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Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

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Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#21

Post by beckler »

I just upgraded to the M1 Air. I was on a 2011 MBP, but I started having so many issues with it being deprecated and out-of-support that I finally caved. I also thought about waiting for the M2, but honestly who knows when that will launch, and what those laptops will look like. The M1 outperforms far beyond my expectations, and has some serious benchmarks that made me realize that I didn’t make a bad decision in pulling the trigger on it.

I think I wanted to wait for the M2 because I had FOMO for the next generation, while also thinking that the M1 was gonna have a bunch of weird bugs. If anything there are known limitations (like with external displays and booting from external drives), but I don’t really fall in those categories so I was okay with it.

If I were you, as long as you’re not in a rush to upgrade, just wait and see what the M2 is like. If you can’t wait, know that you’ll be in excellent shape with the M1.

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#22

Post by ajconway »

IceHegel wrote: post #20

Don't get the pro, the MacBook Air is what you want. I was a 13 inch pro user for 10+ years and tried the M1 Air because I didn't want the dumb Touch Bar. Honestly, I think this Air is the best laptop ever made. -the battery feels like it lasts 3x-4x longer than my 2019 13 mbp. -it compiles Typescript as fast(sometimes faster) as my brand new Ryzen 5800x based work station. -great performance on many small things tha…

> Only reason to get the pro if you want to keep complaining about the Touch Ba

Also active cooling if you want to run CPU at full capacity for extended periods of time.

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#23

Post by influx »

SantiagoElf wrote: post #16

With most of the work being done remotely or from home these days. Nothing can beat a 30+ inch ultra wide monitor and a good old desktop. You can always change the keyboard :) Just Saying.

I regularly plug in my M1 laptop to my ultra wide monitor and mechanical keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#24

Post by ksec »

danek_szy wrote: post #18
ksec wrote: post #15

2015 MacBook Pro is still the best in many regards. Better Keyboard with more Key Travel than the new Magic Keyboard. Sane Trackpad Size so you dont accidentally move your cursors every few months while typing. MagSafe that actually work the way it is intended if you are clumsy. Reliability seems to be so much better. 2016 MacBook Pro has Flexgate, Staingate, Butterfly keyboard, SSD Failure, Thunderbolt Frying CPU, a…

2015 MBP also suffers from staingate and in many regards isn't good enough by todays standards... Not being able to keep up with decoding 4K HEVC footage is one. Another thing is that 15 inch model had Intel CPU from previous generation (unlike 13'), because Intel couldn't keep up with production of the latest architecture dies.

Apart from Staingate. Both of those are performance related issue though.

I am decoding 4K HEVC just fine here, although at a low 5-10Mbps Bitrate with CPU going to 70%.

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#25

Post by unstatusthequo »

I assume all electronics are kind of a lease. Buy the beat you can at the time within reasonable time to its initial release, then follow the cadence and attempt to sell it just before the new model comes out. The actual cost is really just the delta in the new price versus the cost you sold it at. Average that over the time you used it.

I was always told buy things that appreciate in value and lease those that depreciate. Given that all of these depreciate, my model is akin to leasing since it have planned disposition (like a car lease after 36 months) and a decent idea of expected value. I don’t trash my shit, so I generally get great sales prices from it.

I bought the MacBook Pro M1 and Mac Mini.

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#26

Post by tluyben2 »

iamwpj wrote: post #13
tluyben2 wrote: post #9

I was going to wait but then earlier this week my really old macbook stopped working completely. I need it for ios dev (the rest of my work is fine under linux; x220/ubuntu/i3wm) so I ordered an mb air m1. I thought the hype was mac fans being crazy but I stand corrected: it is an absolute marvel. I have the cheapest one (it was a special offer from some big chain here: cheaper than via Apple) and using it as I do, i…

When I switched to my M1, I noticed that my hands were always cold -- it's because there was no heat coming off it. My 2018 MBA and Dell Latitude had done a good job of keeping my hands warm, but the M1 just doesn't do a good job warming up my hands.

Yes, but a laptop not getting warm I cannot see as too much of a negative!

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#27

Post by ep1cman »

febrianrendak wrote: post #19
sradman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My philosophy isn't to wait for /better/ hardware, so much as to wait for /tested/ hardware. The M1 is essentially what would have been the A14X for the iPad. I don’t consider it first-gen technology. macOS for ARM is first-gen but it seems to exceed expectations across the board.

its exceed expectations as everyday computing device, but lacking many features for power users. Can't run docker, virtualization isn't here yet. I hope M2 will come with these features.

Docker: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/apple-m1/ Parallels: https://www.parallels.com/blogs/parallels-desktop-apple-sili...

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#28

Post by sradman »

febrianrendak wrote: post #19
sradman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My philosophy isn't to wait for /better/ hardware, so much as to wait for /tested/ hardware. The M1 is essentially what would have been the A14X for the iPad. I don’t consider it first-gen technology. macOS for ARM is first-gen but it seems to exceed expectations across the board.

its exceed expectations as everyday computing device, but lacking many features for power users. Can't run docker, virtualization isn't here yet. I hope M2 will come with these features.

I suspect macOS Virtualization [1] will be addressed with software updates rather than new silicon. Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) transitions incur tradeoffs and the mobile-like SoC architecture of the M1 has to make hard decisions about what goes in the SoC (e.g. Ultra Wideband doesn't seem to be included in the M1).

I suspect that something like a M1X, an M1 scaled with additional cores and more memory capacity, will target higher TDP Apple laptops/desktops/workstations. More of the same continuous innovation, a good thing, in my opinion. Many of these decisions are pure marketing; a cheaper MacBook Air with an A14 makes sense to me technically as does the 13" MacBook Pro offering both low-TDP M1 and high-TDP M1X.

A departure from the existing continuous innovation might be a Neoverse-style chip like the Graviton for desktops/workstations. The current big.LITTLE architecture of the M1/A14 makes perfect sense for mixed use devices.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#29

Post by easton »

ajconway wrote: post #22
IceHegel wrote: post #20

Don't get the pro, the MacBook Air is what you want. I was a 13 inch pro user for 10+ years and tried the M1 Air because I didn't want the dumb Touch Bar. Honestly, I think this Air is the best laptop ever made. -the battery feels like it lasts 3x-4x longer than my 2019 13 mbp. -it compiles Typescript as fast(sometimes faster) as my brand new Ryzen 5800x based work station. -great performance on many small things tha…

> Only reason to get the pro if you want to keep complaining about the Touch Ba Also active cooling if you want to run CPU at full capacity for extended periods of time.

It’s worth noting that the Air only throttles about ~20% under load (and you have to push it pretty far to get there). It probably isn’t a dealbreaker unless you are using it as a desktop replacement.

Re: Ask HN: Buy the M1 MacBook Pro or Wait for M2?

#30

Post by ashtonkem »

ksec wrote: post #15

2015 MacBook Pro is still the best in many regards. Better Keyboard with more Key Travel than the new Magic Keyboard. Sane Trackpad Size so you dont accidentally move your cursors every few months while typing. MagSafe that actually work the way it is intended if you are clumsy. Reliability seems to be so much better. 2016 MacBook Pro has Flexgate, Staingate, Butterfly keyboard, SSD Failure, Thunderbolt Frying CPU, a…

I have no idea why laptop keyboards are so important to people; they’re all terrible. Use a better, external keyboard when you’re stationary, your wrists will thank you.

Especially since it seems like even pre-pandemic laptops operated 80% of the time from a fixed position anyways.

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