Chances are you won't..Apple are notorious for charging $4000 for an empty Mac box......Jesus....
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Just bought the new MacBook Pro 14 inch
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Chances are you won't..Apple are notorious for charging $4000 for an empty Mac box......Jesus....
I own the 14" MBP in my signature (32C M1 Max similar to what you bought but with less RAM/storage)
It is easily the best laptop I've ever owned, and, for everything other than gaming, probably one of (if not) the best laptops ever made. You made the right choice going for the MacBook Pro 14". The people who are telling you "an M1 MBA would be more than enough for years to come" aren't necessarily wrong, but having used that machine for over a year, I can tell you that even for basic tasks the MBP just feels way better/faster, and the extra CPU/GPU/RAM will serve you well for years to come.
That said...you should be aware that you massively overbought/overpaid for storage, GPU cores, and arguably RAM (in that order) for the use case you described ("Internet, email, photography editing, office.") IF you can afford to wait (for a configure to order model) and care about saving money, I think you'd be much better served by going with the M1 Max 24 Core GPU config with 1TB of storage (or even 512GB if you don't mind external storage,) and 32GB of ram. If not enjoy your new machine!
It is easily the best laptop I've ever owned, and, for everything other than gaming, probably one of (if not) the best laptops ever made. You made the right choice going for the MacBook Pro 14". The people who are telling you "an M1 MBA would be more than enough for years to come" aren't necessarily wrong, but having used that machine for over a year, I can tell you that even for basic tasks the MBP just feels way better/faster, and the extra CPU/GPU/RAM will serve you well for years to come.
That said...you should be aware that you massively overbought/overpaid for storage, GPU cores, and arguably RAM (in that order) for the use case you described ("Internet, email, photography editing, office.") IF you can afford to wait (for a configure to order model) and care about saving money, I think you'd be much better served by going with the M1 Max 24 Core GPU config with 1TB of storage (or even 512GB if you don't mind external storage,) and 32GB of ram. If not enjoy your new machine!
I'd have to disagree.
For his use case he'd be better served going for the M1 Air or (at the very most) the base level 14" M1 Pro if he particularly wants the bigger/brighter screen.
M1 Max is utterly unnecessary. As in all likelihood is 32GB RAM
Forget all the reasons it's NOT a great machine for me, is it a great machine????
Yes, it's a great machine, @gbf. Congratulations on your purchase. You'll notice zero difference between it and one that would have cost you $2k less.
The 14" is a hell of a machine that punches way above it's wight in it's form format! One thing for sure though, when we all get our apps completely moved to Apple Silicon these are going to run very silky smooth.
Bottom line is, it is great but not 2000$ greater then the base model.
You will get next to 0 benefit of the extra RAM with what you are doing.
A great part of the benefits you might have with all the extra cores will be lost to thermal throttling.
Wether you really need 2TB of local storage is something only you can answer.
You will get next to 0 benefit of the extra RAM with what you are doing.
A great part of the benefits you might have with all the extra cores will be lost to thermal throttling.
Wether you really need 2TB of local storage is something only you can answer.
You bought a Ferrari to cruise down your driveway to the mailbox and back. But hey, if you can afford the luxury, more power to you (pun intended).
Assume you're trolling, but on off chance you just don't know very much, it's a nonsensical question without asking 'for what?'. Is a tractor or a porche a great machine? It depends on the task. For what you need, the size, weight and battery life make the MB Air the better (greater) machine than the MBP. And that's without even considering price.
I need to start a thread “just read a thread from someone who bought a great Mac, but doesn’t need even half of it, is it a good thread?” No one can answer me
This is a weird post. Asking if you bought a good machine after spending $4000? Shouldn’t you have researched or known better before spending $4000?
but he needed a $4000 computer to browse the web, dah
I bought the 14" with a 1T drive and 16GB of memory last year. I do all the same tasks as you, plus software development (PlatformIO/C++/ESP32). It has been awesome and I feel like this will have the legs to keep me happy for 3-5 years. I was originally worried about 16GB ram for photo processing. I mainly use Luminar 4 running as a plug-into Apple Photos. It still takes a while to load Luminar, everything is way faster than the 2017 Intel MBP I had been using. The 64GB ram is overkill, but you may find your SSD wears less because it will likely never need to swap.
You are certainly future proofed for a while.
You are certainly future proofed for a while.
I do cloud engineering and stuff with docker/vms in the cloud, rarely do anything local. However 16GB is plenty! We just need all apps to be Apple Silicon compatible (looking at u Teams taking 4GB) and we're golden!
That's fine. I'm happy to agree to disagree.
The 14" is noticeably faster, much more flexible (multiple displays & more ports), and is more future proof, along with being a much nicer computer to use (much nicer display, keyboard, speakers, etc.)
While the M1 MBA is nice enough, it's honestly pretty long in the tooth at this point (it's 17 months old!)
Sure it's got its advantages (completely silent, lighter, longer battery life,) but I really wouldn't want to recommend someone buy into one at this point in its life cycle unless they absolutely have to.
Also, hard disagree on ram. 16GB always felt like I had to micromanage ram even for basic tasks and while more native Apple Silicon apps will help, macOS Monterey itself having multiple memory leaks that have been there since release and Apple doesn't seem interested in fixing, I'd recommend anyone get as much RAM as they can (within reason, no he doesn't need 64GB).
It’s a great machine that’s overkill and over budget. You could have bought the base model save the extra 2 grand, resell the base model 14 inch in 2 years for half then upgrade to the M2 model. Rinse and repeat. Then again, you might keep this for the 10 years.
Agree on it being faster and having more ports - though for his use case it’s debatable whether OP would notice either of these factors. You have to push pretty hard (ie some heavy duty tasks) before the power differential becomes apparent.
The screen I agreed is nicer.
I run an actual professional workflow (Salesforce developer) on a 16GB Air (I bought a 32GB M1 Pro but noticed little to no benefit aside from the screen, so returned it) - so I can vouch that 16GB is not a limitation. I’ve currently got 2GB spare (and have only used 1 GB swap in about a week of having the machine turned on), with Safari (~ 10 tabs), Edge (~40 tabs), messages, Mail, Fantastical, Notes, Excel (5 workbooks of varying sizes), Slack, Miro, SublimeText, Preview, Word, Wordpad and Pixelmator Pro (not part of my usual workflow, but currently using the biggest chunk of RAM at nearly 7GB).
Now plenty of people will have a heavier work stack, but 16GB is ABSOLUTELY enough for the OP’s described use case. But I’ll concede on the screen, speakers etc (not the keyboard, as I believe they’re the same? Except the Pro’s looks worse)… so let’s say those are necessary… still maintain there’s no justification for OP going past the base 14”. Indeed the only real difference he’ll see is a lower battery life due to the more powerful chip.
Yes, it's a good machine. I have the 16" mid model and absolutely love it. All of the posters are right; there are trade offs. If you're price indifferent, which it sounds like you are, then I wouldn't be too worried about the comments.
At the end of the day, the question is - will you be happy with the machine? Yes, absolutely. However, would you be equally happy with less of a machine? Likely yes. My computer cost $2400 while yours is $4k; both are good machines and have great specs, but you likely will never push the limits of your machine.
Mine has 16GB of ram, and I have never noticed a hiccup. I'm doing mostly office work; my biggest RAM draw is running parallels to have Windows Office in addition to Mac Office. I do some light video editing (rarely) and mostly office work. I am super happy with my purchase. I like the 16" screen.
So; to answer your core question: Yes, it's a great machine. is it overkill? Yes, based on your use case. But that's not your question; you asked if it's a good machine, and it is. It's in your hands, and given some recent supply constraints, that's also something to consider.
The math many people here (and I myself) frequently do is a value proposition; in a couple of years, there will likely be new, higher powered machines, so many will upgrade. That's part of a lot of people's reasoning; the decrease in value is often higher for higher end machines. That's why many commenters will discuss getting just enough for what you need now; it's better to buy a $2500 machine, save $1500, wait a couple years, then you can sell the $2500 machine for $1500, and now you've got $3k to buy the newest latest machine. But that $4k machine would likely only fetch $2k at the same point.
At the end of the day, the question is - will you be happy with the machine? Yes, absolutely. However, would you be equally happy with less of a machine? Likely yes. My computer cost $2400 while yours is $4k; both are good machines and have great specs, but you likely will never push the limits of your machine.
Mine has 16GB of ram, and I have never noticed a hiccup. I'm doing mostly office work; my biggest RAM draw is running parallels to have Windows Office in addition to Mac Office. I do some light video editing (rarely) and mostly office work. I am super happy with my purchase. I like the 16" screen.
So; to answer your core question: Yes, it's a great machine. is it overkill? Yes, based on your use case. But that's not your question; you asked if it's a good machine, and it is. It's in your hands, and given some recent supply constraints, that's also something to consider.
The math many people here (and I myself) frequently do is a value proposition; in a couple of years, there will likely be new, higher powered machines, so many will upgrade. That's part of a lot of people's reasoning; the decrease in value is often higher for higher end machines. That's why many commenters will discuss getting just enough for what you need now; it's better to buy a $2500 machine, save $1500, wait a couple years, then you can sell the $2500 machine for $1500, and now you've got $3k to buy the newest latest machine. But that $4k machine would likely only fetch $2k at the same point.
It’s possible OP has 2TB of… files. I know I had to upgrade my 2015 SSD from 1tb to 2 because of film projects I’m working on, so it’s possible. Honestly that seems like the biggest waste to me. RAM is fine, it’s expensive but it will probably go unused, eh, whatever, it’s only money. The extra GPU cores will sit idle, same with the extra CPU cores for the most part. That is if there ever was a computer and not just a trolllololol.
I bought the 14inch base model. I do a lot of Lightroom work. I think the base model is more than enough for your usage. I would return it and get the base model. Use the $2000 in savings as an investment towards your next machine (when the time comes and who’s base model will be considerably faster than all the upgrades you paid for now). Just my opinion.
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