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Hold or Buy M1 Conundrum

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macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 17, 2002
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I currently have a late 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro, 2.6 Ghz Core i7 with 16Gb RAM, a Radeon Pro 460 and 512 SSD. I'm in the market for a replacement laptop in 2021. When I purchase a new Mac, I typically sell my old one on eBay. Based on what I'm seeing on that site now, I think I could get ~$1,000-1,200 for it, if I put it up in the next few weeks.

My problem is that I'm not sure if I should buy a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro now, as a stop-gap before the newer 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros release in later 2021, or if I should just wait for their release? I'm afraid if I wait, I may not be able to get the thousand dollars I could likely get for my 2016 model if I sold now. Consequently, I don't know how much I could get for an M1 13-inch MacBook Pro if I sold it in mid-2021. I use the laptop for graphic design purposes, and am not bothered by the smaller 13- or 14-inch screen, if the price is much less than the 16-inch.

I realize a lot of this is conjecture, but if anyone could give any advice, it would be a help. Thanks.
 
if you can get a grand for your 15" MBP, why not just get a M1 MBA as a holdover? The performance isn't far behind the MBP and is surely way better than the 2016 15"
 
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Cursor said:
I currently have a late 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro, 2.6 Ghz Core i7 with 16Gb RAM, a Radeon Pro 460 and 512 SSD. I'm in the market for a replacement laptop in 2021. When I purchase a new Mac, I typically sell my old one on eBay. Based on what I'm seeing on that site now, I think I could get ~$1,000-1,200 for it, if I put it up in the next few weeks.

My problem is that I'm not sure if I should buy a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro now, as a stop-gap before the newer 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros release in later 2021, or if I should just wait for their release? I'm afraid if I wait, I may not be able to get the thousand dollars I could likely get for my 2016 model if I sold now. Consequently, I don't know how much I could get for an M1 13-inch MacBook Pro if I sold it in mid-2021. I use the laptop for graphic design purposes, and am not bothered by the smaller 13- or 14-inch screen, if the price is much less than the 16-inch.

I realize a lot of this is conjecture, but if anyone could give any advice, it would be a help. Thanks.
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If the purchase of the M1 is contingent on an eBay sell, it would be a good idea to save up the cash before buying the M1, in my opinion. Selling your current Mac should be a separate consideration and should not be bundled with a buying decision.

In my opinion, you should keep what you have and see what is offered next year, if you are wanting a 14.” It doesn’t make sense to buy a gap measure Mac when your current Mac is running.
 
Cursor said:
I currently have a late 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro, 2.6 Ghz Core i7 with 16Gb RAM, a Radeon Pro 460 and 512 SSD. I'm in the market for a replacement laptop in 2021. When I purchase a new Mac, I typically sell my old one on eBay. Based on what I'm seeing on that site now, I think I could get ~$1,000-1,200 for it, if I put it up in the next few weeks.

My problem is that I'm not sure if I should buy a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro now, as a stop-gap before the newer 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros release in later 2021, or if I should just wait for their release? I'm afraid if I wait, I may not be able to get the thousand dollars I could likely get for my 2016 model if I sold now. Consequently, I don't know how much I could get for an M1 13-inch MacBook Pro if I sold it in mid-2021. I use the laptop for graphic design purposes, and am not bothered by the smaller 13- or 14-inch screen, if the price is much less than the 16-inch.

I realize a lot of this is conjecture, but if anyone could give any advice, it would be a help. Thanks.
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What will you use any new Mac for? I ask because if you were to buy a 13-inch M1 MBP now, then in 9-10 months and Apple release a 14-inch M2 MBP, will you *need* to sell your M1 MBP? Would you *need* the faster chip?

If you did get a 13-inch now and then bought the 14-inch in less than a year, what would you get in the upgrade: an M2 chip instead of an M1, and maybe a couple extra TB3 ports? Is it worth getting the stopgap MBP now? I can't see that you'd make money on the sale of the 13-inch so it looks like throwing money away for a short fix.

I'd wait. The 14-inch will be a new design. And yes, there will always be a faster machine in the future, so you should get what you can afford and need right now, but I think the M1 is Apple's stopgap chip to the much faster versions they have in the pipeline. Those new chips will be the proper shift from Intel to Apple Silicon, and I'd wager they've got much better designs coming up.
 
@Cursor - I had the same MBP as you and sold it on eBay for £1,100 and bought a M1 MBA 16GB Model. I wrote a 1 week review comparing it with my MBP. Hopefully you will find it useful. Bottom line the new MBA is about 100% faster than my 2016 MBP, I am not planning to upgrade again when the new 16" M1 MBP come out.

forums.macrumors.com

MacBook Air M1 ,1 Week Review, Switch from 15” MBP

I thought it might be useful to summarise my thoughts after using the new M1 MacBook Air after using it for a week, and how it compares with a 15” MBP, if anyone else is thinking of upgrading. The summary is for those that don’t want to read a long post is I am really happy with the switch, the...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
You are in a comfortable enough position to wait and see what's new in the new year.
But ultimately only you can make the decision :)
 
I would not personally go through the hassle if your end plan is to do the same thing in another 6-12 months. Obviously the M1 Mac you buy today would take a depreciation hit the moment you buy it, and more so over time, and potentially a big hit if a 14-inch MBP were to release. So you're going to lose money either way...waiting it out for the one you really wants means dealing with the upgrade pains (and the sometimes associated costs) only one time.
 
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ght56 said:
I would not personally go through the hassle if your end plan is to do the same thing in another 6-12 months. Obviously the M1 Mac you buy today would take a depreciation hit the moment you buy it, and more so over time, and potentially a big hit if a 14-inch MBP were to release. So you're going to lose money either way...waiting it out for the one you really wants means dealing with the upgrade pains (and the sometimes associated costs) only one time.
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+1

When technology is changing fast, and in this case we know new faster models are coming, holding off for 6-12 months can have a huge payoff and a machine that will last for 5 years.

In my case I waited for the new model MBPs in 2016 and have until this day a ver modern Mac. I am also waiting for the new 14” model next year to upgrade after 5 years with my 2016 model.
 
Thanks for all of the thoughtful replies. After considering all the posts, I'm going to hold on to my old 2016 laptop for 6 more months and wait for the new 14-inch. I think I'm just itching to upgrade and getting impatient.
 
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Agree with your assessment in reply 10 above.

IF what you have now is still working "well enough", then hold what you have until the new "m2" (or perhaps "m1x") MacBook Pros come out in 2021...
 
the depreciation on current 2016 won’t be much. Save yourself the hassle and wait. You may regret it when there is a redesign with nicer screen and much more speed. I gave the M1 a try for a week and decided to wait. Mine fried though. The whole buying and sellin every year is a maximum financial loss. Buy things when you actually need them when it comes to cars, laptops, cameras and phones. If your Mac loses $150 in value, that’s 150 for you to use it for a year which isn’t bad. If you had a 2019 16 inch model you’d lose $1000 in less than a year currently but I don’t think it will drop big time when the new 16 comes out so I’m holding on and waiting.
 
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