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The Mercurian

macrumors 68020
Mar 17, 2012
2,159
2,442
Honestly speaking as a 2019 16" MBP user: The only thing that would get me to upgrade would be discontinuation of support for Intel machines or *significant* performance increases. At the end of the day, I don't care about the architecture under the hood: I care about the apps I'm going to use and the performance the machine will deliver. As it stands, switching to ARM means some meaningful sacrifices in terms of software compatibility. Personally I'd prefer to let the platform mature a little bit before switching.

And, based on this first Apple Silicon Keynote, I'm actually feeling even more confident in my decision to upgrade last year to the 16" MBP: I have the latest and greatest Intel offering from Apple that should be supported for as long as they support Intel chips. I am happy to sit tight while they work out the kinks in the new platform architecture for a few generations.

If you haven't already upgraded and do you wait or do you buy the current (year old) Intel offerings? I don't know - it's a complicated decision that I'm glad I don't have to deal with :)
Totally agree with all this. Very happy with my 2019 machine for the next couple of years. See potential in this new advance for some future potential purchase, but need to see how it pans out - how will benchmarks play out and will my daily use apps become native.
 

Zazoh

macrumors 68000
Jan 4, 2009
1,516
1,121
San Antonio, Texas
When what I have now doesn’t seem jittery or slow, enticing me to go 3x faster than fast is not going to do it.

Lets hope Big Sur doesn’t slow down the current hardware. Because iOS apps will be supported in new architecture and they are sticking with the same form factors, I’m going to look to iPad for future innovations.

EDIT: Changed my mind. Pretty decent trade in on my Mac Mini.
 
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SegNerd

macrumors 6502
Feb 28, 2020
307
308
I know this is wishful thinking, but what I’d really like right now is a more generous trade in program - I bought a high-end expensive model in 2019 and now I feel like it has been made obsolete prematurely.

Yeah I know, I can just keep using it, but it is now “the old fashioned way.”
 

Zazoh

macrumors 68000
Jan 4, 2009
1,516
1,121
San Antonio, Texas
I know this is wishful thinking, but what I’d really like right now is a more generous trade in program - I bought a high-end expensive model in 2019 and now I feel like it has been made obsolete prematurely.

Yeah I know, I can just keep using it, but it is now “the old fashioned way.”
Planned obsolescence is rough. You do have a very capable machine many would love to have.
 
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alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
2,193
524
2015 is nothing. Still using an early 2011 MBP so I went ahead and ordered the MBA M1.
still have 2011 macbook running 16gb ram 128 ssd. my imac 2017 still survive normal work but m1 base core unknown.
 

mfm77

macrumors regular
Mar 19, 2012
123
84
NJ
Anyone still hanging on in there with a 2015 rMBP? It's kinda on its last legs but not sure if I should wait a year for the Apple chips to improve and iron out and teething issues ?
Yup, I am. I'm tempted to upgrade since mine is slowing down, but I'm going to see if Big Sur mitigates some of the issues. If not, I'll likely move up to the new MBP, though the Air may be a better choice for my needs.

I do wish they would've upgraded the camera, but I have a nice Logitech camera I can use.
 
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Erehy Dobon

Suspended
Feb 16, 2018
2,161
2,017
No service
I briefly considered placing on order for the M1 Mac mini but decided against it despite the fact that Apple has extended the return date to early January.

I accept that the M-series silicon is in its infancy and will take several years to mature. That's not the main issue...

The biggest deterrent is the software. Based on what I've seen the past few years, Apple software QA is lamentably piss poor at release.

It took me 10 months before I upgraded from iOS 12 to iOS 13 on my two qualifying iDevices. For my Mac mini 2018, I am still on Mojave despite having tried every single Crapalina version on a "disposable" external drive.

I expect Big Sur to ship with a ton of problems; I do not expect to upgrade my Mac mini to Big Sur until Q2 2021.

There's also the question of third-party software. An operating system is a big complicated piece of software that lets other big complicated pieces of software co-exist peacefully on the same system.

I am not convinced that all of the programs I need to run on a regular basis will run better next week on an M1-powered Mac. Some actually won't and I need to be able to boot Mojave.
 

LonestarOne

macrumors 65816
Sep 13, 2019
1,074
1,426
McKinney, TX
I was originally looking for an iMac, but I realized I can plug the MacBook into my existing 4K monitor when I’m at my desk and still use it as laptop away from the desk. That means I can upgrade the computer and monitor independently in the future. I’ll be able to run desktop Photoshop away from my desk. I can use my iPad as a graphics tablet with Sidecar, and I will keep my iMac to run Windows 10 and any Macintel programs that do not perform well under Rosetta. Or if I just need an extra CPU for rendering.
 
Anyone still hanging on in there with a 2015 rMBP? It's kinda on its last legs but not sure if I should wait a year for the Apple chips to improve and iron out and teething issues ?
I've got a 2014 rMBP. It runs macOS Big Sur smoothly without a glitch (probably even better than Catalina).

But I'll switch to Apple Silicon as soon as I can find the money to pay for it lol — the MBP model I want costs almost as much as my second-hand Smart ForTwo car! ??

I'm ok with Rosetta 2 for a while; I 'survived' the Rosetta 'nightmare' back in the PPC days — it was bad, but not that terrible. At least it worked!

Also, I used to have Bootcamp for a while, and later Parallels, in order to run Windows, but these days I have no use for it (to be perfectly honest, Microsoft has been great at supporting the Mac lately), so having a Mac with an Intel chip is not exactly an 'advantage'. I'm a RISC girl and welcome the ARM era. I just hope that Apple's implementation of ARM v8 conforms strictly to the specs — they ought to, but with Apple, one never knows. This is mostly to make sure that the vast amount of ARM-compatible software out there for, say, Linux, will also work under macOS — with a gentle push from our friends at Homebrew.

So, personally, while I'm not exactly rushing out to stand in a queue to get the 'latest and greatest' Apple Silicon-based MBP, I'm certainly going to buy one as soon as I can get the money for it ?
 

Kung gu

Suspended
Oct 20, 2018
1,379
2,434
I expect Big Sur to ship with a ton of problems; I do not expect to upgrade my Mac mini to Big Sur until Q2 2021.
Big Sur betas for me at least seem better than catalina, 10.15 had mouse issues and felt sluggish on my MBP but Big Sur feels way smoother and stable. YMMV.
 

Erehy Dobon

Suspended
Feb 16, 2018
2,161
2,017
No service
Thank you for your anecdotal notes, I will file them next to all of the anecdotal comments I've read from Big Sur beta users here (and elsewhere).

As far as I can tell, Big Sur is much less of a train wreck than Crapalina but to be honest, Apple has squandered a large part of my trust. That's why I'm still on Mojave.

At least with my Mac mini 2018, I still have a choice. With the M1-powered Mac mini, we are forced to eat Cupertino Big Sur dog chow, whether it is fully baked or not.

Right now, I would say that I am not THAT hungry. I am happy to wait for a few months to move to Big Sur. I will always have a Mojave boot drive for my Mac mini 2018 much as I kept a Snow Leopard boot drive for the Mac mini 2010 that it replaced.
 
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Christopher Kim

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2016
768
740
I’ve been using my 2016 13” MBP a lot over last 7 months as pandemic / work from home life, but don’t really need much horsepower to do my job. I just enjoy cool tech, but within reason.

I don’t have to upgrade anytime soon, especially when I just replaced the butterfly kb with service program and got a new battery. I’ll almost certainly wait until the full ASi laptop line up is revealed (high end 13”/14” MBP and 16“ MBP) and choose the one that makes most sense for me then.
 

kvyoung

macrumors member
Aug 27, 2015
62
37
Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
Return of the MacBook 12 form factor with M1, reduce the bezels and squeeze in 12.5 or 13” screen, add LTE, 1 TB storage option. The MB12 weighed 2.03 lbs where the Air weights 2.8 and the Pro 3.0. I already have an i9 MBP 16” and wanted a replacement for my 2015 MB 12. IMHO I expected more from Apple than just modified internals. If the air is now fanless why didn’t they reduce the weight? Why no LTE option? Even Chromebooks offer a USB-C on both sides for ease of charging but Apple crams them together on one side on the two port models. Why no Face unlock? Don’t get me wrong, the new internals are great I just expected more.
 

SHKLMRE

macrumors 6502a
Nov 30, 2013
557
382
Pennsylvania
I have a 2018 15" MBP, so I will be using this Mac for some years until I decide to pass it down. Im a photographer and videographer, but thankfully I use exclusively Apple and Adobe apps, so I feel confident in full ARM support for them. Of course the better performance gains would make me upgrade, but im mostly interested in the better battery life. I travel with my computer daily, so any extra battery life I can get while editing on the go, I will be glad. After seeing the gains from today's announcement I am very excited about arm on a 16" MBP.
 

The Mercurian

macrumors 68020
Mar 17, 2012
2,159
2,442
I know this is wishful thinking, but what I’d really like right now is a more generous trade in program - I bought a high-end expensive model in 2019 and now I feel like it has been made obsolete prematurely.

Yeah I know, I can just keep using it, but it is now “the old fashioned way.”
I dont' think your 2019 model is obsolete, not at all. It remains to be seen how this gamble pans out for Apple. Maybe developers won't all rush to support native. Maybe industry buyers won'y but it because they want machines that can run Win10 natively. Maybe it will turn out to have reliability problems. We just don't know yet. But as an owner of a high-end 2019 model myself I feel I am good for next few years - I would never buy the first or maybe not even second iteration of a new architecture anyhow.
 

Eithanius

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2005
1,556
419
This MBA kind of checks off most of my needs.

No, we don't have native apps yet, but if Rosetta can run them at 80%, I'm fine knowing we'll get there eventually.
I use Apple's native apps, so I'm good.

The thing I hated most about Mac laptops was the noise/fan. This prompted me to go the iPad Air 4 route. But once you add a magic keyboard, you're pretty much the same as the MBA.

The MBA has a better workflow/file system as well as more i/o and a headphone jack.
It also has 8gb RAM and 256gb HD vs the iPad Air's 4gb RAM/64gb
I'm having the same dilemma... Currently my 2010 MBP 15" is dying and looking for a replacement. Was thinking of the Air 4 route to replace both MBP and iPad 6, but the new MBA does check off everything for me, except for one thing - LTE... I have a separate data plan, but couldn't find a USB-C LTE modem (if it exist at all). And no I don't want to tether it to my phone.
 

satchmo

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2008
5,219
6,092
Canada
I'm having the same dilemma... Currently my 2010 MBP 15" is dying and looking for a replacement. Was thinking of the Air 4 route to replace both MBP and iPad 6, but the new MBA does check off everything for me, except for one thing - LTE... I have a separate data plan, but couldn't find a USB-C LTE modem (if it exist at all). And no I don't want to tether it to my phone.
Unfortunately I think you're out of luck. Rumours of LTE for Mac laptops have been around for ages.

You'd think with Apple buying Intel's modem business they'd implement them into their laptops. But another way for them to get you to buy both a MacBooks and an iPad.
 

Shivetya

macrumors 68000
Jan 16, 2008
1,669
306
What would compel an upgrade?

That I can use all the software on my current Mac now, after Catalina clobbered most of my game library I am loathe to give up the rest. I can get all of it back by going Windows and I will not own a separate machine just for games
 

DNichter

macrumors G3
Apr 27, 2015
9,385
11,184
Philadelphia, PA
I have been iPad Pro only for the last few years, but I would be interested in an Apple silicon Mac if the performance/battery life was really that impressive and they did a redesign of the 12 inch MacBook with a more current/futuristic design (smaller bezels, thinner footprint, etc.). I would also like to play around with Big Sur a bit to make sure it has resolved many of the performance/quality issues I saw on my fiancé's computer the last year.
 
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