How much stuff do you actually need?

[iHorseHead]

Hi!
As Christmas and my birthday are coming up I've been struggling to figure out whether I want a new Apple Watch SE or a new MacBook (Interestingly MacBook Air M3 are completely missing from my country, unless you go to a sketchy website or to a store that I've never heard of). They just sell M1,M2,M4, even Apple's resellers and mostly M4 MacBook Airs are $100 more expensive than M2's.
Currently my MacBook is M1 8GB Air.

So I discussed it with my girlfriend and my best friend (ChatGPT - I don't actually have any friends or a girlfriend) and according to ChatGPT I don't need anything.
I use Xcode, yes, but I manage. I manage with Pixelmator too. I don't really have any issues with speed or anything. The only reasons why I'm considering between a Mac or a new Apple Watch is because of the battery (both are in a bad shape) and I can't make up my mind whether to get a new battery for my Apple Watch or a new Apple Watch SE 3.

Now I started thinking whether or not I need a Mac at all or an Apple Watch (it's nice for tracking sleep though), but that's all I use my AW for anyway + steps.

I just feel like I have everything I need and my 8GB MacBook does everything I need as well, but when I read from Social Media that even 16GB isn't enough it makes me feel bad about my Mac, but then again my beautiful Mac is 5 years old and it's a base model and I think if you stop listening to the smart people who stare their activity monitor the whole day and just use your Mac then it's fine? The battery still bothers me though.
I'm torn between M2 and M4 and if the base model is enough. (I guess it is?) or should I go to PC and install Linux on it? It's just I don't know. I kinda realised I don't need a lot of things in my life and I'm torn.

I'm guessing what I'm trying to find here is someone who'd convince me why I need a new Mac or Apple Watch SE 3

 

[Huntn]

Hi!
As Christmas and my birthday are coming up I've been struggling to figure out whether I want a new Apple Watch SE or a new MacBook (Interestingly MacBook Air M3 are completely missing from my country, unless you go to a sketchy website or to a store that I've never heard of). They just sell M1,M2,M4, even Apple's resellers and mostly M4 MacBook Airs are $100 more expensive than M2's.
Currently my MacBook is M1 8GB Air.

So I discussed it with my girlfriend and my best friend (ChatGPT - I don't actually have any friends or a girlfriend) and according to ChatGPT I don't need anything.
I use Xcode, yes, but I manage. I manage with Pixelmator too. I don't really have any issues with speed or anything. The only reasons why I'm considering between a Mac or a new Apple Watch is because of the battery (both are in a bad shape) and I can't make up my mind whether to get a new battery for my Apple Watch or a new Apple Watch SE 3.

Now I started thinking whether or not I need a Mac at all or an Apple Watch (it's nice for tracking sleep though), but that's all I use my AW for anyway + steps.

I just feel like I have everything I need and my 8GB MacBook does everything I need as well, but when I read from Social Media that even 16GB isn't enough it makes me feel bad about my Mac, but then again my beautiful Mac is 5 years old and it's a base model and I think if you stop listening to the smart people who stare their activity monitor the whole day and just use your Mac then it's fine? The battery still bothers me though.
I'm torn between M2 and M4 and if the base model is enough. (I guess it is?) or should I go to PC and install Linux on it? It's just I don't know. I kinda realised I don't need a lot of things in my life and I'm torn.

I'm guessing what I'm trying to find here is someone who'd convince me why I need a new Mac or Apple Watch SE 3

i don’t like smart watches and I didn't upgrade my 2016 MBP till this year, to a M4. I can see significant performance improvements. So I’d be sitting tight unless you have $$ to burn. 🙃

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

If your current MacBook does what you need at a speed that is acceptable to you, then save your $$$ and get new batteries installed for your Apple Watch and mb. There will always be a newer mb or watch to buy next year or when you really do need to upgrade.

Buy Apple stock with the money you saved instead.

 

[Corefile]

I threw away most (kept a couple) of my VGA cables. The couple I kept are "just in case".

 

[iHorseHead]

If your current MacBook does what you need at a speed that is acceptable to you, then save your $$$ and get new batteries installed for your Apple Watch and mb. There will always be a newer mb or watch to buy next year or when you really do need to upgrade.

Buy Apple stock with the money you saved instead.

Thank you. I've made a decision to save up money and purchase when I can afford it (right now I wouldn't be able to afford a new Apple Watch or a MacBook). I guess it's better to wait.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Thank you. I've made a decision to save up money and purchase when I can afford it (right now I wouldn't be able to afford a new Apple Watch or a MacBook). I guess it's better to wait.

Shhhhh. Dont tell anyone but I am responding to this thread using an (lol haha ) Intel Core 2 Duo 2009 Aluminum unibody MBP with 128gb ssd/8gb ddr2 ram running MX linux 25 and legacy El Capitan and it still works beautifully for my DD needs. I also replaced the battery on my wifes series 1 and my series 2 iwatches last year.

Personally, I enjoy stretching device lifespans with ssd/ram upgrades and thermal paste refreshes and new batteries. If I added up the cost of the mbp & iwatch batteries (20+16+16), ram upgrade (18) and ssd (20) I used for my current tech, I am at $90 all in for everything which wholisticaly I have gotten 16+ years of life out of. Apple stuff is expensive outright so Id only upgrade when I felt I really needed to (as in broken apps/macos or dead mac). Its better than being in perpetual debt over what equates to just stuff.

 

[adrianlondon]

I don't wear watches.

I upgraded my iPhone 11 to the 17 in September, as my 11 has a cracked screen and I decided it was time to upgrade.

I upgraded a 2013 MBP to an Intel 2020 MBA as an insurance payout after someone accidentally broke the screen on the MBP.

And, finally, I upgraded the MBA to an M4 MBP last year as the MBA needed a new battery and I gave it to someone as an upgrade to their 2010 MBA! (They hardly use a laptop but find it useful occasionally.)

(Connected to a monitor, the 2013 MBP still runs well and I have that as a backup. I did have Ubuntu running on it for a while, but I had to put MacOS back on it recently. I'll probably put Ubuntu back on it at some point, just for fun really.)

 

[iHorseHead]

Shhhhh. Dont tell anyone but I am responding to this thread using an (lol haha ) Intel Core 2 Duo 2009 Aluminum unibody MBP with 128gb ssd/8gb ddr2 ram running MX linux 25 and legacy El Capitan and it still works beautifully for my DD needs. I also replaced the battery on my wifes series 1 and my series 2 iwatches last year.

Personally, I enjoy stretching device lifespans with ssd/ram upgrades and thermal paste refreshes and new batteries. If I added up the cost of the mbp & iwatch batteries (20+16+16), ram upgrade (18) and ssd (20) I used for my current tech, I am at $90 all in for everything which wholisticaly I have gotten 16+ years of life out of. Apple stuff is expensive outright so Id only upgrade when I felt I really needed to (as in broken apps/macos or dead mac). Its better than being in perpetual debt over what equates to just stuff.

I actually feel a lot better now. I find 8GB on my MacBook Air very usable and it's been usable for me for the past five years. People used to tell others to get 16GB, because of the swapping or whatever, but I have CIV VI open and other things as well and it's still fast and snappy till this day and now 16GB is not enough, but what people don't realise is that I checked in my country upgrading to 32GB MacBook Air these days would be really expensive. Nearly $600 and 24GB would be $300 something.

MacBook Pros start at $2000 in my country and for the record, my rent is $450. You very rarely get discounts on Apple products. The last good discount I saw was iPhone 14, which I purchased the last year. It was $200 cheaper from the regular price, but only the white colour. iPhone 14 is still around $500 and for whatever reason it makes me feel bad when I read reddit or MacRumors saying that X amount of RAM isn't enough. I don't get how RAM even works, to be honest with you, because my work computer (Windows) has 16GB of RAM and it's always in use. When I look at the task manager it's using 15,8GB all the time, but when I had 8GB it was using 7,4GB of RAM all the time. The company I work for leases computers and the reason why I had to give up my old computer was the end of the support of Windows 10.

MacBook and iPhone works well for me, as well as Apple Watch (I have to charge it twice a day though and the battery health is 78%) and I only use it for steps and tracking my sleep.

El Capitan is pretty old and I'd imagine it's unusable, but then again I was rocking High Sierra till 2020. (Good thing I didn't purchase an Intel MacBook Air when M1 wasn't even released. I really wanted one (not because I actually needed), but the pressure of reading what others write made me feel like I need to upgrade, but Apple products are expensive over here, so I held back. I don't know how things work in the US, because you don't include taxes, but in Europe they're included.

I just checked and MacBook Pro M5 would be $1,918.18 with 24GB of RAM.
The cheapest new MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM over here would be $2 216,12 USD. That's almost as my 5 months of rent. There are PCs too, but they often get discounted. My mom's Lenovo laptop was $400 off on black Friday, but you get to dream about such discounts for Apple products over here. Sometimes you get $50 off.

The last MacBook I really had to replace was my first MacBook 4,1. Lion died so fast and all the app developers moved to Mountain Lion instantly, so in 2013 I saw a cheap MacBook Pro mid 2010 for $500 and I bought this one. It came with 4GB of RAM and I managed to make a game on it using Blender and Unity etc, but it was slow. When I exported the game it took me roughly 2 days and I couldn't use my computer at all, so I do feel like MBA 8GB was an upgrade.

I don't know what kind of an urge sometimes I have to upgrade, even if I can't afford it. I feel an urge to upgrade my watch, because it's stuck on WatchOS 10 and people even talk badly about MacBook Air 16GB versions nowadays, because it's "enough for office work only", but based on my experiences I can even run Xcode pretty smoothly on 8GB.

I'm still torn whether or not I need new Apple products. My heart says yes, my brain says no and my wallet screams NO WAY!

I don't know where you're from, but Apple products are crazy expensive. $2216 for a MacBook Pro is really expensive over here, where the average net salary is like $1200.

My biggest issue is the Apple Watch and it's battery. I even bought a Magsafe battery, because I thought I can charge my Apple Watch on it + Airpods and iPhone, but it doesn't work on my Apple Watch, so when I travel somewhere and I forget to take my charger with me then it's a game over for me. Like the last time I went to travel abroad I packed in a hurry and forgot my Apple Watch charger it didn't even last me 24h + an urge to upgrade because of the posts I read.

Thank you for your reply. It made me feel better.

 

[iHorseHead]

I don't wear watches.

I upgraded my iPhone 11 to the 17 in September, as my 11 has a cracked screen and I decided it was time to upgrade.

I upgraded a 2013 MBP to an Intel 2020 MBA as an insurance payout after someone accidentally broke the screen on the MBP.

And, finally, I upgraded the MBA to an M4 MBP last year as the MBA needed a new battery and I gave it to someone as an upgrade to their 2010 MBA! (They hardly use a laptop but find it useful occasionally.)

(Connected to a monitor, the 2013 MBP still runs well and I have that as a backup. I did have Ubuntu running on it for a while, but I had to put MacOS back on it recently. I'll probably put Ubuntu back on it at some point, just for fun really.)

I have an urge to upgrade to MacBook Air M4 from M1 8GB, but I really don't need to. Same with iPhone 14 because it doesn't have dynamic island and Apple intelligence, but do I really need those things? I barely use ChatGPT nowadays, because I've realised that it's "dumb" to put it lightly. It can't even do basic things and often gives you false information.

It can't even do my job properly and I always end up asking for help from the colleagues instead that are humans and their solutions always work.

It's like I really had an urge to get my first iPad or an iPhone because of Siri and at first it was cool and I used it all the time back in 2013. Nowadays Siri doesn't understand me or just shuts itself off. I don't know why. It doesn't even understand "Hey Siri, play the next song" or it won't set a timer as it used to on iOS 12 for example.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Don’t worry about what other people say. People love to spend your money and they will feed you BS and potentially try to make you feel bad to do it. What matters is ONLY what you think & believe you need to get the job done. If you can still be productive and get what you need completed with what you have, then you have what you need. Don’t fall into the I want trap. Be extremely judicious in regards to who you listen to. Keep that list VERY short. A few solid & well thought out opinions are worth ten times all the BS opinion served up on forums like this one.

Unless your job absolutely depends on it, try extremely hard to not to go into debt over a computer lol. Go into debt for a house or flat or land. Squeeze every cent out of the mba you have and save so when you DO really need a new Mac, you own it out right and it doesn’t pinch your lifestyle to attain it.

Your logic around postponing your purchase is sound. M1s are still fantastic machines and will be for a long time forward. Good luck.

 

[adrianlondon]

From 2021-23 I did a masters in Medical Informatics. Lots of playing with large datasets (local MySQL database, or in Azure if I could be bothered), Python and R doing ML/DL stuff.

Nothing special above, right? No.

All on a base model 2020 Intel MBA. 8GB. It was fine. So your M1 should be, too.

 

[rm5]

I am the type of person who buys things that I will actually use. I sell or recycle things I no longer need. I know far too many hoarders, and I just don't see the point. Really, I don't need that much stuff. For instance, I suspect that in my future apartment/house that I will definitely not own a TV because I would never use it - even if that's seen as a "household staple."