Who is the new M1 Pro/Max NOT meant to be for?

[DNichter]

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)

Definitely. These machines are absolutely needed for a subset of professionals, but for most on this site - I see them as nice to haves. That's okay too though, we are all tech fans.

 

[shower999]

It’s designed for video, sound production, professional, geek nerd (me), and Rich people.
I can tell that because my MBA M1 already overkill the casual task and video editing. I totally don’t see a reason to upgrade unless you really like it

 

[PBG4 Dude]

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 was thinking of the 14” iBook as well, but, the 14” model had the same screen resolution as the 12” model (1024x768) so the bigger display only gave larger pixels.

 

[laptech]

Who is the new M1 Pro/Max not meant to be for?


Poor and working class people.

 

[Kimcha]

TLDR: The new MBPs are for people who need very high CPU and graphics performance, such as video editors. Regular people are probably better off waiting for the redesigned M2 MBA.

I think the design of the M1 Pro/Max vs the M1 chips tells you everything you need to know.

The M1 has 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. This gives you a good balance between power and battery life.

M1 Macs are more than fast enough for the vast majority of people and give them real-life full-day battery life.

The M1 Pro/Max on the other hand has only 2 efficiency cores and 6+ performance cores.

So it’s optimized for high performance at the expense of battery life.

It has 25% less battery life compared to the M1 MBA and 35% less than the 13” M1 MBP.

In practice than means the MBA can get 8-10h of real life battery and the new MBP will likely only get 5.5 to 6.5h.

I think that’s a significant loss and definitely worth considering.

The CPU gains are also primarily in the multi-core and not in the single-core performance.

Most people’s workflow doesn’t come even close to fully utilize the multi-core performance of the M1, let alone of the M1 Pro/Max.

So they will get a lot of performance, that they will never use at the expense of battery, size and weight.

Of course there are other benefits, such as graphics performance, MagSafe, extra ports, bigger display, promotion.

I firmly believe a lot of the same benefits will come to lower-end models like the MBA in the future.

But right now the new MBP is the only way to get them.

And you need to decide whether these benefits outweigh lower battery life and increased weight.

I really hope the next M2 MBA will have the same battery life as the current MBA, but with a bigger screen, magsafe and the option for 32gb ram.

That would be the perfect machine for me.

 

[shower999]

TLDR: The new MBPs are for people who need very high CPU and graphics performance, such as video editors. Regular people are probably better off waiting for the redesigned M2 MBA.

I think the design of the M1 Pro/Max vs the M1 chips tells you everything you need to know.

The M1 has 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. This gives you a good balance between power and battery life.

M1 Macs are more than fast enough for the vast majority of people and give them real-life full-day battery life.

The M1 Pro/Max on the other hand has only 2 efficiency cores and 6+ performance cores.

So it’s optimized for high performance at the expense of battery life.

It has 25% less battery life compared to the M1 MBA and 35% less than the 13” M1 MBP.

In practice than means the MBA can get 8-10h of real life battery and the new MBP will likely only get 5.5 to 6.5h.

I think that’s a significant loss and definitely worth considering.

The CPU gains are also primarily in the multi-core and not in the single-core performance.

Most people’s workflow doesn’t come even close to fully utilize the multi-core performance of the M1, let alone of the M1 Pro/Max.

So they will get a lot of performance, that they will never use at the expense of battery, size and weight.

Of course there are other benefits, such as graphics performance, MagSafe, extra ports, bigger display, promotion.

I firmly believe a lot of the same benefits will come to lower-end models like the MBA in the future.

But right now the new MBP is the only way to get them.

And you need to decide whether these benefits outweigh lower battery life and increased weight.

I really hope the next M2 MBA will have the same battery life as the current MBA, but with a bigger screen, magsafe and the option for 32gb ram.

That would be the perfect machine for me.

Just want to give me my guess that the M2 for MBA will be slight worse than M1 Pro.

one is you don’t need it as a regular user.

two is Apple can continue to sell the pro line.

so the cycle will be like that until competitor catch up

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

It's not meant for anyone. If you can afford it, you can buy it. If all you do is surf the web, you could have saved a lot of cash with a smaller machine, but...

 

[Kimcha]

Just want to give me my guess that the M2 for MBA will be slight worse than M1 Pro.

one is you don’t need it as a regular user.

two is Apple can continue to sell the pro line.

so the cycle will be like that until competitor catch up

I agree.

I think the M2 will have similar improvements as this years iPhone chips— about 10% improvement in single core performance.

But due to having a lower amount of performance cores, it will still be much lower performance compared to M1 Pro and Max.

This will matter to pros, but not to the average consumer.

 

[Macalway]

These are for:

1) pros who need the features
2) people who just want the best
3) Apple addicts who need the latest
4) Influencers who push them
5) people with LOTS of money, who don't even think about it at all.