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MBP 16” vs MacBooks with M1

kristof46

kristof46

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 19, 2015
81
6
Last year I’ve change MBP 13” 2016 for MBP 16” just because of home office. Bigger display was a game changer for me. In fact I don’t even need so much power. I don’t play with video editing or photoshopNow I am wondering if I should back to 13” with M1. First I bought 32” external monitor. At the office I have 24” monitor so maybe the answer is relatively obvious.
I’ve read few threads right here where people talk about switching from 16 to MBA.
In my case the most important thing is battery life. Does M1 really have so well battery life? I saw that sometimes people complain about that. They get 7-8 h instead of 12-14. Moreover it looks like MBA can have some problem more often than MBP. Maybe that’s because Pro has bigger battery and probably apple sold more Airs.
What do you think about that?
Maybe the best way will be iPad 10.2 just the browsing in bed or on the couch.

P.S. We have really nice sales right now in Poland for M1 machines.
Without VAT and with probably close exchange rate we have on Apple I can buy MBP 13” M1 16 gb ram 512 sad for around $1487. Same spec Air for $1189
 
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I don't understand, why you didn't get an iMac or Mac mini for home office. Much, much cheaper than a 16" MacBook Pro.
 
kristof46 said:
Last year I’ve change MBP 13” 2016 for MBP 16” just because of home office. Bigger display was a game changer for me. In fact I don’t even need so much power. I don’t play with video editing or photoshopNow I am wondering if I should back to 13” with M1. First I bought 32” external monitor. At the office I have 24” monitor so maybe the answer is relatively obvious.
I’ve read few threads right here where people talk about switching from 16 to MBA.
In my case the most important thing is battery life. Does M1 really have so well battery life? I saw that sometimes people complain about that. They get 7-8 h instead of 12-14. Moreover it looks like MBA can have some problem more often than MBP. Maybe that’s because Pro has bigger battery and probably apple sold more Airs.
What do you think about that?
Maybe the best way will be iPad 10.2 just the browsing in bed or on the couch.

P.S. We have really nice sales right now in Poland for M1 machines.
Without VAT and with probably close exchange rate we have on Apple I can buy MBP 13” M1 16 gb ram 512 sad for around $1487. Same spec Air for $1189
Click to expand...
I'd go with an M1 13" Pro or an M1 Air. There is a rumored redesign coming and that is rumored to bring the first Apple Silicon 16" MacBook Pros as well as an Apple Silicon 14" MacBook Pro that is apt to replace at least one of the two 13" MacBook Pros we have today. But Apple has a bad track record of reliability issues that lead to quality repair extension programs on the first of a new body style of MacBook Pros and iPhones. So, I'd either buy an M1 Air or an M1 13" Pro or I'd wait for the upcoming redesign to mature. But I wouldn't buy an Intel 16" MacBook Pro unless you specifically need an Intel Mac and I wouldn't buy the first rev of a new MacBook Pro design.
 
Mr.Blacky said:
I don't understand, why you didn't get an iMac or Mac mini for home office. Much, much cheaper than a 16" MacBook Pro.
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Because MacBook no matter how big is still portable and I need this. Ok Mac mini can also be portable but you need external dispaly.
 
Mr.Blacky said:
Didn't know, you had to throw away your working (I assume) 13" MacBook Pro. 😕
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I don’t know why we are talking about my work and if I am doing it good or not. I chose 16” because I didn’t have enough space for monitor at home. After few months I made few changes and bought 32”. That’s why I have monitors at the office and home. Anyway I won’t buy Mac mini because it is not portable device.
 
kristof46 said:
I don’t know why we are talking about my work and if I am doing it good or not. I chose 16” because I didn’t have enough space for monitor at home. After few months I made few changes and bought 32”. That’s why I have monitors at the office and home. Anyway I won’t buy Mac mini because it is not portable device.
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How about you chill a little bit, dude?
Who said anything about your work and if you're doing it good or not?
I just said, I don't understand, why you didn't get a (much) cheaper solution. 🤷‍♂️
 
Mr.Blacky said:
How about you chill a little bit, dude?
Who said anything about your work and if you're doing it good or not?
I just said, I don't understand, why you didn't get a (much) cheaper solution. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
I don’t want you to talk about mini or iMac. I wanted to talk about MacBooks. I don’t understand why people try convince me to do something different. i try to find out more about battery. As I said I saw complaints about Air’s battery.
 
Apple_Robert said:
The M1 does have great battery life.

It looks to me like you still prefer the larger screen. I would wait until the new Macs are announced before deciding about the 13” M1.
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It is hard to say if I prefer bigger screen or not. Anyway. Do you think that M1 MacBooks will last longer than mbp16 on battery?
 
I had MacBook Pro 16" at office and recently switched to MBA M1 and the Air battery is much longer by a considerable amount.
 
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At this point, there's only three differences between M1-based MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs: two additional USB C ports, a fan, and the Touch Bar. I debated about this myself, ultimately settling on the MacBook Air. It really runs circles around no much of the previous generation hardware, and honestly I've been really happy so far.
 
Blue Quark said:
At this point, there's only three differences between M1-based MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs: two additional USB C ports, a fan, and the Touch Bar. I debated about this myself, ultimately settling on the MacBook Air. It really runs circles around no much of the previous generation hardware, and honestly I've been really happy so far.
Click to expand...
What did you have previously?
 
kristof46 said:
What did you have previously?
Click to expand...
Well, the last Mac I bought (and I still have it) is a 2011 MacBook Pro 13". I've replaced the battery and swapped the 4200RPM mechanical hard drive for an SSD.

I also have an HP desktop I put a 1TB M.2 NVME in and dual-booted it between Windows 10 and Linux Mint 20.1.

I've also had a litany of Macs, going all the way back to a Macintosh Plus in 1986.

I only recently put macOS back on it because for the past several years it was running LM (Cinnamon desktop) like a champ.
 
kristof46 said:
I don’t want you to talk about mini or iMac. I wanted to talk about MacBooks. I don’t understand why people try convince me to do something different. i try to find out more about battery. As I said I saw complaints about Air’s battery.
Click to expand...
Hmmm. So you're dictating what people can or cannot suggest to YOUR REQUEST for DIFFERENT opinions? I'll pass.
 
I jumped from a 16" Core i9 MBP to a 13" MBA late last year. I will be in the market for a 14" MBP when they land (assuming leaked specs are accurate). Here's my takeaway:

  • Speed: for almost all tasks, the M1 is faster. The only real exceptions here are 1) long-running highly parallel tasks without dedicated additional hardware and 2) 3D games, though the difference is not as much as I expected it to be. As far as general responsiveness, the M1 wins hands-down, no contest. When I have to switch to my work-provided 15" MBP I want to pull my hair out. I understand that objectively the difference in responsiveness is small, but when you're used to it, it's hard to go back, not unlike high refresh screens vs standard 60Hz.
  • Battery life: Again, M1 wins hands-down. The 16" was way better than my work-provided 15", but the M1 just smokes them. Unless I'm doing something particularly intensive on my M1, I can go multiple days between charges if I choose.
  • Screen: I didn't miss the larger screen as much as I expected to, but I also connect to a 34" ultrawide if I'm sitting at my desk, and honestly I like the lighter weight more than the larger screen for portable usage. I also have an iPad I can SideCar to if I'm mobile for a little extra screen space. As far as brightness/color, they are pretty much equivalent.
  • Memory: this is pretty much my only regret. My 16" had 32GB, but M1 maxes out at 16GB. I thought I would give it a shot, but I definitely have memory pressure issues if I'm running e.g. a few Docker containers alongside browser windows. This is pretty much the entire reason I'll be looking at getting a 14" MBP when they land.
  • Ports: This one occasionally gets annoying, but again most of the time when I need to plug multiple things in, I'm sitting at my desk plugged into my monitor which has a USB-C hub built-in. Also I don't feel the need to plug into power constantly anytime it's available so that helps with the port situation as well.
 
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