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Do you guy feel the "need" to get a New MBP Every year ?

Guy here.

I get a new MacBook about every 10 years. I don’t think many people on Earth actually need a new Mac every year unless they do work on their Mac where even a small speed-up in the workflow first covers the cost of the new machine and then also makes them additional money in a way that’s truly measurable and not just a gut feeling. Everything else, frequent upgrading, is usually just about wanting a new toy. Which is totally fine as long as you’re not lying to yourself about it.
 
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TheRealAlex said:
I get a new iPad Pro every year. And now with my M4 Pro MBP I am really thinking I need a new M5 Pro. Thanks to new GPU and WiFi 7.
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That reminds me of something I read about photography, paraphrasing:

What's the difference between an amateur, a professional and an artist photographer?

The amateur cares about gear, the professional cares about pay, and the artist cares about light.

You can get new gear every year, but you probably don't need it. Many people like collecting things, to me buying and having the latest and greatest is a similar hobby.

But please be honest with yourself and us and stick to using "want" instead of "need". If it has become a "need" you might want to consider therapy.
 
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This last round I waited 8 years and I will never do that again - that’s far too long. OTOH Apple offers me very little year to year. Now thinking 3-4 yrs is a good cycle and it influences my purchasing decisions. No longer looking at buying some « monster » fully pimped machine that will last me years and years. Mid-tier current.

I look at it like a car lease - 3 years and re-up. In the end with tech, I no longer get the feeling I am acquiring or keeping anything, it does in fact feel more like a lease. Accounting rules fully depreciate assets in a finite period of time. This stuff isn’t antique furniture.
 
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Nope. For iPads I get like 5 years or more out of them (they’re so powerful these days that it’s ridiculous). For iPhones I upgrade every other year and for Macs I get 5-10 years typically.
 
Nermal said:
I'm on a 2015 and it still does everything I need. My desktop is a 2020 and it also does everything I need. Upgrade every year? Not since the PowerPC days when you could sell the old one for almost as much as a new one.
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Same with my MBP 13” 2015. Does everything i need it to for now. 11 years going strong. I want to upgrade it to a MBA, but they have pretty much identical displays, and up until last year had the same base RAM. Prefer using iPP + MKB as main laptop anyway. The current MBA and MBPs are the best laptops in their class though no doubt about that, completely outclass anything on the Windows side (except for gaming).
 
Whether with Mac or iPhone, i often wait longer than I have to before getting a new one, just because I don't like to hassle of setting up the new device and migrating data. I have been this way for years, but I have noticed since I first started using tech the process has gotten easier and faster and I have to tell myself to update to a new device before the old one becomes unusable, because they I'd have to update right away instead of doing it on my terms.
 
Still using my M1 MBP. But I am considering to upgrade my M1 Mac Mini though. Not that it's left wanting, but I want the extra ports so I'm waiting for the next refresh to pull the trigger.
 
Ursadorable said:
A refresh every 3-4 years isn't a bad idea. But let's be honest, unless you're a power user, you're not going to even really notice the difference if it was ever 5-6 years. MacBooks (especially Pro models) age very well, and it's not like MacOS is a bloated mess like Windows.
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I’m a power user and I couldn’t tell the difference between my M1 Pro and M4 Pro. Doubt I’ll upgrade until this one falls to bits.
 
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cjsuk said:
I’m a power user and I couldn’t tell the difference between my M1 Pro and M4 Pro. Doubt I’ll upgrade until this one falls to bits.
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Really depends on what you're doing. If your compiling code, or rendering out a video, you'd notice if it completed 40-50% faster. 🙂

For day to day operations, not so much.
 
My Macs (MacBook Pro and Mac mini) are M1 and M2 era machines. I don’t see anything on the horizon that would make me update them before they die (although the Mac Mini redesign is a little tempting).
 
Ursadorable said:
Really depends on what you're doing. If your compiling code, or rendering out a video, you'd notice if it completed 40-50% faster. 🙂

For day to day operations, not so much.
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I am compiling code and editing photos.

10% max wall clock time. Seriously. Most of the compilation is IO latency. Photos can edit on a potato.
 
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Ursadorable said:
A refresh every 3-4 years isn't a bad idea. But let's be honest, unless you're a power user, you're not going to even really notice the difference if it was ever 5-6 years. MacBooks (especially Pro models) age very well, and it's not like MacOS is a bloated mess like Windows.
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I upgrade my macs every 5-8 years
 
No, but when I upgrade I tend to max out the system in every way possible so that it lasts.

My current M1 Max MBP with 64GB / 8TB SSD is still plenty strong. However I have been very tempted by the recent Thunderbolt 5 RDMA developments for clustering with M4 Pro and beyond, especially for local inference. I would love to see if that tech could apply to realtime graphics (Unreal, Arnold, Cycles, etc).

My iPad is from 2019. I really want to upgrade for camera on the long side. The short side camera on an ipad is ridiculous. Very short sighted if you ask me (har har har).
 
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I've been using a 2019 15" i9 since Oct 2019. Will replace it with M5 Max which I hope to get 7+ years out of. So, no, I have no need to replace every year
 
I usually hold on until I get to beach ball mode. For my last Intel iMac that was 8 years, my white MacBook 6 years. I have an M1 Pro MBP and will probably update it to an 15” OLED MBA when they eventually get released, for the better screen, lighter enclosure, and better chip.
 
TheRealAlex said:
I get a new iPad Pro every year. And now with my M4 Pro MBP I am really thinking I need a new M5 Pro. Thanks to new GPU and WiFi 7.

But I really want the Tandem-OLED will that be 2026 or 2027 ?
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Not since the M1. Went from that to M4, and now? Boy that’d be tough. I used to be a road warrior so portable power was a big deal, and worth chasing, but I stopped traveling a few years back, so now the machine is 90% used with an external monitor/keyboard/mouse.

That means that I just don’t care about touchscreens, OLED, etc at all. I actively *don’t* want built-in cellular because the last thing I want is another monthly charge on top of my phone and iPad, and don’t want to pay the cost of that hardware. TB5 is more than enough to drive my 3 5K screens, attach all the external drives, etc.


The only thing it can’t do it massive GPU horsepower, and I have a 5090 for that, so unless Apple can break the laws of thermodynamics, I see no reason to upgrade anytime soon. In fact, I plan to shift my Apple spend to upgrade that to a 6090 in Dec 27 when it comes out - that’ll be a material difference in capability, vs minor-at-best with Apple.

iPad/iPhone/Watch Ultra are now in the same place FWIW. Only reason I upgraded my iPad was for the horizontal camera. I got burned on the phone thinking Apple Intelligence was real, so nope, not going there again. Watch 3 was a big upgrade, but again, it’s now plenty powerful. Mobile upgrades will all be battery-life driven at this point.

Now, if they dump Liquid Glass, I’ll be first in line to install that beta!
 
Frankly why ask? Just do whatever you feel you like within your means. Whether it’s upgrading every release or every decade. It only matters to you. Whatever reason it is it only matters for any individual.
 
This is a popular thread 😀 Hah.

My 2021 M1 Max 16' MBP is doing just fine. I do not envision upgrading it anytime soon - at least for another few years. The trade in value on it is pretty poor too so realistically, I might use it for many more years.

My work gave me an M4 MBA and ... I'm 100% happy with my M1 Max and will be for a long time.
 
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