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What do you want from a new device in order to upgrade?


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    166

floral

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 12, 2023
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Earth
Something that just struck me is that the M1 chips, despite still feeling new, are around 3 years old as of now... which would normally be over halfway into a life cycle. And yet, most M1 users are still reporting great battery life and the Mac never breaking a sweat. So, I'm a little curious as to what will get you to upgrade if you have a mac, if you are thinking about it, or if you didn't consider it.
(Feel free to chip in if you use an Intel as well.)
 
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I use an Intel Mac as my primary machine. I understand its flaws compared to my M1 Air, but I honestly prefer it, because it actually has PCI-e expandability (Mac Pro 5,1).

EDIT: I addressed this in another thread, but when this Mac Pro is no longer usable (which it's getting pretty close), I honestly might switch to a PC as my main computer. I need expandability, and my MacBook just doesn't provide that.
 
I'm still using a 2015 15" MBP currently so they simply have to not mess things up by October (when I have to upgrade) to get me to get one.
Ah yeah.. in hindsight it was a little picky to specify only Silicon users. If you have an Intel feel free to reply here as well !
 
Slimmer bezels and promotion on the air. But even at that, pretty content with my M2 for my basic needs in it. dont see myself upgrading for a few years atleast
 
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Perfectly happy with the hardware. Apple need only upgrade the performance of its OS and software. There needs to be more care taken in just meeting basic expected functionality before it’s released. I cannot believe much of their SW sees anything approaching real-life intensive use before release.
 
  • 32gb ram on base chip
  • 3 external monitors on base chip
  • 3nm
  • Armv9
  • Ray tracing cores
  • Sim Card support
 
Better battery life, smaller notch, thinner bezels, ports would always be welcome, same thing with the performance, more RAM and storage in the base model for $200 to $300 more would be nice, ummm, not much else for the hardware side.
 
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I've upgraded from M1 Air to 16" MBPro with M1 Max, primarily because I needed 32 GB of RAM (I do a lot of Docker/virtualization for work) and ProMotion refresh rate, the only thing that would make me upgrade again would be a screen with more nits. I live close to the Mediterranean and the weather in the summer is nice, but it's not so great with all the sun glaring all day directly to your screen. It's taxing on the eyes, no matter how you adjust the shades and all. I guess it's going to take some time before we make another jump in screen brightness, though.
 
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additional 1x USB-A port
better repairability (upgradable RAM and/or SSD)
no more notch

otherwise I'm going to switch to an AMD laptop when my current MBP 14" (2021) breaks, for x86 compatibility and overall better value
 
I have an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16 and a Mac Studio.

It would be hard to justify upgrading either for me. The MacBook Pro reminds me of my 2014 MacBook Pro 15 - where you feel that it's perfect. Until it gets hotter or slower or doesn't do every thing that you need it to do. It's hard for me to see that happening in the next few years. The kind of things that would get me to upgrade are a 17 inch 4k display, 1 USB-A port, much more efficiency. And I'm talking all of these, not one of them.

The Studio is great too. I have a fair amount of headroom on both systems right now. If I needed more than the Studio, then I would just also add my mini or MacBook Pro to manage additional workload.

My backup laptop is a 2015 MacBook Pro 15 and I can use it if I need to run macOS on x86. I have 2 Windows desktops as well.
 
I am generally very happy with my MBP14 and not planning to upgrade. The things which would make me consider upgrading are: better portability and longer battery life. Maybe a better screen (microLED). Basically, if they put MBP level screen in the Air and make it lighter with better battery life I will be very tempted.
 
Performance Per Watt and Battery life.

The only thing that would convince me moving from my M2 Pro right now would be an OLED screen and even more battery life for my 14"
 
Better prices for more memory and storage. The upgrade prices are extortionate. And yes, Apple, believe it or not, we do need more storage than in 2012. One would think prices for both RAM and SSDs would have gone down since then rather than up.

I also wouldn’t mind a lighter machine with the same power as the MBP. I’m absolutely willing to trade off battery life for that. Usually I’m carrying it on my back from one place it can plug in to another place it can plug in. Can’t remember the last time I worked on battery for more than 2 hours at a time.
 
At this point, I don't know of any feature or improvement that would cause me to upgrade my M1 MBP.

I'm not saying things couldn't be improved but realistically what I want and what Apple will do are two different things.

I would upgrade my MBP, if Apple offered replaceable/upgradable components, i.e., storage, ram, etc. I think a lower price is something that would be well received as well.
 
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Thinking about updating my 2017 27” iMac but given the smaller sizes of AS desktops am seriously looking at a 2020 iMac in the refurb store. Don’t really care all that much what’s under the hood, just whether or not I can see it onscreen.
 
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