buying intel macbook pro - am I crazy?

[profcutter]

Another vote to say don’t pay that much for a 16inch intel, that’s just too damned much. If you can get one for a song, then why not, but you already have a wintel laptop, go with an M1, ideally find a deal on a 16” when it’s available, go for the lowest spec. Can you wait till they get on the refurb page?

 

[majkom]

There is no refurb store in Czechia… been thinking about imac - but as i wrote at the beginning, i have to move myself almost daily from bedroom office to other room once/twice a day, so moving with imac would not be really practical

 

[profcutter]

Yeah ok, in that case, look for a cheap intel, or dig deep for the 16inch M1, that would be my recommendation. If you’re handy, the monitor on a VESA arm is a great idea too.

 

[Goodrich]

Anyone who uses the juvenile “am I crazy?” is so, by definition.

 

[Bandaman]

Dude, get whatever you want. You seem pretty set on what you want already by disagreeing with everyone's suggestions. You need a big laptop screen because you move from room to room. That leaves you with literally only two options: the 16" Intel MacBook or the 16" M1 Pro/Max laptop. If price isn't an issue, get the M1 ... because it is orders of magnitude faster at most tasks than the Intel, has a way longer battery life, is much quieter, and the screen takes a big steamy dookie all over the Intel.

 

[ikir]

Yes you are crazy, Intel makes zero sense now for any use case.

 

[throAU]

If you're thinking of intel for gaming, likely a more effective and better performing option for both the Mac side and the gaming side is this:

Macbook Air
Xbox Series S (because the X is just impossible to find).

Likely cheaper than an Intel 16" MacBook Pro all up.

 

[Miltz]

Hi guys,

I am trying to solve my Homeoffice situation. Long story short, identified 2 scenarios:

- buying macbook air and external display - seemed as perfect solution to me, unfortunately got no dedicated room for office, so I just made little onwall table in bedroom - and idea of having external display mounted on wall (in bedroom, where we do sleep with little toddler) does not make me too much confident about this option (I do not prefer having electronics in bedroom and place where monitor would be mounted is too low to be safe from toddlers)

- stay on macbook without external display - in that case, would prefer as big screen as possible - so obviously macbook pro 16 (this one has several advantages - portable big screen - when need to leave bedroom, when leaving home for several days - bigger screen would be with me), but of course, it aint 27incher but what really bothers me is pwm (in first scenario I would have flicker free dell monitor).

So, if I will go scenario 2, I know then intel is dead and so on, but now I can get new intel i7 16incher for the price of 14incher M1. I dont need any extra power, all i do is:
- ms excel heavy liftung and ordinary outlook/word processing/presentations.. nothing special

Actually, I may use windiows from time to time on intel macbook (and maybe play some games, form time to time)... even pwm freq on intel one is much higher than on m1 one...

so am I crazy leaning towards buying intel macboolk pro now??

Using windows natively on the Mac is awful for battery life so I’m guessing you plan on being plugged in. Aside from that I would take a 14” base model M1 pro over any Intel offering right now.

 

[GuruZac]

Way too expensive idea for your needs. I would get an M1 MBA and either get a reasonable external display or use an iPad to remote into the M1 (using JumpDesktop) when needed.

That would be my choice as well. Advantage to this solution is you also get a $1000 powerhouse laptop, and presumably and 12.9 iPad Pro, also a powerhouse computer-2 very functional products with enormous flexibility. I am biased, however ?

 

[LinkRS]

Hi guys,

I am trying to solve my Homeoffice situation. Long story short, identified 2 scenarios:

- buying macbook air and external display - seemed as perfect solution to me, unfortunately got no dedicated room for office, so I just made little onwall table in bedroom - and idea of having external display mounted on wall (in bedroom, where we do sleep with little toddler) does not make me too much confident about this option (I do not prefer having electronics in bedroom and place where monitor would be mounted is too low to be safe from toddlers)

- stay on macbook without external display - in that case, would prefer as big screen as possible - so obviously macbook pro 16 (this one has several advantages - portable big screen - when need to leave bedroom, when leaving home for several days - bigger screen would be with me), but of course, it aint 27incher but what really bothers me is pwm (in first scenario I would have flicker free dell monitor).

So, if I will go scenario 2, I know then intel is dead and so on, but now I can get new intel i7 16incher for the price of 14incher M1. I dont need any extra power, all i do is:
- ms excel heavy liftung and ordinary outlook/word processing/presentations.. nothing special

Actually, I may use windiows from time to time on intel macbook (and maybe play some games, form time to time)... even pwm freq on intel one is much higher than on m1 one...

so am I crazy leaning towards buying intel macboolk pro now??

FWIW, I don't think you're crazy . The biggest tradeoff going with the Intel one is battery life and performance un-plugged. For an Intel based system, it gets great battery life, but runs throttled the entire time on battery, so you get less performance. The defining factor for you would be AppleCare. If you can purchase AppleCare on the Intel system, you *know* you will be supported for at least 3 years. I suspect that we will get at least two more OS releases (on top of Monterrey) before Apple considers dropping support. It is possible for 3 or more, depending on how long Apple continues to sell Intel based models. Assuming they don't replace the last Intel model until next summer (around the 2-year mark for the transition), you will get until 2025 for support (2022 + 3 year AppleCare), which implies macOS '22, '23', and '24 at least. Could be longer. Good luck!

 

[profcutter]

It is true, the case for intel is being undermined by the security requirements for windows 11. I keep forgetting that.

 

[2016]

No, you're not crazy.

I'm thinking of buying one too.

Edit: Nevermind, it vanished from the Apple Refurbished website today. I swear it was there yesterday.

 

[ahurst]

Before I got my M1 Macbook Air my daily driver was a Dell XPS 13. And honestly it did a really great job. Dell has terrible quality control and in the beginning my screen and speakers had to be changed (Dell service came to my house and did it on site though). And once those flaws were fixed, it was a tremendous laptop that I still sometimes miss from time to time. Especially the window management is still driving me nuts a year later and I think in that regard, windows is just vastly superior, even though I hate to admit it.

Maybe it's just 15 years of learned behaviour and muscle memory since Tiger, but I'm surprised to hear anyone strongly prefer Windows' style of window management over macOS. I had to use a spare Windows 10 ThinkPad for a grad course this year and I was frustrated to no end with how Windows manages multiple desktops and application switching (specifically, if you click one window in an application it foregrounds all windows in that application, making it really hard to foreground two windows from two different apps if either app has multiple windows).

The tiling/snapping in Windows 10 is nice, but since I already use Rectangle for macOS for keyboard-driven tiling window management I don't miss it at all. Definitely check it out if you haven't already, it's one of the first things I install on a new mac!

 

[GSWForever8]

Hi guys,

I am trying to solve my Homeoffice situation. Long story short, identified 2 scenarios:

- buying macbook air and external display - seemed as perfect solution to me, unfortunately got no dedicated room for office, so I just made little onwall table in bedroom - and idea of having external display mounted on wall (in bedroom, where we do sleep with little toddler) does not make me too much confident about this option (I do not prefer having electronics in bedroom and place where monitor would be mounted is too low to be safe from toddlers)

- stay on macbook without external display - in that case, would prefer as big screen as possible - so obviously macbook pro 16 (this one has several advantages - portable big screen - when need to leave bedroom, when leaving home for several days - bigger screen would be with me), but of course, it aint 27incher but what really bothers me is pwm (in first scenario I would have flicker free dell monitor).

So, if I will go scenario 2, I know then intel is dead and so on, but now I can get new intel i7 16incher for the price of 14incher M1. I dont need any extra power, all i do is:
- ms excel heavy liftung and ordinary outlook/word processing/presentations.. nothing special

Actually, I may use windiows from time to time on intel macbook (and maybe play some games, form time to time)... even pwm freq on intel one is much higher than on m1 one...

so am I crazy leaning towards buying intel macboolk pro now??

Nope. Just understand that updates may end soon. If you need windows, then intel for sure. But if you don’t need windows, then M1.

 

[Marshall73]

It’s not worth spending that much money on hardware Apple will drop support for in a couple of years. There will likely be 1 or 2 macOS releases then they will release an ARM only release and it will be security only. Considering the MacBook Air has higher performance I would pick one up in the sales and use the extra cash for a gaming pc or laptop or Xbox series X or S/PS5 for gaming.

 

[Marshall73]

A quick question: I can grab a second hand Intel macbook pro 16 for $1000 CAD ($750 US).

Is it worth to get it ? The same price as a second hand M1 air.

If you go this route make sure it has the scissor keyboard.

 

[2016]

A quick question: I can grab a second hand Intel macbook pro 16 for $1000 CAD ($750 US).

Is it worth to get it ? The same price as a second hand M1 air.

Where did you find it? The only second hand Intel 16" MacBook Pros I've found were being sold for ~1700 CAD.

 

[Lioness~]

You are not only crazy but dumb too if you buy a new intel Mac now.

Either save some money and buy any size of M-Macs, or take a loan.
Just buy whatever you can afford of the new M-Macs, in a way that works for you.
There might even be some more affordable 2nd hand to buy, not so many now but pretty soon.

If you can’t afford today’s Macs, sure buy an Intel by all means. Not a new. A used.
You can even buy a PC ?

 

[Arctic Moose]

Maybe it's just 15 years of learned behaviour and muscle memory since Tiger, but I'm surprised to hear anyone strongly prefer Windows' style of window management over macOS.

I have 30 years, I believe I got my SE/30 early 1992, and never managed to fully adjust to full screen apps in their own Mission Control space. For years I also ran FVWM in parallel with my Mac (and sometimes on my Mac) with an always visible grid of four or six virtual desktops where I could directly manipulate windows, which has probably added to my aversion to the Mac implementation, which I find extremely cumbersome. I wish Mission Control was more configurable.

The result is that I never use Mac apps in full screen. This is the one aspect where I actual prefer Windows window management.

A used.

That’s what I’ve been thinking too, a 2015 MBP 15” would be the smart move in this situation if none of the suggested options for an M1-based Mac are going to work.

 

[throAU]

That’s what I’ve been thinking too, a 2015 MBP 15” would be the smart move in this situation if none of the suggested options for an M1-based Mac are going to work.

I'd warn against buying a 6 year old machine as a "smart move" (especially if funds are tight) because they're out of warranty, not really repairable, and if it dies you've spent a heap of money on a doorstop.

 

[Arctic Moose]

I'd warn against buying a 6 year old machine as a "smart move" (especially if funds are tight) because they're out of warranty, not really repairable, and if it dies you've spent a heap of money on a doorstop.

Sure, it is a risk, but at $200-300 I think it’s one worth taking.

I’m still using a Mac that is 25 years old, and I have several more that are more than 15 years old that are fine. Of the probably 50ish Macs I have purchased 100% of the ones that have failed on me have done so within the first year.

Of course I still think an M1 MBA and some sort of additional screen, be it an iPad, a 4K 27” or a mobile monitor, is the only reasonable solution.

 

[Hobbes44]

The reason that the Intel MBP is appealing to you is the portability and the screen size - similar considerations I took when I bought my 2017 15”, however it’s heavy so you have to consider how often you’ll really carry it with you? If it’s not that much then why not get an Intel Mac mini and it can be tucked away behind your monitor?

Alternatively consider a 2nd hand one as the price you’re going to pay for a new 16” laptop is steep and based on this years Mac OS, you’ll see more features being dropped from support on Intel macs in the coming years - this is why the M1 may work out better for you in terms of long term support.

Hope you manage to find something that fits the bill.

 

[Daeve]

M1 Air and the USB-C portable screen as posted earlier seems by far the best option On both price and usability. A separate (15.6”) medium and smaller (13”) screen is better than a single 16” for productivity And can Be quickly put up high away from toddlers taking very little storage space. The M1 Airs are amazing for their cost and for standard home office work so snappy it’s ridiculous.

 

[throAU]

Alternatively consider a 2nd hand one as the price you’re going to pay for a new 16” laptop is steep and based on this years Mac OS, you’ll see more features being dropped from support on Intel macs in the coming years - this is why the M1 may work out better for you in terms of long term support.

a 13" Air plus a base model iPad will work via sidecar as a portable second display. You'd maybe even fit an xbox series S into the deal for less than a 16" late model intel machine - to cover gaming.

 

[maxsquared]

Hi guys,

I am trying to solve my Homeoffice situation. Long story short, identified 2 scenarios:

- buying macbook air and external display - seemed as perfect solution to me, unfortunately got no dedicated room for office, so I just made little onwall table in bedroom - and idea of having external display mounted on wall (in bedroom, where we do sleep with little toddler) does not make me too much confident about this option (I do not prefer having electronics in bedroom and place where monitor would be mounted is too low to be safe from toddlers)

- stay on macbook without external display - in that case, would prefer as big screen as possible - so obviously macbook pro 16 (this one has several advantages - portable big screen - when need to leave bedroom, when leaving home for several days - bigger screen would be with me), but of course, it aint 27incher but what really bothers me is pwm (in first scenario I would have flicker free dell monitor).

So, if I will go scenario 2, I know then intel is dead and so on, but now I can get new intel i7 16incher for the price of 14incher M1. I dont need any extra power, all i do is:
- ms excel heavy liftung and ordinary outlook/word processing/presentations.. nothing special

Actually, I may use windiows from time to time on intel macbook (and maybe play some games, form time to time)... even pwm freq on intel one is much higher than on m1 one...

so am I crazy leaning towards buying intel macboolk pro now??

I just sold a MacBook Pro 16 inch (2.3GHz 8-core, 64GB Ram and 1TB SSD 5500 8GB) on eBay for £1550, that's more than £300 cheaper than the base model 14 inch is in the UK. So the price has plummeted, and you could pick up something much cheaper. So if you run Windows from time to time Intel MBP is not a bad option.

Compare to the Intel, my new 14 inch (10/16/16 32GB) is slightly faster, but the difference is not huge; the biggest difference for me is the fan noise and the heat come out of the Intel MBP, the fan would speed up even when I download a large file (with my 1gbps connection), I think one time it even spun up when running the Hello screensaver, and it gets really hot whenever I use Lightroom, Docker, Final Cut. Because of that, it makes me wary of using it. If that's not an issue to you, I think the Intel MBP will perform not too far from the M1 MacBooks.