I read a lot of these threads and always learn something new, so I'm hoping for suggestions (or affirmation) on what you'd do if you were me?
Personal Use Cases for my new 'home' machine are very lightweight, including:
Ideally I'd get a new iMac 24" for home to replace the older iMac, but I'd rather do all my fixed 'sat down' computing on one screen I think & just accept some compromises:
new 'work' machine = MacBook Pro 14" M1
coming from employer shortly to replace 2018 MacBook Pro 13" Touchbar at four-years old - they're pretty easy going about what I can do with it, but 'Photos' iCloud-sync etc is locked-down and they have quite tight remote management applied.
LG Ultrafine 5K monitor
- connects via single USB-C cable powering the work MacBook
- I only use the one powered port currently
- I only have room on my desk for this one monitor
old 'home' machine to replace = 2012 iMac 21.5"
now starting to feel a little slower, not as nice a display as I'm now used to on MacBooks or LG Ultrafine. No longer supported for new OS updates & features. Just moved house and only really have room now for one large fixed screen.
Personal Use Cases for my new 'home' machine are very lightweight, including:
- general web browsing & YouTube, plus Apple stock apps like Calendar, Contacts, Files, Pages, Numbers etc
- Photos I'm a bit heavier on & crucially have three larger Photos libraries (100GB current, plus a pre-2012, my late mothers) that I alternate between
- Lightroom on an OEM perpetual licence that came with my DSLR camera, stuff kept separate on local NAS from iCloud Photo sync
- low-end iMovie etc, but no graphics intensive stuff (no 4K video editing or gaming etc)
Ideally I'd get a new iMac 24" for home to replace the older iMac, but I'd rather do all my fixed 'sat down' computing on one screen I think & just accept some compromises:
1/ Mac Mini M1 ?
plug into second non-powered USB-C port on the LG Ultrafine and suck it up using a second Apple magic keyboard (with Touch ID) and trackpad which I can keep those to one side whilst not in use. Probably cheapest option, but also non-portable.
2/ MacBook Air M2 ?
any entry-level MacBook is more powerful than I'd need for such light use, but I'd take the redesign and M2 over the M1 & probably up the RAM to 16GB. I could swap over the powered USB-C lead if needed with the monitor. Feels a bit overkill to have two very nice MacBooks in the house, but I'd cope.
3/ iPad Pro 12.9" M1/M2 ?
if I sell my 2018 11" and old iMac then a larger iPad Pro could easily be 'my only computer' for personal use, probably with just a folio cover & maybe a bluetooth keyboard for the rare occasion I type a longer email or letter. Will also connect 'better' to the monitor now as 16.x continues to evolve.
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