What would the M3 need to make you upgrade from an M1?

[bobcomer]

Not even the wireless charger in the MacBook's palm rest???

I wouldn't want a wireless charger anywhere near my computers and myself unless it was very well shielded, and that would kind of defeat the purpose.

But cellular internet when there is no WiFi around, come on!

I would want that, but any decent cell phone can provide a wifi connection to your laptop. Some laptops have it built in on the Windows side, but it's cheaper to use your cell phone plan-wise.

 

[Gudi]

I would want that, but any decent cell phone can provide a wifi connection to your laptop. Some laptops have it built in on the Windows side, but it's cheaper to use your cell phone plan-wise.

And Apple isn't able to sell you a data plan? I thought they wanted to grow as a service company!

 

[bobcomer]

And Apple isn't able to sell you a data plan? I thought they wanted to grow as a service company!

Apple's not a cell phone provider, best they could do is a pass thru sale. Anyway I already have a cell provider, so apple probably can't sell me a plan.

 

[Gudi]

Apple's not a cell phone provider, best they could do is a pass thru sale. Anyway I already have a cell provider, so apple probably can't sell me a plan.

Apple isn't a bank and yet a payment provider. Just get me connected everywhere.

 

[AltecX]

What about a USB-C dock which has multiple USB-A ports be better than a single USB-A port?

Obviously our needs are different and I can only speak to my preferences.

Cuz Im not always sitting at a desk and I'm not going to walk around carrying a dock.

 

[bobcomer]

Apple isn't a bank and yet a payment provider. Just get me connected everywhere.

That's actually a sell through product too (Apple Card). Anyway, connected everywhere would be pretty hard to do, they would have to contract with all cell phone providers and they'd have to make their phones able to connect to all networks, but I certainly wouldn't mind if I could connect from everywhere.

Who knows, maybe that's why they're doing their own cell modem chip...

 

[AltecX]

Interesting. I find multitasking on Windows to be absolutely atrocious. Inefficient use of screen space, awkward app switching… and regarding “window management”… never really understood what toy gimmicks like windows tiling or snapping have to do with productivity.

With macOS, I can locate whatever I need with a quick trackpad gesture most of the time. With Windows it’s like pulling teeth.



Adaptive key glyphs would be a huge feature.

Try having an ultrawide and working on a project, finding out how easy it is in Windows to have 4 viewable all at once what you are working in and referencing with out having to tab/swipe around, then i have 3-4 more easily organized on a 2nd desktop.

Limiting windows to Fulls screen or 2 Side by side is the most stupid useless implementation of window management. Feels like they haven't evolved since 2010. I literally added NOTHING to the OS, and was a waste of Dev time IMO.

The fact you see it as a gimmick makes we wonder WTF you actually do on your machine. I don't need ACTUAL gimmiks like gestures when I can have all my info in front of me. I literally just disable them as they are SUCH gimmiks its crazy. Have fun flipping your fingers around to see things while I already have it in front me and am swapping while desktop with a keypress never having to take my fingers from my keyboard.

I'm sure you like how pretty the animations look though.

 

[dmccloud]

Interesting. I find multitasking on Windows to be absolutely atrocious. Inefficient use of screen space, awkward app switching… and regarding “window management”… never really understood what toy gimmicks like windows tiling or snapping have to do with productivity.

With macOS, I can locate whatever I need with a quick trackpad gesture most of the time. With Windows it’s like pulling teeth.



Adaptive key glyphs would be a huge feature.

Windows 11 has also apparently broken the keyboard commands I used to move windows between monitors or snap to one side of the current screen. Yet another case of M$ dumbing down things and giving "advanced" users the finger.

 

[pdoherty]

yah I know right, the single core performance is so bad, you can't get anything done. Oh wait, that is not true

Single and multi core could use some help.

 

[AltecX]

Windows 11 has also apparently broken the keyboard commands I used to move windows between monitors or snap to one side of the current screen. Yet another case of M$ dumbing down things and giving "advanced" users the finger.

All the Win+Arrow keys still work for me to snap, as does the Win+Ctrl+arrow to move between Desktops.

 

[AltecX]

Single and multi core could use some help.

Sure but that MacBooks also using under 1/2 the power to do it. Thats also a consideration. Not saying they can't improve in performance, just that if I'm doing that work on battery, I'll have more battery time to fix/re-render than the x86 machines does even if it does take more time to render.

 

[StellarVixen]

The firing of Tim Cook and a re-commitment to focusing on making something for real computers instead of phones.

I know Tim Cook is cool to hate on these days, but ARM is desktop ready. Rosetta 2 also seem to perform well for x86 programs and applications that cannot be ported over to ASi.


The ONLY thing I think it would benefit from is allowing 3rd party GPUs, but that would require swallowing some pride and admitting that even though ASi GPU is good, there exist “better” GPUs out there.

 

[Don Jose Luis Grijander]

AV1 hardware code/decode

 

[AltecX]

You don't find any of this useful? Not even the wireless charger in the MacBook's palm rest???

But cellular internet when there is no WiFi around, come on!

If I'm using my machine why would I put my phone on it when my hands are there? If I'm not using my machine its usually in my bag. Getting 2-3min of charge 2-3 times a day isn't going to do much for my battery. I also have a phone that allows data sharing, so paying a 2nd bill wouldn't really make much sense to me as nearly any place I go has WiFi as my job is usually to be the one setting up the internet at a location.

I get how it COULD he handy for some people, but personally I rarely find myself in need of Internet and there not be a WiFi or just having to hit the HotSpot button on my phone. Just seems like a waste of $30-50 a month for my personal situation.

 

[Rafterman]

I know Tim Cook is cool to hate on these days, but ARM is desktop ready. Rosetta 2 also seem to perform well for x86 programs and applications that cannot be ported over to ASi.


The ONLY thing I think it would benefit from is allowing 3rd party GPUs, but that would require swallowing some pride and admitting that even though ASi GPU is good, there exist “better” GPUs out there.

The Macbook Pro's 38 core GPU runs at about 13 tflops. The popular 3050 ti runs at 7 tflops. The X-Box series X runs at 12.5 tflops and the PS5 at 10.5. My Windows laptop has a Nvidia GE Force 4050, running at 13 tfops. A 4070 run at 23 tflops. A 4090 runs at 83 tflops.

While teraflops isn't an end all be all of performance measuring, it's one way to compare GPUs. So, the Mac isn't bad, it's midrange for a laptop.

 

[CasualFanboy]

I know Tim Cook is cool to hate on these days, but ARM is desktop ready. Rosetta 2 also seem to perform well for x86 programs and applications that cannot be ported over to ASi.


The ONLY thing I think it would benefit from is allowing 3rd party GPUs, but that would require swallowing some pride and admitting that even though ASi GPU is good, there exist “better” GPUs out there.

The architecture is not the problem, it's actually good. The problem is it's getting harder to tell the difference from the phone interface.

 

[Dulcimer]

I really just care about power efficiency at this point; give me even better battery life. So that would require newer video HW decoders in the M3 (e.g., AV1) and the new 3nm node. Also, stop cheating out on WiFi 6E for the Air lineup!

 

[darngooddesign]

Cuz Im not always sitting at a desk and I'm not going to walk around carrying a dock.

Fair point.

 

[Ploki]

My Windows laptop (Thunderbolt 4) has a pair of WD_Black 4TB NVMEs in there (rated at 7300). I was able to transfer 6TB of data, via an 8TB Sabrent NVME (rated at about 5000) in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, in about 50 minutes. Steady too, no drops.

Well yes, but thunderbolt port is 32gbps data at most.
If you want overcome that, to sacrifice two ports for this + two enclosures + a software raid, many more points of failure and added complexity.
Thunderbolt 5 port means a Samsung 980 or 990 (or any other performance PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive) in a single enclosure can reach what Macs generally reach internally.
If apple will move so slow with Thunderbolt, consumer PCIe 5.0 drives will reach 13000mb/s by the time Thunderbolt reaches 6000mb/s.

Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 10000 already runs up to 9500mb/s, although it needs a hefty hefty heat sink.

 

[spnc]

Personaly I can't think of anything that an M3 MBP could offer that would make me feel its viable to upgrade from my M1. An OLED screen would tempt me, but I'd probably still wait for an M4 or M5.

That's because you lack imagination:

- 16TB SSD (my 8TB is really too little, I need to get rid of my extra 4TB+ external SSD drive as mentioned before)
- FaceID!!! (so annoying not to have it on MBPs, it wastes a lot of time having to type)
- remove the notch!!! (so annoying)
- 24h battery (better but still room for improvement)
- Thunderbolt 5 (that should be the case)
- Wi-Fi 7/802.11be (40 Gbps) (should be the case too, rolling out end of 2023)

 

[darngooddesign]

That's because you lack imagination:

- 16TB SSD
- FaceID!!!
- remove the notch!!!
- 24h battery
- Thunderbolt 5
- Wi-Fi 7/802.11be (40 Gbps)

Face ID components are twice as thick as the MBP’s lid and the notch would still be there because of the additional sensors.

 

[Rafterman]

That's because you lack imagination:

- 16TB SSD
- FaceID!!!
- remove the notch!!!
- 24h battery
- Thunderbolt 5
- Wi-Fi 7/802.11be (40 Gbps)

Except for maybe FaceID, none of those are coming with the next Macbooks. 16TB chips that would fit in a Macbook don't even exist yet. The notch exists because of a future FaceID camera.

 

[spnc]

Except for maybe FaceID, none of those are coming with the next Macbooks. 16TB chips that would fit in a Macbook don't even exist yet. The notch exists because of a future FaceID camera.

If they do replace the notch with FaceID, I'll be fine with it.

As to the rest you have no clue. I'm not talking about the Air, I'm talking about the MBP M3 2024. Their design doesn't even exist so you don't know about that lol

Wi-Fi 7 and T5 are definitely coming by end of 2023 in the industry, so 2024 is realistic.

Either way I'm not in a hurry, I'll wait until they release the right product, even if that's the M4 or M5. No need to upgrade before it ticks all those much-needed and long-awaited boxes.

 

[darngooddesign]

If they do replace the notch with FaceID, I'll be fine with it.

The current notch already contains a lot of things so FaceID wont replace the Notch, the Notch will contain Face ID. The Notch might even grow a little wider since Face ID has more sensors.

I'm talking about the MBP M3 2024. Their design doesn't even exist so you don't know about that lol

Do you think Apple is willing to double the 14/16” MBP’s lid thickness for FaceID? Contrary to the ChonkBooks, they do still like slim technology.

 

[dmccloud]

That's because you lack imagination:

- 16TB SSD (my 8TB is really too little, I need to get rid of my extra 4TB+ external SSD drive as mentioned before)
- FaceID!!! (so annoying not to have it on MBPs, it wastes a lot of time having to type)
- remove the notch!!! (so annoying)
- 24h battery (better but still room for improvement)
- Thunderbolt 5 (that should be the case)
- Wi-Fi 7/802.11be (40 Gbps) (should be the case too, rolling out end of 2023)

- SSDs in that capacity are still incredibly expensive, regardless of form factor. External SSDs are incredibly convenient, lightweight and take up very little space in my bag. I have a 2TB Samsung 970 Pro in an M.2 external enclosure and it flies when transferring data to and from my MBP.
- To accommodate FaceID, the lid of the Mac would have to be thicker and the notch possibly enlarged to accommodate the additional sensors. That would increase the overall bulk and weight of the machines.
- a 24 hr battery would require significant improvements in battery technology without increasing the total watt-hour capacity. Keep in mind that there are FAA-imposed limits for laptop battery capacities, so most existing battery designs that could provide 24 hour battery life would far exceed those limits and limit the ability to take your laptop with you when traveling (whether for business or pleasure).
- WiFi 6E would be the better option at this time for a few reasons. Wider availability, increased performance even connected to WiFi 6 routers, lower cost due to being an established protocol instead of a new one, etc. With a WiFi 7 part, you'd be paying a premium for technology with limited usefulness at present.