Analysis: Futureproofing vs Cost

[DMG35]

Haven't you apple fans learned yet? Apple Marketing is absolute GENIUS. Every year they will come up with something worthwhile for an upgrade. Sure you may hold off for 2 years but they will get you because you are here buying this new one already.

Just buy your toys enjoy them and don't think so much into it. It's not a marriage and even that you can get out of. Expensive, yes! But you'd never know when the next wuhan bomb comes along and your Brandon will make your life much more miserable than it is now. Enjoy your gear today. There will always be new apple products that will make you purchase them!

Lol, this is so spot on.

 

[PerfumedPonce]

I am actually thinking the opposite and am considering the 8 core 14" model.

Should be more than enough for software development and a bit of audio recording.

My 2018 MBP turned out to be a bit of a dog so I am taking a big hit on resale price.

 

[ururk]

I think it depends on what one is doing, and whether the usage pattern will change in the future.

For instance, my (personal) 2013 Intel i7 Retina MBP (16GB RAM) still runs well and if it weren't for some battery issues (replaced once already), I wouldn't even contemplate upgrading it. I'm actually leaving it on an old OS X so I can run CS6, which is the last perpetual license Adobe offered. I don't use it enough to justify CC. I run docker, and do freelance web dev off of it.

At work, since we are on a 3-year upgrade cycle, I usually get the base or next tier. I'm 5 years on my current (13" 16GB RAM), and if the keyboard, battery, display weren't all failing on me, I could still keep using it (14" arrives today!).

But anyhow - my gut feeling is - unless you have memory constrained tasks (video, audio, photography, data sciences) - the base or next tier up will be sufficient for many years.

 

[Fishrrman]

My MacBook Pro laptops are not my "main Macs".
Rather, they're just something I can carry around, and not too much is ever stored on them.

As such, I've bought "base models" and have been quite satisfied with them.
My 2015 MBPro with 8gb and 256gb drive is still doing fine.

When I replace it with the 2021 MBPro 14" in another month or so, again the 16gb 512gb base configuration will do fine for years...

 

[cababah]

Something to consider - the "upgrades" on the machine do not necessarily fetch the same high prices if you decide to re-sell or trade-in later on. Therefore, saving money to put toward an upgrade in 2-3 years is often a better financial strategy vs trying to dump all that into "future-proofing" your machine as we all know beyond CPU/RAM/SSD, there will always be new hardware features that will also get introduced in later models.

I personally think budgeting this in mind during the initial purchase is a good approach.

 

[EnderTW]

completely disagree. While people are upgrading every 2-3 years I’ll hold off at 6. I doubt I’ll run into issues with 64gb ram and 32 cores 5-6 years from now. I don’t need every new shiny toy and my machine won’t magically stop working. It’s called impulse control.

You’ll be paying for a computer for 6 years for what? Small incremental updates ? Sounds like a subscription.

 

[izeyad]

completely disagree. While people are upgrading every 2-3 years I’ll hold off at 6. I doubt I’ll run into issues with 64gb ram and 32 cores 5-6 years from now. I don’t need every new shiny toy and my machine won’t magically stop working. It’s called impulse control.

You’ll be paying for a computer for 6 years for what? Small incremental updates ? Sounds like a subscription.

The conclusion I reached is that selling your MacBook and getting a new one every 3-4 is cheaper than keeping it for 6-8, and this is for base models. If you get a max specced one then it'll be much more expensive, not to mention that a base model 3-4 years will likely be more powerful than a maxed one now.

 

[tbobmccoy]

My MacBook Pro laptops are not my "main Macs".
Rather, they're just something I can carry around, and not too much is ever stored on them.

As such, I've bought "base models" and have been quite satisfied with them.
My 2015 MBPro with 8gb and 256gb drive is still doing fine.

When I replace it with the 2021 MBPro 14" in another month or so, again the 16gb 512gb base configuration will do fine for years...

Now that storage is base at 512GB, I’m finally happy. Been waiting for that to happen for a long time.