Help me choose MBP

[zulicheg]

Friends, I ask for your help in choosing a laptop.

In my city, there is an MBP 2020 A2289 8/256 with a locale keyboard and good condition for sale, and an BMP 2020 A2251 16/1Tb with a small chip in the ulgu of the top cover on the glass, but the screen itself is not affected and the case is not damaged. Also, when testing with the Heaven benchmark program, in some frames it is barely noticeable as if one picture is superimposed on another. It is clear that the second option is more interesting, but its technical condition is confusing.

Question. How much slower is the A2289 A2251? How much will 8Gb of memory be lacking, given that on my Windows laptop about 12Gb is occupied during my work.

There is also a good BMP 2018 A1989, 16/512 for sale, but the butterfly keyboard and the lack of a physical Esc button are confusing.

Please help me decide.

 

[raythompsontn]

Personally I would skip both options. Try the refurbished store for some good prices on machines that are generally in perfect condition. I would not even consider the 2018 device as that is an Intel chip. The M series of chips are much better in terms of performance and battery life. There may be other hidden damage in the 2020 version. Unless the price is really, really good, skip it also.

 

[zulicheg]

On the M-processor the prices are much higher, and there are very few offers. I am also interested in the possibility of installing Windows/Linux, and on the M-processor this, as far as I know, is impossible.

P.S. We do not have offers for factory refurbished, only private ads.

 

[raythompsontn]

On the M-processor the prices are much higher, and there are very few offers

They are newer machines. Thus the prices are higher.

I am also interested in the possibility of installing Windows/Linux, and on the M-processor this, as far as I know, is impossible

I run Windows 11 Pro and Linux on the M series using Parallels. There are free options such as VMWare (I think) that will run Windows. Finding the ARM distribution with the free options is sometimes difficult.

We do not have offers for factory refurbished, only private ads.

Apple has the refurbished store but that may be only in the U.S.

Given a choice if the M series is not an option, I would choose the BMP 2020 A2251 16/1Tb as more memory and local storage is good thing. You don't mention he price difference. But the damage on the screen indicates a significant drop which may be hiding underlying damage.

I don't think the speed difference will be significant unless a program you need requires a lot of memory.

Regardless of your choice, make certain the machine has been removed from any Apple accounts and is delivered with the initial startup screen. Otherwise you may have a stolen machine and will basically have a useless device.

 

[zulicheg]

The thing is that the case is not dented, it feels like someone either picked at the screen or something got under the cover and chipped the screen. True Tone works, the screen looks like the original.

Price for Pro i7 16Gb/1Tb ~$550
for Pro i5 8Gb/256Gb ~$430
Air M1 8Gb/512Gb ~$500

The only thing that bothers me about all this is that 8GB of memory will not be enough. I do a bit of programming and administration, so I will have to run virtual machines and similar things.

 

[raythompsontn]

8GB of memory will not be enough

It should do OK. Only one VM at a time. Programming will probably be fine. People used machines with 8GB for many years. I think I would chose the M1 over the Intel models. Intel support may not last much longer.

Just my opinion. Others may think differently.

 

[Basic75]

8GB is definitely not enough if you want to run virtual machines. I have an M1 Max with 64GB to run a couple of them when necessary, and I would not get less than 32GB if VMs are part of my workload.

 

[zulicheg]

Most of the offers for devices with M1 have 8Gb of memory. It is difficult to find with 16Gb and the price tag is significantly higher. Another issue that is confusing about 8Gb is the possible increased wear of the SSD.

I have no experience with Macbook and do not understand how much memory it can eat. My everyday tasks on a Windows laptop consume 9-12Gb of RAM, these are 2 browsers with a total of ~25 tabs, several RDP sessions, Excel, sometimes cropping photos in Photoshop, sometimes launching virtual machines (I can do this on a server with 256Gb of memory ), sometimes VSCode, PhpStorm (small projects). The Windows laptop does not complain about memory. I read that Apple works better with memory and even 8Gb may be enough for this, but on the other hand, in M1 it is not clear where it can be spent, on the same GPU or neural computing.

 

[raythompsontn]

8GB is definitely not enough if you want to run virtual machines

I did with no issues. For my limited needs it worked. I only ran one VM at a time with nothing else running.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Yeah for Virtual machines, I wouldn’t recommend any of these.
$500 for an Intel MacBook Air in 2025 is ridiculous, skip any Intel MacBook Air.

 

[zulicheg]

Yeah for Virtual machines, I wouldn’t recommend any of these.
$500 for an Intel MacBook Air in 2025 is ridiculous, skip any Intel MacBook Air.

What's funny? We have such prices and I named the price of the cheap ones, which you still need to find.

MBP M1 16G/256Gb ~$800-900. Prices for new ones are 2 times higher than on the apple website

 

[Astuces iOS]

It should do OK. Only one VM at a time. Programming will probably be fine. People used machines with 8GB for many years. I think I would chose the M1 over the Intel models. Intel support may not last much longer.

Just my opinion. Others may think differently.

I would never buy a 8gb machine in 2025, Apple intelligence is coming and with macOS 16, I guess AI will take more RAM... Oh and also apps are taking more and more RAM with the time...

 

[Astuces iOS]

What's funny? We have such prices and I named the price of the cheap ones, which you still need to find.

MBP M1 16G/256Gb ~$800-900. Prices for new ones are 2 times higher than on the apple website

You can have much better : If you can find a MacBook Air M3 at 900$ it will be much better (you can find deals probably and it's NEW) or wait until M4 arrives in around 2 months and Apple will sell the M3 new at 999$

 

[zulicheg]

You can have much better : If you can find a MacBook Air M3 at 900$ it will be much better (you can find deals probably and it's NEW) or wait until M4 arrives in around 2 months and Apple will sell the M3 new at 999$

In my city, used M2s are sold for $1000 and they are the same 8/256. There is no talk about used M3s, for us these are new devices and people will sell them in 5 years.

Due to the high cost of devices and low incomes, people change PCs very rarely and want the price for used ones to be almost the same as new ones.

I've gone from thinking about a MBP 13 2015 for $200 (i5, 8Gb and the ability to install a third-party drive of at least 2Tb) to thinking about an MBA M1 for $500-550. This is a very large sum for me and a small choice for purchase, but I really want to switch to a Macbook because of its size, screen and battery life. Maybe I should stop at 2015 and try to work on a Mac in general? My head is spinning.

 

[MBAir2010]

In my city, used M2s are sold for $1000.....etc

 products are way over priced in most locations of the world for some silly reason.
if you are only using Windows, just stick to a PC as those laptops are now up to par with the M-chip features
such as battery life, lightness and keyboard along wth other nice and better features.

IF you do need a macbook, im still using my 2010 macbook air for graphic design work in 2025
with a four hour battery life. IF you see one for a good price maybe that iis a good option.

My friend in costa rica is using two of my G4 ppc macs for a health clinic everyday for clerical data stirage.
since  items hey are rare and expensive there, but still work!

good luck and don't go too crazy over this!
at the end of the day that is still JUST a computer!

 

[raythompsontn]

I would never buy a 8gb machine in 2025

I wouldn’t either if it was a new machine. For a used machine sometimes you take what you get.

Apple intelligence is coming and with macOS 16

Just turn AI off. Which I am doing even on my 24GB machine.

Oh and also apps are taking more and more RAM with the time

I have heard the assertion for years. The increases are not that significant from 10 years ago. An 8GB machine ran those apps, the apps can still run in 8GB. The OS can swap and such swapping is not a performance issue as the inactive app memory is what gets swapped.

 

[zulicheg]

I have heard the assertion for years. The increases are not that significant from 10 years ago. An 8GB machine ran those apps, the apps can still run in 8GB. The OS can swap and such swapping is not a performance issue as the inactive app memory is what gets swapped.

And how is the disk wear in MacBooks with an M-processor in this case?

 

[leifp]

If it’s not a typo and the MBAir is an M1 generation, it is the best choice for you (based on what you’ve written here). RAM allocation, CPU and GPU performance, and being on Apple Silicon all ensure updates for much longer and should be superior for coding.

However, VMs are the concern: if you’re running non-Arm OSes on an M1 you’re emulating, not VMing, and that requires more resources and runs slower. BUT it depends what you’re doing with the VMs as well… if you have more detail we can probably narrow the decision for you.

 

[zulicheg]

However, VMs are the concern: if you’re running non-Arm OSes on an M1 you’re emulating, not VMing, and that requires more resources and runs slower. BUT it depends what you’re doing with the VMs as well… if you have more detail we can probably narrow the decision for you.

Ok, if we discard virtual machines launched via VMWare, Parallels, etc., but leave everyday work - these are several RDP sessions, Excel, 2 browsers with about 30 tabs, a bit of Photoshop (crop, resize and background removal), a bit of VSCode and phpStorm for editing small projects. It is clear that not all of this will be launched and hanging in memory at the same time.

In that case, 8GB of memory should be enough? It is a little unclear how the unified memory is used in the MacBook, how much is used for the video card, how much for system processes.

For example, in a Windows laptop everything is clear, there is memory, there is a video card that can consume a limited amount of memory at certain moments. You can see that Acer Aspire with Windows 10 in office work consumes 1GB of RAM for the video card.

 

[Astuces iOS]

In my city, used M2s are sold for $1000 and they are the same 8/256. There is no talk about used M3s, for us these are new devices and people will sell them in 5 years.

Due to the high cost of devices and low incomes, people change PCs very rarely and want the price for used ones to be almost the same as new ones.

I've gone from thinking about a MBP 13 2015 for $200 (i5, 8Gb and the ability to install a third-party drive of at least 2Tb) to thinking about an MBA M1 for $500-550. This is a very large sum for me and a small choice for purchase, but I really want to switch to a Macbook because of its size, screen and battery life. Maybe I should stop at 2015 and try to work on a Mac in general? My head is spinning.

Oh ok, try to check apple refurbished, maybe you will find a good deal.

For the MacBook Pro 2015 well I do not suggest you to buy it since he is stuck at macOS Monterey and almost 10 years old… instead buy at least an m1 MacBook Air !

 

[Astuces iOS]

Ok, if we discard virtual machines launched via VMWare, Parallels, etc., but leave everyday work - these are several RDP sessions, Excel, 2 browsers with about 30 tabs, a bit of Photoshop (crop, resize and background removal), a bit of VSCode and phpStorm for editing small projects. It is clear that not all of this will be launched and hanging in memory at the same time.

In that case, 8GB of memory should be enough? It is a little unclear how the unified memory is used in the MacBook, how much is used for the video card, how much for system processes.

For example, in a Windows laptop everything is clear, there is memory, there is a video card that can consume a limited amount of memory at certain moments. You can see that Acer Aspire with Windows 10 in office work consumes 1GB of RAM for the video card.

In this case it depends what you still want to do…

 

[zulicheg]

Oh ok, try to check apple refurbished, maybe you will find a good deal.

For the MacBook Pro 2015 well I do not suggest you to buy it since he is stuck at macOS Monterey and almost 10 years old… instead buy at least an m1 MacBook Air !

Apple refurbished is a wonderful way to buy a device, it's a pity we don't have such a program as in general and official sale of apple devices.

I'll probably take the largest possible Air M1 that I can find in the ads and that suits my finances.

 

[Astuces iOS]

Apple refurbished is a wonderful way to buy a device, it's a pity we don't have such a program as in general and official sale of apple devices.

I'll probably take the largest possible Air that I can find in the ads and that suits my finances.

Here is the official apple website for refurbished https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished

 

[zulicheg]

Here is the official apple website for refurbished https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished

I know the site, but it is not possible in my country.

 

[smirking]

8GB is definitely not enough if you want to run virtual machines. I have an M1 Max with 64GB to run a couple of them when necessary, and I would not get less than 32GB if VMs are part of my workload.

It depends on what you're running. Not all VMs are bloated systems.

I actually ran multiple VMs on 8GB at the same time. The Linux webserver VM did fine, the Windows 10 VM running in Parallels trying to survive on a 3GB allocation was slow, but worked.