An grab bag of thoughts on the 14-inch MBP

[walterpaisley]

• 14-inch MacBook Pro, 10/16 cores, 16GB Ram, 1TB drive.
• The weight difference between this and my M1 MacBook Air is noticeable, but not insanely so: think of the difference between an iPhone 13 and an iPhone 13 Pro. I’ve been using a 15-inch 2019 MacBook Pro off and on over the past two weeks and the weight is similar.
• The overall design is classic and understated, which is kind of what you want from a pro machine. I’m going to cover it in stickers anyway, so ??‍♂️. It is absolutely not "chonky" or "fat" or anything like that. The comparisons to the Titanium PowerBook are apt.
• I don’t love the feet. I understand why they’re there, but they feel odd. I get that it’s a pragmatic design decision, but I’m spoiled by years of symmetrical Mac laptops.
• This is a very, very, fast laptop. It’s not dramatic, but I notice the difference between this and my old M1 MacBook Air (16GB, 1TB). It could be because of the faster SSD, though.
• I haven’t heard the fans go on once, and I’ve done a bunch of things that would normally cause the 15” intel machine to throw a hissy fit with the fans (migration, setting up and syncing Dropbox, building a Spotlight index, etc.).
• The sound system on this is very good. I’ve played a bunch of genres on this (alternative, classical, hip-hop, and folk) and it’s all sounded about as good as the Bose Companion 2 I have on my desk (but with less stereo separation, of course).
• The screen looks fantastic. ProMotion isn’t blowing me away, but it’s a nice touch that when I notice it, I appreciate it. It gets very bright and has handled some of the sunnier areas of my apartment with aplomb.
• The notch mostly fades from my awareness, although I’ll sometimes look up at the menubar and be surprised that it’s there. I assume that’ll fade with time, but it is not bad, just… different.
• The keyboard feels close to the keyboard on my MacBook Air, although the travel feels more solid. It’s a relief to get back to this after using a butterfly keyboard for the past month.
• I’m going to miss the Touch Bar drinking game (every time you accidentally trigger the Touch Bar, drink!). Not really.
• I’m happy I upgraded from my MBA and I’m glad to say farewell to the 15-inch Intel machine I’ve been using for the past month.
• A+++++ WOULD BUY AGAIN

I'll tack on more thoughts as I spend more time with it.

• Just remembered one thing – I was surprised there was a MagSafe cable in the box as I somehow got the impression that there'd only be a USB-C power cable.

 

[Grolubao]

I would love to know your opinion coming from the 15" to the 14". I tried the 16" today and is HUGE and I don't really think I can go with that.

Did you notice much difference between the 15" and the 14"?

 

[yegon]

Good post OP.

I'm yet to receive my 14" but I know I'll be fine with the weight - it's almost a pound lighter than my old 2013 15" MBP it's replacing.

....and it will be cooler, sooo much cooler. I will have to seek other ways to heat my thighs in the colder months.

It's 62 degrees C just typing this with a torrent client running in the background

 

[walterpaisley]

I would love to know your opinion coming from the 15" to the 14". I tried the 16" today and is HUGE and I don't really think I can go with that.

Did you notice much difference between the 15" and the 14"?

It feels like a 15-inch machine that was compressed into 14 inches. It's a little lighter and a little smaller but they have a similar feel. You won't really notice the difference at least from a handling perspective.

 

[bdawwg]

I'm just looking forward to ending the hell that is double tapping butterfly keys.

 

[slowloris615]

• 14-inch MacBook Pro, 10/16 cores, 16GB Ram, 1TB drive.
• The weight difference between this and my M1 MacBook Air is noticeable, but not insanely so: think of the difference between an iPhone 13 and an iPhone 13 Pro. I’ve been using a 15-inch 2019 MacBook Pro off and on over the past two weeks and the weight is similar.
• The overall design is classic and understated, which is kind of what you want from a pro machine. I’m going to cover it in stickers anyway, so ??‍♂️. It is absolutely not "chonky" or "fat" or anything like that. The comparisons to the Titanium PowerBook are apt.
• I don’t love the feet. I understand why they’re there, but they feel odd. I get that it’s a pragmatic design decision, but I’m spoiled by years of symmetrical Mac laptops.
• This is a very, very, fast laptop. It’s not dramatic, but I notice the difference between this and my old M1 MacBook Air (16GB, 1TB). It could be because of the faster SSD, though.
• I haven’t heard the fans go on once, and I’ve done a bunch of things that would normally cause the 15” intel machine to throw a hissy fit with the fans (migration, setting up and syncing Dropbox, building a Spotlight index, etc.).
• The sound system on this is very good. I’ve played a bunch of genres on this (alternative, classical, hip-hop, and folkl) and it’s all sounded about as good as the Bose Companion 2 I have on my desk (but with less stereo separation, of course).
• The screen looks fantastic. ProMotion isn’t blowing me away, but it’s a nice touch that when I notice it, I appreciate it. It gets very bright and has handled some of the sunnier areas of my apartment with aplomb.
• The notch mostly fades from my awareness, although I’ll sometimes look up at the menubar and be surprised that it’s there. I assume that’ll fade with time, but it is not bad, just… different.
• The keyboard feels close to the keyboard on my MacBook Air, although the travel feels more solid. It’s a relief to get back to this after using a butterfly keyboard for the past month.
• I’m going to miss the Touch Bar drinking game (every time you accidentally trigger the Touch Bar, drink!). Not really.
• I’m happy I upgraded from my MBA and I’m glad to say farewell to the 15-inch Intel machine I’ve been using for the past month.
• A+++++ WOULD BUY AGAIN

I'll tack on more thoughts as I spend more time with it.

• Just remembered one thing – I was surprised there was a MagSafe cable in the box as I somehow got the impression that there'd only be a USB-C power cable.

I love the build, it feels good in the hand. It feels super premium. I need more time to actually use it, I've spent most of the day just looking at it while I work because I can't unhook my imac just yet. Edit this is the 16 inch im talking baout

 

[fm2503]

Only 8 cores/512GB here, but everything OP said holds true (coming from an M1 8GB MBA). I had to resort to synthetic tools to max our all the cores, and even then got bored waiting for the temperature to rise enough for the fans to start. 8 minutes of CPU stress test got up to about 48 degrees - maybe need to stress the GPU as well to have any chance of the crystal maze moment.

Interestingly, the E cores seem to be by far the busiest - perhaps I'm not doing anything heavy enough to get the P cores to wake from their slumbers, even when plugged in.

There's no doubt that 16GB RAM makes a huge difference, but short of massive video work struggling to see the value in 32 - it's OK to close apps you're not using right . Maybe if I'd had a 16GB M1 MBA, it would have been less of an upgrade.

Setup clean, no migration assistant to clean out some of the junk that has built up over the intel decades - just used a TB3 cable to copy local documents across which aren't in iCloud (like Xcode projects).

 

[walterpaisley]

Magsafe, how I've missed you. I can finally plug in and work in the living room with no fear of one of my kids sending the laptop shooting across the room. The braided cable is a nice touch, too.

 

[walterpaisley]

One thing that does grind my grits a little is the way the menubar height is just slightly taller by 3 pixels from the bottom of the notch. I expect the menu bar edge to be flush with the notch, but it ain't.

 

[Salty Pirate]

One thing that does grind my grits a little is the way the menubar height is just slightly taller by 3 pixels from the bottom of the notch. I expect the menu bar edge to be flush with the notch, but it ain't.

View attachment 1879716

A dark wallpaper will fix that right up

 

[CrysisDeu]

One thing that does grind my grits a little is the way the menubar height is just slightly taller by 3 pixels from the bottom of the notch. I expect the menu bar edge to be flush with the notch, but it ain't.

View attachment 1879716

I think this is a good design decision. On the iPhone, the safe area is also a bit taller than the notch. It gives the viewing area a bit room to breathe, so you won’t feel they are touching the notch.
It could also just be because with these few pixels removed, the display will be 16:10. I doubt that is an after thought when designing the display and the notch.

 

[walterpaisley]

Oh, I'm sure this was an intentional decision, and it makes sense that there'd be a small bit of padding there to create some space between a window pushed up against the menu bar and the notch. It's just something I noticed that made me go, "hmmmm."

 

[Mr. Awesome]

It feels like a 15-inch machine that was compressed into 14 inches. It's a little lighter and a little smaller but they have a similar feel. You won't really notice the difference at least from a handling perspective.

How about screen-size wise?

 

[walterpaisley]

How about screen-size wise?

With the menubar pushed over the top of the 16:10 screen, the whole display looks taller. I did notice that the default resolution for this machine is 2nd from the right in the resolution "stages" you can choose from in the Display settings (see screenshot). This is a little limiting as I would like there to be a resolution in-between 1512x982 and 1800x1169.

Coming from the 2019 MBP it's not much different as the native resolution on that machine was 1536x960. (And yes I know there are apps for this.)

 

[GDF]

Good summary!

I played with the base MBP 14 and the MacBook Air at the Apple store today. Besides the bigger monitor, I really did not notice a difference. Of course, really would not, when just doing basic internet, word/excel and photos. I did not even think the monitor looked all that different with colors or brightness. If there was a big difference would have purchased on the spot to replace my wife’s 2020 MacBook M1 Air.

The MBP definitely is a nice laptop though. Well built and I like all the ports and magsafe too.

 

[unsui_grep]

One thing that does grind my grits a little is the way the menubar height is just slightly taller by 3 pixels from the bottom of the notch. I expect the menu bar edge to be flush with the notch, but it ain't.

View attachment 1879716

Upvoted for the "grind my grits".

 

[Alexander_im]

Glad you enjoy the machine! This will definitely stand the test of the time.

 

[ry-guy]

20 points for using the word "aplomb".
Good write up

 

[nquinn]

Anyone know what the 'default' (not max) resolutions are for the new 14 and 16 models?

Looks like it is 1512x982 for the 14" if that's what the poster said above?

I'm trying to get a sense of how much screen real estate I'm going to lose compared to the new 16 in default mode. The 16 is just huuuuuuge and I'm not sure I want to deal with it.

 

[CheesePuff]

A few of my random thoughts as well on my 14" base model:

• Notch fades away after just a small bit of use (30 mins didn't even notice it, even with a mostly white menu bar)
• The braided MagSafe cable is sooo much better then the USB-C charging cable used in the last generation
• Design is extremely nice, I think the promo photos make it look thicker then it is. It only looks thicker because the edges are not tapered in like on the last generation, otherwise its identical thickness to the 13" Pro. The fit and finish is very premium feeling and looking
• Did not heat up (could not feel heat above the keyboard where you normally would) and no fans when installing all of my applications, syncing all of my iCloud data and during the entire install of the macOS 12.0.1 update (which was large)
• I have Low Power Mode enabled only for when on battery and cannot notice any difference in speed for a light workload (web browsing, email, Teams, Zoom, etc)

 

[CheesePuff]

Anyone know what the 'default' (not max) resolutions are for the new 14 and 16 models?

Looks like it is 1512x982 for the 14" if that's what the poster said above?

I'm trying to get a sense of how much screen real estate I'm going to lose compared to the new 16 in default mode. The 16 is just huuuuuuge and I'm not sure I want to deal with it.

edit: also because of the higher DPI display then before, even setting it to more space 1800x1169 its much clearer and sharper then previous models

 

[nquinn]

Any idea what the 16" is in that default mode?

EDIT found them:

.16-inch MacBook Pro

• Looks like 2056 x 1329
• Default: Looks like 1728 x 1117
• Looks like 1496 x 967
• Looks like 1312 x 848
• Looks like 1168 x 755

14-inch MacBook Pro

• Looks like 1800 x 1169
• Default: Looks like 1512 x 982
• Looks like 1352 x 878
• Looks like 1147 x 745
• Looks like 1024 x 665

So at default settings, the 16" is around 216px or 14% larger and 135px taller (14%).

Really that's not THAT much more screen real estate - 27% less space in square pixels, but it's not like getting 216 x 135 more pixels really gets you a whole extra window for side-by-side/etc.

 

[CheesePuff]

Any idea what the 16" is in that default mode?

1728x1117

 

[AltecX]

One thing that does grind my grits a little is the way the menubar height is just slightly taller by 3 pixels from the bottom of the notch. I expect the menu bar edge to be flush with the notch, but it ain't.

View attachment 1879716

How does the notch look when using the More Space display resolution?

 

[sahni130]

Honestly, I just set mine up, and well, the MacBook Air feels like a toy now. Good lord, this thing is quick and smooth! It's lighter than the reviews make it seem.

Base 14-inch MBP