Macbook Pro M1 (13-inch, 2020) vs. MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2015)

[yesyesjalapeno]

I have held out for a good amount of time waiting for an upgrade. Currently finding it a little hard to compare the recent model, and my current model.

Is it worth updating my Macbook to a fully spec'd Macbook Pro M1 (13-inch, 2020)? See details below.

MacBook Pro 15-inch, Mid 2015
16GB RAM
500GB SSD
AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2GB - Intel Iris Pro 1536MB

Should I just wait until the next release of professional machines?

I'm usually editing photos and video, so need something that will last me another five years ideally.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Tankmaze]

I literally have the same machine as you, the 15" MBP with AMD R9.

I had been thinking of upgrading to the 16" since June, and then after knowing the announcement I began to wait patiently for the AS MBP to come out.

And after seeing lots of reviews of the M1, it is a very impressive machine BUT I would need at least 32 GB of RAM for me to last another five years.

My current MBP is still working great and fast for my needs, so I'm going to wait until Apple release the M1X/Z for the 16" AS MBP with at least 32 GB of RAM. it could happen in WWDC next year or in Q3 2021 like the rumor, but I can wait with my current machine.

Hope it helps.

 

[yesyesjalapeno]

I literally have the same machine as you, the 15" MBP with AMD R9.

I had been thinking of upgrading to the 16" since June, and then after knowing the announcement I began to wait patiently for the AS MBP to come out.

And after seeing lots of reviews of the M1, it is a very impressive machine BUT I would need at least 32 GB of RAM for me to last another five years.

My current MBP is still working great and fast for my needs, so I'm going to wait until Apple release the M1X/Z for the 16" AS MBP with at least 32 GB of RAM. it could happen in WWDC next year or in Q3 2021 like the rumor, but I can wait with my current machine.

Hope it helps.

Thanks for your feedback.

I'm on the fence about waiting. Could go either way, but agree on the RAM.

Interested to see what they will charge for the M1X/Z as spending $4,000+ AUD is almost laughable for a laptop.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I have held out for a good amount of time waiting for an upgrade. Currently finding it a little hard to compare the recent model, and my current model.

Is it worth updating my Macbook to a fully spec'd Macbook Pro M1 (13-inch, 2020)? See details below.

MacBook Pro 15-inch, Mid 2015
16GB RAM
500GB SSD
AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2GB - Intel Iris Pro 1536MB

Should I just wait until the next release of professional machines?

I'm usually editing photos and video, so need something that will last me another five years ideally.

Thanks for your help.

If you're wondering if the new M1 13" MacBook Pro beats out your current specs, the answer is yes. Though, a few questions remain:

- Are you okay to wait until the 16" MacBook Pro makes the jump next year?
- How heavy is your photo and video editing (Apple does make it seem like the M1 13" MacBook Pro can edit photos and videos for days)
- Are you inconvenienced by software titles that are either not optimized for Metal, not Apple Silicon native, or both?

If your current machine is working fine, you might as well wait. Unless you don't care about going to a smaller screen size and are fine with the current levels of performance that the M1 provides (bear in mind that it will be the weakest of Apple's Mac-specific Apple Silicon SoC offerings, despite it comparing favorably to pretty much every Intel Mac ever). But the short of it is that, yes, the 2020 M1 2-port 13" MacBook Pro outperforms the 2015 15" MacBook Pro handily.

 

[4sallypat]

If you're wondering if the new M1 13" MacBook Pro beats out your current specs, the answer is yes. Though, a few questions remain:

- Are you okay to wait until the 16" MacBook Pro makes the jump next year?
- How heavy is your photo and video editing (Apple does make it seem like the M1 13" MacBook Pro can edit photos and videos for days)
- Are you inconvenienced by software titles that are either not optimized for Metal, not Apple Silicon native, or both?

If your current machine is working fine, you might as well wait. Unless you don't care about going to a smaller screen size and are fine with the current levels of performance that the M1 provides (bear in mind that it will be the weakest of Apple's Mac-specific Apple Silicon SoC offerings, despite it comparing favorably to pretty much every Intel Mac ever). But the short of it is that, yes, the 2020 M1 2-port 13" MacBook Pro outperforms the 2015 15" MacBook Pro handily.

Good points - I have the 2015 MBP i7 and love it -super reliable and pre-butterfly keyboard makes it a bonus.

I also have the 16" MBP and don't like the i7 heat it generates plus the battery is almost down to 80% after a year.

The M1 MBP sure looks enticing....

 

[yesyesjalapeno]

If you're wondering if the new M1 13" MacBook Pro beats out your current specs, the answer is yes. Though, a few questions remain:

- Are you okay to wait until the 16" MacBook Pro makes the jump next year?
- How heavy is your photo and video editing (Apple does make it seem like the M1 13" MacBook Pro can edit photos and videos for days)
- Are you inconvenienced by software titles that are either not optimized for Metal, not Apple Silicon native, or both?

If your current machine is working fine, you might as well wait. Unless you don't care about going to a smaller screen size and are fine with the current levels of performance that the M1 provides (bear in mind that it will be the weakest of Apple's Mac-specific Apple Silicon SoC offerings, despite it comparing favorably to pretty much every Intel Mac ever). But the short of it is that, yes, the 2020 M1 2-port 13" MacBook Pro outperforms the 2015 15" MacBook Pro handily.

Appreciate your response.

All great questions to raise. If you were to guess, what % increase in power am I getting from one to the next? If it's minimal, then I may as well wait.

Cheers.

 

[Fthree]

I think you will be pleasantly surprised if you purchase a M1 MBP.

I also have a 2015 15 inch with the maxed specs and purchased the M1 pro with 1tb, 16r and so far I am liking it. I am loving the portability and the noticeable speed upgrades and don't even get me started on the battery..... My 2015 would lose like 40-50% just watching a 1.5 hr movie this M1 I can watch a movie and still have 90% left. Yeah the screen is smaller and makes editing things DIFFERENT however having the power and portability is really growing on me. I also want/wanted a 16 inch with 2tb/32r and was about to shell out $4000 for one and in theory since its the only bigger screen model out I still may if I end up not liking the 13 but I really do not see that happening. Im with you on this wondering about changing stuff as my 2015 15 has been so reliable and a BEAST at everything however I literally got to a point where I was taking only my iPad Pro to places because I was worried id have to charge the 2015.

 

[yesyesjalapeno]

I think you will be pleasantly surprised if you purchase a M1 MBP.

I also have a 2015 15 inch with the maxed specs and purchased the M1 pro with 1tb, 16r and so far I am liking it. I am loving the portability and the noticeable speed upgrades and don't even get me started on the battery..... My 2015 would lose like 40-50% just watching a 1.5 hr movie this M1 I can watch a movie and still have 90% left. Yeah the screen is smaller and makes editing things DIFFERENT however having the power and portability is really growing on me. I also want/wanted a 16 inch with 2tb/32r and was about to shell out $4000 for one and in theory since its the only bigger screen model out I still may if I end up not liking the 13 but I really do not see that happening. Im with you on this wondering about changing stuff as my 2015 15 has been so reliable and a BEAST at everything however I literally got to a point where I was taking only my iPad Pro to places because I was worried id have to charge the 2015.

Great. I agree, battery is horrible, and it certainly weighs a bit.

Out of interest what are you editing video and photos on? I'm an avid Premiere and Photoshop user, so just interested if the performance really drops that from Premiere to Final Cut etc.

Cheers.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Appreciate your response.

All great questions to raise. If you were to guess, what % increase in power am I getting from one to the next? If it's minimal, then I may as well wait.

Cheers.

I'd check benchmarks. If you go by Geekbench 5, single core performance of your Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro is 926, while multi-core is 3293 (assuming you have the highest end 2.8GHz Haswell Core i7 that Apple offered in that system). The M1 in the current Apple Silicon 2-port 13" MacBook Pro has scores of 1690 for single core and 7294 for multi-core. Mind you, those don't entail real-world use cases, but that should give you a rough idea of overall performance differences between the two.

If you don't mind the downgrade in screen size, you're probably going to otherwise find it to be a good upgrade. But if you can wait until the 16" MacBook Pro makes the transition, I'd say you'll end up with an even faster system.

I think it will ultimately boil down to how in a hurry you are to upgrade.

 

[Fthree]

Great. I agree, battery is horrible, and it certainly weighs a bit.

Out of interest what are you editing video and photos on? I'm an avid Premiere and Photoshop user, so just interested if the performance really drops that from Premiere to Final Cut etc.

Cheers.

I do not have a lot of experience in premiere and PS more of an affinity guy myself and FC is awesome!

 

[anubis1980]

I have held out for a good amount of time waiting for an upgrade. Currently finding it a little hard to compare the recent model, and my current model.

Is it worth updating my Macbook to a fully spec'd Macbook Pro M1 (13-inch, 2020)? See details below.

MacBook Pro 15-inch, Mid 2015
16GB RAM
500GB SSD
AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2GB - Intel Iris Pro 1536MB

Should I just wait until the next release of professional machines?

I'm usually editing photos and video, so need something that will last me another five years ideally.

Thanks for your help.

I sold my 2015 mbp i7 2.5 quad, 16gb ram, 512ssd and r9 m370x graphics after I tried the m1 mba. I have the base model and wow, this thing flies. Everything is quicker, never seem to get into trouble with Ram. Granted I don't do heavy stuff, but using it for cycling on zwift, it flies compared to my old MBP.

The screen is a huge improvement, better speakers, better keyboard and much lighter. The battery is insane. Its been a huge improvement over my old mbp and I can see myself using it much more now.

 

[phrehdd]

I sold my 2015 mbp i7 2.5 quad, 16gb ram, 512ssd and r9 m370x graphics after I tried the m1 mba. I have the base model and wow, this thing flies. Everything is quicker, never seem to get into trouble with Ram. Granted I don't do heavy stuff, but using it for cycling on zwift, it flies compared to my old MBP.

The screen is a huge improvement, better speakers, better keyboard and much lighter. The battery is insane. Its been a huge improvement over my old mbp and I can see myself using it much more now.

I have the identical to you and after hearing all sorts of things about the M1 models to consider

keyboard
whether my apps run native on the M1 or take a potential hit with Rosetta
hooking up to my monitor (sadly I have a BenQ 27" which might be problematic or maybe not)
r9 graphics vs integrated graphics of the M1 that also takes up some of the unified onboard memory
having to yet again consider a "hub" or similar due to minimal ports on the M1 laptops and mini


I am tempted to consider a 16 gig of RAM, 512 SSD Mac Mini set up as an addition until the right spec'd laptop comes out (16"??) that allows for greater RAM and improved video specs. Thoughts?

 

[anubis1980]

I have the identical to you and after hearing all sorts of things about the M1 models to consider

keyboard
whether my apps run native on the M1 or take a potential hit with Rosetta
hooking up to my monitor (sadly I have a BenQ 27" which might be problematic or maybe not)
r9 graphics vs integrated graphics of the M1 that also takes up some of the unified onboard memory
having to yet again consider a "hub" or similar due to minimal ports on the M1 laptops and mini


I am tempted to consider a 16 gig of RAM, 512 SSD Mac Mini set up as an addition until the right spec'd laptop comes out (16"??) that allows for greater RAM and improved video specs. Thoughts?

Keyboard for me is far better. Every app I throw at the m1 performs better even in rosetta but I guess depends on the apps. I hook mine up to my Samsung Q90r tv and it works far better than the old Mac, clearer picture and less connectivity issues. I can say this laptops GPU (mines the 7 core version) performs way better than the old R9. Zwift, a cycle game I use on my tv works so much better and that's in rosetta and not properly optimised yet as the game doesn't even recognise the card. It has been a huge improvement on every aspect I can think of. I honestly can't think of anything the old Mac did better.

 

[darngooddesign]

The M1 is faster than the current 16", even with Rosetta apps, so it should last five years (I have a 2014 13" so I expect he same kind of lifespan as you). Really the only reason you should wait is if you want the larger screen, more ports, a significantly more powerful CPU, and 32GB of RAM.

 

[pshufd]

I have the 2015 MacBook Pro, 2.5 Ghz, AMD, 512 GB. I'm typing on it right now. I have a far more powerful Windows desktop for big tasks. I also bought a 16/1 Air today but it's for someone else in my household. I have been thinking of buying a Pro/M1 to play around with but I wouldn't use it for real work. I've also been thinking of getting a Mini/M1 for some development work. And I've considered getting an iMac i7-10700K.

If you need 32 GB, then your options are Intel or waiting a year.

 

[Jimmie Geddes]

I upgraded to the base model M1 MacBook Air 8GB RAM 256GB New Year's day from an early 2015 MacBook Pro 8GB RAM and 256GB. The MacBook Air is so much faster launching apps. Using YouTube on my MacBook Pro would always kick in its fan and I'd see the beachball when switching apps. None of that happens on the MacBook Air and battery life is incredible. I do miss having the extra ports my MacBook Pro has and Magsafe. I purchased a USB-C magnetic adapter to bring the feature back. I'm extremely happy with the M1 MacBook Air.

 

[adgoodma]

I made the jump from the same computer. Everything is faster... the only thing it's missing is the multi display support.

 

[phrehdd]

Curious - has anyone tried using an iPad Pro and side car (or whatever it is called) to gain an additional screen?

 

[LordeOurMother]

Do you need to upgrade?

If not, it just comes down to how much you value your money and how the machine currently fairs on your workflow, in comparison with quality of life improvements (e.g. performance gains, quicker boot times, etc).

For instance, money isn't an issue, I could get a new M1 Mac, but my Mac Pro is a dual boot Windows gaming and scientific workstation, and so 6 internal SATA bays and PCI-E slots outweigh the performance gains I would otherwise get. The quality of life gains relative to using M1 are, as of yet, not worth it compared to this. I hardly ever use my laptop for anything intensive beyond light programming. My 2009 MacBook is effectively a netbook with OS X, so there's no reason to spend at minimum $1100 to get a Facebook machine. The 2011 MBA is a backup laptop.

If my needs change and the quality of life features afforded by the M1 Macs (portability and performance in particular) outweigh the cost of upgrading, then I will. For instance, when things return to 'normal' and I need to travel for work or school again, a new MacBook will be a possibility.

 

[pshufd]

Curious - has anyone tried using an iPad Pro and side car (or whatever it is called) to gain an additional screen?

I have never tried Side Car (I have an iPad Mini 5 - not sure if you can use Side Car with that. I prefer to just get proper monitors. I have Dell 27 inch 3x4k, Dell 25 inch QHD, Dell WSXGA 20 inch and a 27 inch iMac for my two desk setups. Monitors have gotten ridiculously expensive during the pandemic though. In the past, you could get a really nice, large monitor for quite a bit less than the price of an iPad.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Curious - has anyone tried using an iPad Pro and side car (or whatever it is called) to gain an additional screen?

Yes, works like a charm (w/ Mac mini M1). But please take my opinion with a grain of salt: I am not the 2-monitors-guy and have tested the additional 12.9 iPad Pro just out of curiosity. For productivity, my 27 inch LG Ultrafine 5K is sufficient for me so I didn't throw my full workload on the sidecar construction. Especially as the iPP screen, as big as it is for itself, looks rather tiny alongside the LG Even more (or less...) the iPad mini that I also tested... iPads Pro are not another desktop monitor.
I would be optimistic, though, that it could be helpful for some people.

 

[Jabzzz]

I think screen size is also a factor. How will the drop in size affect you and your work?

 

[krishmk]

I have the same model and I got the M1 MBP and tried it for 15 days and returned it on Friday (on the way to Apple).

I liked M1 but 8GB is not enough for using Fidelity Active Trader Pro, Webull and few browser tabs and excel opened at the same time. It is very responsive but I see a lot of swap and page files and would need 16 inch for my eyes.

I will hold out till the 15/16 inch are released and by the 16GB for sure.

 

[akdj]

Awesome discussion, I’m still using my mid ‘15 rMBP (2.8GHz/16GB/1TB/AMD) and strongly considering the M1. Especially since yebubbleman went to the effort of pulling up GB5 results, lol - that’s twice the theoretical speed of mine, and per watt, exponentially better. My son’s almost 16 and he’s using the 13” MacBook Pro from 2015. The last one to offer the ports and IO he & I are still using (USB-A, HDMI, SD, Audio IO (analo/digital), and Thunderbolt 2.
‘while TB2 was short lived, PWC sold a TB2 dock that adds five more ‘Hi-Speed USB-A (blue) ports, another HDMI, eSATA, Ethernet, FW800, two TB2 ports as well as both in and output for audio. Works like a charm and I’ve never had an issue with the dock or computer (other than the burn in LG display issue, replaced with the Samsung early on) and even the old Haswell architecture and 2GB of vRAM, the PCIe storage was revolutionary when I bought it and continues to amaze me with the speeds.

that said I am considering the 13” MBP M1 for the short term and giving it to my son when we see the 16” come to fruition. And in the interim, I’ll hang on to my 2015 15”. Essentially for apps unable to use on the M1... as I’m a full suite Adobe CC subscriber and use AE, PS, Premier, Audition and Lightroom daily. a couple of the other apps in the suite for animation and design... the benchmarks so far look Damn good for a first gen machine and without third party updates yet.

Though I have no doubt Adobe’s hard at work on M1 optimization, I have both FCP/Logic X - and the emulation seems a small price to pay (without a huge performance hit) for such an amazing increase in speed, power, battery and transportability - there’s no peer - and the RAM built in the SoC stack with the C/GPUs seems to have made a drastic difference in the entire chain of building computers. I am fine now with the old 16 GB DDR3, I can’t believe that 16GB in the M1, the new way of engineering the ‘logic board’ (which can be tiny now!), all controllers memory and computation built on the same stack - 16 today on the M1 is probably more comparable to 32GB off chip and separate from each other on the mother board/logic boards.

I think I have convinced myself lol

 

[jdb8167]

Curious - has anyone tried using an iPad Pro and side car (or whatever it is called) to gain an additional screen?

I’ve used my 11” iPad Pro as an external monitor to watch videos and TV while I work on the main display of my M1 MacBook Air. Worked flawlessly.