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mcqueen030609

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 11, 2024
8
3
Hey guys,

I have been hesistating buy between base macbook pro and MBA m3 15 but yesterday a m1 pro MacBook pro caught my eyes.
The specs are
: 10 core CPU, 16 core GPU
16gb RAM 1tb SSD

I personally think m1 pro is good enough for me because I will be doing light tasks like browsing, netflix, Microsoft tasks, face time.
I have always admired MBP's screen and speaker and the price range is only around 1047 GBP which is significantly cheaper than the m3 base MBP.

One thing I am worried is future proofing. I am planning to use it at least for 5 years I think and would buying a M1 pro a problem?
 

MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
5 years should be more that enough time to use a Macbook especially since the chip is an  one.
heck im using my 2012 Mountain lion equipped macs this month instead of the m1s i own.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,242
13,315
My MacBook Pro 14" (m1pro) still runs fine for me.
16GB RAM, 512 SSD.

Like the OP, I don't use it for "heavy" jobs.
But it still runs beautifully, and I have no plans to replace it.
Maybe when the m6pro comes out...?
 

Alameda

macrumors 65816
Jun 22, 2012
1,276
870
Hey guys,

I have been hesistating buy between base macbook pro and MBA m3 15 but yesterday a m1 pro MacBook pro caught my eyes.
The specs are
: 10 core CPU, 16 core GPU
16gb RAM 1tb SSD

I personally think m1 pro is good enough for me because I will be doing light tasks like browsing, netflix, Microsoft tasks, face time.
I have always admired MBP's screen and speaker and the price range is only around 1047 GBP which is significantly cheaper than the m3 base MBP.

One thing I am worried is future proofing. I am planning to use it at least for 5 years I think and would buying a M1 pro a problem?
The MacBook Pro is heavier but the screen is better. I think the 16GB of RAM will last you five years; that’s probably going to be more important than the M1 vs M3 CPU going forward, but time will tell.

And 1TB of SSD… you lucky son of a gun. That’s nice to have. The internal SSD is very fast.
 
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giffut

macrumors 6502
Apr 28, 2003
473
158
Germany
At the current rate I suspect Apple needs to obsolete the M1 platform via software locks, because it performs very reliable and with great performance for the upcoming years without major drawbacks. My Mac Mini M1 16GB/512GB performs flawlessly. Even my daughter´s Macbook Air M1 8GB/256GB shows no slowdowns of any kind. I don´t hope this happens, though.

AI is not really a necessity for the upcoming years to update hardware, in my opinion. it´s still in flux and lots of snakeoil happening. Contrary in my opinion we should avoid AI hardware and software features at all costs. It´s a giant intellectual robbery of mankinds creations for monetizing and monopolizing it. Don´t feed this monster by any means.
 
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Suzatlarge

macrumors member
May 4, 2008
91
47
Colorado
I've had a 14" M1 Pro since the day they came out. Genuinely still just eats up any load I throw at it. Don't need anything faster.
I've had one almost that long. It's going strong. I do photo editing with Lightroom, Photoshop beta (has AI), and other apps, and it's up to the tasks. I dug all the loose change out from under the sofa cushions, sold some camera and other gear, and was able to get it configured with 32GB/1TB. I do. not. regret. that effort. I'm just not worried about the future with this thing.

Also, shortly after its release I got a slightly on-sale MBA M1, 8GB/256GB, and it's still going strong too. The only limit on it, is that it's apparently not able to run Photoshop beta (at least Adobe doesn't show it as an option, not that I've cared that much), but it's good with regular Photoshop.
 
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HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
7,290
3,341
Contrary in my opinion we should avoid AI hardware and software features at all costs.

You're not going to have many purchase options then. AI, for better or worse, is going into just about everything. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Samsung ....
 
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