portable Mac for online remote contol

[MacSafe]

Hello!

I'm looking for a small MacBook for portable remote control of my lab PC while traveling. I don't need high performance — just something affordable.

I found a 2018 MacBook Pro 13", i7, 16GB RAM. The battery health is around 80%, and the price is $220.

I was wondering if this is a good deal, or if I should look at an M1 Mac, which can be found for around $450.

what do you think?

 

[G5isAlive]

Whenever possible these days go with Apple Silicon, in this case the M1. It uses less power, runs much cooler, is faster, and more and more software including the OS is optimized for it. There is no reason to get an Intel Mac unless you want to run windows. And an 80% battery is on the verge of failure. Apple recommends you replace at 80.

 

[MacSafe]

Whenever possible these days go with Apple Silicon, in this case the M1. It uses less power, runs much cooler, is faster, and more and more software including the OS is optimized for it. There is no reason to get an Intel Mac unless you want to run windows. And an 80% battery is on the verge of failure. Apple recommends you replace at 80.

see, 450$ is beyond my budget.
i bought the M1P 16`, and its still hurts haha

 

[ipaqrat]

yes, what @G5isAlive said 👆. And also, remember that your local host has its own attack surface, and you'll want to make sure its new enough to take all new OS security updates (which all M-series are). I have a 2018 MBP (Intel) which is running Sequoia fine and should be patched for at least a few years longer.

As an alternative, you might check out using a portable monitor, keyboard and mouse with a phone, or perhaps a tablet, or perhaps a Chromebook, with a trustworthy RDP client. I haven't spec'd this type of solution in, like, a decade (****, I'm old), but nowadays, you'd want to confirm end-to-end encryption before investing anything.

 

[Bigwaff]

And an 80% battery is on the verge of failure. Apple recommends you replace at 80.

@MacSafe While certainly not ideal, 80% battery health is certainly not “on the verge of failure”. Battery can still function for many years, though drain fast depending on computing usage, maybe 3-4 hours. Certainly replacing at some point should be considered if you plan to rely on battery majority of time.

 

[MacSafe]

@MacSafe While certainly not ideal, 80% battery health is certainly not “on the verge of failure”. Battery can still function for many years, though drain fast depending on computing usage, maybe 3-4 hours. Certainly replacing at some point should be considered if you plan to rely on battery majority of time.

Thanks.
I believe I will use power bank as well while I'm on the go..

 

[chrfr]

The keyboards on all the 2016-2019 MacBook/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air are prone to failure. If you have any way at all to get an M1 MacBook Air it will last you much longer and be a far better value and better experience.

 

[G5isAlive]

@MacSafe While certainly not ideal, 80% battery health is certainly not “on the verge of failure”. Battery can still function for many years, though drain fast depending on computing usage, maybe 3-4 hours. Certainly replacing at some point should be considered if you plan to rely on battery majority of time.

Agree to disagree… the risk of battery swelling goes up below 80% … and while 80% sounds ok you know failure rate is not linear.. of course some people don’t use the battery at all.. so let’s quibble about ‘verge’ but you know it’s far from ideal.