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zarathu

macrumors 6502a
May 14, 2003
652
362
I needed a bigger screen and more ports, and since I keep my laptops until they become Obsolete, I needed a M1Pro 16 inch. I think a lot of people with pre 2016 15.4 inch laptops have been waiting for this day to arrive.
 
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darthbane2k

macrumors 68000
Oct 22, 2009
1,763
1,866
Agree, and considering how the MacBook Pro reliability has been shoddy for the last 6 years, I'm reluctant to even consider one of the new Pros. There's just something in my head that's telling me to always avoid the first generation of products.
Cant really call it first gen though can you.?
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,248
13,323
op wrote:
"Really, think about it, what, aside from creative pros who needs that much power."

In three years, the entry-level MacBook Air will have a CPU as powerful as the M1Pro is today.

That's the way technology goes...
 

MacBird

macrumors 65816
Apr 1, 2010
1,315
1,714
I haven't owned a computer in over 10 years. I have two firm owned machines (one mac & one pc) in my home office. I decided I wanted to get back to having my own machine as now remote computing is available for work tasks, and I don't like the idea of doing personal things (like posting here) on a work owned machine.

I could probably have gotten away with an M1 Macbook air, but wanted more ram... and why not get the cutting edge performance as this mac will likely need to last me for 6-8 years at least. Went for an M1 Max 10/32 with 32gb ram and 1TB drive. Lowkey regretting not opting for 64gb ram, but I decided to cheap out a bit there. As for the drive, with everything in the cloud now, I have less need for on-device storage. On my work mac I'm only up to 305gb used out of the 512 drive.

Bottom line... I probably don't "need" the M1 Pro or M1 Max, but I WANT it. Let a man have his vices!
Sounds like a great choice. Did you order 14 or 16''?
 

CWallace

macrumors G5
Aug 17, 2007
12,528
11,543
Seattle, WA
On this site, it isn't really about need for most people as it is about desire.

That's me! :)

My base model 14" is going to be used to watch Twitch streams and movies when I travel with occasional actual "work". Right now I use a 2018 12.9" iPad Pro and a 2017 15.4" MacBook Pro for that so I can collapse two devices into one.

I could have paid half as much for an M1 MacBook Air, but I want MiniLED.
 

Spindel

macrumors 6502a
Oct 5, 2020
521
655
I really don’t need a M1 Max…

…but I really really really would want a M1 Max Mini :p
 

DougiePhresh

macrumors regular
Aug 7, 2011
103
183
I'd say that's just standard operating procedure when it comes to any marketing; the conversation here just happens to revolve around Apple because, well, it's MacRumors.

For instance, you don't show a graph where the M1 Max GPU performance falls short of the most powerful discrete mobile GPU in any currently available laptop and say "M1 Max delivers 95% of the performance of the leading discrete mobile GPU". That leaves the viewer thinking they're missing out on something. You don't want that, so you don't advertise in negatives.

Instead you say "M1 Max delivers similar performance while using a 100 watts less power." 'Similar' can mean both "just a bit worse" and "just a bit better" depending on the point you're trying to make, and when qualified with the highlighted power efficiency, the viewer is more likely to be left with a favorable recollection of what was said *

* Does not apply to viewers who are pre-disposed to think negatively about the advertised product or company delivering the message.
Yea, I get it... It's just that every single word in these prerecorded keynotes has made it through dozens of screenings and edits and is used with absolute particularity. So I believe that the fact that they used "coming back" for one feature and "adding" for others, when all of those features existed previously and all were taken away during the same generational update for ostensibly the same reasons; is a little disingenuous.
 

dmr727

macrumors G4
Dec 29, 2007
10,677
5,905
NYC
I think a lot of people with pre 2016 15.4 inch laptops have been waiting for this day to arrive.

That's certainly been the case for me. I don't need an M1 Pro let alone the M1 Max - but I'm also not buying a computer every year either. Dropping a little more than $3K yesterday didn't feel like a huge stretch for a machine that I hope to keep for 5+ years. The other machines I was looking at were a Razer 14" and a Surface Pro 8, and I would have been north of $2K for those anyway.
 

RealEvil

macrumors 6502
Aug 5, 2007
334
32
Who needs the performance? Hardly anyone. Who will buy it? Those that can afford it.

there is almost no connection between performance and need when it comes to modern tech. Even a £200 Android phone and a £500 windows laptop perform objectively “well”. But we all like nice things sometimes!
 

spiderman0616

Suspended
Aug 1, 2010
5,670
7,499
My M1 Air is going to remain my main machine until they drastically improve the design/internals/etc. I've never been able to say that before with a MacBook Air. They always seemed slow, underpowered, and specced with the scraps that the other notebooks didn't get. Not so much anymore.

With these new MBPs, they're not just "nicer" which is what "pro" usually means in product names these days. They're actually faster, better, AND nicer than the MacBook Air. So if you're the kind of user who needs all that power and prefer macOS, the MacBook Pros look like they're finally going to give you what you need. If you're not that kind of user, then you really don't need to spend that much money. It's not hard to figure out.

I don't think Apple expects people to upgrade their laptops every year. Their main objective right now is going to be getting Apple Silicon into every Mac model all the way up to the Pro desktop machine. If you need one of those models, great. There ARE users that benefit from this kind of power. If you don't, there are much more affordable options in the lineup.
 

cubbie5150

macrumors 6502a
Mar 4, 2007
716
224
I needed a bigger screen and more ports, and since I keep my laptops until they become Obsolete, I needed a M1Pro 16 inch. I think a lot of people with pre 2016 15.4 inch laptops have been waiting for this day to arrive.
This is most definitely me.

I am rolling along with my mid-2014 15" MBP (purchased brand new Feb 2015). It is still doing very well, and as I am not a content creator, I know I don't come close to "needing" all the horsepower the new 16" MBPs provide...but I cannot do without the large screen, so I accept I will pay a hefty premium to get it in Apple's world. Add the fact I tend to keep my devices til they're long-in-the-tooth, I know I'll over-spec when I do pull the trigger and buy (which likely won't be until the first revision, so likely next June'ish?).
 
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januarydrive7

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2020
537
578
I needed a bigger screen and more ports, and since I keep my laptops until they become Obsolete, I needed a M1Pro 16 inch. I think a lot of people with pre 2016 15.4 inch laptops have been waiting for this day to arrive.
My 2012 starting having an issue in mid 2019 where fans would go full speed and everything would crawl to a stop (I believe it could be corrosion from old water damage, but hard to say... I'll likely try to clean up solder points at some point...), and I would have rather gone with a pre-2016 than 15" than any 15" that came thereafter, but thankfully the 16" just came out, with a lot of the issues of 2016-2019 solved (no butterfly keys! physical esc key!). I probably would have either reflowed corroded chips on my 2012 and waited until now to buy a new one had I need been offered a free 16" with i9. The next laptop I buy will most likely be an M-based MBP, but this should last me for many years to come.
 

Minimuz

macrumors newbie
May 1, 2020
10
4
It’s hard to justify such a high price, but it also depends on how many years I’m going to use it. Let say 4yrs of everyday tasks. So for me it is the price of base MBPR14 model (2250 euros) divided by 4 it is about 560 euros pro year. I had 2014 MBPR13 for 4 years and I really enjoyed every minute of using it. It was like old pair of shoes that I can always trust. I never felt this was way with any other MacBook Intel model during 2016-2020 years. Butterfly keyboard, different issues, lack of ports, underperforming cooling system etc. I really don’t need power of current M1 Pro SoC, but if I want to invest long-term in MacBook laptop there is only one real option - new MacBook Pro. These laptops have new design, new cooling system, new displays and every single port that I had in my old MBPR13. They are made for Apple Silicon SoC, meanwhile 2020 MBA and MBPR13 are like current electro/hybrid cars that have chassis of traditional cars, but electric motor/transmission. So here I see two buying strategies, first is to buy M1 laptops with good discount and sell them later, second is to customize MacBook M1 Pro/Max and buy them for long term usage. I prefer second strategy, and one thing I learned is to customize carefully and buy well balanced machine, for instance, I bought Mac Mini 2018 with Core i5 (6 cores), 32Gb RAM and 256Gb SSD. Desktop CPU and 32Gb of RAM never gave me any significant speed advantage, because iGPU and cooling system were weak points. I see that Apple implemented a new cooling system, so I think that base MBPR14 will be a very balanced solution for me.
 
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m1maverick

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2020
1,368
1,267
People say this, "it's a tax write off", as if it means it's free. Do you really think that's how it works?
A lot of people seem to think so. I can recall a conversation with a coworker where I mentioned I was going to pay off my mortgage. His response was that I would lose the tax deduction. My response to that was I would be happy for him to give me a dollar and in return I would give him a quarter. Furthermore I said I would do that for as many dollars as he would be willing to do that with.

Tax deductions are nice for things you're going to buy anyway but they shouldn't be the reason for a purchase.
 

m1maverick

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2020
1,368
1,267
I've been in tech over 30 years myself professionally and honestly, I've heard this same kind of thing repeatedly, down through different eras of tech stretching back even to when I was a kid in the 8 bit era. "Who needs 128K of RAM? 64K is fine" <- I heard someone say that once with regards to the C-128. There's always some truth to it at the time, but, eventually the excess resources get gobbled up by new applications those excess resources enabled and what was once seen as overkill, eventually can't run the new generation of applications.
It's the applications which need the capabilities, not the user. Setting aside the gross inefficiency of today's Internet a lot of people could get by with a 10 - 15 year old computer if their applications didn't need more capable systems.

Head on over to the PowerPC forum where users are using systems which are roughly 15 - 20 years old. Using contemporary software for those systems they are quite capable. It's just that the new has consumed more and more with, I would question, somewhat little value in several areas.

IMO no one needs 8K video. Nor do they need 4K video. Am I arguing against these technologies? Certainly not, just stating that for the vast majority they're unneeded.
 

Bob_DM

macrumors member
Nov 26, 2020
93
57
Kessel-lo - Belgium
It's the applications which need the capabilities, not the user. Setting aside the gross inefficiency of today's Internet a lot of people could get by with a 10 - 15 year old computer if their applications didn't need more capable systems.

Head on over to the PowerPC forum where users are using systems which are roughly 15 - 20 years old. Using contemporary software for those systems they are quite capable. It's just that the new has consumed more and more with, I would question, somewhat little value in several areas.

IMO no one needs 8K video. Nor do they need 4K video. Am I arguing against these technologies? Certainly not, just stating that for the vast majority they're unneeded.
Exactly. Photoshop 7 on PPC and MacOS 9 is about as usable as current Photoshop CC in M1 mini. Everything you really need for Photo-editing was present in PS7, only opening and saving files to HDD vs SSD is painfully slow. And of course no recent website is viewable under OS9 (you need at least High Sierra I think for comfy browsing)
 
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EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,908
12,881
For many video editors, just the new hardware codec decode/encode support alone is worth the price of admission.

It's also quite impressive to see that headphone jack supports high impedance headphones.

These machines are built for the true content creators.

They're heavy though. I'm hanging onto my 2 lb 12" MacBook as long as possible.
 

LeeW

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2017
4,342
9,446
Over here
I expect Apple will do very well and probably better from the "want" rather than "need" folks.

Edit: To be clear, I am definitely want rather than need :)
 
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