Opinions needed.

[beastforum]

Hi I have the chance of buying a brand new sealed, with full warranty, MacBook Pro 16” i9 16gb, 1tb for £2000. I know the Apple Silicon laptops are on about being released end of this year but i do music production and video editing so unsure if to wait or to just buy this. Heard rumours it may be the 13” mbp though. With the Apple Silicon having built in decent graphics, allegedly, I’d be fine with that as I would use it plugged to an external monitor anyway lots of the time. I have sold my old Mac now so have nothing and not absolutely desperate but could do with a Mac soon.

Would you buy the mbp16” as it’s a good price or is it madness so close to the new Apple silicon ones coming ?

Cheers

 

[beastforum]

Just for clarity, I do use Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro but also Ableton and Studio One (so unlikely to work from the off) but can make do with the Logic and fcpx for a while if needs be.

 

[thenewperson]

Since you mentioned that you're okay with a potential 13" Pro and you'd be okay with Logic + FCPX for the time being, maybe waiting is okay.

But I'd still recommend just getting the 16" and waiting to see what ASi Macs are like after a few months (or at least till the ASi 16") and sell this one.

 

[robotica]

sounds like a really good deal to me

 

[OldCorpse]

That's easy. Buy the Intel 16". You will get a lot of use out of it, and during that time, the AS macs will mature and all the bugs will be worked out and key apps will transition. And then you can take your sweet time buying the AS mac - you can pick when, which model and how much according to your needs with a mature product line. Luxury!

Key PRO points:

1) You get to use an excellent laptop right off the bat, instead of waiting and waiting for a "maybe" AS product

2) It gives you plenty of time to buy a much better AS mac down the road

3) All your apps are working right away

 

[Scarboose]

Just know... i9 MacBook pros battery life is worse than the rest of the lineup. i9 sucks a lot more juice!

 

[Jorbanead]

Hey fellow audio engineer here! Chances are you will run into a lot of issues with 3rd party plugins and software in the first year or so. We really just don’t know right now how long it’ll take for all of that to get sorted out. Drivers and support for Big Sur are going to take awhile.

That being said, if you don’t use a lot of 3rd party stuff and you stick mostly with Logic and Final Cut you may be fine. I personally am going to get an AS Mac mini once I know all of my plugins and hardware are supported.

Though the MBP is a great machine and it will keep its resale value for awhile. There’s going to be a market for intel machines during the transition, so if you got that now, you could always sell it in a year or two once AS macs have proven to be reliable and software is fully supported .

 

[Scott Baret]

The transition will likely take a few years to be completed, as we have seen before from other notable transitions in Apple's past. As long as you aren't going to spend any extra on software or accessories, it's a pretty good deal.

I usually wait a year or more before getting any transitioned product (did that with 68K-->PPC and PPC-->Intel) so all the compatibility issues can be worked out. Major developers are good about this, but if you rely on any third party add-ons, you may run into problems.

 

[Jorbanead]

The transition will likely take a few years to be completed, as we have seen before from other notable transitions in Apple's past.

The intel transition took 9 months total. From Jan-Sept 2006 they announced 11 new intel Mac products.

List of Mac models - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Scott Baret]

The intel transition took 9 months total. From Jan-Sept 2006 they announced 11 new intel Mac products.

List of Mac models - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Don't forget we also had to re-write software for Intel; Rosetta only lasted a few OS versions. There were also a lot of PPC Macs still out there for a few years. When you factor in software releases and getting the majority upgraded, it lasts beyond then...but yes, those 9 months...I do remember them well, hoping that Apple would redesign some of their computers in the process. (In particular, the iMac G5 was always a boring design to me, and I'm disappointed they haven't strayed far from that design 14 years after the Intel transition).

 

[markiv810]

Hi I have the chance of buying a brand new sealed, with full warranty, MacBook Pro 16” i9 16gb, 1tb for £2000. I know the Apple Silicon laptops are on about being released end of this year but i do music production and video editing so unsure if to wait or to just buy this. Heard rumours it may be the 13” mbp though. With the Apple Silicon having built in decent graphics, allegedly, I’d be fine with that as I would use it plugged to an external monitor anyway lots of the time. I have sold my old Mac now so have nothing and not absolutely desperate but could do with a Mac soon.

Would you buy the mbp16” as it’s a good price or is it madness so close to the new Apple silicon ones coming ?

Cheers

Waiting for Apple Silicon is a viable option only if you are using Apple Software for your music production and video editing, 'cos only Apple would have their software ready for Apple Silicon at the earliest. Btw, in case you have use of Windows OS buying the 16" MBP is a pretty good option.

 

[Jouls]

In particular, the iMac G5 was always a boring design to me, and I'm disappointed they haven't strayed far from that design 14 years after the Intel transition

That was indeed boring. But I actually liked the 2007 redesign in aluminium. Had that iMac for 8-9 years. But the most fascinating design so far was the Luxo lamp iMac G4.

 

[Scott Baret]

I would love to see the iMac G4 design brought back somehow, but I know they'll never do it because of the obsession with minimalist design.

 

[smoking monkey]

That was indeed boring. But I actually liked the 2007 redesign in aluminium. Had that iMac for 8-9 years. But the most fascinating design so far was the Luxo lamp iMac G4.

The lamp was great. So was the Clamshell. Also the old G3s that came in black and white and blue and white were a fantastic design.

As for waiting for an AS lap top. Sounds like getting the discounted one now and then upgrading in a few years is the way to go. I'm personally waiting for AS because I'm done with Intel machines. I use apple apps predominantly, so not going to be a problem for me.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi I have the chance of buying a brand new sealed, with full warranty, MacBook Pro 16” i9 16gb, 1tb for £2000. I know the Apple Silicon laptops are on about being released end of this year but i do music production and video editing so unsure if to wait or to just buy this. Heard rumours it may be the 13” mbp though. With the Apple Silicon having built in decent graphics, allegedly, I’d be fine with that as I would use it plugged to an external monitor anyway lots of the time. I have sold my old Mac now so have nothing and not absolutely desperate but could do with a Mac soon.

Would you buy the mbp16” as it’s a good price or is it madness so close to the new Apple silicon ones coming ?

Cheers

If you need to do work on your Mac, I wouldn't wait, especially if you're using software not made by Apple, Adobe, or Microsoft (all of which have pledged to be early to putting out Apple Silicon native Mac apps). If that's not an issue for you and/or your uses are casual enough such that Rosetta 2 emulation speeds don't concern you, then I'd wait. I doubt the graphics performance on the upcoming Apple Silicon MacBook Pro/Air will outperform the current Intel 16" MacBook Pro's graphics, especially since apps NEED to be coded specifically to take advantage of Tile-Deferred Rendering and Metal in order for the performance benefits to be realized. That's not to say that the performance won't eventually get there, but by that time, you may be naturally ready to replace whatever Mac you buy this year anyway.