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Jacoblee23

macrumors 65816
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Nov 10, 2011
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Current m1 Air/pro owner here. Trying to figure out who these new machines are for. Are they for us people who do common everyday things or they meant primarily for professionals? I have started attempting to dabble in some video editing but mainly do paperwork and use the built in productivity apps on my m1 machines. I use one for work and one for home. I love the insane battery life. Who are the new machines not for and who are they for?
 
It's not designed for you and others like you. It's for professionals who need the capabilities of the machine. You don't. That doesn't mean you can't buy one...but it does mean that you likely won't ever come close to utilizing the capabilities. You're better off keeping your money.
 
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It is kind of difficult to answer this question, because it is simultaneously too vague and too specific. Why do computers have to be "for somebody"? I would say they are for whoever buys them. These are very solid jack of all trades machines that can kind of do anything (with M1 Max focusing on GPU performance) without any significant drawbacks.

As a regular user, you will probably be perfectly fine with a base M1 though. It's not like these new Pros are going to be a bad choice for you (because as I said above, they can do pretty much anything), but hey are quite expensive and if you are not planning to utilize the hardware why not get a cheaper M1 Pro or Air?
 
It is not for me. I appreciate the performance boost, but I do not like the additional weight or the decreased battery life. I would much prefer a lighter model with better battery life, which would necessarily result in a slower laptop. And I would be just fine with that.
 
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It's not designed for you and others like you. It's for professionals who need the capabilities of the machine. You don't. That doesn't mean you can't buy one...but it does mean that you likely won't ever come close to utilizing the capabilities. You're better off keeping your money.
It's also for 'anyone who wants the best laptop they can get.' There are plenty of features in these machines that will be appreciated by people who just love nice tech and want a great laptop - the speakers, mini-LED, ProMotion, vastly improved webcam, beautiful design, larger screen, etc.
 
It is not for me. I appreciate the performance boost, but I do not like the additional weight or the decreased battery life. I would much prefer a lighter model with better battery life, which would necessarily result in a slower laptop. And I would be just fine with that.
So the M1 Air? Or do you mean at a larger screen size? A 15" M2 Air at $1599 would be nothing to sneeze at. But it would cannibalize the Pros *a lot.*
 
It's also for 'anyone who wants the best laptop they can get.' There are plenty of features in these machines that will be appreciated by people who just love nice tech and want a great laptop - the speakers, mini-LED, ProMotion, vastly improved webcam, beautiful design, larger screen, etc.
The M1 laptops from last year are great laptops. There's no need to buy a flame thrower when you only need a match.
 
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So the M1 Air? Or do you mean at a larger screen size? A 15" M2 Air at $1599 would be nothing to sneeze at. But it would cannibalize the Pros *a lot.*
I think an Air is more suitable for me. A larger Air would be great and would cost less than the Pro. What if it cannibalizes the Pro? The purpose of Apple offering a $2499 16.2-inch Pro should be to provide the performance necessary to professionals and "prosumers" and not imposing a higher-price laptop with tons of features on those who just want a larger screen. If Apple's purpose is to compel users to buy unnecessary features as a requirement to benefit from the larger display, then I would happily buy a Windows laptop instead.
 
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I think an Air is more suitable for me. A larger Air would be great and would cost less than the Pro. What if it cannibalizes the Pro? The purpose of Apple offering a $2499 16.2-inch Pro should be to provide the performance necessary to professionals and "prosumers" and not imposing a higher-price laptop with tons of features on those who just want a larger screen. If Apple's purpose is to compel users to buy unnecessary features as a requirement to benefit from the larger display, then I would happily buy a Windows laptop instead.
I mean... I agree completely, but it's pretty clear that's their intention, no? The 15"-16" screen sizes have never been offered as part of the Air line, and they haven't been available for less than $2k for a loooooooooong time.
 
I think an Air is more suitable for me. A larger Air would be great and would cost less than the Pro. What if it cannibalizes the Pro? The purpose of Apple offering a $2499 16.2-inch Pro should be to provide the performance necessary to professionals and "prosumers" and not imposing a higher-price laptop with tons of features on those who just want a larger screen. If Apple's purpose is to compel users to buy unnecessary features as a requirement to benefit from the larger display, then I would happily buy a Windows laptop instead.
Apple has almost always kept the larger screen sizes reserved for the higher end systems. I think one of the few exceptions that I can remember was the 14 inch iBook.
 
Apple has almost always kept the larger screen sizes reserved for the higher end systems. I think one of the few exceptions that I can remember was the 14 inch iBook.
I suspect given the rumours relating to iPhone 14, Apple may offer two screen sizes for both regular and pro lines. This may spread to the laptop line for Air or rebranded to MacBook.
 
It's not designed for you and others like you. It's for professionals who need the capabilities of the machine. You don't. That doesn't mean you can't buy one...but it does mean that you likely won't ever come close to utilizing the capabilities. You're better off keeping your money.
This is completely it lol

If you want the best of the best get the mbp if you don’t, don’t.
 
I thought about this for a while. Ideally, a 16" Air with MiniLED Promotion display would be my ideal notebook. The laptop isn't used for my line of work and is only used for content consumption, reading, and online community participation. (I prefer watching movies on my laptop over my TV) I will definitely not be using the GPU power of the Max or even the Pro but since the laptops come with improvements in every area with the exception of size - sound, display, CPU/GPU/storage speed, camera, I/O, energy efficiency - I ordered one anyways. This feels like the 2012 rMBP, revolutionary in improvement. I kept that one 4-5 years, the longest I've kept any computer. The 2016 only lasted 3 years and the 2019 will only last 2. My wife has a M1 Air and it's better than my 16" in every way except for the display size.
 
They are for anyone who has the funds and appreciates the features available. For many, they are overkill, and are designed to support the needs of professionals, but I am an example of someone who appreciates the features and has the funds, but absolutely doesn't need it (I have used an iPad Pro exclusively since 2018).
 
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They are for anyone who has the funds and appreciates the features available. For many, they are overkill, and are designed to support the needs of professionals, but I am an example of someone who appreciates the features and has the funds, but absolutely doesn't need it (I have used an iPad Pro exclusively since 2018).

Which model did you go with?
 
For some, they are for professionals that require the power that these new M1 CPUs provide.

For others, they are for anyone who wants one and can afford to buy one.
 
I knew someone that always bought the top of the line iMac and would just bootcamp Windows on it and use it for web and email. I'm sure plenty will buy the new MBP 16 for a Starbucks flex.

What it's really built for is heavy GPU work... 3D modeling, video/photo editing, etc. Someone like Marques Brownlee of MKBHD fame who travels with an iMac Pro to do edits on-the-road, churning through probably up to a terabyte of 8K video to produce a YouTube review. There was not a laptop powerful enough to meet his workflow needs. This might just tick the box, although I'd guess he will still use an iMac for the screen size.
 
after really giving it some hard thought I have decided that it's just more than I need at this time. I'm going to go for an Air instead. Enjoy all the fast, new processing on your new MBP's.
 
They are for anyone who has the funds and appreciates the features available. For many, they are overkill, and are designed to support the needs of professionals, but I am an example of someone who appreciates the features and has the funds, but absolutely doesn't need it (I have used an iPad Pro exclusively since 2018).
Come to think of it, as someone who has the 11" M1 iPad Pro, I could just buy the Magic Keyboard instead and call it a day instead of splurging on these new Macbooks(I already have a Intel 16" MBP)
 
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