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Which one?
- Thread starter James Godfrey
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Essentially it’s for University, but also occasional music/video editing etc… also would want it to last at least 5-6 years
I prefer a 16". If I would buy one it would be a discounted M2 Pro 16GB/512 GB SSD. M3 can't convince me yet at this moment due to the lesser number of cores and the lesser memory bandwith.
The 14 inch M2 Pro looks good out of those options:
1. Only £55 more than the M3 14 inch, but should be a decent amount faster and has double the RAM, good for longevity if you want to keep it 5-6 years
2. The 15 inch air is tempting for the price but imo the extra £300 you‘d spend on the M2 pro MBP gets you a lot (double the ram, double the CPU/GPU power, might nicer display, more ports)
3. Wouldn’t touch the M3 pro option as its a lot more money than the M2 Pro but theres hardly any gain in performance, maybe a small amount faster GPU but nothing you’d notice.
1. Only £55 more than the M3 14 inch, but should be a decent amount faster and has double the RAM, good for longevity if you want to keep it 5-6 years
2. The 15 inch air is tempting for the price but imo the extra £300 you‘d spend on the M2 pro MBP gets you a lot (double the ram, double the CPU/GPU power, might nicer display, more ports)
3. Wouldn’t touch the M3 pro option as its a lot more money than the M2 Pro but theres hardly any gain in performance, maybe a small amount faster GPU but nothing you’d notice.
Well, that looks like a good price on the 14" M2 Pro if genuine - but since Apple have now stopped selling it the timer to obsolescence has started ticking. Still, it should be 5 years before that becomes a problem.
I wouldn't bother with the M3 14" MBP unless it really hits your sweet spot for some reason - like the previous 13" MBP its a MacBook Air dressed up in a MacBook Pro's clothes.
I haven't used one, but I like the sound of the 15" Air for general use and it should be perfectly good for occasional music and video. Maybe spring the extra Apple Tax for 16GB RAM for that, though.
(>£1000 systems with only 8GB RAM are a joke in 2023, but that's Apple for you - unless you're looking for the cheapest entry-level model for "personal productivity" only, just pretend they don't exist).
You can get a refurbished M2 Pro for £1,689, although they are out of stock at the moment.
www.refurb.me
Cashback of £24 is also available if you go through TopCashback.
The 15-inch Air with 16GB of RAM is also available for £1,529. Cashback would be around £22.
www.refurb.me
I'm not sure what the pricing of the above models is on the Apple Education Store, but it would be worth checking.
MacBook Pro 14" M2 Pro Specs and Monitoring - MPHE3-048
Get alerted for MacBook Pro 14" M2 Pro 512GB SSD, Apple M2 Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB memory • Space Gray, 2023 release.
Cashback of £24 is also available if you go through TopCashback.
The 15-inch Air with 16GB of RAM is also available for £1,529. Cashback would be around £22.
MacBook Air 15.3" M2 Specs and Monitoring - MQKW3-14
Get alerted for MacBook Air 15.3" M2 512GB SSD, Apple M2 with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB memory • Midnight, with Touch Id • 2023 release.
I'm not sure what the pricing of the above models is on the Apple Education Store, but it would be worth checking.
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Id forget about the two 8gb ram models if your going to keep it for 5-6 years .
Also the m3 chips will be in date more than the m2, especially in 5 years
Also the m3 chips will be in date more than the m2, especially in 5 years
I would get the M2 Pro or base M3 models. The M3 Pro is barely better than M2 Pro (and it's, in some ways, slightly worse). And the base M3 has a slightly faster single-core speed than the M2 Pro and a slightly lower multi-core speed, so overall pretty much the same.
I think the M2 Pro is the slightly better option though, because for £55 more you get dual monitor support, an extra thunderbolt port, and thunderbolt 4 instead of 3. Whichever you prefer though.
I think the M2 Pro is the slightly better option though, because for £55 more you get dual monitor support, an extra thunderbolt port, and thunderbolt 4 instead of 3. Whichever you prefer though.
I very much doubt that the M3 Pro will be worse than the M2 Pro.
It has slower memory bandwidth (aka: RAM is slower) and has less performance cores and less cores overall. I don't think it'll be worse per se, but at least for certain things it will not be any better.