar is now where the bezel used to be as opposed to in your original screen space.
Click to expand...

It's not the amount of space but the disruptive aesthetics of the notch. It's a poor look and a weak design. Those concerned about the notch could just as easily respond with, “Some of you still don't understand that the notch is an aesthetic problem, not a question of how much display space there is.”

For many, the notch is also a distraction, even though many note that you get used to it. For others, it's an interface issue with mouse pointer jumps and icon positioning.

I don’t have a dog in this hunt as I always put a Post-It note over the camera, anyway — a homemade “notch” in the bezel that ruins the aesthetics, but one I live with!
 
netguru2000 said:
How does proper design become "elitist"? When they finally do remove the notch so we can regain full capacity of the menu bar it won't be elitists who solve the problem. It's great you don't notice the notch though, how egalitarian of you.
Click to expand...
All you people yammering about the notch are hilarious. As others have repeatedly pointed out, it just covers up a part of the taskbar. If you make your taskbar BLACK, the notch is completely invisible in actual use.

I thought it would annoy me, but in practice it's NO ISSUE WHATSOEVER. The mouse pointer doesn't "jump" at all, it can freely move under the notch. "But then you can't SEE IT!" Ya, that is true. But guess what, you can "lose track" of the mouse anywhere on the screen, and what do you do then? Move it around a bit and it will show up. Same thing applies here!
 
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museic said:
All you people yammering about the notch are hilarious. As others have repeatedly pointed out, it just covers up a part of the taskbar. If you make your taskbar BLACK, the notch is completely invisible in actual use.

I thought it would annoy me, but in practice it's NO ISSUE WHATSOEVER. The mouse pointer doesn't "jump" at all, it can freely move under the notch. "But then you can't SEE IT!" Ya, that is true. But guess what, you can "lose track" of the mouse anywhere on the screen, and what do you do then? Move it around a bit and it will show up. Same thing applies here!
Click to expand...

Some people liked the touch bar, some yammered they didn't. It went away, this will too.
Moving a cursor to find it is so Intel, there's now an AirTag for that.
 
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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.
Click to expand...
Um, every car has this. It's called the rearview mirror.
 
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As many have noted, it seems odd that there would be an article like this for such a small advancement in tech. I'm still running a 2017 13" MacBook Pro and it runs perfectly. It can run multiple browsers with many tabs (work and personal kept separately), along with video or photo editing apps and all the rest - mail, messages, notes. Unlike my previous MacBooks, which when they reached 5-6 years old, started flagging in performance (My 2011 MBP needed over 12 hours to do a long list of video compression tasks that my then-new 2017 MBP did in 20 minutes), this Intel machine still shows no signs of slowing down.

Yes, it means I have the crappy keyboard, but I also often use it docked. It will be fun to have a shiny new machine, but with just that keyboard being the main driver, I can wait.
 
"It’s a very noisy world and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us… The way to do that is not to talk about speeds and feeds. It’s not to talk about bits and mega-hertz. It’s not to talk about why we are better than Windows...Remember, Nike sells a commodity – they sell shoes!!! And yet when you think of Nike you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, as you know, they don’t ever talk about the product. They don’t ever tell you about their Air Soles and why they are better than Reebok’s Air Soles."
 
This sounds very much like a chipper content writer with no special knowledge of Apple products, history, or customers whatsoever beyond googling a few other articles 30 seconds before prompting ChatGPT to write it.
 
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“…but if you're coming from an M1 13-inch MacBook Pro or an Intel machine, it's going to be a much more notable upgrade that will feel closer to night and day.”

I very much doubt the day-to-day difference between the M1 and M3 will be night to day
 
“This runs on the 3nm process what that means is that it’s the first to not run on the 5nm process”

Best reporting I’ve ever seen lmao
 
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museic said:
All you people yammering about the notch are hilarious. As others have repeatedly pointed out, it just covers up a part of the taskbar. If you make your taskbar BLACK, the notch is completely invisible in actual use.

I thought it would annoy me, but in practice it's NO ISSUE WHATSOEVER. The mouse pointer doesn't "jump" at all, it can freely move under the notch. "But then you can't SEE IT!" Ya, that is true. But guess what, you can "lose track" of the mouse anywhere on the screen, and what do you do then? Move it around a bit and it will show up. Same thing applies here!
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you're not actually clued in about the whole notch issue. The real deal with the notch is that it selectively ghosts some of the top menus. Yeah, for real—it just blanks them out. It's not like every app menu snugged up next to the notch gets the cold shoulder, but some do. And the ones that get ghosted? You can't coax them back no matter how much you sweet-talk your cursor to plead with the notch—it's just not having any of it. I'm hoping my response doesn't rub you the wrong way.
 
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netguru2000 said:
How does proper design become "elitist"? When they finally do remove the notch so we can regain full capacity of the menu bar it won't be elitists who solve the problem. It's great you don't notice the notch though, how egalitarian of you.
Click to expand...
Why thank you!
iGeneo said:
What about dumping a 2023 15" MBA for a 15" M3 Pro? (asking for a friend)
Click to expand...
if it’s matte black then the math says yes lol
 
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Conjurer said:

But the notch though. The notch alone is a deal breaker for me.
Sorry. I will not buy anything with a notch, I want the full screen without anything ruining it.
Click to expand...
To deal with the notch:
Either:
- Set your wallpaper to plain black + run in dark mode (I'm not even sure if you need both, it's just how I prefer mine anyway).
- Or, install one of those apps that achieves similar, but lets you have a wallpaper.
This will render the notch invisible.
The end result is that the Menu fills what used to be the bezel, which exists due to the camera.
The menu basically wraps around the notch, and since the menu is now white text with black background, the notch is invisible, and you've gained extra screen realestate.

When you run in full screen mode, the menu bar disappears and goes all black, thus the "full screen" is the same size as it would be if the notch didn't exist, and instead the top bezel was bigger to accomodate the camera.
 
MysteriousStain said:
I have a 2012 MBP that came with 8GB and 750 HDD. I upgraded it to 1 GB SSD for $100. 11 years later Apple wants to sell me the same RAM and 1/3 the storage. I don’t have the love for this company I once had.
Click to expand...
I had the pre-Retina 2012 MBP, in which both the RAM and HD were self upgradeable. I immediately upgraded the RAM from 4GB to 8GB, and then later to 16GB. And the HD at some point too.

I later had a 2015 Retina MBP, and upgraded the SSD from 500GB to 1TB. It already came with 16GB, which is the max the Intel chip could support.

So yep, now I got 32GB/2TB in my 16" M1 Pro MBP, and damn did it make me angry being reamed for that upgrade price to cover my bases. And now Timmy expects me to jump on an M3 model? Yeah nah, that ain't happening sunshine.
 
sideshowuniqueuser said:
To deal with the notch:
Either:
- Set your wallpaper to plain black + run in dark mode (I'm not even sure if you need both, it's just how I prefer mine anyway).
- Or, install one of those apps that achieves similar, but lets you have a wallpaper.
This will render the notch invisible.
The end result is that the Menu fills what used to be the bezel, which exists due to the camera.
The menu basically wraps around the notch, and since the menu is now white text with black background, the notch is invisible, and you've gained extra screen realestate.

When you run in full screen mode, the menu bar disappears and goes all black, thus the "full screen" is the same size as it would be if the notch didn't exist, and instead the top bezel was bigger to accomodate the camera.
Click to expand...

Or DON'T buy anything with a notch. Vote with our wallets.
 
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netguru2000 said:
How does proper design become "elitist"? When they finally do remove the notch so we can regain full capacity of the menu bar it won't be elitists who solve the problem. It's great you don't notice the notch though, how egalitarian of you.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the notch should be optional, just like adding extra RAM and SSD capacity.
Let's see how popular that ugly notch really is.
 
ddhhddhh2 said:
Isn't it hilarious how this article's pushing you to toss out last year's Mac for this year's shiny new one, and saying it's genius? Soon, we'll be swapping Macs every six months! Cook's yacht fund goal must be on the horizon. What's that? 8GB of RAM? Please, my grandma always said newer is better – 8GB is totally enough!
Click to expand...

Apple can believe whatever they want. Not everyone can afford to upgrade every year. I have and old 2008 MacBook Pro and it's still going strong with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and upgraded to 1 TB HDD 32 GB RAM. It's funny having an oldschool laptop and comparing it to these newest bottlenecked 256 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM laptops. Imagine that, Apple bottlenecked their Apple M3 lineup, even their expensive "Pro" workstation laptops 2023/2024.

Apple will probably support the M1 MacBooks for many more years, maybe even beyond 2040.
And I doubt the M1 MacBooks are slower than my 2008 MacBook Pro.
 
whitemage said:
Apple can believe whatever they want. Not everyone can afford to upgrade every year. I have and old 2008 MacBook Pro and it's still going strong with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and upgraded to 1 TB HDD 32 GB RAM. It's funny having an oldschool laptop and comparing it to these newest bottlenecked 256 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM laptops. Imagine that, Apple bottlenecked their Apple M3 lineup, even their expensive "Pro" workstation laptops 2023/2024.

Apple will probably support the M1 MacBooks for many more years, maybe even beyond 2040.
And I doubt the M1 MacBooks are slower than my 2008 MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

Also remember the fully usable M1 Macs will probably be in the bargain bin soon.
Maybe during Black Week or in January.
 
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