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MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

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921–930 of 1001 posts

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#921

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't buy an M1 because I didn't want the "first" Apple processor. Maybe it's just my bias from seeing lots of Intel competitors come-and-go? I don't really care about specific improvements, I just want all the minor things that the engineers didn't get to finish the first time around. In my case, living in the US, we all do our taxes in the first three-ish months of the year. Last year Turbo Tax told me they woul…

To state the obvious, Turbo Taxes website works on any device. No idea what an app would be needed for.

To state the obvious: TurboTax comes in both an installed version and a web-based version.

I tried the web version, but I didn't like it.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#922
post #10

Strange that Apple still isn't offering OLED screens when most other laptop makers are this year...

Apple laptops unfortunately give me severe eye strain and headaches; I don't know why. I'm on a laptop with a beautiful OLED screen now, and my eyes are much, much happier. I would switch back to Apple if they offered OLED. I doubt they will, though. They're keen on mini-led, which is inferior in my opinion.

Mini-LED has significant advantage in brightness but you do have to adjust brightness in some situations with dark backgrounds to avoid blooming.

OLEDs have problems with burn-in and lower maximum brightness.

Eventually, Apple is planning to get to microLED which can combine the best characteristic of OLED and Mini-LED without the downsides.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#923
post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To state the obvious, Turbo Taxes website works on any device. No idea what an app would be needed for.

It's crazy that you basically cannot do your taxes in the US without purchasing commercial app...

I've been using TurboTax for almost 20 years. Yes, I could save a few bucks by doing it a different way, but I learned how to do it one way and I don't want to learn how to do it a different way.

The bigger issue has to do with how US politics work. "What makes sense," is what most countries do: the government sends you a completed tax return and you just verify that it is completed correctly. Due to lobbying, the US government is prohibited from telling you how much tax you owe. Instead, what happens is the government does your taxes for you in secret, and if the amount you pay is significantly different from what they believe you owe, the government sends you a bill with a suggested payment. You don't have to actually pay the amount that they suggest, but if you don't, you better have a darn good reason to explain why the government calculated your tax wrong.

In general, it is to your benefit to err in your favor. The interest rate on a "tax mistake" is extremely low. But, if you accidentally overpay, the government will very rarely send you a refund automatically.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#924
post #10

Strange that Apple still isn't offering OLED screens when most other laptop makers are this year...

There are strong rumors that Apple plans to bring OLED to the iPads and MacBook Airs starting in 2024. It’s not clear if they will replace the mini-LEDs of the MacBook Pros. Apple promotes the HDR brightness of the mini-LEDs over OLED.

The rumors say that Apple plans to use a two layer OLED with essentially two OLED arrays one of top of the other. The reason for this is to stabilize the display as medium sized OLED are made with flexible substrate and can warp under some conditions. The dual layer is also suppose to allow greater brightness and to help prevent burn-in (perhaps by running each layer with less brightness).

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#925
post #895

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d be so up for a 16 inch ‘air’. I so love my M1 Pro Max MacBook, but Christ it’s heavy. It’s heavier, and I think thicker, than my 2012 MacBook Pro. Now I expected it to be heavier, but was expecting it to drop back maybe one iteration to MacBook 2014 kind of heft. But we’re a full decade back of beefiness. I need a big screen though so it’s the only option. Unless they make a nice thin 16 inch air. I am pretty con…

I checked because I was curious: 2012 15in [1]: - Height: 0.95 inch (2.41 cm) - Weight: 5.6 pounds (2.56 kg) 2023 16in M2 [2]: - Height 0.66 inch (1.68 cm) - Weight (M2 Pro): 4.7 pounds (2.15 kg) - Weight (M2 Max): 4.8 pounds (2.16 kg) [1]: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP694?locale=en_US [2]: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/specs/

Easy to forget how far everything has come.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#926

For those on the M2 Pro mac mini path, the Mac Studio looks a look more appealing. 32GB RAM, Max CPU and more ports for the same money. Will have to wait for benchmarks, but seems like more computer for the money if you upgrade the mini

The sweet spot for the Mini is the 16/512GB M2 Pro at $1299. It is significantly less expensive than the Mac Studio. Unless you need 32GB of RAM and a lot more GPU cores, the Mini will do nicely.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#927
post #811

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of form factor I am really surprised more people don't want an Air. My work laptop (purchased by my employer) was an Air in the Intel days, and I loved it even though it was dog slow. It didn't bother me because I basically only need a browser and ssh. And, I bike to work so weight reduction matters. Nowadays after the Apple Silicon transition my employer no longer offered an Air. The reason was too few empl…

Did your employer provide a speced up Air or just the base model. Last time I only chose the Pro because it had twice the ram and storage otherwise I would have went with the Air.

Yes they upgraded to RAM to 16GiB. The storage didn't need upgrading because almost everyone in engineering (maybe except designers) ssh'd to big power computers elsewhere.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#928
post #516

Start at £2149 in the UK. I bought an equivalent M1 last year for £1729. Price increase of £420. About a 25% increase. Wonder if that’s closer to the true inflation figure rather than the official 11% narrative. Regardless, they look like good machines, surprised they went this low key with the announcement.

A lot of it is exchange rates and inflation. Apple usually only changes prices when the model changes.

the £ was at a record low in September though it has gained back somewhat since then. Still down a lot more than historical levels. http://www.exchangerate.com/charts.html?continent=currency%2...

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#929
post #852

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an alternative to this, you can grab a thunderbolt dock. You can input 2/3 monitors into this, and all your other peripherals - then one cable into your macbook. My Caldigit TS4 charges my macbook at 90W, has 2 x 27" monitors running at 120hz (i could go higher but i can't perceive the difference so i'll save the bandwidth), has 2 external drives and can read my SD card to import photos. The thing has so many port…

Maybe I'm being a bit sensitive to price, but $400 seems pretty expensive. Do you know of any cheaper alternatives?

I spent months researching these docks to be sure it fit my needs. You can get cheaper if it’s not thunderbolt, or has less ports or don’t want power via the cable, or don’t want to drive your monitors at a higher refresh rate.

Or just buy the TS4 and you never have to worry. It’s by far the best reviewed and reliable.

Re: MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max

#930

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SSDs in the apple silicon machines are likely much much faster than whatever you have in your macbook pro so when they do spill over into swap it would be much less noticeable. That being said, I'm pretty pro apple silicon (purchased an M2 Pro this morning) and I would never recommend anyone buy a new computer with less than 16GB of ram unless the usecase is strictly web browsing/streaming/ms word type stuff.

And yet I remember my old 286 with what? 500mb of ram or something ...

As long as we're reminiscing about old specs... my first hard drive was 20 megs, external, and the size of a small pizza box.
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