13" M1 MBP vs 16" Intel MBP

[danb1979]

I'm selling my 2019 iMac 27" as unfortunately its exacerbating my ongoing neck issues (long story, but damaged C5/C6 and an impinged Ulna nerve through playing rugby for 16 years powerlifting and lifting bloody heavy stones) 🤨😂

So basically I'm too close to it, have no options of moving it further back etc, so it's going!

Anyways; having owned a few MBPs in the past (15.4" and a 13") they're superb devices...

But would I be mad buying a 16" Intel MBP now; or should I go for the 13" M1 MBP?

Both can either be used, but still in full warranty, or possibly happy to buy new up to a certain budget (eBay resellers etc)

It's to work from (Chrome, Safari, iTunes, MS Office suite, Adobe Acrobat etc); so no power hungry apps etc...

Cheers

 

[jjahshik32]

I just traded in my 16" MBP for the 13" MBP M1 (16GB/256GB) model and couldn't be happier. I've only had the 16" for 6 months but I purchased it from Micro Center as a refurbished model for $1,499 in October 2020 and got a trade in value from Apple for $1250 so didn't lose too much. I was able to get my 13" MBP M1 16GB refurb from apple for $1211 after taxes due to some discounts for me waiting 2 weeks (had some issues).

I do miss having a bigger screen and much louder speakers but after getting used to it, I do not have any regrets. The M1 MBP battery life is amazing and the sound is still very good. As for the screen, it is even more vibrant and the magic keyboard is just as good as the 16". Not to mention the portability makes it a joy to carry around and no more loud fans and heat!

I usually upgrade every 3-4 years so my next laptop could be the 14" MBP M3X.

 

[danb1979]

Thanks for that insight.

I'm not bothered re the transport side of things as it'll be sat on my desk 95% of the time

It's whether to take advantage of the price drop and go for the larger screen; or go for the very latest M1 version and put up with the smaller screen

 

[4sallypat]

I got the base 16" MBP and had it on my desk for 6 months with cooling fan underneath to keep the throttling and fan noise down. Then recently I finally replaced it with an M1 Mini which runs circles around almost any Intel Mac.

M1 runs ice cold, super snappy, and can handle 20+ tabs each on Safari, Chrome, Firefox + video streaming all without the fan kicking in. Currently using it in dual monitor configuration (27" Thunderbolt + 32" 4K).

Gave my 16" MBP to my wife who uses it alot more but hates the thigh burning hot surfaces and low battery life.

@danb1979 I'd either wait for the M1 16" or if it's a desktop unit, look at the M1 iMac 24".

I just ordered the iMac to complement my 2nd Apple 24" Cinema display.

 

[danb1979]

I got the base 16" MBP and had it on my desk for 6 months with cooling fan underneath to keep the throttling and fan noise down. Then recently I finally replaced it with an M1 Mini which runs circles around almost any Intel Mac.

M1 runs ice cold, super snappy, and can handle 20+ tabs each on Safari, Chrome, Firefox + video streaming all without the fan kicking in. Currently using it in dual monitor configuration (27" Thunderbolt + 32" 4K).

Gave my 16" MBP to my wife who uses it alot more but hates the thigh burning hot surfaces and low battery life.

@danb1979 I'd either wait for the M1 16" or if it's a desktop unit, look at the M1 iMac 24".

I just ordered the iMac to complement my 2nd Apple 24" Cinema display.

Thanks

Waiting isn't an option as I need to replace my iMac as soon as it goes

Sounds like the 13" M1 sounds like the right way to go...

Could always add a monitor to go with it at a later date etc

 

[jjahshik32]

Thanks

Waiting isn't an option as I need to replace my iMac as soon as it goes

Sounds like the 13" M1 sounds like the right way to go...

Could always add a monitor to go with it at a later date etc

I think going with the 13" MBP M1 is the way to go especially in the next year it will fully be supported and within 2 intel will be completely ditched going forward. You can still use a lot of applications with intel just fine but anything new going forward will be developed for the M1 and newer.

Besides running just as fast as the 16" and much cooler/quieter, that is the reason why I decided to trade in to swap it out literally cost me nothing. I can chug along with my M1 which will get faster and more efficient in the next 3-4 years instead of being left behind on intel CPU.

The ONLY reason I would say is if the bigger monitor is important to you for the 16" as well as running 2-3 external monitors. You could run additional monitors but you will need to buy a display link adapter which I intend to do. That is the only reason I could see why someone would choose the 16" over the M1. Probably more than half the time I use my laptop docked and it is very nice to have a whisper quiet machine and cold to the touch machine. It's so weird and cool at the same time, I feel like I don't have a computer on in my office as it gets a little warm at times with the intel machines of the past.

 

[AustinIllini]

Swapped the 16" MBP to the 13" M1 MBP. I 100% do not regret it. The M1 is a miracle chip at this point.

 

[Cdumitru78]

I initially bought the 16 inch MB Pro, I primarily use it in clamshell mode at my desk. Got sick of hearing that fan noise kicking in daily and battery life was average, at least in my opinion. I bought an M1 MB Pro, base model and love it. I don't think I've heard the fans and as others have said, they are so quiet and cool. Performance, in my opinion is better, and battery life, no comparison. I have no regrets, I would pick the M1 over the 16 inch MB Pro any day.

 

[danb1979]

Thanks folks

That was easy enough

I won't be running multiple monitors; just one external if/when I need it (so will probably get a 24" monitor to have on standby etc)

The tasks I do on my Mac will not be power consuming at all; so I'm not worried about battery life as it'll be plugged in most of the time and unplugged to give the battery a good working through etc

 

[danb1979]

To bring this back to the top...

I've been looking at the 13" M1 MBPs and Apple Refurb here in the UK offer the 16GB/512GB version for £1400, which I'm happy to spend

However for what I use the Mac for (work - so Safari (LinkedIn), MS Office and Adobe Acrobat) and then personal (Chrome, iTunes etc); is 16GB RAM overkill; or does it make sense to get as much as I can for 'future developments' etc?

256GB SSD would be more than enough as all my business docs are on external HDD (and in the iCloud) and iTunes is on an external HDD also... But 512GB seems to be all that's offered currently....

So would you save close to £300 and go for 8GB RAM, or stick with 16GB RAM?

Cheers

 

[Apple_Robert]

To bring this back to the top...

I've been looking at the 13" M1 MBPs and Apple Refurb here in the UK offer the 16GB/512GB version for £1400, which I'm happy to spend

However for what I use the Mac for (work - so Safari (LinkedIn), MS Office and Adobe Acrobat) and then personal (Chrome, iTunes etc); is 16GB RAM overkill; or does it make sense to get as much as I can for 'future developments' etc?

256GB SSD would be more than enough as all my business docs are on external HDD (and in the iCloud) and iTunes is on an external HDD also... But 512GB seems to be all that's offered currently....

So would you save close to £300 and go for 8GB RAM, or stick with 16GB RAM?

Cheers

For your needs, 8GB of RAM is more than enough. If you are worried about app performance 3 - 5 years down the road, provided you still have and use said Mac, consider the 16GB of RAM model.

If I were in your position, I would save the $300 and get the 8GB of RAM. I have been very pleased with my M1 MBA 8 / 256.

 

[jerryk]

To bring this back to the top...

I've been looking at the 13" M1 MBPs and Apple Refurb here in the UK offer the 16GB/512GB version for £1400, which I'm happy to spend

However for what I use the Mac for (work - so Safari (LinkedIn), MS Office and Adobe Acrobat) and then personal (Chrome, iTunes etc); is 16GB RAM overkill; or does it make sense to get as much as I can for 'future developments' etc?

256GB SSD would be more than enough as all my business docs are on external HDD (and in the iCloud) and iTunes is on an external HDD also... But 512GB seems to be all that's offered currently....

So would you save close to £300 and go for 8GB RAM, or stick with 16GB RAM?

Cheers

I would go with 256GB. And you might want to consider moving to the Edge browser when coming over to the M1. It is based on Chromium and seems to have fewer issues with memory than Safari and perhaps less tracking than Chrome.

 

[4sallypat]

For your needs, 8GB of RAM is more than enough. If you are worried about app performance 3 - 5 years down the road, provided you still have and use said Mac, consider the 16GB of RAM model.

If I were in your position, I would save the $300 and get the 8GB of RAM. I have been very pleased with my M1 MBA 8 / 256.

Agree - if the M1 is your stopgap replacement in order to eventually get a 16", then the 8GB is more than enough for what you are asking it do.

I have been super pleased with my M1 Mini base (8GB / 256GB) compared to the 16" Intel MBP it replaced that has been just a disaster.

Thinking you will be super pleased with 8GB unless as @Apple_Robert says for future use / future UM hungry apps....

 

[danb1979]

For your needs, 8GB of RAM is more than enough. If you are worried about app performance 3 - 5 years down the road, provided you still have and use said Mac, consider the 16GB of RAM model.

If I were in your position, I would save the $300 and get the 8GB of RAM. I have been very pleased with my M1 MBA 8 / 256.

Agree - if the M1 is your stopgap replacement in order to eventually get a 16", then the 8GB is more than enough for what you are asking it do.

I have been super pleased with my M1 Mini base (8GB / 256GB) compared to the 16" Intel MBP it replaced that has been just a disaster.

Thinking you will be super pleased with 8GB unless as @Apple_Robert says for future use / future UM hungry apps....

Super; thanks for that.

I won't be using any tasking apps that's for sure

The savings will go towards a new Space Grey Apple Magic numeric keyboard and trackpad 2 then

 

[danb1979]

I would go with 256GB. And you might want to consider moving to the Edge browser when coming over to the M1. It is based on Chromium and seems to have fewer issues with memory than Safari and perhaps less tracking than Chrome.

Cheers for that

I only really use Safari for LinkedIn (my main business tool); it doesn't work as well on Chrome

I haven't heard nor seen of the Edge browser; so I'll look into that, thanks 👍🏼

 

[jjahshik32]

For my usage I got the 16GB 13" MBP with 256GB SSD. I don't really need much SSD hard drive space as mostly use Remote Desktop for work, stream movies, and I don't do any video editing. I do however use a ton of web browser tabs, Citrix, zoom, office, TEAMS and having more RAM helps page a lot less. I've mostly seen it page no higher than 1.3-1.5GB on some of the heavily usage days but some days stay below 300mb to under 1GB. I bought a wavlink displaylink USB 3.0 adapter to drive a 2nd monitor that works flawlessly/effortlessly and it helps to have more dedicated RAM to the graphics.

I've also installed Parallels for Windows ARM and can run steam very nicely and I am able to allocate 4-8GB of RAM. It's just an experiment for now but depending on how much gaming I do, I may delete Parallels after the 14 day trial.

 

[Freeangel1]

I got a M1 Mac mini 512GB 8GB ram REFURB by APPLE for $759.
LOVE IT! thinking of selling my 16" MacBook Pro i9 Intel AND my 2019 i9 iMac 5k

I will keep and hold onto 2 12 core 2013 Mac Pro's for Windows and Intel Mac Stuff.

 

[4sallypat]

I got a M1 Mac mini 512GB 8GB ram REFURB by APPLE for $759.
LOVE IT! thinking of selling my 16" MacBook Pro i9 Intel AND my 2019 i9 iMac 5k

I will keep and hold onto 2 12 core 2013 Mac Pro's for Windows and Intel Mac Stuff.

Yup, don't blame you.

My 16" MBP has been replaced with the M1 Mini base and runs so much cooler without the fan ever spinning up, apps run snappy, and no more spinning beach balls. Plus I no longer have to use a fan cooled laptop cooling pad underneath the MBP or my Intel Mac Mini that ran hot all these years...

I sold off all my Intel Mac Minis and keeping the 16" MBP because the wife likes the screen real estate. But she hates the low battery life and hot chassis & blowing fans.

 

[roxygal9]

I currently have a 16 inch MBP, and I love this thing. Its a little heavy, but enjoy the screen real estate when multitasking. It does run hot sometimes when there's a bunch of tabs open, and the fans kick in when I connect it to my 2k monitor, but otherwise its been great for my usage the last 8 months or so. The battery life has easily gotten me through the day, with the screen at about 3/4 bright. Im mostly streaming and doing office work, so nothing heavy but its nice that it easily gets me through the work day (unless I use Chrome or Teams).

Having said that, I did just order a M1 13 MBP/512GB. I would love some more battery life and a bit more portability everyday. Im not sure if I will keep the 16 after I receive the 13. I likely will keep both to keep an intel machine in the mix.

 

[danb1979]

Cheers

To update this (which i thought I had done), as you can see in my sig below, I settled on the M1 MBA in the end and it's perfect for my needs 👍🏼

 

[James Godfrey]

Cheers

To update this (which i thought I had done), as you can see in my sig below, I settled on the M1 MBA in the end and it's perfect for.ky needs 👍🏼

What made you got for the M1 MBA over the M1 MBP just out of curiosity?

 

[PeterJP]

256GB SSD would be more than enough as all my business docs are on external HDD (and in the iCloud) and iTunes is on an external HDD also... But 512GB seems to be all that's offered currently....

I know you ordered in the meantime, but I positively hate external disks. So you get a nice sleek laptop only to lug around extra boxes with it?

My current mac is a 16" 64/2TB. While I do regret spending more on the 64GB upgrade, I never regretted the 2TB. All of my files are in OneDrives (one personal, one for work) and I can keep then on my disk at all times. They contain plenty of photography work and music, both my disc collection as well as my own work. It's a very nice feeling not to have to fight against storage limitations, and that for just €460 over the 1TB version.

 

[danb1979]

I know you ordered in the meantime, but I positively hate external disks. So you get a nice sleek laptop only to lug around extra boxes with it?

My current mac is a 16" 64/2TB. While I do regret spending more on the 64GB upgrade, I never regretted the 2TB. All of my files are in OneDrives (one personal, one for work) and I can keep then on my disk at all times. They contain plenty of photography work and music, both my disc collection as well as my own work. It's a very nice feeling not to have to fight against storage limitations, and that for just €460 over the 1TB version.

I don't lug it anywhere; it's my desktop Plus oneHDD is the TimeMachine and the other is iTunes (which is 3TB as I type this); so neither could be stored on any Mac...

If I'm out and about; I've got my iPhone. Nom need for my MBA to go anywhere

Sometimes I'll have a change of scenery and work in the living room, but other than that, it'll never leave the house

 

[danb1979]

What made you got for the M1 MBA over the M1 MBP just out of curiosity?

After research and another post on here; it was clear that the M1 MBA would be more than adequate for what I need and the decision was made 👍🏼

 

[PeterJP]

I don't lug it anywhere; it's my desktop Plus oneHDD is the TimeMachine and the other is iTunes (which is 3TB as I type this); so neither could be stored on any Mac...

If I'm out and about; I've got my iPhone. Nom need for my MBA to go anywhere

Sometimes I'll have a change of scenery and work in the living room, but other than that, it'll never leave the house

If I were in your situation, I'd have gotten a 24" imac with 4TB SSD with a NAS for TimeMachine and iTunes backup. But hey, it's a free world and there's choice so each can pick his own!

I got an M1 mac mini as a test unit, as I manage IT at work and I decide who gets what sort of machine. Since then, I've upgraded half the personnel to a 16/512GB M1 MBA. It's really the sweet spot of cost and long-term usability and the users are ecstatic about them. But while I like the mac mini, I can't take it to a meeting room for a video call. So I'm looking at a new 14" or 16" with 32GB and 2TB for myself. I'll sell off my 16" heat generator and old 13" from 2014, but I'm not sure what I'll do with the mini.