The MacRumors Show: Are the M3 MacBook Pro and iMac Worth the Wait?

[Macalway]

One of the beauties of Capitalism…. If the overall Apple experience isn’t for you, go ahead and buy the Intel. Bye bye.

My statement has nothing to do with my choice. I use both, and always will, just like many people here. And i'm not going anywhere, thanks!

 

[lk400]

I’d much rather watch an event like that than skim through a dull press release that fails to get across the impact of the changes. If people aren’t wanting to spend time on an event, they are free to read up on it aftwards.

While listening to Hartley’s complaint about the event my first thought was “get some rest grumpy grandpa”, then I had to wonder if it would have been better to read a summary article rather than listen to the podcast (or or watch the video if that’s how you engage). There wasn’t much substantial in that episode that couldn’t have been just an article so maybe the complaint could apply to both the event and the article about it.

I do generally like the Dan and Hartley show but this was more of a complaint session that anything interesting.

I have seen the titles for these videos with Dan and the other chap but never clicked until this one. For me it was unwatchable, the chap on the right was so strangely negative and it was clear that Dan was feeling uncomfortable so it just made it look like a toxic work colleague complaining about something. I really like Dan’s solo videos, but couldn’t watch this.

 

[Tagbert]

I have seen the titles for these videos with Dan and the other chap but never clicked until this one. For me it was unwatchable, the chap on the right was so strangely negative and it was clear that Dan was feeling uncomfortable so it just made it look like a toxic work colleague complaining about something. I really like Dan’s solo videos, but couldn’t watch this.

Normally, Hartley is not like that. Which was one of the reasons that episode seemed off.

I don’t get the hate for having an event. Sure, it was not the most earth shattering event, but I liked getting the information about the different chips and particularly the details about the GPU changes. If they were talking about the chips, it makes sense to talk about the devices they will be used in. Sure, it could have been some dry press release but this was more interesting than that.

I think the main problem was that a lot of people were building the event up saying that it was going to have a lot of other things in it. People have also built up the idea of the M3 as being as big a jump as the M1 and not incremental like the M2. In reality M1 was such a dramatic event because the Intel machines before it were such POSs. We were blown away by M1 and people were looking for that again. The actual M3 could never live up to the hype, even though it was a very good improvement over the M2. I’m looking forward to seeing benchmarks and reviews in the next week or two.

 

[skoor101]

So the big update is the question- should this have been an event or press release? LOL. I skipped forward several times to get past this pressing question, but I just gave up.

 

[Tagbert]

So the big update is the question- should this have been an event or press release? LOL. I skipped forward several times to get past this pressing question, but I just gave up.

We have gotten to the meta stage of the discussion.

 

[Steve Ballmer]

Clearly we are now at the Meh phase with Apple folks... what I mean is, before Apple Silicon, Apple was at the mercy of Intel and their chip schedule. Very erratic updates and people would complain about the LACK of updates to the laptop line. Now that Apple controls the CPU and GPU, which is now on a once a year update schedule so far, now people complain that the update is just MEH...

Tough crowd for sure.

The only people that are going to find it "meh" are the drones that needlessly update hardware every single year. The average person that upgrades their computer every 5-6 years will be fine, it means they can move to something like the M4/M5/M6 and it will be a pretty nice upgrade. Kind of akin to waiting 3-4 years to upgrade a smartphone.

 

[Steve Ballmer]

"Worth the wait"?? sigh. No one is "waiting" for an Apple update. Electronics are commodities. When you need one, you go buy one. You'll get the latest, most current tech at the time of purchase. There is no "waiting".

Correct. This is how the real world works. The only people who "wait" or get "excited" about hardware is us, people who use forums like this. People buy hardware when they need it. Most do not know and do not care about specs, the version of the operating system, or anything like that. They turn it on, they use it, they turn it off and go to bed. And ironically, this was really the original driving spirit behind the Macintosh. It was an appliance, it was something that worked when you needed it, and you never gave it much thought beyond that.

I had to buy a new washing machine this year because my old one stopped working after about 20 years. It wasn't some epic, months long decision. I didn't spend hours looking at various models and thinking about the pros and cons. I went to my local store, found one that was similar to what I had before, and I bought it. And it's been working fine ever since, and I stopped thinking about it after I bought it.

 

[SurferPup]

I really liked this Apple Event as it was succinct without circus fanfare. Johnny Srouji is the perfect presenter for the M3 chip specifications and clearly a very intelligent member of the Apple team. I enjoyed and understood the factual information he imparted by avoiding treating his audience as tech morons. I believe that Apple made a smart choice with the design of their different M3 MscBook Pros to cater for various market segments. I researched each variant and ascertained that the M3 Pro base model will fulfil my needs for a long time to come at a price that I am happy to pay and a significant upgrade on my M1 MacBook Air. The M3 Pro will be able to support two external monitors if I ever need it. This 14 MacBook Pro with accessories is cheaper than my October 2018 15 MacBook Pro (though my salary was higher then). USB C ports for Magic Mice, Keyboards and Track Pads will come and might even happen before owners need to recharge their existing accessories. I would be elated and not shocked to see two versions of the next Magic Mouse revealed: a cheaper USB C ported mouse and a wireless charged enable mouse with a USB C port. An event like this that was short and sweet with mostly factual information meant I was able to view most of it at work.

 

[switz]

I enjoyed the information but some of the presenters not so much.

I got the information that I will wait at least another cycle to see if the M series Mini Pro gets a better memory upgrade next time (32MB to 36MB vs my hoped for 32GB to 64GB was disappointing). So my mini Intel i7 file server (64GB OWC memory and soldered in 2TB SSD) will continue doing its job until Intel support in MacOS stops or the specs improve to where I would like them.

It could be that my M1 Mac Studio replaces the mini if I acquire a M4 Mac Studio. Yes the M1 was very expensive, but the trade in value is ridiculously low so repurposing the M1 Studio makes sense. The existing two Studio Displays would not need to be changed.

 

[Satch111]

Getting m2 ultra speeds in a laptop is an event, even if most people are too dumb to see that.

 

[ikramerica]

"Worth the wait"?? sigh. No one is "waiting" for an Apple update. Electronics are commodities. When you need one, you go buy one. You'll get the latest, most current tech at the time of purchase. There is no "waiting".

Depends on the person. I waited for the Apple Silicon and waited to see how it worked in the real world. I had the last non-retina MBP and it was a workhorse and because AS was coming I waited quite a while.

Some people wait if it’s been a long time between cycles and they need but don’t NEED a new machine, but ultimately you get what is available when you need it.