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5 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's MacBook Pro

I've never had an issue with the notch. However, I'm psycho and my desktop background is black. And I keep my menu bar visible so I never notice it. Wonder if the notch will have that hidden aspect to it similar to the Samsung foldable phone.
 
Oled and lighter design is a reason NOT to wait, while the modem and no-notch will be nice.
 
MrCubes said:
Genuine question: what are you doing that 32GB feels constrained?

When I specced out my M2 Mac Studio (Ultra) I really wanted to go all out - but I spent quite a bit of time trying to push the various pro apps I used (loads of heavyweight virtual instruments in Logic, Audio and Video processing and encoding, some fairly heavy ML processing, C++ Compilation - although I don't have any huge projects - so that may have made a difference). I could never get it to use much past 24GB. So I went with 64GB instead of 128 ... and when I traded in for an M3 MacBook Pro (Max) I went with 48GB. I've yet to feel constrained. Interested to know what people are doing that needs much more.
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Basically - for me, Enterprise grade Windows 11 Pro VM - Parallels for Mac, 32GB memory with 4 core dedicated.

I would be happy to answer that one, for you. Though Apple does quite well with 1/2 the memory as a PC does, there may be times when I, too, feel like the system is slowing down.

I have a MacBook Air with 16gb Memory and 1TB SSD and I was working remote with a company provided Lenovo. The only gripe that I had was the limited ports on the Air. No worries. I was blessed with finding a deal last year about this time from B&H for a MacBook Pro, M1 Max with 2TB SSD and 64gb memory. Couple of months later, I was let go of my job (Reduction in Force) and within a week, was working remotely for a company down the road from the first and I told them please do not send me a computer. I would use my own.

The 64gb memory and M1 Max processor along with 2TB SSD is the sweet spot in which I a run virtual machines, as well as edit and render videos in both Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve 19. The MacBook Air could also run and do everything, but it just wasn't zippy enough.

Having the extra head room for memory, storage, and processing reduces stress on the system, I feel. I have several remote windows open, browsers, and a couple of virtual machines. I found that with Windows 11, that 32gb and four processors dedicated was much faster than the Lenovo I was given from previous employment. I also tried 24gb for the VM and felt Windows was a wee-bit sluggish in responsiveness.

Right now, I see with 64GB memory, 58GB used, 8.87GB Cached, and 20GB swap is used. My VM is taking up 27GB of that..
 
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aberdeenmeadows said:
Right now, I see with 64GB memory, 58GB used, 8.87GB Cached, and 20GB swap is used. My VM is taking up 27GB of that..
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Makes mine sound pedestrian!

8GB, 7.15GB used, 907MB in cache and 2.9MB swap used. The Windows 11 is using 4GB of that, without Parallels running, the swap drops to about 700MB. I only use the Windows 11 VM for testing, so it doesn't put much strain on the system to 2-3 times a month I start it up.

The old MBA M1 will probably need to be replaced later this year. The current version of macOS has certainly put more memory strain on it that the previous version. My 16GB mini at home fares better. I'm looking at replacing the work MBA with a new MBA M4, when it comes out and the mini will probably be replaced by a MBP Pro M4 Pro... Or maybe also just 2 MBAs...
 
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seek3r said:
The notch allowed the menubar to move up, removing the majority of the bezel, since it only intrudes on a part of the menubar that very very very few people have any icons extending to, which freed up limited space laptop display space for normal app use. It increased usuable real estate in the same physical space while maintaining the camera. I legit dont get the criticism, it blends in so well to the menubar that I dont ever even notice.


Those cameras dont use the kind of dot projection FaceID uses typically. That's a thicker sensor, compare the depth of a macbook pro screen to an iphone and you'll understand why that's a difficult proposition right now.


So you dont actually use it often, huh? I advise you to try, in normal use it's not noticeable
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And I "legit don't get" the defense of poor design choices by a company that can do much better. I do have to rely on the built in display on occasion and you can say "you don't notice it after a while" all you want, but I do and it's annoying and inconvenient. Same thing with my iPhone. It's intrusive and detracts from what would otherwise be an outstanding product. As far as the thickness of the display goes, I would gladly add a couple of millimeters for a FaceID capable camera. The additional size required to do this means nothing to me, particularly when you consider the added convenience and productivity associated with such functionality. But, Apple has generally been a form over function sort of company. I would argue that they can do both.
 
Lounge vibes 05 said:
The notch does not cut into the actual display area of your content, macOS does not do that, this is a myth.
The actual usable content area is still 16X10 just like it was on the Intel MBPs before the notch, in fact, you actually gain screen area because the menu bar is moved up out of the 16X10 area.
Obviously, it’s still a preference thing, of course, but calling it “lazy” when it clearly took hours of development time to get it to work properly is just wrong.
And I’m pretty sure there are utilities that literally get rid of the notch completely and basically turn your 16.2 inch screen into what functionally is a gapless 16X10 display like previous MacBooks before the Notch.
If it bothers you that much you can get rid of it, and if you won’t get rid of it, then it clearly doesn’t bother you that much.
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It's not the display real estate I'm concerned with. It's the menu bar itself. And those utilities to which you refer aren't that great and require frequent maintenance (I've tried several and even the better among them are a pita). As far as getting rid of it or not, that's an absurd statement. I use Mac, Windows and Linux systems daily so, for my purposes, I can honestly say that if I had to pick one, it would be the Mac. That doesn't excuse what I perceive to be lazy engineering. If you had to choose between a MacBook Pro with a notch compared to the same MacBook Pro with the same capabilities without a notch, which would you pick? I can't see any reasonable person choosing a notch because it adds no value and detracts from the overall usability of the machine, even if in only a minor way.
 
MrCubes said:
I'm not a fan of the notch, but most of what you say here seems to be based on an incorrect premise!
The camera always used to be in the bezel. It moved into the notch so the bezel could get smaller - and the screen larger - for the same overall footprint.

Is it worth the trade-off? We can have that argument (and I come down slightly in favour of it being more annoying than useful - even a few years in - but others disagree).

I can't see them going back on that - but hopefully we're getting closer to an "under the screen" technology for the camera and we won't have the notch at all. I'd even argue it's best to try that out on the laptops, first, before going to phones. But we'll see.
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What is "incorrect" about my "premise"? It's an opinion based on my own workflow and requirements and my feeling that one of the greatest tech companies in history can do better. I've used laptops that do, without compromise, exactly what I would want my MacBook Pro to do with one exception: they run Windows, and that's the deal breaker for me. I'll tolerate the notch because I have to in order to use a superior hardware/software ecosystem. My point is, why should I have to?
 
1. Thinner - I don't care, I like it big with HDMI !!

2. No more notch - EWWW android is now on macOS??? Honestly who cares in full screen mode?

3. 5g - I DON'T CARE USE YOUR PHONE !!

4. Older - Not bad but mini led is ok for me

5. M6 - Not bad but not going to wait only for that lol
 
ApplePlectic said:
It's not the display real estate I'm concerned with. It's the menu bar itself. And those utilities to which you refer aren't that great and require frequent maintenance (I've tried several and even the better among them are a pita). As far as getting rid of it or not, that's an absurd statement. I use Mac, Windows and Linux systems daily so, for my purposes, I can honestly say that if I had to pick one, it would be the Mac. That doesn't excuse what I perceive to be lazy engineering. If you had to choose between a MacBook Pro with a notch compared to the same MacBook Pro with the same capabilities without a notch, which would you pick? I can't see any reasonable person choosing a notch because it adds no value and detracts from the overall usability of the machine, even if in only a minor way.
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What the notch did for us was to provide a bigger screen without requiring a bigger case. It is a clever use of space to increase the screen height.
 
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I couldn't wait!!!! The future features will be nice, but not enough for me to wait for.

I upgraded last week from the MacBook Air M1 16gb to the MacBook Pro (M4 Pro with 24gb memory, 1TB storage), stock from the Apple Store to save money. Normally I would go with higher specs, but my intent was basically to upgrade the Air to give me more ports, much faster processor, bigger screen, and something I can travel and something that doesn't cost over $3,200.

I will enjoy watching the MacBook Pro get all of these improvements and may catch the next upgrade with the M7 or so processor. Might go with the Studio at that point and go hog wild with the memory - 192gb?

I don't believe in holding off, unless my current rig is causing issues and there is something compelling to upgrade to.

I have a 2017 Mac with i7 Intel processor, 64gb memory that is still working just fine. I can't upgrade the OS to the current one, so that sucks. I am two OS'es behind. For the most part, it runs well. It sits on my desk. Has a large built-in screen. Does what it needs to do!
 
Big_D said:
Makes mine sound pedestrian!

8GB, 7.15GB used, 907MB in cache and 2.9MB swap used. The Windows 11 is using 4GB of that, without Parallels running, the swap drops to about 700MB. I only use the Windows 11 VM for testing, so it doesn't put much strain on the system to 2-3 times a month I start it up.

The old MBA M1 will probably need to be replaced later this year. The current version of macOS has certainly put more memory strain on it that the previous version. My 16GB mini at home fares better. I'm looking at replacing the work MBA with a new MBA M4, when it comes out and the mini will probably be replaced by a MBP Pro M4 Pro... Or maybe also just 2 MBAs...
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That's awesome, actually. We can do more with less memory for the most part and every user has a different type of workload.

The MacBook Air 15" M4 coming out is going to be extra sweet.

I went ahead last week and upgrade my M1 MacBook Air with the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro processor, but kept the memory at 24gb - thinking about your post, plus keeping the costs down for the upgrade. It runs quite fast, actually.
 
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