MacBook Pro Buying Advice, You Hate Me

[scrambledwonder]

You hate these posts. But I have no Mac nerd friends and I'm looking for opinions/advice!

Running a 2017 MacBook Pro 15, but the screen is dying. I'm mostly a writer, but I do some graphic design and video editing. Nothing fancy, usually shoot and edit 1080p, rarely 4k, never RAW footage. Sometimes I do some work in After Effects. I travel a bit and coffee shop surf, but mostly use my Mac with a monitor and peripherals. My current MacBook Pro works fine. Render times aren't great, but they don't bother me.

SO! I want to get a new machine this year for a tax write off and also before the screen on this old girl dies. I'm positive I want to downsize. The 16 is beautiful, but I want the smaller size for portability and also I want something different. Considering these two machines:

• Refurbished M1 MacBook Pro 14 (10/16 core) w/1TB for $1575
• Refurbished M2 MacBook Pro 14 (12/19 core) w/1TB for $2120

Despite this being a business expense/tax write-off, I'm still on a budget. So, question:

• Is the M2 worth an extra $545 given my limited use case?
• I usually keep my machines for about five years, think the M1 will be good for 4-5 years?

Cheers!

-Dustin

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

The M2 is not worth the $545 in your case. The M1 Pro will be mighty for all of your tasks and you will not be pushing it to its max capability. In the real world, you will likely not see any difference between M1 Pro and M2 Pro for your use cases. Any difference certainly wouldn't be worth $545 + tax.

M1 Pro will be good for much longer than 4-5 years. Apple is still selling the M1 iMac in 2023, macOS support and security fixes for these machines will not go away anytime soon (unlike our Intel Macs, who will likely get their last macOS update with macOS 15). While we may be on M4/M5 or later by 5 years from now, with the tasks you lay out - your M1 Pro will keep chugging along very well. Especially considering how you're doing on a 2017 Intel right now.

This is coming from someone who has an M1 Pro 16" MBP (as well as an M2 MBA). I jumped to my 16" M1 Pro from a 2019 16" MBP 8 core system, and the difference between the two systems could not be more extreme in terms of sheer power and battery life.

Hope this helps.

 

[phrehdd]

You hate these posts. But I have no Mac nerd friends and I'm looking for opinions/advice!

Running a 2017 MacBook Pro 15, but the screen is dying. I'm mostly a writer, but I do some graphic design and video editing. Nothing fancy, usually shoot and edit 1080p, rarely 4k, never RAW footage. Sometimes I do some work in After Effects. I travel a bit and coffee shop surf, but mostly use my Mac with a monitor and peripherals. My current MacBook Pro works fine. Render times aren't great, but they don't bother me.

SO! I want to get a new machine this year for a tax write off and also before the screen on this old girl dies. I'm positive I want to downsize. The 16 is beautiful, but I want the smaller size for portability and also I want something different. Considering these two machines:

• Refurbished M1 MacBook Pro 14 (10/16 core) w/1TB for $1575
• Refurbished M2 MacBook Pro 14 (12/19 core) w/1TB for $2120

Despite this being a business expense/tax write-off, I'm still on a budget. So, question:

• Is the M2 worth an extra $545 given my limited use case?
• I usually keep my machines for about five years, think the M1 will be good for 4-5 years?

Cheers!

-Dustin

RAM. What is the RAM for each?

 

[_timo_redux_]

Were I in your (perceived) shoes I'd get the new MacBook Air 15".

 

[scrambledwonder]

RAM. What is the RAM for each?

16

 

[scrambledwonder]

Were I in your (perceived) shoes I'd get the new MacBook Air 15".

naw, too big, kinda flimsy feeling, and I want the card reader

 

[scrambledwonder]

The M2 is not worth the $545 in your case. The M1 Pro will be mighty for all of your tasks and you will not be pushing it to its max capability. In the real world, you will likely not see any difference between M1 Pro and M2 Pro for your use cases. Any difference certainly wouldn't be worth $545 + tax.

M1 Pro will be good for much longer than 4-5 years. Apple is still selling the M1 iMac in 2023, macOS support and security fixes for these machines will not go away anytime soon (unlike our Intel Macs, who will likely get their last macOS update with macOS 15). While we may be on M4/M5 or later by 5 years from now, with the tasks you lay out - your M1 Pro will keep chugging along very well. Especially considering how you're doing on a 2017 Intel right now.

This is coming from someone who has an M1 Pro 16" MBP (as well as an M2 MBA). I jumped to my 16" M1 Pro from a 2019 16" MBP 8 core system, and the difference between the two systems could not be more extreme in terms of sheer power and battery life.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

 

[phrehdd]

Personally, I would get the M2 if some level of longevity is required.

What I consider is future apps and OS may benefit from more processing power (and memory).
Also, while less significant, the M1 may have more wear on drive and perhaps the laptop itself (keyboard, ports etc.).

 

[dizmonk]

The M2 is not worth the $545 in your case. The M1 Pro will be mighty for all of your tasks and you will not be pushing it to its max capability. In the real world, you will likely not see any difference between M1 Pro and M2 Pro for your use cases. Any difference certainly wouldn't be worth $545 + tax.

M1 Pro will be good for much longer than 4-5 years. Apple is still selling the M1 iMac in 2023, macOS support and security fixes for these machines will not go away anytime soon (unlike our Intel Macs, who will likely get their last macOS update with macOS 15). While we may be on M4/M5 or later by 5 years from now, with the tasks you lay out - your M1 Pro will keep chugging along very well. Especially considering how you're doing on a 2017 Intel right now.

This is coming from someone who has an M1 Pro 16" MBP (as well as an M2 MBA). I jumped to my 16" M1 Pro from a 2019 16" MBP 8 core system, and the difference between the two systems could not be more extreme in terms of sheer power and battery life.

Hope this helps.

Given your use case and especially if you need the SD card reader I'd go for the M1 14. That's what I have and we kinda have similar workloads. I agree with this poster... He's right on...

 

[Wokis]

The one sort of miss of the M1 pro/max is that they only have two efficiency cores, and not particularly powerful ones at that. These machines usually tap into the performance cores often and thus sip more battery life than the base M1 or any chip in the M2 series.

But as you dock more often than not, I imagine this shouldn't be much of a problem for you. And it's not like the M1 Pro has horrible battery life anyway.

The other differences are 20% better CPU performance and about 30% more GPU performance in the M2 Pro. Most here on Macrumors tend to think this is nothing while I on the other hand have a habit of disagreeing.

I would however agree that for your use cases today and especially coming from a 2017, the M1 Pro will blow you away enough. Today. But I can't help to suspect that in 5 years you might feel differently.

 

[GMShadow]

The one sort of miss of the M1 pro/max is that they only have two efficiency cores, and not particularly powerful ones at that. These machines usually tap into the performance cores often and thus sip more battery life than the base M1 or any chip in the M2 series.

But as you dock more often than not, I imagine this shouldn't be much of a problem for you. And it's not like the M1 Pro has horrible battery life anyway.

The other differences is 20% better CPU performance and about 30% more GPU performance in the M2 Pro. Most here on Macrumors tend to think this is nothing while I on the other hand have a habit of disagreeing.

I would however agree that for your use cases today and especially coming from a 2017, the M1 Pro will blow you away enough. Today. But I can't help to suspect that in 5 years you might feel differently.

I get the argument, but I'm not sure they're going to feel $500+ differently. If it was 100-200, an easier call.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

• Is the M2 worth an extra $545 given my limited use case?
• I usually keep my machines for about five years, think the M1 will be good for 4-5 years?

I have a M1 (mini) and a M2 (15" MBA). For my also limited use cases, they feel pretty much the same. (Indeed they both feel very good, better than my 2015 MBP

For the next 4-5 years, there will be no big difference between M1 and M2 concerning longevity.

 

[ignatius345]

Running a 2017 MacBook Pro 15, but the screen is dying. I'm mostly a writer, but I do some graphic design and video editing. Nothing fancy, usually shoot and edit 1080p, rarely 4k, never RAW footage. Sometimes I do some work in After Effects. I travel a bit and coffee shop surf, but mostly use my Mac with a monitor and peripherals. My current MacBook Pro works fine. Render times aren't great, but they don't bother me.

You're upgrading at a great time. Mac laptops are truly at a high point of value and capability.

We had some dark days there for a while with thin-at-all-costs designs, truly abysmal butterfly keyboards... all powered by sweaty, inefficient Intel processors.

 

[johnsterdam]

I just gave away my m1 mbp 14 (to a family member) and bought exactly the same thing to replace it in order to save roughly the same as you're talking about. For the kind of things you're doing you (nor I) won't notice any difference in speed. It's maybe 10% increase in single core speed. The m1 is maybe 2x your current laptop; the m2 maybe 2.2 (geek bench single core). That's a negligible difference. Plus at the prices you quote, you can replace the cheaper one after three years for the same cost/year as the more expensive one every four years. Going to m1 after intel is a massive difference, and then in addition the mbp 14 screen is beautiful and keyboard is much better; the extra for the m2 is in my mind wasted.

 

[Yebubbleman]

You hate these posts. But I have no Mac nerd friends and I'm looking for opinions/advice!

Running a 2017 MacBook Pro 15, but the screen is dying. I'm mostly a writer, but I do some graphic design and video editing. Nothing fancy, usually shoot and edit 1080p, rarely 4k, never RAW footage. Sometimes I do some work in After Effects. I travel a bit and coffee shop surf, but mostly use my Mac with a monitor and peripherals. My current MacBook Pro works fine. Render times aren't great, but they don't bother me.

For your needs, I'd go with an M2 13-inch MacBook Pro or any M2 MacBook Air over a 14-inch MacBook Pro. You don't need either an M1 Pro nor an M2 Pro. You are clearly not struggling on the 16GB of RAM your current Mac has, though you can spec up to 24GB if you want to be cautious. You're mainly replacing your Mac out of caution (though not being able to run Sonoma gives you two years before macOS isn't being updated for security updates on your existing MacBook Pro).

Most assume that M1 Pro or M2 Pro is the baseline to do what is needed, but for the most part, you only need to go beyond the base M2 if you know you'll actually need a beefier GPU or more RAM. Otherwise, it's plenty fast for the vast majority of Mac users.

Despite this being a business expense/tax write-off, I'm still on a budget. So, question:

• Is the M2 worth an extra $545 given my limited use case?

No.

• I usually keep my machines for about five years, think the M1 will be good for 4-5 years?

Yes.

 

[johnsterdam]

Worth going to look at the mbp and mb air in person if you can. Can then compare the different screen sizes, weights, screen quality (e.g. whether pro motion appeals). Personally I think it's worth paying extra for the mbp screen + I like 14 inch, but each to their own.

 

[scrambledwonder]

Worth going to look at the mbp and mb air in person if you can. Can then compare the different screen sizes, weights, screen quality (e.g. whether pro motion appeals). Personally I think it's worth paying extra for the mbp screen + I like 14 inch, but each to their own.

Yeah, I spent some time with them in the store and I had a 13-inch MBP as my work machine for a while. Liked the 13, but prefer the 14. The 16 is incredible, but it's a beast. I've had 15-inch MBPs for a long time and I'm ready to downsize a touch. Plus I like the way the 14 looks. Really good proportions on that machine for some reason. Not logical, but whatever. 😂

You know what it is? The 14 reminds me of my old 12-inch Powerbook! I've been in the 'book game forever.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

You hate these posts. But I have no Mac nerd friends and I'm looking for opinions/advice!

Running a 2017 MacBook Pro 15, but the screen is dying. I'm mostly a writer, but I do some graphic design and video editing. Nothing fancy, usually shoot and edit 1080p, rarely 4k, never RAW footage. Sometimes I do some work in After Effects. I travel a bit and coffee shop surf, but mostly use my Mac with a monitor and peripherals. My current MacBook Pro works fine. Render times aren't great, but they don't bother me.

SO! I want to get a new machine this year for a tax write off and also before the screen on this old girl dies. I'm positive I want to downsize. The 16 is beautiful, but I want the smaller size for portability and also I want something different. Considering these two machines:

• Refurbished M1 MacBook Pro 14 (10/16 core) w/1TB for $1575
• Refurbished M2 MacBook Pro 14 (12/19 core) w/1TB for $2120

Despite this being a business expense/tax write-off, I'm still on a budget. So, question:

• Is the M2 worth an extra $545 given my limited use case?
• I usually keep my machines for about five years, think the M1 will be good for 4-5 years?

Cheers!

-Dustin

You do not mention RAM, which will be very relevant over the life of any new box. The Max chip with 50% more GPU cores and at least 32 GB RAM make most sense. Sure the excellent memory management in the Mac OS allows 16 GB RAM to function, but it will be limiting to ideal operation. It makes no sense to intentionally limit a new box.

Also do note that M2 has many benefits over M1; WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 being very obvious. Other benefits are less obvious. And it may not matter to you, but adding 5 years to a 2021 box will likely put an M1 MBP unable to use the Mac OS of 5 years from now.

I am sensitive to those issues because my 2016 MBP A) became substantially limited by its (max available at the time) 16 GB RAM and B) because it would not take Ventura, which provides substantial benefits to my Mac ecosystem.

 

[scrambledwonder]

You do not mention RAM, which will be very relevant over the life of any new box. The Max chip with 50% more GPU cores and at least 32 GB RAM make most sense. Sure the excellent memory management in the Mac OS allows 16 GB RAM to function, but it will be limiting to ideal operation. It makes no sense to intentionally limit a new box.

Also do note that M2 has many benefits over M1; WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 being very obvious. Other benefits are less obvious. And it may not matter to you, but adding 5 years to a 2021 box will likely put an M1 MBP unable to use the Mac OS of 5 years from now.

Cool so your solution is to spend $3000 on a new M2. Cool cool cool.

 

[Mactech20]

Unless you need HDMI 2.1 Definitely get the 14 M1 Pro. All around a fantastic machine and that price is a steal. You wont notice a $500 difference. If you were going to spend more that money should be put into more ram or storage for the 14 M1Pro

 

[0339327]

You hate these posts. But I have no Mac nerd friends and I'm looking for opinions/advice!

Running a 2017 MacBook Pro 15, but the screen is dying. I'm mostly a writer, but I do some graphic design and video editing. Nothing fancy, usually shoot and edit 1080p, rarely 4k, never RAW footage. Sometimes I do some work in After Effects. I travel a bit and coffee shop surf, but mostly use my Mac with a monitor and peripherals. My current MacBook Pro works fine. Render times aren't great, but they don't bother me.

SO! I want to get a new machine this year for a tax write off and also before the screen on this old girl dies. I'm positive I want to downsize. The 16 is beautiful, but I want the smaller size for portability and also I want something different. Considering these two machines:

• Refurbished M1 MacBook Pro 14 (10/16 core) w/1TB for $1575
• Refurbished M2 MacBook Pro 14 (12/19 core) w/1TB for $2120

Despite this being a business expense/tax write-off, I'm still on a budget. So, question:

• Is the M2 worth an extra $545 given my limited use case?
• I usually keep my machines for about five years, think the M1 will be good for 4-5 years?

Cheers!

-Dustin

1. The M1 will be more than enough for you.
2. As you are looking for longevity, I would recommend the M2 which is a current, 2023 machine.
3. The M1 is a solid machine, but is a 2021 build. Yes, it's a great chip, but it's not current tech.

4. Very good to go with 16 GB of ram and 1 TB hard drive.

5. You should consider the new 15" MBA. It's a bit smaller than your old 2017 MBP but can get you a brand new machine with 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16 GB of ram and a 1 TB hard drive for $1899.

 

[IconDRT]

All this advice is great, but the real question: Silver or Space Gray?

If it's a business expense and the money has been earmarked for an upgrade, spend your entire budget and get the M2. Will you notice $545 worth of difference immediately? Unlikely. However, you keep your machines for about 5 years. The M2 will cost you $0.29/day more over the life of the machine v. M1. I'd pay that.

 

[mpetrides]

All this advice is great, but the real question: Silver or Space Gray?

If it's a business expense and the money has been earmarked for an upgrade, spend your entire budget and get the M2. Will you notice $545 worth of difference immediately? Unlikely. However, you keep your machines for about 5 years. The M2 will cost you $0.29/day more over the life of the machine v. M1. I'd pay that.

M1 Pro MBP will do you very well for 5 years and maybe more. I have one (16 inch 32/1TB --the 32 GB RAM is overkill!) and love it. I've had it for a year and a half and I'm sure it will last me many more years.

That said, I can't argue with the above argument. It basically depends on how price sensitive you are today vs value over time (as delineated in the excellent analysis quoted above).

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Cool so your solution is to spend $3000 on a new M2. Cool cool cool.

No need for childish sarcasm. I did not say what to buy, I just pointed out the consequences of different choices. Many folks want a free lunch, but there is no free lunch: save some money by skimping on a 2023 purchase and spend 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 living with a box limited from day one. Or pay more.

Your choice, and I am not being sarcastic. Paying to be better equipped, or choosing a shorter life cycle or accepting limitations are real alternatives. Your choice. The good news is that today's M2 MBPs allow the options of WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Max chips and up to 96 GB RAM for those looking forward. Or decide cost is too high and accept limitations.

You came looking for advice. In decades of buying Macs my advice is to buy for the life cycle you choose. Skimping on things like RAM or chip version is only effective for arbitrarily short life cycles.

 

[zapmymac]

Since you are planning on keeping it for a few years vs say 8-10, I’d say M1.

M1 *might get* less security updates in the long run, as we don’t know Apple’s roadmap for updates/firmware/security/OS …it is technically a 2021 machine and we know Apple has in the past made weird cut-off points for hardware getting new software, unfortunately.

Edit: adding congrats on new hardware either way 🥳