Return M3 and wait for M4

[MrGimper]

I just bough a 16" MBP M3 Max. I bought it from the apple refurb store at a significant saving, so I won't be returning. Especially as I have upgraded from the 2019 16" i9. Refurbs don't tend to appear until about 5 months after launch anyway.

Just curious what others plan to do.

 

[TheBigDutch]

I will be waiting for the m4 MacBook

 

[Hedgo]

I'm on a MPB 2020 intel and want/need to upgrade (Touch Bar dying/doing more video processing work)... would it be worth trying to squeeze every last drop out until M4 or just bite the bullet?

 

[MrGimper]

I'm on a MPB 2020 intel and want/need to upgrade (Touch Bar dying/doing more video processing work)... would it be worth trying to squeeze every last drop out until M4 or just bite the bullet?

If you’re going to purchase at launch, then perhaps it’s worth waiting. BUT as yet we have no idea when M4 MBPs will be announced or launched. I always buy Apple Refurb, so that’s normally 5 months after launch. That’s then probably into March 2025 earliest (guessing).

 

[mikethebigo]

I'm on a MPB 2020 intel and want/need to upgrade (Touch Bar dying/doing more video processing work)... would it be worth trying to squeeze every last drop out until M4 or just bite the bullet?

If you need something now, buy now. By the time M4 machines come out, I guarantee you'll already be hearing about M5. There's always something better around the corner.

 

[Hedgo]

If you’re going to purchase at launch, then perhaps it’s worth waiting. BUT as yet we have no idea when M4 MBPs will be announced or launched. I always buy Apple Refurb, so that’s normally 5 months after launch. That’s then probably into March 2025 earliest (guessing).

Thanks - I was guessing Sept launch so could wait til then (probably).
I've always been a bit too scared to go refurb. What's your experience of it?

 

[Hedgo]

If you need something now, buy now. By the time M4 machines come out, I guarantee you'll already be hearing about M5. There's always something better around the corner.

yeah of course. My thinking was just timing... I think I've got 6 months left on this so whichever M chip it is it'll do... just wondered if the 4 will be that much different than the 3 (apart from cost! ;-)

 

[MrGimper]

Thanks - I was guessing Sept launch so could wait til then (probably).
I've always been a bit too scared to go refurb. What's your experience of it?

My experience has been superb over the years. Used it to buy my first "new" MBP in 2014.

Basically brand new products with stupid discounts. Only issue I ever had was recently when buying this M3 MBP... I ordered about 3 devices of different spec to try and one had very light scratches on the back. The rest were immaculate. Unfortunately that was the spec I really wanted to keep so just initiated a return and bought a replacement. That arrived yesterday and is indistinguishable from new like the others. I'm using it right now.

It's a £4700 laptop and I paid just under £4000. Full warranty and can add AC+ within 60 days.

Can't beat it, if you can wait a little.

 

[MrGimper]

yeah of course. My thinking was just timing... I think I've got 6 months left on this so whichever M chip it is it'll do... just wondered if the 4 will be that much different than the 3 (apart from cost! ;-)

It'll be faster, that's probably all we know for sure.

But even an M1 is crazy faster than the intel, and SO much quieter.

If it wasn't for Apple Refurb, and the fact the M3 introduced the dynamic caching and hardware ray-tracing (i.e. something definitely new over previous chips) then I'd have probably gone M2.

 

[Basic75]

If you need something now, buy now. By the time M4 machines come out, I guarantee you'll already be hearing about M5. There's always something better around the corner.

Yeah, and if you recently bought an M3 Mac and can return it to wait for the M4, did you really need a new computer in the first place?

 

[DaveEcc]

I've always been a bit too scared to go refurb. What's your experience of it?

Not the one you asked, but with enough anecdotes, it starts to become data...

I wouldn't touch a refurb done by a 3rd party, but Apple's own refurbs are great. I had a refurb 15" 2013 MBP that had a battery replacement in 2019, and was retired when I got a M1Pro MBP. It gave us no trouble.

I have a refurb 27" 2012 iMac that I still use today, but does sorely need replacement as there are no OS updates... so it's lasted a full decade.

 

[TheRealAlex]

100% Return ALL M3 Device Pro or Max. M4 beats an M3 I’m just gonna enjoy my 10 Core M4 iPad Pro. Buy an M4 Pro MacMini. And wait for a 2025 M5 Max OLED 14” MacBook Pro.

 

[xraydoc]

100% Return ALL M3 Device Pro or Max. M4 beats an M3 I’m just gonna enjoy my 10 Core M4 iPad Pro. Buy an M4 Pro MacMini. And wait for a 2025 M5 Max OLED 14” MacBook Pro.

Doesn't make sense. If you are able to return a new machine and wait an indeterminate amount of time, then you didn't really need the new machine to begin with.
I bought an M3 Max in February and I have no regrets. I bought it when I needed it.

 

[nikikaly21]

I found a way to wait for the M4 MacBook Pro: I traded in my baseline M2 Air 15 for a refurbished M1 MacBook Pro at Best Buy.

I doubled my ram, storage, and got a way nicer screen for it. With my trade-in, the Pro was about $600. I'd figured I'd get equal or more to it when trading it in for the M4 MacBook Pro.

Almost like a "down payment" to wait out the new M4 releases.

However, I agree with the viewpoint that the M3 did not fully tap into the 3nm build, and that the M4, hopefully with deeper machine-learning integration, would be a significant upgrade from the M1/2.

Already being on M3 makes that jump to M4 TBD. It would have to really be significantly better because you have two price entries at near-total retail price (M3 Mac and M4 Mac). That's a lot of $ for what could be a minor jump.

My take? If you're on M1 or M2 (whatever variant), skip M3 and wait to M4 - if you're already on M3, wait until the M4 release.

 

[theluggage]

My take? If you're on M1 or M2 (whatever variant), skip M3 and wait to M4 - if you're already on M3, wait until the M4 release.

My current policy when buying a new computer is - plan for 3 years of use, hope for 5 years, dream of 7 years and, sometime during years 4-7 buy something that was very recently launched (...maybe give it a month or two for "whatevergate" to emerge...). What is unfortunate is when Apple let's something go for 3 or more years between updates so there's nothing "fresh" to buy if you need an urgent replacement or second system.

Obviously, if you have money to burn and like to have the latest shiny, that's entirely up to you (although I'd suggest modular synths as a more efficient way of getting rid of all that cash cluttering up your house )

I think if you're hitting the CPU limits of a M1 Max the M3 Max might be at least tempting, because with M3 the Max became an all-round more powerful chip, rather than a Pro with extra GPU, RAM etc. bolted on... but then I suspect lots of us went for the M1 Max just to get the extra RAM and display support... Plus the M3 Max got a price boost to go with the power boost...

 

[nikikaly21]

My current policy when buying a new computer is - plan for 3 years of use, hope for 5 years, dream of 7 years and, sometime during years 4-7 buy something that was very recently launched (...maybe give it a month or two for "whatevergate" to emerge...). What is unfortunate is when Apple let's something go for 3 or more years between updates so there's nothing "fresh" to buy if you need an urgent replacement or second system.

Obviously, if you have money to burn and like to have the latest shiny, that's entirely up to you (although I'd suggest modular synths as a more efficient way of getting rid of all that cash cluttering up your house )

I think if you're hitting the CPU limits of a M1 Max the M3 Max might be at least tempting, because with M3 the Max became an all-round more powerful chip, rather than a Pro with extra GPU, RAM etc. bolted on... but then I suspect lots of us went for the M1 Max just to get the extra RAM and display support... Plus the M3 Max got a price boost to go with the power boost...

I bought the Air for $900 open-box excellent, traded in for $800 (after six months of usage) to bring down cost of M1 Pro to $600. So, paid total $1,500 between two machines to end up with M1 Pro 16 inch, in addition to also getting 16GB Ram and 512 GB storage (double specs) plus the nicer screen. No brainer.

Looking to get top trade-in value for my M1 Pro when the M4 Pro launches (cost TBD).

I've only spent like $1500 in the last 8-months. I don't think that's a particularly wasteful use of cash.

 

[theluggage]

I've only spent like $1500 in the last 8-months. I don't think that's a particularly wasteful use of cash.

I wasn't criticising - it's entirely up to you how much you think is reasonable to spend on tech and how to manage your money.

For comparison, though, I spent the equivalent of $3k on a 32GB/1TB M1 Max system 2 years ago (it was actually a Studio plus a pair of 4k displays, but a M1 Max MBP would have cost about the same & wouldn't change the argument) and intend to keep it for at least another year, if not two. But, let's "worst case" and say I'm compelled to buy a M4 Max Studio right after WWDC. I'll have spent $3000 for 24 months use of a 32GB M1 Max (minus anything I get from trading it in used). You'll have spent $1500 for 8 months use of an 8GB M2 and a month or two of a pre-owned 16GB M1 Pro - again, minus whatever trade-in you get on your M1 Pro system.

Personally, I tend to think in terms of annual rates, so in my case that's $1000/year if I stick with the 3 year plan, better for each year I stretch it out and don't bother with trade-ins (which means I always have my previous system as a viable fall-back) for a higher-end spec than you have. That's also how I decide on upgrades/future-proofing: if this upgrade makes it last an extra year, what does it do to the annual rate?

Now, I'm not going to stretch a point by assuming you'll spend $1500 every 8 months (so $2250/year) - but that's the pitfall you'll have to watch for if you keep "trading up" - and remember that trade-in values might be less generous when you're trading in a 3-year-old design for the latest release.

Anyway - it is not a competition, and personal money management is way beyond the remit of this thread. Thinking in terms of annual rates may or not make sense in someone's particular situation.

 

[tim1000]

Knew I would see a lot of this as the oled on the iPad is better than what’s in the MacBooks. Is the advice don’t buy for MacBooks? If so what if it’s years before oled hits Mac?

 

[nikikaly21]

I wasn't criticising - it's entirely up to you how much you think is reasonable to spend on tech and how to manage your money.

For comparison, though, I spent the equivalent of $3k on a 32GB/1TB M1 Max system 2 years ago (it was actually a Studio plus a pair of 4k displays, but a M1 Max MBP would have cost about the same & wouldn't change the argument) and intend to keep it for at least another year, if not two. But, let's "worst case" and say I'm compelled to buy a M4 Max Studio right after WWDC. I'll have spent $3000 for 24 months use of a 32GB M1 Max (minus anything I get from trading it in used). You'll have spent $1500 for 8 months use of an 8GB M2 and a month or two of a pre-owned 16GB M1 Pro - again, minus whatever trade-in you get on your M1 Pro system.

Personally, I tend to think in terms of annual rates, so in my case that's $1000/year if I stick with the 3 year plan, better for each year I stretch it out and don't bother with trade-ins (which means I always have my previous system as a viable fall-back) for a higher-end spec than you have. That's also how I decide on upgrades/future-proofing: if this upgrade makes it last an extra year, what does it do to the annual rate?

Now, I'm not going to stretch a point by assuming you'll spend $1500 every 8 months (so $2250/year) - but that's the pitfall you'll have to watch for if you keep "trading up" - and remember that trade-in values might be less generous when you're trading in a 3-year-old design for the latest release.

Anyway - it is not a competition, and personal money management is way beyond the remit of this thread. Thinking in terms of annual rates may or not make sense in someone's particular situation.

Correct, I think it's just different approaches. I didn't have the up-front capital for an M3 16-inch, now or when I decided I needed a MacBook on October 23. I still needed a Mac, and the Air at that price was a great deal.

I was almost doing it piecemeal waiting for the launch model refurb to drop enough to finally break into M-Pro 16 inch ownership. My goal is to keep now keep this M1 Pro for at least 12 or so months, but can stretch it more if my needs don't max out, and try to buy an at-launch M4 or M5 16-inch (really hoping for a chassis redesign in the Space Black color) to keep for 3-5 years thereafter.

The Air was great for travel but it was so easy to operationally max out. The M2 was of no help/need because of the single-slot 256GB SSD and 8GB of memory - couldn't open more than 4-5 tabs with my work apps open without it slowing down. New (well, refurb'ed) M1 Pro is a lot better - only 77 cycle counts, battery at 97%, and it's been a night and day difference. Not to mention the screen, 120hz, or extra storage (enough for on-the-go Baldurs Gate 3 playthroughs!)