MBP Buying Advice

[starbucks1222]

Need some advice on finally making the jump from Windows. iPhone, Watch, and IPad owner for years but never wanted to deal with making the jump from Windows.

Currently have a dell with i7, 8gb memory, windows 10 pro - nothing special. I keep all my music/files on an external hard drive so not concerned about only having 512gb SSD in the MBP.

My main concern - will my WD external just plug into a MBP and work? I believe the answer is no since it’s been connected to windows. How would I go about making all that content/drive compatible with a MBP without reformatting?

2nd concern - I truly no very little about Apple computers. Looking at the MBP - M1 Chip - 8G memory - 512gb model. Better than my Dell? Worth the $1499 price tag? Will just be using for day to day stuff.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[delsoul]

I have a WD external that I use between my MacBook Pro m1 and my huawei matebook x pro with windows 10. It has no issues with reading and writing between the two. The only thing I need to do is connect my usb a to usb c adapter on the end of the hard drive cable since the MacBook doesn’t have a usb a slot.

 

[chscag]

Your WD external drive is likely formatted to NTFS, in which case, the Mac will be able to read the data but not write to it. However, there are several third party drivers which will allow macOS to read and write to NTFS formatted drives.

A Mac can read and write to FAT-32 and exFAT so if the drive is formatted to either one of those you would not need a special driver.

As far as the MacBook Pro M1 being better than your Dell, it's a matter of personal opinion. Some of us including myself have used Windows and many of the folks who are members of these forums own both a Mac and a Win machine.

Since the M1 is the first iteration of the new Macs, you might want to wait until the second generation of the new Apple silicon machines are available. We should see some of those this Summer.

 

[James_C]

I have had my M1 MacBook Air for a couple of months now. It is the best laptop I have ever owned ( I used to use the prior generations of the 15” MacBook Pro). The Air has the same M1 Chip in it as the MBP. Either of these machines would be way more powerful than your current Dell. It will take you a couple of weeks to get comfortable with Mac OS compared to Windows. Unless you really want the Touch Bar ( A lot of people hate it) on the MBP, I think you will be better off going with the 512GB MacBook Air, the Air does not have a fan ( much like your iPad) and is completely silent. The Pro does have a fan, but is only needed with sustained heavy workloads like Video Editing or graphic intensive gaming. The fanless Air will throttle down performance by 15% under similar loads. Getting the Air will save a significant sum.

One of Apple’s strengths is how well all the devices work together, you can use your watch to automatically unlock your laptop. You can be looking at a webpage on your iPad, and a icon will appear on your Mac to take you to the same page on your Mac. Given you are already invested in a number of Apple’s other devices, you are an ideal switch candidate.

 

[Apple_Robert]

In my opinion, the M1 is worth the price, especially if you are one who keeps your computer a long time. It beyond anything you have experienced before. Some here might call it life changing.

 

[Geepaw]

M1 MBA or MBP are great machines. If your Windows external drive is formatted as exFAT then the Mac will be able to use it. Comparisons aside, Dell does make some very good machines and, depending on your use case, will likely suffice -- especially for most "day to day" stuff like web browsing or word processing, etc. Obviously this depends on how you plan ti use it.

 

[MBAir2010]

Does the macbook M1 wirelessly network with.....say a dell xps easier or at all?