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Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,616
Los Angeles, CA
I was planning to wait for Apple Silicon Macs until the keyboard on my 4.5-year-old 13" MBP started to conk out on me. (I tried using compressed air to clean the keyboard and reset procedures to no avail. This really seems like a hardware problem. Any other suggestions are welcome.) I can muddle through with an external keyboard, but who knows how long it will be until the Apple Silicon MBPs arrive, and if they will work well when they get here. I can get a 13" 2020 MBP on sale now at Costco. I'm not sure if I should get it or hold out for the Apple Silicon MBPs get here.

I escaped trouble when I bought my 13" 2015 model shortly before the redesigned MBPs came out. I avoided the butterfly keyboard fiasco and all the other problems. I'm concerned about how much I'll miss out on if I don't wait for Apple Silicon.

What do you suggest in my suggestion, wait or buy now? Your insights are helpful. Thanks.

If you need Intel in any capacity, such as natively booting x86-64 versions of Windows 10 or Linux, Boot Camp, x86 OS virtualization, or to run code that simply won't run on Apple Silicon well enough, then I'd buy now. Otherwise, since we're talking about the 13" MacBook Pro, which is will be very likely universally outperformed by either the Apple Silicon MacBook Air or the Apple Silicon 13" MacBook Pro, at least one of which re most likely launching later this year, I'd say wait up for it.

We're going to see Apple Silicon Macs this year, and they're going to be replacements to lower-end Macs (i.e. not a 16" MacBook Pro, 27" iMac or iMac Pro, or Mac Pro). At least one of them is going to be a notebook. And whichever notebook that is will outperform even the best current 13" MacBook Pro in terms of raw performance.
 
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