FYI my words do not change. I go to great pains to go back and review what I originally said and then provide an exact quote.
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MacBook Pro Buying Advice, You Hate Me
- Thread starter scrambledwonder
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They did. You did not quote them exactly. But, I'm not on here to discuss your wording and how it changes when you decide to quote it without either actually copying and pasting your words or using this forum's quoting function.
Thanks! I've been spending some time with the 15-inch MBA and I think for the money the M1 MBP 14 is a better buy. More powerful, same ram + storage, better screen (but smaller), better speakers, more ports (including SD card slot), and cheaper! Both are very very nice, though. I actually prefer the design of the 15-inch MBA. It looks better, IMO. It's the black keyboard well on the MBPs that get me. Not a fan.
OP, I don't think you'll regret getting the M1 MBP. My use case is very similar to yours. I had a 2019 27" iMac with 24 GB of RAM and a 2 TB Fusion Drive, and a 2015 13" MBP with 8 GB of RAM and an after-market OWC 1 TB SSD, which was an ideal combination for me. I used the iMac in my home office for the heavy lifting and the MBP for lighter tasks elsewhere around the house. When my dad's computer died, I gave him my MBP and got a 12.9" iPad Pro, hoping it would be a suitable replacement for my MBP. Alas, while I love the IPP for many things, it didn't prove to be a Mac replacement for what I do.
My first thought was to buy a refurbished base-model M1 MBA as a backup to my iMac, but since I have a couple apps I use that make you buy a separate license for each computer (I hate when they do that), I decided that it made more sense to give my iMac to my wife and get a good-for-my-needs Mac laptop, along with an external monitor. How much computer did I need? Well, a refurbished M2 MBA (in midnight blue, of course) with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD would have been plenty. However, the screen on the 16" MBP was so tempting, given that I do a lot of hobby-level photo and video editing and use other apps where having more screen real estate makes a difference. I rarely take my computer out of the house, so the size and weight of the 16" MBP didn't bother me. Given that a refurbished M1 16" MBP with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD was only $280 more than the M2 MBA I was considering, I decided to go for it.
I have absolutely no regrets. The screen is so big that I haven't yet felt a need to get an external monitor. I've used the extra ports more than I expected. The processor is more than powerful enough for my needs. The 2019 iMac was fine, but the new MBP is much faster, especially for exporting videos I edit in Adobe Premiere.
Which brings up my final point: What you use your computer for sounds almost identical to what I use mine for. I, too, like to keep my computers for four or five years. Bear in mind that my four-year-old iMac was still perfectly adequate for what I do, and I probably would have continued to use it until Apple stopped supporting Intel-based Macs. Even my 2015 MBP was still fine for email, web browsing, and basic productivity apps like MS Office. As someone who used to buy high-end tech gear in general in the belief that it would future-proof me or give me capabilities that I might want or need over the next few years, I finally realized that I'd spent many thousands of dollars in my lifetime for features and power I never used. I decided to switch to the approach a good friend of mine has always used: figure out the minimum I need now, and add a little more power/features/whatever. If, a couple years down the line, it turns out that I'm doing new things that require more whatever, I can sell what I have and then buy what I need.
Yes, an M2 MBP might give you another year or two of use over an M1, and it will have better resale value -- but you'll pay more for it up front. The M1 MBP has far more power than I need (I read and watched several reviews in which the reviewers threw everything they could at it -- far more than I ever would -- and it never slowed down or got hot), so why would I spend more money for an M2 MBP with 32 GB of RAM, when I'm unlikely to overly tax my M1 during its useful lifespan? So what if the M1 is "old tech"?
Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to get!
My first thought was to buy a refurbished base-model M1 MBA as a backup to my iMac, but since I have a couple apps I use that make you buy a separate license for each computer (I hate when they do that), I decided that it made more sense to give my iMac to my wife and get a good-for-my-needs Mac laptop, along with an external monitor. How much computer did I need? Well, a refurbished M2 MBA (in midnight blue, of course) with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD would have been plenty. However, the screen on the 16" MBP was so tempting, given that I do a lot of hobby-level photo and video editing and use other apps where having more screen real estate makes a difference. I rarely take my computer out of the house, so the size and weight of the 16" MBP didn't bother me. Given that a refurbished M1 16" MBP with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD was only $280 more than the M2 MBA I was considering, I decided to go for it.
I have absolutely no regrets. The screen is so big that I haven't yet felt a need to get an external monitor. I've used the extra ports more than I expected. The processor is more than powerful enough for my needs. The 2019 iMac was fine, but the new MBP is much faster, especially for exporting videos I edit in Adobe Premiere.
Which brings up my final point: What you use your computer for sounds almost identical to what I use mine for. I, too, like to keep my computers for four or five years. Bear in mind that my four-year-old iMac was still perfectly adequate for what I do, and I probably would have continued to use it until Apple stopped supporting Intel-based Macs. Even my 2015 MBP was still fine for email, web browsing, and basic productivity apps like MS Office. As someone who used to buy high-end tech gear in general in the belief that it would future-proof me or give me capabilities that I might want or need over the next few years, I finally realized that I'd spent many thousands of dollars in my lifetime for features and power I never used. I decided to switch to the approach a good friend of mine has always used: figure out the minimum I need now, and add a little more power/features/whatever. If, a couple years down the line, it turns out that I'm doing new things that require more whatever, I can sell what I have and then buy what I need.
Yes, an M2 MBP might give you another year or two of use over an M1, and it will have better resale value -- but you'll pay more for it up front. The M1 MBP has far more power than I need (I read and watched several reviews in which the reviewers threw everything they could at it -- far more than I ever would -- and it never slowed down or got hot), so why would I spend more money for an M2 MBP with 32 GB of RAM, when I'm unlikely to overly tax my M1 during its useful lifespan? So what if the M1 is "old tech"?
Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to get!
Thanks! Yeah, I don't think it's worth the extra almost $600 for the refurbished M2 MBP (or $950 for a new M2 MBP) for what I do. I considered getting into more AE work, but honestly it drives me nuts and if anything I should be writing more.
Hey Allen and Yub, I appreciate both of you taking so much time to think about this. Like, really, I'm not being sarcastic.
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The RAM problem (maybe a good band name?) is interesting. According to our own Mac Rumors, there isn't a big difference between 16 and 32 for most tasks RIGHT NOW. In the future, who knows? Maybe AI 3D 8k video generators will need 32+GB. Maybe rolling blackouts will require 4GB of RAM on a super efficient hand-cranked laptop.
However I believe that Apple know what they're doing when they spec Pro machines with 16GB RAM. IE they know that thanks to fancy-pants memory swapping most users won't need more than 16GB within the next few years. I also believe they spec Pro machines to have a 2-4 year lifespan for most "pro" workflows.
I can get a refurb M1 14-inch MBP with 1TB and 32GB for $2229. The refurb M2 14-inch MBP with 1TB and 32GB is $2459. So if i'm going for 32GB RAM, the M2 is the best value for money. But it's almost a thousand dollars more than the M1 with 16GB. That's significant.
Also we should be aware of Apple's "might as well" spec bump ladder that Marques Brownlee describes. If we get on the ladder we end up getting the M2 MAX that Allen wants us to get and we've spent twice as much as we set out to spend 😂! And hell might as well get the Studio Display, too! (For real though I spent some time with the Studio display at Best Buy and it blew me away.)
If I didn't have a kid and I wasn't paying Southern California rent I'd follow Allen's advice. But I do and I am, so I'm limited (maybe also limited in imagination, I donno). I think the M1 Pro or M2 Air will work well for me for a long time. If I somehow get a bug up my butt and start shooting tons of 4k video and trying to build a video production company (unlikely, but you never know), then I can run whatever I get until it slows me down. And by that point I'll be generating enough income to justify the M2 MAX (or M3 MAX??).
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