What should I buy? Please help! New 2021 MacBook Pros

[Jore]

Hi everyone,

I currently use a 2019 i5 / 8GB RAM MacBook Pro for work. No heavy video or photo editing but very large spreadsheets, lots of Chrome tabs, Zoom etc. These days, the fans kick on even under moderate load and the system becomes sluggish.

Have been looking at the M1 Macs but holding off to see what the new MacBook Pros bring. Now they are here, not sure which way to go.

Save my $ and go a spec'd up MacBook Air (8-core, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) for ~$2.5K AUD or baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro (8-core, 512GB, 16GB RAM) for $3K. Little concerned that the baseline MacBook Pro is the 'binned' chip. To go the 10-core, I am looking at ~$3.3K.

Based on my needs, should I step up to the MacBook Pro? And if I do, should I be concerned about the 'binned' chip?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TiggrToo]

Hi everyone,

I currently use a 2019 i5 / 8GB RAM MacBook Pro for work. No heavy video or photo editing but very large spreadsheets, lots of Chrome tabs, Zoom etc. These days, the fans kick on even under moderate load and the system becomes sluggish.

Have been looking at the M1 Macs but holding off to see what the new MacBook Pros bring. Now they are here, not sure which way to go.

Save my $ and go a spec'd up MacBook Air (8-core, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) for ~$2.5K AUD or baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro (8-core, 512GB, 16GB RAM) for $3K. Little concerned that the baseline MacBook Pro is the 'binned' chip. To go the 10-core, I am looking at ~$3.3K.

Based on my needs, should I step up to the MacBook Pro? And if I do, should I be concerned about the 'binned' chip?

Thanks in advance.

Personally I’d go for something like a M1 powered Air over a MBP with the Pro or Max chip if those are your needs.

Not sure why you’d be concerned with binning - it’s pretty much industry standard.