Macbook at Work

[CSAppleFan]

Hi everyone,

I work in HR, specifically in Total Rewards, so I am in excel all day doing a lot of modeling/dashboard type of work in addition to all of the regular type of office tasks.

My company issues out PC laptops which I am not the biggest fan of. Constant issues, terrible battery life, etc. My company does allow BYOD so I wanted to get a MacBook. I'm specifically looking at the Pro's due to the better display when not hooked up to monitor.

I was thinking M1 Pro or M2 Pro chip. Probably leaning more towards M1 Pro. I know I can't find them new or on Apple Refurb so I'm looking on eBay.

Given that we are in 2026 would the M1 Pro still hold up for my work or should I look newer?

 

[chrono1081]

I would go M2. M1 to M2 was a big leap.

 

[hare_star]

While I'm not really familiar with HR work, Excel isn't exactly something that is similar to:
a) Big database like PSQL with contant access.
b) Or some big 3D rendering in Blender.
In the end it's office work not the hardest computing there is.
So I think the early M chips would be cool with solid amount of RAM (16 GB).

 

[Bigwaff]

My company does allow BYOD so I wanted to get a MacBook.

I would be hesitant. Review BYOD policies closely. Considering all the security and activity tracking software typically installed as part of BYOD implementations, I would never use a BYOD device for personal computing use -- ever. This is not a "best of both worlds" scenario, if that is a factor of your thinking.

 

[ifxf]

Need to check if capabilities you use in Excel are present on the Mac. Most are but, for example, VBA is not a fully featured on the Mac.

 

[Hajj.david]

Hi everyone,

I work in HR, specifically in Total Rewards, so I am in excel all day doing a lot of modeling/dashboard type of work in addition to all of the regular type of office tasks.

My company issues out PC laptops which I am not the biggest fan of. Constant issues, terrible battery life, etc. My company does allow BYOD so I wanted to get a MacBook. I'm specifically looking at the Pro's due to the better display when not hooked up to monitor.

I was thinking M1 Pro or M2 Pro chip. Probably leaning more towards M1 Pro. I know I can't find them new or on Apple Refurb so I'm looking on eBay.

Given that we are in 2026 would the M1 Pro still hold up for my work or should I look newer?

The Air M4 has better performance then the M1 Pro and possibly even M2 Pro. For the price and thinness unless you have a crazy workload get the Air. I make large and heavy Swift/SwiftUI apps on my Air and it barely gets warm. If you can wait and the price is good get the M5 Air