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MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

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Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#721
post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"that will not get old very soon" No idea how you can write that with straight fingers.

Last year I went from an Intel Mac Pro (6,1 from 2013) that I used for 8 years to the M1 Studio. I expect to use that for many years to come.

I made the same jump. The MacPro was an awesome machine. In fact, it didn't feel slow to me at all and I wouldn't have upgraded if it weren't for the fact that they stopped supporting it in new OS releases, which means critical apps I use would be stuck at their current versions. (Plus, I assume they'll be dropping Intel support altogether soon, so I wanted to get on Apple Silicon for that.)

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a spec bump, possibly meaningfully so but if you are on an Intel machine or want two monitors and can find a M1 14inch for ~$1500-$1700 that's a killer upgrade no matter what.

Does the M1 14inch support 2 monitors? I was under the impression every M-based laptop only supports a single external monitor.

> I was under the impression every M-based

That’s the “base” M1/M2. The M Pro supports 2, and the M Max 4, up to 6k (except for the 4th display on the Max, because HDMI).

M2P is also limited to a single display if you need 8K (not sure the M1P supported that at all).

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tend to not sacrifice longevity over flashy technologies. They migrated to OLED very late in iPhone when compared to other manufacturers, too. The last thing I want is a burn mark on my laptop screen because of static parts of my IDEs and such.

Like the 30-pin connector's longevity? The lightning connector's? Physical Esc keys?

I had three devices with 30-pin connector, and have another three with Lightning connector. I never replaced a female connector, or any cable which connects to these connectors, made by Apple or otherwise.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an MBP for the extra USB ports, magsafe power adapter, and HDMI port alone. On processing power, I have no doubt the Air would have sufficed. I was willing to take the weight/size penalty for the ports!

The M2 Air has MagSafe. (= Killing MagSafe has to be the singled DUMBEST product decision anyone ever made. I'm so glad they finally brought it back.

It's like they sandbagged themselves knowing they were going to change the whole game in a few years.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#725

The biggest issue I have with macbooks is that they are ridiculously expensive. They are intended to be portable devices but bringing them anywhere outside my apartment or office is just a huge risk.

Dunno, I dropped mine pretty hard at airport security, skidded across the floor, left a very small dent. My wife had hers placed on a lectern and someone bumped into to and it fell off stage, bigger dent but the show went on. And our kid has sat on or stepped on both multiple times. They hold up well enough.

I'm a sucker for robustness and build quality so that's why I like thinkpads. Dropped one on the tarmac of a race track as an engineer and the magnesium body held up like it should.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#726

There's also a new Mac Mini, which I found A LOT MORE interesting, given that its keyboard or batteries won't break: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/01/apple-introduces-new-...

I hear you, but in Europe it's around 700€, which also buys a pretty solid windows or linux laptop. If you're not locked in to mac, a comparably priced laptop with intel 12 gen CPU, 16GB RAM and a RTX 3050, which is arguably a lot more versatile machine. I think I would like Mac's more if they weren't so absurdly overpriced (approx. 25%+ over US prices) here in Europe.

The price difference between the US/Europe is mostly due to taxes. US prices don't have taxes included, European prices do.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#727

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an MBP for the extra USB ports, magsafe power adapter, and HDMI port alone. On processing power, I have no doubt the Air would have sufficed. I was willing to take the weight/size penalty for the ports!

The M2 Air has MagSafe. (= Killing MagSafe has to be the singled DUMBEST product decision anyone ever made. I'm so glad they finally brought it back.

I thought killing MagSafe was pretty dumb, too, but every time I tripped over the USB-C power cable on my 2018 MBP it came right out, no problem. Plus it's really nice to be able to move the power cable to whichever side the outlet is close to. When I upgrade, I think I'd choose to continue using USB-C power if possible.

I'll actually miss the Touch Bar. It's an interesting idea that seems useful, but isn't, except in one very useful case: it's really nice being able to slide the volume to exactly where I want it. With the keys back I'll have to memorize Shift+Option+VolumeUp (or whatever it is).

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an MBP for the extra USB ports, magsafe power adapter, and HDMI port alone. On processing power, I have no doubt the Air would have sufficed. I was willing to take the weight/size penalty for the ports!

The M2 Air has MagSafe. (= Killing MagSafe has to be the singled DUMBEST product decision anyone ever made. I'm so glad they finally brought it back.

Oh, I missed that! and then it has one usb port, or two? If it has two plus magsafe and i had noticed, i might have bought that!

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#729

There's also a new Mac Mini, which I found A LOT MORE interesting, given that its keyboard or batteries won't break: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/01/apple-introduces-new-...

I hear you, but in Europe it's around 700€, which also buys a pretty solid windows or linux laptop. If you're not locked in to mac, a comparably priced laptop with intel 12 gen CPU, 16GB RAM and a RTX 3050, which is arguably a lot more versatile machine. I think I would like Mac's more if they weren't so absurdly overpriced (approx. 25%+ over US prices) here in Europe.

Here in Austria we have 20% VAT, and US prices are typically without tax. So the 25% price difference is really just a 5% price difference, which is still shitty, but not as horrendous as you make it seem.

Also, the Mac mini is very special:

- tiny footprint without external power brick

- very high reliability

- completely inaudible for typical developer usage

- extremely low power usage (the 6 core Intel Mac mini was an exception)

It's the perfect home (or office) server. You can put it into a bookshelf or in a cabinet, it won't run hot, it won't disturb you with noise in the living room.... I just don't know of anything else that fits the bill.

The only shitty thing is that they are charging ridiculous prices for storage, and attaching external storage sucks because it ruins the tiny form factor, and also because the USB-C cables that come with SSD drives tend to easily disconnect in my experience.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of dedicated DisplayPort ports is fairly disappointing to me since their implementation is just "native DisplayPort output over USB‑C" and it doesn't support MST, so you can only do one displayport signal per port, even with a thunderbolt 4 hub with some bidirectional USB-C Displayport cables.

USB4 supports DP 1.4a tunneling and DP 2.0 in DP "alternate mode". Agree with you, but I fear dedicated DP ports are dying.

I guess my main point is that, if we're going to move to displayport over USB-C, we (A) need Apple to put out official $100 cables, since I tried some cheap Amazon cables that didn't work and had to purchase some $60 moshi cables that I knew would work[0], and (B) they need a minimum of 5 ports since being limited to 1 peripheral port+3 monitors (2 over DP, one HDMI) on the mini is terrible. I know they want your mouse and keyboard to be bluetooth but no thank you.

0: https://us.moshi.com/products/usb-c-to-displayport-cable?var...

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