Advice On My New Macbook Pro!

[Bazzy]

That’s a heck of an upgrade! The best way to charge is mag safe. It’s the safest way anyway. As for migrating info, I recently tried using my external SSD that’s set up for Time Machine to copy my files. It worked great. I copied my applications and settings. I wish I tried it much sooner.

Hi,

You are most right - it surely is a heck of an upgrade - after 11 years on the 15" rMBP, I felt like I needed something more up to date but still feel a little guilty about spending so much (even though I believe I got a good deal by UK standards) on a laptop!

Just out of curiosity (& since I do not want to transfer from a cloned external Hard Drive since that will also have any issues affecting my old MBP to the new one) would Time Machine back up also do the same - bring any crap that was on the old unit to the new one?

There were Bank Holiday Deals here in the UK & I was able to get a U-Green Nexode PD3.1 4 Port 200W USB Charger for £55 - it seemed to be very positively looked upon & has that all important UK Safety Certification - did not want to risk a cheap one on a new, expensive laptop!

Just added AppleCare today at £149 per year until cancelled - works out a bit more costly than the £399 for 3 Years but the Apple Guy told me if I were to take the 3 Year option, I may or may not be able to then switch to a rolling 1 year plan afterwards - he said it will depend at the time as Apple decides these things on a case by case basis which I thought was very odd!

Guy's, please do not take this the wrong way - but this is the very first time I have seen in the flesh so to speak any new Apple Macbook Pro since I got my 2015 one 11 years ago & I do not know why, maybe because of the 11 year gap & everyone raving how spectacular the screens are on these new M Series MBP's - I was expecting something very special & even to be blown away by the screen but tbh, I am a bit deflated - to me the screen on this new 16" M5 Pro is not really all that better than the one on my 2015 rMBP - it pretty much looks the same to me?

Thanks Kindly!

 

[Black_Mage]

would Time Machine back up also do the same - bring any crap that was on the old unit to the new one?

Define crap. MacOS doesn't have the annoyances that Windows does such as the registry or DLL dependencies.

 

[dblissmn]

Hi,

You are most right - it surely is a heck of an upgrade - after 11 years on the 15" rMBP, I felt like I needed something more up to date but still feel a little guilty about spending so much (even though I believe I got a good deal by UK standards) on a laptop!

Just out of curiosity (& since I do not want to transfer from a cloned external Hard Drive since that will also have any issues affecting my old MBP to the new one) would Time Machine back up also do the same - bring any crap that was on the old unit to the new one?

There were Bank Holiday Deals here in the UK & I was able to get a U-Green Nexode PD3.1 4 Port 200W USB Charger for £55 - it seemed to be very positively looked upon & has that all important UK Safety Certification - did not want to risk a cheap one on a new, expensive laptop!

Just added AppleCare today at £149 per year until cancelled - works out a bit more costly than the £399 for 3 Years but the Apple Guy told me if I were to take the 3 Year option, I may or may not be able to then switch to a rolling 1 year plan afterwards - he said it will depend at the time as Apple decides these things on a case by case basis which I thought was very odd!

Guy's, please do not take this the wrong way - but this is the very first time I have seen in the flesh so to speak any new Apple Macbook Pro since I got my 2015 one 11 years ago & I do not know why, maybe because of the 11 year gap & everyone raving how spectacular the screens are on these new M Series MBP's - I was expecting something very special & even to be blown away by the screen but tbh, I am a bit deflated - to me the screen on this new 16" M5 Pro is not really all that better than the one on my 2015 rMBP - it pretty much looks the same to me?

Thanks Kindly!

The Retina when it came out in 2012 was a very big jump from what went before. The thing with the current laptop displays is, they're far more color-accurate than the 2012 through 2021 displays, they're more uniformly lit, they have a wider viewing angle, they support a wider color gamut, the glossy ones are a tad less reflective than they were, they're easier to switch between different color profiles, they are brighter, they support a wider range of contrast, but for day to day word processing or coding, even all this is not a huge impact; for photos, color grading, desktop publishing and so on, it's very significant. But one big fail, and it concerns gaming -- the response time on the 16 inch display is mediocre at around 40 milliseconds and on the 14 flat out poor at around 70 milliseconds, and that likely won't be fixed until they go to tandem OLED panels. (The desktop displays these days are typically 10 to 20 milliseconds in practice -- a reasonable rule of thumb is to double the grey-to-grey stats on third party displays, so let's say a BenQ rated at 5 milliseconds might be 10 milliseconds or so according to these criteria, while the Apple Studio display as I understand is around 20 milliseconds).

I think the issue with AppleCare is if you buy the three-year contract, the threshold for it being eligible for renewal may be higher. They're no longer selling the fixed term contracts in the US except for a few select educational/corporate/institutional channels. But the US now has an option where, for $19.99 a month, you can put any three items on AppleCare+, which includes damage insurance (and for phones and watches I think theft as well), so long as at least one item is within the 60 day period for adding AppleCare and the others are no more than four years old. MBP, iPhone, Watch. MBP, Studio, another MBP. You name it. And you can add extra items for (I think) $6.99 each.

 

[macshmack]

I just got a 16" M5 Pro & as I am in England, it did not come with a charger in the box (Apple seems to always screw us Brits!).

oh dear, you omit where you bought it from, but if from Apple, surely it was listed among all the extras for you to add when placing your order in case you need one?

and it's an EU thing, which even though you victoriously left, you remain aligned with, because benefits of B-B-B-Br-Bre...

 

[macshmack]

I do not know why, maybe because of the 11 year gap & everyone raving how spectacular the screens are on these new M Series MBP's - I was expecting something very special & even to be blown away by the screen but tbh, I am a bit deflated - to me the screen on this new 16" M5 Pro is not really all that better than the one on my 2015 rMBP - it pretty much looks the same to me?

by 2015 matte option was discontinued, so you couldn't have known the first time, but since it's available again, and you chose the same old shiny mirror, you bet it looks the same.

 

[FluffyDog6]

I use this charger, and it is great. Even has a little display that shows wattage provided, temperature, etc. It charges up a MBP M5 pro from 20-25% to full in under an hour. Works to charge the iPhone and Airpods simultaneously. Be sure you have a cable ratted for the wattage, as "skinny" cables will throttle the charger -- I use the included Anker cable, but there are 240 watt cables available too.

Anker 140 watt fast charger with display

UGREEN USB-C to USB-C 240W Fast Charging Cable with Digital Display for Real-Time Power Monitoring​

This setup works really well for me, and comes from reputable brands.

 

[Bazzy]

Hi Guys,

So I am looking for something that will allow me to do a faster data transfer than WiFi between my 15 rMBP & the M5Pro for the initial Migration & also one where I can attach my existing peripherals for the time being until I can replace them all with more updated SSD ones etc - I will still likely need ethernet, HDMI etc.

For the first Data Transfer between my 15” rMBP & 16” M5Pro, I guess I am limited by the speed of the TB2 Port & say Ethernet Cable which I believe is about 1GB? I have a couple of the Apple TB2 to Ethernet Dongles (A1443?) Spoke to an Apple Guy & he recommended this using the Apple TB2 to Ethernet Dongle attached to an Ethernet Cable at one end & then to a Belkin Ethernet to USB-C Dongle but was unsure it it would work or how fast it would be compared to WiFi Migration? Does anyone know?

I also found these with a very quick & basic look on Amazon - would any of these be better & if so which one(s)?

For other general use & longer term I would prefer something as fast as possible to make best use of the M5Pro speeds that is reasonably priced for when I do upgrade to external SSD’s etc.

What would you all recommend from the following if any or maybe suggest something else better that I am unaware of?

Many Kind Thanks!

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I used a freshly formatted SSD and did a 1TB Time Machine backup from machine A into a TM restore on machine B. I don’t remember how long the backup took but the restore took 45 minutes on a newly purchased machine.

 

[Bazzy]

I used a freshly formatted SSD and did a 1TB Time Machine backup from machine A into a TM restore on machine B. I don’t remember how long the backup took but the restore took 45 minutes on a newly purchased machine.

Hi!

Great to know & I will get an external SSD in future but right now with such crazy high prices -especially here in the UK, I am forced to get something workable that will allow faster data transfer than via WiFi & will allow me to connect all my non USB-C devices & peripherals - ideally in the fastest way. That is, until I get comfortable using & learning about the new M5Pro & it's options, features etc & also till I have more wonga to be able to justify the cost of an external SSD!

Many Thanks!

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Hi!

Great to know & I will get an external SSD in future but right now with such crazy high prices -especially here in the UK, I am forced to get something workable that will allow faster data transfer than via WiFi & will allow me to connect all my non USB-C devices & peripherals - ideally in the fastest way. That is, until I get comfortable using & learning about the new M5Pro & it's options, features etc & also till I have more wonga to be able to justify the cost of an external SSD!

Many Thanks!

No worries. I used it because I had one available to use. Otherwise I would’ve used a USB-C cable.

 

[Scoot65]

There are browsers for older macOS versions which are up to date with security standards and safe to use on banking/etc sites. If you limit yourself to reputable web sites and keep to your local home network, you’re very safe. Step outside those bounds and then risk becomes more about what computing activities you are doing and what networks you are connecting to.

My MBP is a mid 2012 13" running macOS Sierra and Firefox 115.xx and connect to the internet only at my home wifi network.

What other browsers are suitable for older macOS versions which are safe / secure for banking etc?
Thanks

 

[Bigwaff]

What other browsers are suitable for older macOS versions which are safe / secure for banking etc?

Firefox ESR your only practical option for decade+ old hardware and macOS 10x versions behind.

 

[Scoot65]

Firefox ESR your only practical option for decade+ old hardware and macOS 10x versions behind.

Thanks for the reply. As I mentioned, I'm running 'normal' Firefox at the moment so I'll check out Firefox ESR.
Thanks again!