MBP 16” M1 or M2?

[ascender]

The M2 Pro's average of a 20% faster CPU and 30% faster GPU over the M1 Pro is quite a nice "relatively small" increase in performance.

Totally agree, but the M1s are so powerful & efficient that a lot of users won't even notice the difference between them. So a big saving on an M1 might be a better deal for them. Its just a great place to be where you could literally buy any Apple at the moment and you'll get something which can do anything you throw at it and will last for years.

Sorry, I should have been more specific in the point I was trying to make. Those increases are now what we'd expect with "speed bumps" I guess.

 

[colonelbutt]

I agree with comments. If you need the 11% more speed (which is what the "real world" benchmarks seem to show) which some folk really do, then get the M2 Pro version (1TB if you can, since if you are going for the latest, you might as well go for full speed - and disk access is big if you are into video). Otherwise the M1 Pro will be fine. I am blown away by mine, but I only do photo editing, not video

I used to be the first with the latest gear, but now I always buy the previous model when the new one comes out. It means I am 1 to 2 year behind (just bought a Samsung S22 Ultra ) but in the big scheme of things this is basically hardly felt. Also I dont resell my laptops. I keep them until I get a new one, then pass to the kids. Finally, I recycle if there is a special "trade in" deal when buying a new one after 3/4/5 years ....

On the other hand, some folk like to have the latest, and that is cool. If you only upgrade every 5 years or more, then having the extra small boost might be useful to carry over those extra years. And you can always look at the extra money as amortised over the full year usage. As they say, you pays your money you takes your choice ...

 

[parlem]

Student and Apple Pay discount bring it very close to refub price.

Not everyone lives in the US.

 

[Ifti]

Purchase something because you need to use it for your particular requirements, not because of its resale value. You have no idea if you would be selling in the next year, or in the next 5 years, and you do not know what will happen with tech in that time, which has a bigger impact on resale value of older tech anyways - so why worry about resale value now??

 

[Ifti]

Totally agree, but the M1s are so powerful & efficient that a lot of users won't even notice the difference between them. So a big saving on an M1 might be a better deal for them. Its just a great place to be where you could literally buy any Apple at the moment and you'll get something which can do anything you throw at it and will last for years.

Agree with this statement.
I am sticking with my M1 Max - I tend to use it for video editing on FCPX and I have yet to ever even hear the fan spin up during encoding and exporting. No issues with it at all. The only reason I upgraded from my previous MBP16 i9 was simply down to the redesign (needed the SD Card reader!) and to get onto the Apple Silicon bandwagon. Whereas my i9 would always be quite noisy on exporting of projects, it seems the M1 Max isnt even breaking a sweat. 100% happy with it and havent even gone so far as to even look at M2 pricing!

 

[Ploki]

Purchase something because you need to use it for your particular requirements, not because of its resale value. You have no idea if you would be selling in the next year, or in the next 5 years, and you do not know what will happen with tech in that time, which has a bigger impact on resale value of older tech anyways - so why worry about resale value now??

Also you might die!

joking aside, resale value is a poor decision factor.
Computer is a TOOL to help you get work done, not an investment.

I.e. every upgrade you make (ram, ssd) has less resale value.
I bought a used 16" M1 Pro 32GB/1TB for 2100€, and base 16GB / 512GB models go for 1900-2000€. The upgrades from apple cost almost 700€. The resale value of upgrades depreciates insanely fast.

If you only buy by resale logic, you should never upgrade anything beyond base model

Moreso if apple ups the baseline in the next model. (i.e. resale value of intels when M1 came out)

By the time M4 or even M3's are out, resale value of M1 vs M2 will be much less than difference is today, especially if upgraded.

 

[macmus12]

Acquired my 16" M2 Max w/ 64 GB RAM for ~$3,700

great purchase u will be happy af

 

[dstew201]

great purchase u will be happy af

Would be happier with 96gb RAM 🤣 and 8 TB

 

[ECJ]

I just had this same question for the past week. I pulled the trigger on a 16" M1 Pro 16GB 1TB for $1,600 USD. The cheapest M2 1TB variant was at least $2,399. The extra $800 for my use case wasn't worth it.

 

[iFortis]

Thank you all for your help! I have taken your advice, and bought the 16" M1 Pro the other day, at 33% less than the M2.

It's a huge step up from 2014 15" MBP I used. I love the beautiful screen and snappy performance.

I will use the extra money saved for 27" Studio Display in the future, which will help me in my day-to-day work more than the extra 20% CPU power. Hope for an update soon that will bring ProMotion to it.

Thanks again!

 

[macmus12]

Thank you all for your help! I have taken your advice, and bought the 16" M1 Pro the other day, at 33% less than the M2.

It's a huge step up from 2014 15" MBP I used. I love the beautiful screen and snappy performance.

I will use the extra money saved for 27" Studio Display in the future, which will help me in my day-to-day work more than the extra 20% CPU power. Hope for an update soon that will bring ProMotion to it.

Thanks again!

M2 Max I bought makes hopes and leaps over my M1 Air. Air went to family and M2 Max is my new favorite PC.

 

[dstew201]

P

M2 Max I bought makes hopes and leaps over my M1 Air. Air went to family and M2 Max is my new favorite PC.

if you don’t mind me asking, what do you use the M2max for?

 

[macmus12]

P

if you don’t mind me asking, what do you use the M2max for?

Mostly to not be caped by performance. I used base m1 air since a release and it was disaster and very limiting. I wanted pro but I'm working on 4 monitors, so I had to go with max. I love not being capped no more

 

[Isamilis]

Get M2, better resell value.

Considering OP’s current laptop is 2014 version (8 years), I don’t think after 8 years there will be much different resell value between M1 or M2. Get M1 all the way, unless he/she wants to spend more time to find store selling M2 with discount.

 

[Pecka]

My MBP 13" 2017 still serves me well but in a way I regret not getting an M1 14". The M2 seems like a dud with it's smaller heatsink and underperforming SSD. There is no option in Sweden to get a refurbished M1.

Now I will wait for the M3.

 

[maflynn]

The M2 seems like a dud with it's smaller heatsink and underperforming SSD.

I disagree to the idea that its a dud. While I don't own a M2, from what I've seen the M2 is not throttling at all. While I'm not pleased with Apple's choices to cut corners in the name of profit margins the M2 is anything but a dud.

I think in this day and age, its smart to choose the 1TB storage, so that mitigates the slow SSD, as Apple didn't choose slower SSDs for the 1TB and larger.

I thought the M2 was going to be a spec bump, but Apple made some nice improvements, in both processor and more so GPU. The GPU performance increase is excellent.

 

[Pecka]

I disagree to the idea that its a dud. While I don't own a M2, from what I've seen the M2 is not throttling at all. While I'm not pleased with Apple's choices to cut corners in the name of profit margins the M2 is anything but a dud.

I think in this day and age, its smart to choose the 1TB storage, so that mitigates the slow SSD, as Apple didn't choose slower SSDs for the 1TB and larger.

I thought the M2 was going to be a spec bump, but Apple made some nice improvements, in both processor and more so GPU. The GPU performance increase is excellent.

It just that it reminds me of how Apple was in the 90's when they cut corners and released a lot of models that was worse than the previous ones.

Maybe the smaller heatsink isn't a big deal, but that you have to purchase the 1TB model to get good storage performance is inexcusable I think.

 

[*MacBook*]

Get the M1.
M2 has smaller heatsink, slower SSD speeds.

It won’t let me laugh react from my iPhone which is weird. But laugh react.