Recommend a MacBook for extensive Zoom conferencing

[Farrgazer]

This is going to be my first M1/M2 MacBook.

My primary uses will be Zoom (4 to 6 hours of interpreting during meetings), and creating and managing Devonthink databases.

I also want to maintain a Windows VM for some Windows-exclusive software. Primarily translation software like Trados. This is secondary, a nice to have, but not a dealbreaker.

I have no absolute maximum budget. But I don’t want to go bigger than 13” as there are times when I need to go on-site and I’d rather have something light than heavy.

I figure I would go for 1TB in storage. Should I max out on the RAM?

 

[Toutou]

Performance-wise any Apple Silicon MacBook will do and since you don’t want to sacrifice portability, sounds like you’ll be getting an M2 Air. You can get 1 or even 2 TB of storage if you need it (or less if you don’t). With 16 GB of RAM you’ll be able to run a Windows VM comfortably, but you can go for 24 GB if you want to just fire up the VM and leave everything else open and not think about it. The Air is also fanless, which means zero noise for your Zoom calls if you sometimes don’t want to use headphones.

 

[Farrgazer]

Performance-wise any Apple Silicon MacBook will do and since you don’t want to sacrifice portability, sounds like you’ll be getting an M2 Air. You can get 1 or even 2 TB of storage if you need it (or less if you don’t). With 16 GB of RAM you’ll be able to run a Windows VM comfortably, but you can go for 24 GB if you want to just fire up the VM and leave everything else open and not think about it. The Air is also fanless, which means zero noise for your Zoom calls if you sometimes don’t want to use headphones.

I have read on various social media platforms that M1 Macs had/have a memory leak issue. Is this a cause for concern today as well?

 

[chrfr]

I have read on various social media platforms that M1 Macs had/have a memory leak issue. Is this a cause for concern today as well?

M1 Macs don't have a memory leak issue, nor do any of the Apple Silicon Macs. Sometimes badly written software can have a memory leak but there's nothing inherent in the platform that would lead to this.
Any Apple Silicon Mac will do Zoom conferencing without any problems but to run a virtual machine I'd get 16GB. You will also want to make sure to test that the app you want to use will actually work when virtualized in Windows on one of these Macs, while you're still in the computer's return period.

 

[Toutou]

M1 Macs had/have a memory leak issue

The only issue related to memory that I know of is the fact that some people's M1 Macs would accumulate a huge amount of writes on their SSDs for unknown reasons (which is not exactly the thing that we call a memory leak). It could've been an issue with the reporting, could've been actual writes on systems that ran memory starved all the time, I don't know. I also don't personally know anyone affected by the issue.
I wouldn't worry at all, especially if you were getting an M2 machine.

 

[Farrgazer]

M1 Macs don't have a memory leak issue, nor do any of the Apple Silicon Macs. Sometimes badly written software can have a memory leak but there's nothing inherent in the platform that would lead to this.
Any Apple Silicon Mac will do Zoom conferencing without any problems but to run a virtual machine I'd get 16GB. You will also want to make sure to test that the app you want to use will actually work when virtualized in Windows on one of these Macs, while you're still in the computer's return period.

The only issue related to memory that I know of is the fact that some people's M1 Macs would accumulate a huge amount of writes on their SSDs for unknown reasons (which is not exactly the thing that we call a memory leak). It could've been an issue with the reporting, could've been actual writes on systems that ran memory starved all the time, I don't know. I also don't personally know anyone affected by the issue.
I wouldn't worry at all, especially if you were getting an M2 machine.

Since VM is a potential use case, I figure I would pay for the M2’s extra processing power anyway, but still, I’m glad to see I’ve misunderstood those M1 anecdotes.

And good point on testing. I have found that I can trial both the VM and Windows 11 for free, so at least the worst that will happen is that I’ve wasted my time.