Your suggestions are spot on. I have been using your version 2 (MBP plus external displays when in desktop mode) since 2017. Then on a recent month+ trip running an out of town project I carried the MBP plus one external display. The Studio + portable display for such travel would work.
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New MacBook Pro and Mac Mini With M2 Pro Chips Likely to Launch in November
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1) The idea that M2 brings almost no benefits over M1 is simply wrong.
2) Um, folks need to see what the new Mini may be before buying a refurbished M1 Mac mini right now!
3) What redesign is it that you expect? Seriously. It is an inexpensive metal rectangular box low-end headless computer.
Real world benefits for everyday use. Not the spec sheet achievements.
If there is no redesign only a spec bump to M2, no we don't need to see it.
The shape of the current Mac mini is still inherited from the original need to fit a CD drive, HD drive, x86 CPU, separate GPU, separate RAM slots, cooling and power supply. Now as an integrated arm64 SoC the Mac mini could shrink by up to ~80% in volume.
That was never a problem for me regarding Pirelli, but I can see where you’re coming from.
Apple should rename their chips: Good, Better, Best.
4 years out I can't remember the difference between Hyper and Ultra, which is kind of my point here. I'm not saying its the worst thing in the world, but when people here are calling me an idiot for not knowing the difference between them and get the names wrong, its clear that a better solution is possible. Intel has i3/i5/i7/i9, AMD has something similar, it feels like they could have something that designates it better like the A processors have for example. The A12 has a few different versions.
Assume this is what you meant to reply to. For me Max means its the maximum available, so having the Ultra as a faster version is a bit weird, but thats okay. At least on the Intel side we have years of knowing that an i3 has less cores than an i7 or i9.
We certainly look at computers differently. Me, I could care less about the differences in your rendering, but the specs are what is real world about some headless PC box. And in addition to the specs, real world includes the result of tens of thousands of hours that the world's top computer engineers spent upgrading M1 to M2.
Like I said earlier in this thread:
First off, M2 is a year newer and always will be. Buyers of M1 today will always be ~a year further behind the tech curve than buyers of M2 today; M1 will reach EOL a year sooner.
Secondly, M2 is the evolved generation of M1's spectacular performance achievements, and will have thousands of lines of cleaned up code, etc. under the hood.
Thirdly, improved internal specs like WiFi 6E, USB, etc. may present. Perhaps not the "design/color changes" so many here seem to desire (which totally escape me, because I care almost exclusively about performance/cost issues), but things that make life nicer over the 3-6 year life of a new box.
Fourth but not least is expected M2 20% performance improvement is actually quite a bit given how good M1 are.
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Reading Microsoft’s aim about a hybrid computing environment for the future isn’t giving me fond thoughts of continuing windows at home even though I feel Win11 is Microsoft’s best windows product ever.
Attachment right from Microsoft’s dev blog site on the Windows Arm desktop DevKit announcement.
Attachments
M2 vs M1:
Cinebench R23 Multi Core +11%
Cinebench R23 Single Core +4%
Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core) -6%
Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core) +10%
Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit +13%
Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit +7%
Geekbench 5 64 Bit Single-Core +11%
Geekbench 5 64 Bit Multi-Core +18%
On average the M2 is 11% faster than the M1. That's exactly the kind of difference you can safely ignore, when you only care about performance and nothing else.
I'm only considering M2 Mac mini if it could be configured with 32GB memory
Awhile back I just hoped that Apple would at least stick a M1 Pro in a updated Mac mini or a larger iMac. Even if the M2 is clocked a bit higher a M1 Pro would have been a better update. Bandwidth is double a M2, 10 CPU cores/16 GPU cores, and supports 32 GB RAM.
Utilizing the industry-leading 5-nanometer process technology, M1 Pro packs in 33.7 billion transistors, more than 2x the amount in M1. A new 10-core CPU, including eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores, is up to 70 percent faster than M1, resulting in unbelievable pro CPU performance. Compared with the latest 8-core PC laptop chip, M1 Pro delivers up to 1.7x more CPU performance at the same power level and achieves the PC chip’s peak performance using up to 70 percent less power.1 Even the most demanding tasks, like high-resolution photo editing, are handled with ease by M1 Pro.
M1 Pro has an up-to-16-core GPU that is up to 2x faster than M1 and up to 7x faster than the integrated graphics on the latest 8-core PC laptop chip.1Compared to a powerful discrete GPU for PC notebooks, M1 Pro delivers more performance while using up to 70 percent less power.2 And M1 Pro can be configured with up to 32GB of fast unified memory, with up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth, enabling creatives like 3D artists and game developers to do more on the go than ever before.
But the standard 13" macbook isn't much bigger than an 10" ipad. Especially not with the keyboard and pencil attached.
I never had any issues using my MBPs in cramped conditions. And I've used it a lot, from busses to data centers (where you could theoretically get electricity, but often it's heavily regulated, so just because you see an open socket, you're not allowed to plug something in). And of course, while travelling.
I remember I brought my first mac mini (g4) to uni one day. It was more of a proof of concept rather than being practical. For LAN Parties the mini would be great, if the new one would get a good onboard graphics.
Like I said, we disagree. It was all said in my post above, and there is a reason that I listed the benchmark performance improvements as the fourth, last item.
Plus when you claim "we don't need to see it" and reference benchmarks from base level chips, that IMO is irrational when real M2 Pro and M2 Max upgrades are expected to be imminent. IMO we do need to see it before making assumptions like "that's exactly the kind of difference you can safely ignore."
Max simply means Apple's largest chip by area. Larger than M1 and M1 Pro.
Ultra literally "beyond in space" or "on the other side" means to take two of those largest chips and fuse them together. But Max is still the largest.
i3 means entry level
i5 means mid level
i7 means pro level
i9 means extreme level
The numbers don't tell anything about the core count, chip generation, wattage or any specific chip technology. Literally hundreds of different Intel chips are named i5.
Of course this is total speculation, but I don't think we'll see HDMI 2.1 until Apple moves the Mac to Thunderbolt 5.
Fair, I think I meant that it will be evolutionary vs revolutionary.
Basically what we saw with M1 vs M2: some more GPU cores and faster clock speeds. I’d venture around a 15-25% bump in performance.
What I’m probably most excited for is WiFi 6E. I figure it’s practically guaranteed since the iPad Pros got it. That will really future proof the device.
The base M2 goes to 24GB in the systems it's shipped in so far.
So, if there's a M2 Pro Mini, I'd hope for 24/48GB options.
But, we won't know, until we know.
... 24.. ram.. The first Mac I ever owner, a Centris 650, had 24*MB* ram...
God... I hate getting old..
Sigh.
M2 gets hardware accelerated ProRes. M1 doesn't have it at all.
iPhone 13 Pro/Max and 14 Pro/Max can record in 4K ProRes.
I could see that being the roadblock.
Somewhere back I remember seeing that the SD Card and HDMI ports share a single Thunderbolt lane (hence why we only have 3 Thunderbolt/USB ports) which limits the speeds of both.
Would still be disappointing. Especially if the rumored upcoming 120 Hz Apple Display is true.
In Space Grey/Black please
You mean Apple magic mouse with lightning on its back like a turtle right? not the side.