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What MB to choose?

R

RaphaZ

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2021
275
98
Hello dear community!

Your help has been great when months ago I had to purchase a tablet for work.
Now I want to hear your thoughts about M1 MacBooks.

I have a MacBook Air 2013 (8GB RAM, 128 SSD), bought in 2014. It was revolutionary, and I still love it. My MacBook still works great: I work with basic Office (Word, Excel and Power Point, although with big files), mail, web browsing. I'm a PhD candidate, so I type a lot. When at home, I plug in a 10 year monitor (still VGA), and that's my desk!
However, I fear the lack of major OS upgrades for security reasons. The promise of speed increase and powerful battery life also made their point.

So my question is: would you recommend M1 2020 MacBook Pro or Air? Is the Touch Bar a good tool for Office users? Do you feel comfortable writing in the MB Pro? Would I feel a major impact by replacing a 9 year model by M1?

Thank you!
Rafael
 
M-series Macs are so powerful that even a basic M1 MacBook Air is going to completely blow your mind compared to what you are used to.

The problem you are going to have is connecting your ancient monitor to any modern computer, Mac or otherwise.

Touchbar: never used one. I doubt it integrates with Office in any 'absolutely must-have' way. I'm surprised Apple haven't killed it off on the M2 MBP. In fact I'm surprised Apple haven't just killed-off the 13" MPB completely.
 
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You're coming from an ancient computer, so anything current will be significantly faster.

Stick with the Air. The Pro is intended for those running high intensity workloads for long periods of time.
 
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You want to avoid accruing debt if you're a student. If you're worried about MacOS security updates take a look at the thread linked below to install Monterey. For the apps that you run I don't think there is going to be that much of a difference in performance. That leaves the question of how often you run plugged-in vs on battery to justify accruing debt.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-12-monterey-on-unsupported-macs-thread.2299557/
 
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RaphaZ said:
Hello dear community!

Your help has been great when months ago I had to purchase a tablet for work.
Now I want to hear your thoughts about M1 MacBooks.

I have a MacBook Air 2013 (8GB RAM, 128 SSD), bought in 2014. It was revolutionary, and I still love it. My MacBook still works great: I work with basic Office (Word, Excel and Power Point, although with big files), mail, web browsing. I'm a PhD candidate, so I type a lot. When at home, I plug in a 10 year monitor (still VGA), and that's my desk!
However, I fear the lack of major OS upgrades for security reasons. The promise of speed increase and powerful battery life also made their point.

So my question is: would you recommend M1 2020 MacBook Pro or Air? Is the Touch Bar a good tool for Office users? Do you feel comfortable writing in the MB Pro? Would I feel a major impact by replacing a 9 year model by M1?

Thank you!
Rafael
Click to expand...
I have used the Touch Bar and it has its nice uses. As per which to get, the MBA or MBP, it boils down to if you need sustained performance or if you upgrade the internals in any way.

If you do need more RAM or storage, the price hike easily pushes you to get the 13" MBP which is a nice computer. As per to get an M1 or M2, it depends. M1 will perform great for years ahead. M2 Macs are still being manufactured and we have no idea how good stock amounts will be.

If the choice were mine and I have the time to wait, I would pick the 13" M2 MBP with 512GB and 16GB RAM (24GB if you want). If time is tight, go ahead with the M1 13" MBP @ 16GB and 256GB.
 
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JPack said:
You're coming from an ancient computer, so anything current will be significantly faster.

Stick with the Air. The Pro is intended for those running high intensity workloads for long periods of time.
Click to expand...
jav6454 said:
I have used the Touch Bar and it has its nice uses. As per which to get, the MBA or MBP, it boils down to if you need sustained performance or if you upgrade the internals in any way.

If you do need more RAM or storage, the price hike easily pushes you to get the 13" MBP which is a nice computer. As per to get an M1 or M2, it depends. M1 will perform great for years ahead. M2 Macs are still being manufactured and we have no idea how good stock amounts will be.

If the choice were mine and I have the time to wait, I would pick the 13" M2 MBP with 512GB and 16GB RAM (24GB if you want). If time is tight, go ahead with the M1 13" MBP @ 16GB and 256GB.
Click to expand...
I live in Portugal, and the online Apple store doesn't have refurbished models to sell. Also, in the European market fresh M2 models will be sell starting 1500 euros, which seems a bit high for me at the moment.
That's why I've asked about M1 MacBooks. A local "premium reseller" is selling M1 MacBook Pro for 1279 euros (1300 dollars). What do you think about this offer?
 
RaphaZ said:
I live in Portugal, and the online Apple store doesn't have refurbished models to sell. Also, in the European market fresh M2 models will be sell starting 1500 euros, which seems a bit high for me at the moment.
That's why I've asked about M1 MacBooks. A local "premium reseller" is selling M1 MacBook Pro for 1279 euros (1300 dollars). What do you think about this offer?
Click to expand...

If that's the case, then it's a no-brainer to go for the MacBook Pro for 1,279 assuming it's a new unit.
 
RaphaZ said:
I live in Portugal, and the online Apple store doesn't have refurbished models to sell. Also, in the European market fresh M2 models will be sell starting 1500 euros, which seems a bit high for me at the moment.
That's why I've asked about M1 MacBooks. A local "premium reseller" is selling M1 MacBook Pro for 1279 euros (1300 dollars). What do you think about this offer?
Click to expand...
I'm assuming that's the standard model, if so it makes sense to get it if it's new.
 
JPack said:
If that's the case, then it's a no-brainer to go for the MacBook Pro for 1,279 assuming it's a new unit.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is a new unit.
In terms of wedge design, do you think MBP is good for typing or is not as good as the MBA?
 
RaphaZ said:
Yes, it is a new unit.
In terms of wedge design, do you think MBP is good for typing or is not as good as the MBA?
Click to expand...

I prefer the wedge shape for typing, but the touchpad is bigger on the MacBook Pro vs. M1 MBA, so I would say it's an equal trade.
 
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This may or may not apply - my older MS Office Suite was lost when I upgraded to Monterey. I need to find a replacement, ie Pages. I believe this is because older 32 bit programs no longer work.
 
AudiHeel said:
This may or may not apply - my older MS Office Suite was lost when I upgraded to Monterey. I need to find a replacement, ie Pages. I believe this is because older 32 bit programs no longer work.
Click to expand...
Thanks! But Office 365 works without issue, I guess?
 
Yes, but the issue is that, compared to Office 2011, there is much less customizability, no menu customization at all, a ribbon strip that is tiny and frankly hard to see, custom toolbars that are HUGE and encroach on writing space, toolbars that can only be positioned at the top of the screen, not the side, etc.

Libre Office and Open Office provide much of the old look, albeit with some omitted features, and run under recent Mac OSs.
 
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