I'm the guy that bought a maxed out Intel Macbook Pro in 2020. My wife's new M2 Air is twice as powerful, without a fan, never even gets warm, battery lasts forever and it cost less than half as much.
Same here - until just recently. I always stuck to the cheap entry models, but for some reason I ended up with a 16" M1 MAX 32GB after last black friday because it was only $1800 and for some odd reason nobody wanted them (I live in Denmark), because it was considered old??. @@Tech-geeky
It’s true that older Macs can still run modern applications relatively well (I’m still running a 2009 MBP), but eventually they do get slower and are more prone to security vulnerabilities. I’ve upgraded virtually everything I can - I’ve swapped the optical drive for a 500gb SSD, upgraded the old 256 GB HDD for a 1TB SSD, upgraded the RAM and gone through multiple batteries. But at the end of the day, I’m still running El Capitan. At this point, changing to an M2 Mac will feel like a dream!
@@spacebbdosdude not really up to date anymore. I think it works only until Catalina. For the newer stuff, there are other patches which are much more up to date
Thats exactly what I had!!!, In Aug 2022 I upgraded to the M2 MacBook Air... IT AMAZING...thing lasts 18 hours...is super quick and I can't believe I missed YEARS of all the convienient features like making calls from Mac/ answering calls from iPhone to the Mac vise-versa.... the latest OS get every detail.. El Captain is SOO out-dated. my 2009 MBP lasted 13-years.
Upgraded from Mid-2012 13' to M1 Pro base model last year. Only life-changing improvement other than gorgeous screen with the notch and slight general fluidness was when I did a demanding task like rendering a video, which you also can do with the 13' - much slower but effortless still. Daily tasks like checking your E-Mail, browsing and/or writing a document would feel just about same. I do not regret the purchase since it is the base model and 10 years is pretty fair time for an upgrade but I still wish that I would use its full potential, for which I paid for - regardless I use it or not. Don't upgrade your Mac unless you are absolutely sure what your benefits are. I get the FOMO but you won't be missing out anything if you don't need it.
I really struggled with the future proofing bug when I bought an M2 MBA a couple of months ago. If I doubled the memory and storage of the base model I was getting close to MacBook Pro territory, especially when the MBP 14 would go on sale. I had to take a serious look at my budget and my actual needs in a laptop. I finally ended up with the base model M2 MBA and I've been happy as a clam ever since (so has my wallet).
@@1zy hey, can I ask you a question? I’m looking for a MacBook to buy but im not sure if I get the MacBook Air m2 base model or the M1 with upgrades in storage , etc. what would you recommend since you bought the m2 base model?
Another important thing to remember is the larger your SSD is the longer is its life span. TBW is the term SSD manufacturers use and the storage size of the SSD is directly proportional to its life span.
@@becontentandsilencethemind1562 In reality, everything dies. Getting a bigger storage size ensures the lifespan is much longer. This is a fact, don't sound stupid trying to sound smart.
@@sandman4128 While I'm not arguing your point, I'm using a 2010 MacBook Air with only 128gig ssd to watch this video and comment here. 13 years later on a some what low storage laptop seems to suggest that even a lower storage device will still get a decent lifespan. As always though it depends on the usage of said device.
This is true, although after a year+ of ownership I have only written 4.4 TB to my SSD. At that rate I have another 68 years before I hit the industry standard of 600TBW per 1TB of storage.
Considering the significant price bump in the EU, even the base model is a big investment. As such, people tend to opt for higher specs - we don't know what will be sufficient for how long, but one thing is for sure, the year-on-year price increases.
This is the same issue in Australia. The base m2 air is $1899 aud on the apple website and at this price point It's not worth it comparing to its competition. Even the base m1 without any discounts is $1499 even though it's labelled as a affordable macbook.
Does it? In the UK the RAM upgrade on the MacBook Pros is still the same. Last year going from 18GB to 36GB costed £400, this year going from 24GB to 48GB still costs £400. Same price, but you get +12GB of RAM over last year, so it’s essentially cheaper. Still very very expensive though.
I was about to get the M2 Air 16GB and 512gb ssd, but I got a deal and bought the 14" M1 Pro for the same price. Don't regret it a second. I doubt I can see the difference between the 6 cores of the M2 and the 8 of the M1 Pro but I can for sure tell the difference between the standard display and the Mini LED near 4K 120Hz of the Pro. Plus even the 14" is tiny compared to my previous laptop, so no issues in portability. I think that 16GB ram is a must for a computer for me (I actually think that it is low for a windows pc, but apple optimises ram better) and 512GB is borderline for the SSD. Ideally I would opt for a TB but I definitely didn't feel like paying the extra and waiting a couple of months to get a custom ordered device. Plus considering the 6 and 8 cores, one has to keep in mind that for heavy tasks the M2 has actually only 4 performance cores while the M1 Pro has 6 performance cores, that was a big selling point for me.
Do you find the 14" M1 Pro much heavier than the M2 Air? I am struggling to decide between the M2 Air 16/512 and 14" M1 Pro, the price difference is a little more than 300 dollars locally for the refurbished.
@@Bryan-oq2vz I tend to lean on my MBA when I’m at home for general use but for heavy processes, the 14” MBP is the way to go. If I had to do it all over again I’d still play the same game but upgrade the MBA to 16GB of RAM and probably be just fine.
@@Bryan-oq2vz Got my 14'' Pro Base 2 days ago and to me 1.6KG is not heavy at all. Of course if I would travel the *whole* day with it in backpack without using it then I may feel the weight but I seriously suggest you not to worry about weight. You may travel for 1-2 hours a day with laptop but even then I would still go for 14'' Pro than 13'' Air M2 just for the screen. Also I don't think that buying 32GB 14'' or 24GB 13'' M2 is worth it, because I have 16GB RAM and half is free considering that OS is caching files and apps for responsiveness. Then the question is whether you should buy 14'' Pro M1 16/512 or 13'' M2 16/512. 14'' Pro has support for 2 monitors, better screen (read about ProMotion) and faster CPU/GPU. As I am a developer for me it's important to have not only enough RAM but also good CPU for faster compiling with 14'' Pro I do not experience any problems. Even if you have money to buy more expensive model I do not see the reason for it. Better to save money and buy new MacBooks in the future. Hope my answer helped you.
@@Bryan-oq2vz I would say go for a 14inch pro. Data transfer speeds and SSD management in MBA are not good. Also 14inch Mac is overall astounding - Next level screen, RAm and performance
Just buy a step above what you need or what you currently use, and you should be fine. 16GB/512GB was close to the limit for my 2020 laptop so I went up a step with 32GB/1TB for my new M1 Pro. I think it's fine to configure your new laptop one step up but anything more than that is unnecessary money spent on 'future-proofing'.
@Carl Gunderson Well i guess if someone knows that they’ll NEVER need that spec bump with certainty then there’s no need for it. But for me , I see myself hooking my M1 Pro as a desktop replacement in the foreseeable future so a 32Gb Memory and 1Tb Ssd doesn’t seem crazy
@Carl Gunderson that’s what I thought when I bought the MacBook Pro m1 base model cause my previous MacBook was a 2014. I bought what I needed at the time and it exceeded my expectations but soon I started working with more intense video timelines that struggle on my MacBook. Here I am … needing more power on the road , considering the m2 Pro…
We’ve got a 2008 MacBook Pro (with SSD upgrade) that still runs just fine for web, email, Word, Excel and even a bit of photo and video editing for the kids school projects. I’ve just to swap out the battery every few years (easy, Apple allowed back then to have an under plate with clips to change your battery tool free in a minute). My every day Mac is a 2014 MacBook Pro 16GB RAM Quad Core i7 Retina. The main motivation to upgrade from here will be because Lightroom is sluggish. Both these MacBook Pros were beasts in their day, high spec because I was “future proofing” and together with Mac reliability we’ve gotten more than 14 yrs use from two Macs. Retina display on the 2014 is still good and it’s powerful enough to do creative stuff with.
@@AnqaOdyssey i think the 16GB RAM I got makes a big difference. When I upgraded my MBP from 8 to 16GB RAM (the first unibody Macs you could just open up with clips with switch out a lot of the hardware).
How about the software updates and future MacOS updates intentionally making the Macs slower? Same tasks are eating up more resources producing more heat and draining the battery... For example just check how newer versions of MacOS is aggressively dropping support for older models. For example, a 2015 iMac running with i9 Intel processor with 64 GB RAM can't run the tasks what a 2017 entry MacBook could run. Strange. Steve Jobs would slap on the person who makes such decision.
To be honest it doesn't really get that confusing, the upgrade options are pretty basic.. the only questions is if you know what you need and if it is worth it to you.
When I ordered my M2 MacBook Air as my new computing device for 2023 so-called future proofing was never in my mind and same with my choice of Windows laptops. As far as my budget would stretch I’d get the most powerful configuration so that my apps would open and run faster and get things done more quickly.
It's not future proofing if you're buying upgrades for use right now. That's why I always believe in upgrading storage space first; you'll notice it no matter what. Plus, you have a good feel for how much you'll need because you probably have a machine right now so you know how much space you're using. With RAM, you know if you need it. If you're on the fence, you probably don't actually need it.
32 gigs of ram to prevent memory swapping , 2 tb to make sure it lasts atleast 5 yeayrs considering TBW of SSD, 16 inch so that need for an external monitor can be avoided while travelling.
@@niklasbl4030 That's Apple Silicon for ya. I have a 32gb model and my current usage is 24gb. Guess what I have open? Safari (with only four tabs open on articles), mail, Spotify, Whatsapp, Word, password manager, Zoom and Discord at this moment. Memory pressure is in the green and swap is at 0 bytes so there's nothing wrong with the system or a memory leak but yeah ram usage on Apple Silicon is pretty high due to it being unified memory. Also funny thing is, rendering a video pushes the Mac into yellow memory pressure, so that makes me believe even 32gb is becoming questionable at times for me. It's crazy.
IMO, the vast majority of users shouldn't upgrade the processor. But almost everyone should upgrade the storage to at least 500GB. Likewise everyone should upgrade to 16GB of RAM. The RAM upgrade is for two reasons. If you're going to upgrade often, you don't care why you just feel like you're missing out with the base model. For those who won't upgrade, more RAM means it won't page as often, helping the SSD physically last longer. So unless you really want to put your laptop in an envelope, the base model 14" Pro seems like the best bet for almost everyone.
@@acasualviewer5861 16GB remains enough for almost everyone. Hell, 8GB is enough for most people. Except for extremely intensive media production or running multiple VMs, there is 0 performance benefit upgrading from 8 to 16GB of RAM on Apple Silicon. I don't mean very little, I mean 0. The paging algorithms and SSDs are just that fast (except the 256GB M2 Air). Even on Windows, if you're just doing office type tasks and inane web browsing, 8GB is enough. I still use a laptop with 4GB of RAM running Windows 11 at work; if I had to use it more than 30 minutes per week, it would definitely need replaced, but it still works well enough.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 then just buy a Macbook Air. For PRO workloads 8gb is very much insufficient. I've had my 10 year old MBP die because it ran out of ram with 16gb. Buying 8gb today is absurd. And 16gb as well. You might as well buy an old used machine. With so little ram you're just hampering your CPU and overusing your SSD (so it will die sooner). If all you do is browse get a Chromebook or an Air.
@@acasualviewer5861 Like I said, paging to the SSD as often as Mac does with just 8GB of RAM will wear out the SSD very quickly. Upgrading to 16GB is not a performance upgrade (for most of us), it's a longevity upgrade. There are lots of reasons to buy a new computer that don't revolve around RAM capacity. New computers are better at everything, not just having more memory.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 if you don't have enough ram (for example if you leave 40 tabs open on chrome), your computer will begin trashing, your cpu will starve, and yes you will have performance issues. Reading from RAM is always faster than reading from the SSD (at least for now). CPU starvation affects performance. Also compiling huge projects in code will benefit from more RAM, as will any graphics heavy work. A lack of RAM is not only a performance limitation, it is usually THE MAIN reason for performance degradation in a computer. SSD latency is measured in milliseconds, RAM latency is measured in nano-seconds. Mac's aren't immune to realities of computing just because Apple makes them.
As someone that's been in the IT industry for 20 years, I don't have a huge problem with some moderate "future proofing" since I do tend to use my Macs longer than PCs. Apple's pricing is steep because they tend to use higher qualify parts vs most others - in addition to paying the Apple Tax - so it all adds up. CPU/GPU upgrades are normally my first choice in an upgrade simply because I know I will use it. I want to make sure I have at least 1TB, likely 2TB of storage, then I see how much memory I can reasonably afford. Keep in mind that I'm likely buying for both personal and business use - not just ranting on social media. What I consider a reasonable upgrade is very different than the average Mac user. For students, the base laptops are normally enough - perhaps bump the storage up a tier (up to 1TB). If you have the money, go for at least 16GB of RAM. They will likely value battery life over performance. A Mac laptop should last all 4 years of college and likely the first year after. Once you have a real job, you can consider replacing your laptop at that point.
they buy parts from typical vendors and sell as higher end parts. Apple doesn't make parts themselves. Tfor instance, storage imported from samsung and charge double for same shit. people are just tech-stupid when comes about apple. and Apple has some of its perks to establish itself such way
What do you suggest for software development will the 2 core difference between m1 pro and m2 pro will have a huge difference struggling to make a decision so need recommendation
@@RobertShresthawolf I don't think you will see huge gains, but probably a 10-15% uplift while compiling code. Depending how often you do that, it might or might not be worth it. For me, I got the M2 Pro MacMini because I wanted the extra ports and the ability to support 3 4k displays natively (sans DisplayLink). I already have an M1 Max MBP for work/travel, so not upgrading that anytime soon. I'm hoping to get a solid 3-4 years before giving it to my kids.
@@freaky425 It depends on the specific parts. There is a significant difference between Samsung SSDs and cheap no-name junk often used by Dell, HP and others on the PC side. If you built a PC with the exact same parts, you would arrive at a similar number + plus the typical name-brand tax. On the PC side, I don't bother with pre-built systems, I just build my own.
@@JasonTaylor-po5xc definitely, If you make custom build in the PC side means we are of the same boat. I don't mean to say apple uses mediocre parts by any means, what I meant is apple just charges double or even more for the part which OEM would sell normally to consumers.
I opted against updating my Intel MBP from 8gb to 16gb in 2018. Now I have issues with both the battery and lack of memory. If my machine had 16gb, replacing the battery for a couple of hundred dollars would be a no-brainer. It would probably last me another two or three years. Now, I'm getting a new MBP instead. And I'll future-proof it by updating the memory.
I'm running a 2012 retina mbp 15 which originally came with 256GB SSD and 8GB ram. I upgraded the SSD to 2TB a few years ago and the computer is still useful for Office, browsing, video watching, music, etc tasks. However when I look at the pathetic 512GB offered with MBPs these days and that these SSDs are soldered in, I'm not happy. To continue my lifestyle I will need at least a 2TB SSD machine and those are expensive. Otherwise I would have to downgrade, and carrying external SSDs is a downgrade.
I have found that a notebook (brand or OS doesn’t matter) has a practical life of 5-6 years. I buy with this lifespan in mind. After 5 or 6 years, the device likely won’t be able to stay current on the OS without involving upgrade methods that aren’t practical for the average person. Falling behind on the OS is the beginning of the end for application compatibility and more importantly security. I do have a 15 year old MBP that still works - so, yes, they will last that long, but it isn’t my “daily driver” because of how old the OS is and how it affects my ability to effectively collaborate with others on projects. My daily driver is now 4 and will get replaced within the next two years, once the OS begins to slip behind. Drive space and memory are cheap, even from Apple. I always over buy in these areas because the benefit-to-cost ratio is really that good. Just about everything one does these days, except for perhaps the most basic tasks, will benefit from having more RAM and storage. I have never upgraded my processor and have never noticed an issue. Maybe I don’t know what I’m missing. Upgrading the processor can get spendy, and the situations that benefit noticeably from more processing power within a 5-6 year lifespan are not as numerous for people who don’t really push their machines to their limits. The benefit-to-cost ratio isn’t as good for most people. I say most people. I understand this isn’t true for everyone, and one should put some thought into how they use their machine before deciding. I guess my philosophy is don’t over think ram and storage - buy as much as you can afford, because it will come in handy.
I've been in doubt about which Mac buy, but at the end of the day I bought the basic M1 Air model: right now, I don't need extra RAM or extra space (until now I've just used an iPad 9 with a keyboard with zero problems and a lot of satisifaction) and if I'll ever need them it means I've a job that will allow me to afford a new MacBook Pro.
I bought a M1 MacBook Air when they first came out. I bought the 16GB of ram and 1TB storage, 8 core GPU model. I love it! It is still a BEAST in 2023. Runs whatever you throw at it.
I bought an m1 mac mini for school and personal use. I went with the 16gb even though I am the user you described in the beginning of the video. I went with the 256gb ssd only as well as I use icloud the most so I can access files and documents on my ipad pro, or iphone. I think if you have the money to spare sometimes it is worth it cuz you can get a slightly better return on resell with more ram. Before my mac I had a samsung laptop with 8gb of ram, and would constantly max out my ram with only using teams, multiple excel and word docs, and multiple browser windows. I know the m1 macs are more efficient, but figured better to have and not need then regret not ordering it. I paid less than $800 for the mac too with student discount, and plan on keeping this for a very long time. I will upgrade my ipad before my computer I bet lol as that is my true on the go device.
I am upgrading from a 2012 5,1 cheese grater tower. Bought a M1 base mini. Just to test the pro audio app performance. But stalled up till now. It’s a computer I use a lot and it’s performs amazing. Was going to upgrade to a Mac Studio. Now I’ll just get more large capacity thunderbolt drive and save myself $1900 from upgrading a base max studio. Down the road I’ll have solid choices.
You need 16 gigs of ram minimum so that you don’t SWAP ram on the SSD. Which kills it. Always get 16 gigs ram. If you like to have a lot of windows or apps open get 32!
I work for a cyber sec company, and we always buy the latest MacBook Pro with 32gb RAM and a 2TB SSD for our technical employees. Advanced workloads grow and it also ensures resale value in the long term.
Of course, if apple allowed RAM, GPU and SSD upgrading instead of soldering everything nowadays,and frequently changing the os so it wont run on older machines (as well as changing chip manufacturers which render the older computers obsolete) , future proofing would not be an issue.
The design of putting the SSD processing, ram and CPU together on a single chip has given us a far better experience than intel+ non soldered components. That improvement despite my preference for self upgrades, comes at the price of no upgrades to RAM or SSD.
@@Patricia-kk8tr I'm typing this on a 14 year old mac pro, which still is a highly useful machine, you wont be able to use ANY current mac for that long. Care to actually state why making the SSD and ram non upgradeable is an advantage , other than it makes apple a LOT more money ? I'm bloody sure that they could engineer those components as separate items if they wanted to do so.
What's the best configuration for someone who would do the following: 1. Research and academic work (Word and Docs) 2. Excel / Google Sheets 3. Canva Presentation / Light edits 4. Analytics softwares-- Jamovi, Tableau Lastly, the heaviest or the thing that I can't decide with is because of the need to use microsoft os once in a while--- I need a laptop capable of running parallels on it without a problem.
@@CreatedTech I see, thank you for your insight. I consulted with my professor if we will be using windows-only software. Fortunately, we'll use cross-platform and cloud-based ones. Do you think the base model is sufficient?
Future proofing, that is, buying versatility that can accommodate future contingencies, largely consists in this: the ability to upgrade and service your device. Unfortunately, Apple and other manufacturers have made it a policy of denying those options. My 2012 i7 Mac Mini and 2011 Dell Latitude (both dual boot) have been upgraded or repaired through the years with SSD's, extra RAM AND modern Linux OS'es with updates for years to come.Both continue to be responsive and capable devices for my use cases. When another of my duct taped laptops finally gave up the ghost I removed its CPU, RAM and drives to upgrade my family's devices. Meanwhile the future proofed Apple is headed to the landfill.
Not really, it depends what type of software development. If you are just doing code, then sure. But many of us have to use massive non-code assets, and more RAM at least is vital.
If you have the money go for it, else you don't need 24, 16 should be more than enough, unless you use shit tons of docker vm or Android dev you are doing.@@cloudyair7395
Why should anyone buy a macbook only for basic tasks in the first place? I mean, things like browsing the internet, emails, videocalls, and even editing word documents can be done by a good Windows laptop of 600-700€ (or even less). Why should anyone pay 1200+€ on a laptop just for basic casual use? Disclaimer: the comment isn't aggressive, rather it's general. Because I always hear things like "the basic macbook air (8GB ram, 256gb ssd) is enough and it's doing the job for people who want to do the basic tasks" and I get so confused about why people are eager to spend that much money for no reason. And even if the macOS was the reason, I can't find any good argument on how windows could be less effective on emailing/browsing etc, so that the macOS would be the preferable operating system.
I know, right? It is just funny how people are thinking about a macbook for a huge amount of money to do things that can be done on chromebook for 50-200€ (used/new), not having even windows or full linux on board. And proper laptops can also be quite cheap and even upgradable if you want this afterwards. But macs are made these days like a single use device without any upgradeability and with awful service options %)
I bought the highest end MacBook air m2 besides the 2tb ssd (just got the 1tb SSD) the reasoning behind it is, it fits my work load, I need space, I work in game dev and I need a portable device for when I travel. If I had got a MacBook pro, I wouldn't be able to travel as light. I don't need the extra ports and high refresh rate screen. Those were the biggest temptations but I came to realize the portability was more important.
i really like the macbook pros base models. 16 gb RAM and 512 gb SSD is such a great sweet spot for average or above average users. 8 gb RAM is just simply not enough for even moderate multitasking and 512 SSD is faster and good enough storage for a lot of people. Unless youre a graphics/video creator, upgrading the chip is the biggest waste of money and the one i would avoid the most. The M1 pro also gets better battery life than the M1 max. No one should be getting 8 gb RAM unless you are purely a netflix/email user that doesnt do anything outside of that lol
I have a rMBP from mid 2012 with an upgraded SSD, it has 2TB. SO for me how is this a sweet spot if I will have only a quarter of available space? That means I don't have everything on hand. And I would need to pay a small fortune to upgrade to 2TB.
This is why I still use my base model M1 Macbook Air. It's hard to justify the price jump of the 14" Pro when the base M1 is still really fast for 90% of my tasks at the $800 price point vs double or more price for the 14" Pro.
16bg & 512gb should be the starting base now. My 2012’s still work pretty fine (16gb & 1tb hd) . I just use them to download music. I really wish we can get back to upgrading them ourselves
There are two sub-sets of laptops, ultrabooks and prosumer devices (including gaming). There is no need for a 16GB/512GB base, as if OEMs did this, they would need to raise prices accordingly. So let consumers decide if they need the extra spec, then buy it.
Eh, I switched from 2011 (16gb 512gb ssd), that was unbearably slow, to base M1 and couldn't be happier. Even with like 5gb of swap it's really snappy compared to old Intel with poor Apple cooling. Would 16gb be better - sure, but upgraded version would cost me as much as 50% more of the price I paid, while I could barely afford base M1 as is.
Appreciate the video. You caught me at the right time, been thinking of upgrading my 2018 Intel Macbook Air to something more “futureproof.” Definitely more to think about after watching this. Subscribed! Good stuff.
To make it easy for anyone looking to buy a new MacBook, probably having issues picking one of those (14' MBP m2 or MB air m2. Points to consider: 1. What do you need it for. 2. Is size and weight a big matter to you 3. do you have other laptops for gaming / heavy tasks 4. where you will mostly position your laptop desk, bed etc ... Since both machines will cost nearly the same at the same specs , the main problem will be size and weight , heat/noise. If you are a light user who watches movies read docs and pdfs and play some Apple arcade games etc. I believe this is the best machine in the right size and weight, where you can carry it around and put it anywhere easily. If you are more concerned about heavier tasks and it will be your main machine , and size and weight is not a problem to you then MBP m2 would be a better option. Also consider picking more RAMs than going for the base model. Thanks
Also the 16“ should be considered as well as someone used to 15“ notebooks. The 16“ models are smaller and lighter than the last good 15“ MacBook Pros.
I just got my brand new MacBook Pro 16" with an M1 Max, 32GB of Unified Memory. Yes, the latest and greatest came out a month ago but financially is a better choice when considering how much money I am saving. This laptop is an investment for the type of work I do and part of investing is also being wise on doing so. This laptop I'm sure it will give me a lot of time to work without issues. Loved the video.
I'm using a MacBook Pro A1278 and i'm fine with it. I upgraded it's RAM from 4 to 10 GB and changed it's HDD to an SSD in order to make it faster and it worked. I'm waiting for a MacBook Air with OLED screen.
I personally like/ prefer a notebook with a 512GB storage capacity, and 16GB RAM. Purchasing a 2TB SSD makes the best sense to me. I only like having software applications and word documents on my notebook's physical storage. Media files all get stored on the external drive.
I have a rMBP 15 from mid 2012. I upgraded the internal SSD to 2TB for peanuts and I also have a MicroSD slotted SSD with another 128GB storage. You have your you 512GB and you feel good about it, because you have to justify this to yourself, but I have this ancient computer with all the files I need on hand and I can download apps/media files/software etc without issues. An upgradable SSD slot would have been so much better, but Apple said fsck you customers.
I’ve wasted so much money because I didn’t upgrade to enough ram and ssd space and then later got frustrated and got a slightly better version, and then later realizing that wasn’t enough either. So I’d hard recommend bumping up the ram and ssd as much as you can afford.
I'll agree, Really depends on each user & their actualy daily computer usage. Look at it this way. Buying a brand new 2023 base macbook is like buying a 3-5 year old High End spec out Mac just a few years ago. Example: today's pricey top tier MacBook Pro 2023, well in 3-5 years time anyone that buys a 2026 base model will be equal in performance or better. Again, it's not just the year of the machine itself but the parts that define that year. Most folks that dished out a lot of cash ti have Mac Pro are kicking themselves because today's macbook pros can compete and in many areas surpass performance.
I am a software engineer and some of the programs I use require a lot of RAM. A good example is Docker Desktop, which won't even start if you have 16 GB of RAM and have 16+ tabs open in Chrome. You have to exit Chrome and other programs to be able to start Docker Desktop, then re-open the other programs, which will end up using swap memory allocation. Because of this and other similar scenarios, I did get my MacBook Pro 16" with 64GB of RAM. So yeah, it depends on what you're going to be using your Mac for and the specific requirements of the programs you'll run. Now, my MBP 16" is late 2019 so it has the i9 processor, but it runs fantastically great, so I'm not upgrading to the new M2 model, no need for that. Nice video, it should help some people save money, keep up the good work!
Very helpful video. I am one of those future proofing guys but your logic of buying what you need, use for 4 or 5 years, resell the unit and repeat is the winner. Genuinely helped me out. Thank you…
Going with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD are good future proofing steps. External storage is much less expensive than upgrading the internal SSD, so unless you’re going to be working mobile most of the time and know you’re likely to need more than 512GB of storage, upgrading beyond that is of questionable value. Going to the 512GB SSD improves expected life span and increases performance. RAM is a big deal. While virtual memory swapping can work well for switching between multiple programs, it doesn’t work as well if you have one program that uses a lot of RAM. Extra RAM is definitely likely to be helpful in the future too as programs and OS’s are always getting larger. Plus, more RAM means less virtual memory swapping, which means longer SSD life. Extra CPU/GPU cores. Not very useful to most users. There are specific tasks that benefit from more cores, but most mainstream applications will see little/no benefit from more than ~6 CPU cores. Intense games and a few specific compute tasks may benefit from more GPU cores. Mainstream users won’t even notice.
I have thought about upgrading but struggle to find a good reason to so far. I am writing this on a 2016 MacBook Pro I bought for college. Now, I have graduated college for a couple years but still using the same MacBook pretty regularly. Surprisingly the battery still works well enough and the screen is still in great quality. I have never needed any repairs for the device either. I think purchasing a more expensive model with more RAM and storage than I needed at the time was the right call as I am really glad I have those upgrades now. It saddens me that the Touch Bar is gone and I would be losing that feature if I do upgrade but it would be nice to have more performance, longer battery, and a better keyboard since some of my keys occasionally get stuck after years of typing. It is also concerning that my Operating System is quickly becoming more and more out of date and I am beginning to feel less comfortable managing business and financial accounts on a system that is no longer receiving frequent software updates. I am pretty impressed though that nearly a decade later this laptop still feels pretty snappy and can handle my daily tasks with ease. Easily the best laptop I have ever owned despite its high initial cost.
Even though you primarily cover Apple stuff, TH-cam recommended me this video (I'm a desktop Linux user!) and I'm going to say this: your opinions also apply to ARM-based PCs! Dare I say, your opinions also apply to x86-based PCs that have limited upgradability! I was considering getting an older ThinkPad Yoga, but I forgot that my workflow had changed in 2021 to be more cloud-focused, so the stuff I only really run on my ThinkPad X250 these days are Web browsers, Web-based productivity apps, and remote access apps. The cloud-focused thing is really just mostly my own homemade cloud with my NAS and my desktop PC, since I can't use regular online storage services as I currently don't have the time to clean them of years of data. Edit: I think TH-cam recommended me this video because I watch PC-focused tech channels that sometimes cover Apple stuff, like Linus Tech Tips.
Am planing to get my first MacBook I ll use the MacBook Air M2 15 inch for 1. Multiple tabs in browser - article reading and TH-cam videos. 2. Content viewing. 3. Ppt 3. Since am planing to get iPhone 15 pro, may be learn to do minor photo & video editing ( tour videos). 4. Teleradiology ( viewing and very minor graphic processing 2D to volume rendering) _ bigger screen is better here. 5. Use my iPad as sidecar in reporting. 6. May connect a monitor in future. With these uses, Since MacBook Air is well built am planing to use for atleast few years 5plus Should I get 8 or 16 gb ram keeping in mind on the works and future proofing for macOS updates.
and sometimes you're someone who loves tech, especially new tech and you're getting to the age where you know you're not going to outlast your money and you just buy what you want and not what you need. The truth is most people don't need more than a M2 Air, and even more so if it came in a 15"-17" screen size
512GB Hard Drive, 16GB Ram is the most popular entry option for Apple Buyers. If you are in USA, you can get a 16GB Ram, 512GB Hard Drive MacBook Pro for $1499. Which is $1799-$300 discount. Which is even cheaper than the 8GB Ram, 512GB Hard Drive version you bought from the Best Buy.
Base MBA M1 renewed is $709 on Amazon and a Base M1 iPad Air is $450 on Amazon. Got them both for under $1300 including Tax & AppleCare+. Save your money if you need to upgrade anything save up for the next trim of the product you want.
Great video as always. I really wish Apple would acknowledge their products have two sides with different lifespans - the inside & the outside. I thought Apple Silicon would allow them to drop the 'motherboards' (insides) into a stick which could then be replaced maybe 2-3 times over the enclosure (outside) lifespan. Not as green as we thought, shame.
You're an optimist 🤣, apple doesn't care about the environment or it's customers, only profit. They make attractive well designed devices which are very reliable and stable but maximising profits is their aim at all times and they have zero scruples
I've gotten years more life out of my i7 16 GB iMac that I ever would have gotten out of the 8 GB i5 version. Problem is they treat all the models the same in terms of support/updates etc.
You did not take inflation into account. My personal practice with large purchases is to overbuild and get more options than I think I will need, especially when buying brand new. Then I keep it for a long time. My last iMac was a 2015 27” retina. It was top of the line back then. It has a 4TB fusion hard drive and 32 GB of RAM. It has been 8 years and undoubtedly it still slows down and there are limited updates with it. Even with the 32GB of RAM, these last few years it has really slowed down. I paid around $2,500 for that 2015 iMac. Adjusted for inflation, that is $3,200 in 2023 money. So 2,500 divided by 8 years is $312.50 per year. And adjusted for inflation, an equivalent purchase in 2023 should be around $3,200. Therefore, I decided to get a MacBook Pro M1 Max with 1TB hard drive and 32GB ram. Is it overpowered for my everyday use? Yes. Is it a lot of money? Yes. But it will really come in handy and pull through for those few times when I’m on the road and I need to edit/render/export a 2-3 hour 4K video, or recording in my music studio, or using ableton live on a live performance, or live-streaming on twitch while simultaneously recording the feed. After doing lots of production work over the years, I’ve learned that what really matters is having the capability you need in the moment so that you can best capture the experience. Being able and having the capability to perform in the moment matters way more than worrying you will never use a feature. Buy once, cry once. The only regret is spending a lot of money. I’d rather do that instead of hitting the ceiling on your gear because you skimped out. That’s a WAY worse feeling, ESPECIALLY when you are in the moment and you need the functionality to capture and create.
Totally agree. I followed the future-proof concept and come up with MBA M3 16/512 and very happy with it. I wasn’t aware of the ram for using apps can go up to 15GB RAM very often with my daily work. 😂😂😂
Well when I bought a mid to high-spec mac in 2000, 2007, 2011, they all have lasted more than 10 years--and my 2016 and 2019 purchases going strong. When I bought a low spec mac in 2015, it was already too slow three years later.
My two bobs worth…., I purchased a MacBook Pro early 2014, with 500 gb. Im a low level user, and figured that would be ample storage. 8 years later, the computer is full, thanks to photos, music and documents. So I’ve been through all my albums, deleted heaps of pics, but still have very little disk space to update to the latest operating system. I should have bought a 1 tb, but cannot remember if it was even an option. Now I find I can upgrade my storage, so I’ve ordered 2 tb to install. Hopefully that will get me another 5 years. Cheers.
My 2012 macbook pro with CD drive still works perfectly. I even have logic pro x on it. Reaper works perfectly! basically the limitation can only be on Heavy tasks like 4k video editing, and big music projects. but it can do usual covers-recording, music creation with no extreme tracks, Microsoft office etc perfectly at normal speeds. I believe that 90% of an average day user can get any mac and you are good to go.
That extreme example happened to me 😅. Bought a fully speced MacBook in mid 2020 & Apple launched silicon chips after few months.I was gutted. I just sold that intel MacBook and looking to upgrade to M2 Pro chip now 😁
You made the right decision in 2020. I also bought the 2020 intel MBP but with 8gb ram and 256gb ssd, and it became faulty on June 1. The repair store is talking about replacing the logic board… I think if you will be using your Mac for work, never buy the base model
The trouble is most people don’t know how to tailor the specs to their usage requirements, then there’s the temptation to get bigger and better. Throw in some fear of missing out and bragging rights and there you have it.
I bought m1 macbook when it was launched in 2020. It was base model 8gb 256gb. In first 2 years it was very fast and smooth. After each major macOS update it became bit slower. Now i just sold that 15 days ago. In 2022 for development it was quite good. Now it wasn't performing well with android studio. It was using all of RAM with 8-10GB swap. Now I purchased M3 Air with same base config(I didn't had enough money for 16gb 🥲🥲). It is performing almost same as M1 with android studio (10-15% faster ) but still no enough because it's using almost 16gb Ram( 8gb ram + 8-10gb as swap). So if you are a developer/graphic designer or want to become then buy atleast 16gb varient. If you are hard core developer like me then buy 24gb with 512 storage atleast
I feel the same away about this idea of "future proofing". Especially when talking about Apple products as they have an extremely high upgrade cost. I'm also a tech nerd who loves new tech toys so even if I could push my laptop 5+ years I'm probably looking to upgrade to the latest tech by then anyway. The entry level MacBook Air is all and more than the avg user even uses on a daily basis. Paying for future proofing is a complete waste of money. For what it would cost me to upgrade the SSD and memory I'm already looking at over half the cost of a new laptop in 5 years time so I just rock the entry level for until I want to upgrade and use the money I saved by not upgrading and apply that to my next toy.
Waste of money? I'm running a mid-2012 rMBP 15 inch with 8GB of RAM and because the SSD is slotted I could put a 2TB SSD in this machine. It's currently at 85% wear level, so in about 2 years I've used up 15% of this SSD's write cycles. But my original MBP came with 256GB SSD from Samsung and that was not enough, even in 2012. In 2015 I replaced the SSD with a 1TB from OWC and 2 years ago with a 2TB SSD which is full of stuff, I have 300GB free. Now to get the same level of comfort I would need to pay for a MBP with a 2TB SSD, which is very expensive. Apple has made future proofing expensive in not allowing post sale upgrades of their memory and SSD.
Excellent video, mate! I opted for 16GB RAM + 8-core for my M2 Air, but stuck with the 256GB SSD. I don't edit videos/photos or do any intensive work requiring heavy GPU use, so the slower SSD isn't a problem for me. I have several external portable SSD drives should I ever need a lot more storage.
i bought a totally base m1 a year ago as my first mac, you may want to try a synology nas, i got a little ds220 and put 2 fat hard drives in, now my little air has 16 terabytes of raid1 storage and backup at home or anywhere on the planet i have internet👍
I max out upgrade my Mac desktop because that is where the heaviest work are done. In my Mac usage history, so far, I upgrade/change my Mac desktop ever 9-10 years. So, by maxing out my hardware, usually it will last me for 10 years. This is my my second desktop and the third one is not far on the horizon.
I'm still using a 2012 macbook pro and not until recently has it started to show its age. But one feature that really made me think about a new Macbook was upgrading Lightroom and Photo shop. With the new M1 and M2 I was unable to upgrade and use the new feature from Adobe.
I have a mbp from 2012 with an upgraded 2TB SSD. To get this level of onboard storage I would have to pay a fortune to Apple for a Macbook Pro. 512GB is peanuts.
Yup, my 2nd cousin a few months took my 2014 i5 16/256 13 inch MBP in what I can describe as mint condition. eBay suggests it would fetch almost £200. She can now use it for most of not all of her school needs as actually, only my photography work demanded more nowadays. If only the MBP 14 had a tighter hinge lol
I use a MacBook Pro M1 Pro 14 with 16GB ram and 512GB SSD for data development. Since I always use an external SSD plus Git repos the configuration works fine! The is no real need to spend more money. Next time I‘ll choose the 1TB SSD version. Ram was really never an issue. The base CPU is perfect for me.
Bought the 256GB (2024). People keep talking about 512 being a must, but NONE say WHY! Barely anyone checked their real needs, what they do on a daily or weekly basis.
I noticed that your old 2013 MacBook Pro has 16GB or RAM. That does not hurt when making use of it today. It is fascinating that 10 year old Apple computers essentially came with the same amount of RAM, and more disk space, compared to todays baseline. Someone I know is replacing a 10 year old iMac with 8GB/1000GB baseline configuration, to a brand new 2022 iMac with 8GB/256GB configration. Same RAM, a quarter of the storage.
Whoops, looks like I used the wrong footage. It should have been a 13" 2013 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM. I actually also tested some web browsing on a 2012 Mac Mini with 4GB, still worked! Although you wouldn't want to have more than 5 tabs open with other programs running in the background...
@@CreatedTech I just replaced my MacBook Air 2014. It had 8/128. I would say the extra RAM extended its useful life significantly. The SSD was too small, but adding a mini USB-storage of 256GB compensated. I agree with your conclusions in your video... but I think buying a computer in the end of 2022 with just 8GB of RAM may be a mistake for quite many people, although not all. At work I have used a 2015 MacBook Air with 4/128GB. That is... too little in 2022.
The new unified memory will be a faster 8GB than the 8GB RAM that's on the older computer. (And obviously the hard drive is smaller on the newer machine because SSD is more expensive than HHD.)
i’m a java developer and i work on my company’s windows pc. i’m getting an m2 macbook air tomorrow that i will use mostly for basic tasks but from time to time i will use it for side projects and that got me thinking: java microservices? don’t need that much ram. a database server? meh. two ides running at the same time? still can handle with 8gigs. even if i wanted to start writing neural networks i could cope with 8 but one thing just crossed my mind: motherf’ing virtualization. i don’t wanna be in the position of not having that option. i would like to study security and i definitely wanna be able to run a kali vm. so i’m getting 16 and i’ll enjoy not stressing over chrome tabs
Wife's 2009 iMac will not only not allow an OS upgrade, but Chrome won't update either, so even Google Maps won't run properly anymore. Sure, that's 14 years old and it's been internally upgraded with SSD and extra RAM, but the core system is now abandoned. Only good for a linux machine now to keep up. My 2013 MacBook Air can only upgrade to Big Sur and still feels like a lovely machine. It hasn't worn out or broken down, but is still "not good enough" for daily tasks anymore. So yes, our next machines will be monsters to hopefully get another 10 years out of them. It's cheaper than 3 base models purchased 2 or 3 times in that same decade.
I was planing to get an Air M1 with 16gb of ram CTO from Apple. However, there was a great deal from a local Apple retailed store (we don't have amazon here and if you want 16gb version, you need to order directly from Apple), and the base Air M1 cost about 800 usd post tax. I grabbed the deal and just live with 8 gb of memory. There is some limitation here and there (don't left too many apps open or Safari tabs). Having said that, I would definitely buy it again. In this case, the price different to upgrade from 8gb to 16gb were at about 355 usd!
Thank you very much for this review i want to buy mac mini m2 and i will use it in video editing and am torn between upgrading ram or m2 pro as my budget will only can choose one of those so which one of this configurations will be faster in video editing ? Mac Mini M2 24GB 512GB 8-CPU 10-GPU 1199$ Mac Mini M2 Pro 16GB 512GB 10-CPU 16-GPU 1299$
@@CreatedTech Thanks for your recommendation does it will be faster in timeline working or only in exporting time as i don't mind wait longer while exporting videos but i want to be faster at timeline working does not the 24gb ram will be faster in that ?
@@Shady.Moustafa It will be faster in both. More RAM is usually better for video editing, but there is also a significant performance boost when going from M2 to M2 Pro. As long as you're not doing any intensive effects/animations that require RAM, you should be fine with 16GB, especially with the hardware encoders on the M2 Pro (ProRes, H.264 HEVC etc)
Excellent video! I bought a base 13" Macbook air M1 last year, was afraid the base config would not be enough for me (a casual user) but it turned out fine. I saw the little spinning wheel only 3 times in a year due to loads of Google pages loaded but that's it. So this year I am getting a base 15" Macbook air M2 and I'm no longer worried of the specs. I came from a Windows gaming PC with crazy RAM and HD. But I no longer need these specs for casual browsing and app gaming. I have been "future proofing" my laptops all my life. But I still never kept a PC for more than 3 years. So the video is true.
I’d say internal storage is one of the best upgrades - I got 2gb of internal storage for my Mac Studio and even tho Apple charged painful amounts, its the best decision I made. So much headroom and insanely fast - finally stopped stressing and juggling files for running out of room - totally worth it for me.
Good advice. Generally 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD is a good base for a MacBook. I splurged and went with 64GB RAM on an M3 MacBook. Granted I run several Linux VM'ssimultaneously
I bought my first Mac at 2016 highest specs ( 16 GB Ram at that time was the highest + 1 TB SSD) , its been 7 years with zero decrease in speed . the only thing that it decreased is the battery life of course . Everything else is super smooth . I read its better to have 16 GB Ram M1 than M2 8GB Ram. Laptops are not like phones you buy it says with you for min of 5 years + MacBooks have a very long life span especially if you take care of it .
I use my computer to perform OCR work. Lots and lots and lots and lots of OCR, basically in an infinite loop. As far as I can tell, MacOS uses the Neural Engines for doing its OCR work. Strangely enough, there's no tool in MacOS that tells me the load levels of the Neural Engines. (It can tell you about the CPU or GPU, but not the NE.) I'm still using an M1 Mac, and I've heard that the M1 Pro Mac has a faster NE, but I suspect that an M2 Mac will be even better. So an M2 will probably be my next Mac.
You're right. I didn't know which mac to buy. Ended up buying the base model M1 air two months ago. And man, it flies, it as all I need. And it's cheap!
I know this video is over a year old but man oh man it still rings true to this day. I am the guy that wants his computer to last as long as it can. I bought my M1 MBA base model just wanting to use the computer. I spent as much money as I had for it because I needed it for photo editing and everyone told me that it was not enough and I am hear to tell you I have no issues at all it is not slow and it just gets the job done. I bought software for editing that will work on this beast of a computer even after Apple will no longer support my computer. So in 2030 I will be due for an upgrade and I may get a new MBA if the iPads are not better by then. I bought a iPad 10th gen and it is a beast with editing photos like a champ.
atm the only heavy app I use is DaVinci Resolve exporting and editing 4k 30fps, but I have the 8gb ram m1 MacBook Air, but does use a lot of swap but no hiccups. can I use it for 4 to 5 more years?
I’ve been rocking my 2014 MBA and besides the battery lasting less and being stuck on Big Sur, nothing else to report. Before this I had the MacBook White 2008 and it took a while to die too (8 years). The MBA is doing way better comparatively, probably due to the SSD. Getting 8 years out of a laptop is super unheard of and the only reason why I’ll probably still buy another MacBook when my MBA finally becomes unusable. Solid machines
I think the video is not meant for me. I chose the 16GB RAM, so I can easily run many VMs at the same time, to simulate for example Spoofing-Attacks between different devices. 24GB would be even better for that case, but I am not that rich actually 😂. And I took the 512GB , so I can run large programs like Vivado Vitis (VHDL programming) directly on the internal ssd for higher speeds. For other programs or games I use an external ssd with 1 TB and around 800-900 MB/s. I would recommend the use of 16GB…when your RAM is full, then the mac will take some SSD space as RAM. But your SSD of 512GB has a lifespan of approx 250TB of data being transmitted to the ssd. So every time your Macbook does „Swapping“, it consumes the lifespan of your ssd
I recommend M2 Air 8c8c, 16GB RAM, and either 512GB or 1TB NVMe for folks needing thin and light; if you need the 8c10c then get the 13.6" M2 Pro for that active cooling. I wouldn't bother with 32GB RAM for these laptops; if you need more then do yourself a favor and start spec'ing a Studio. I stay away from 8GB RAM machines and friends don't let friends buy the 256GB SSD. You're not wrong about the future proofing thing, but I see cheap/budget build M1 Airs hit my desk with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD and they're glorified Chromebooks. I just send them to surplus. We don't repurpose. An M2 with only one controller would be much worse.
when it comes to a more or less "good" performance to price ratio, there are only 2/3 options depending heavily on the needs and how long you expect them to be usable: - 14 or 16" M1 Pro base model or 1TB SSD upgrade - 16" M1 Max 32GB etc for the freaky needs - M1 Air, still best value for money but only the 8/256 base model, any upgrade makes it even refurbished expensive
The absolute compactness of a M2 MacBook Air diminishes as soon you realize the display is too small, the performance in long term is more like a glorified tablet/iPad and it gets HOT under heavier, longer load... The 14" Pro models are only a bit heavier and thicker but a PROPER COMPUTER, the M2 Air is a glorified Ultrabook for a very high price tag, especially with 16/512 or more upgrades I personally found myself to be in the best spot with going "full size" on the notebook, so a 16" M1 Pro base model and a basic iPad Air but with 256GB (64GB are atrocious...), the iPad Air alone (or a M2 Pro iPad) is a much better option than a M2 MacBook Air, but a proper Mac and iPad is superior over a single, overpriced M2 MacBook Air. Especially when you consider apple still refuses to build ANY sort of "hybride" device with MacOS/Macbook like and touchscreen, there is more or less no way around a iPad + MacBook (Pro or Air) combination. A friend for example is fine with a basic M1 Air + iPad Air, he is much on the go and partially annoyed by the 13" screen, but is mostly using it via external monitor and mouse+ keyboard so its fine. The iPad Air and the Macs screen matches very good, the iPads screen is just slightly smaller than the MacBook Airs screen and thats a damn compact and powerful "Dualmonitor" setup i would prefer over any M2 Mac.
❓Rookie question: Is there a way to suspend tabs on Safari on a Mac as there is on Chrome on a Chromebook (an extension or Chrome itself)? I bought an 8/256 M2 MacBook. I'll be a light user for sure, but now I wish I got 16/256, because I'm worried that having several programs open plus many many tabs will cause hiccups and slowdowns. Any knowledgeable advice would be appreciated.
One thing you get with higher specs is peace of mind. I don’t need 16 GB ram, but knowing I have that reserve ability is always present. 200 extra on already expensive computer gives you the sense of security all the time, whereas always watching how much storage you have left or if you’ve maxed the RAM… not favorable.
Thanl you dor the advice; i see a lot pf consoder as a mac user; lo g ago only buy the second tier or the base line new; i necer nees and upgrqde just be creative with a 2016 early adopter mac and a 2015 imac i use bootcamp to archieve all needs and i be ok all this time; now i eant another mac for working at home
Most times go for the slightly updated ram and don’t upgrade the storage. If your pro then go for the pro if your not then don’t bother. You can add a storage drive easily with a usbc ssd after the fact.
Nice tips! I need a new MacBook air for my travel setup. I use regularly lightroom for my photography. Which is the best price/quality ratio you suggest me? Thanks a lot 😊
I ‘future proofed’ my current 2017 MBP “13 by getting 16GB RAM. The machine is still lightning fast for my use case (50 chrome tabs, knowledge work in Google Workspace etc). I’m glad I upgraded my RAM. Otherwise I would have wanted to upgrade a few years ago already. Bottleneck now is the battery that only lasts 2-5 hours.
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Will there be a ChatGPT version of Created Tech?
Is there noticeable curves in the edges of the frame?
Can I get cheese?
Just kidding,
Can you recommend some developer tools for mac?
Can you give me tips on how to avoid the thieves that live in Toronto? They're so fascinated with what I say, come up with, and create...
@@anadventfollower1181 wat?
I'm the guy that bought a maxed out Intel Macbook Pro in 2020. My wife's new M2 Air is twice as powerful, without a fan, never even gets warm, battery lasts forever and it cost less than half as much.
i've always bought MBA's recently... I can't remember the last time i bought a "Pro"
umm... perhaps 2015 or 2010
Same here - until just recently. I always stuck to the cheap entry models, but for some reason I ended up with a 16" M1 MAX 32GB after last black friday because it was only $1800 and for some odd reason nobody wanted them (I live in Denmark), because it was considered old??. @@Tech-geeky
@@OPM_VikingI would guess it is still powerful enough for most things
@jgm113 what's the ram and storage on your wife's MacBook m2 air?
@@HACKER-mv2ix I don't remember the spec but I know both were one step up from base
It’s true that older Macs can still run modern applications relatively well (I’m still running a 2009 MBP), but eventually they do get slower and are more prone to security vulnerabilities. I’ve upgraded virtually everything I can - I’ve swapped the optical drive for a 500gb SSD, upgraded the old 256 GB HDD for a 1TB SSD, upgraded the RAM and gone through multiple batteries. But at the end of the day, I’m still running El Capitan. At this point, changing to an M2 Mac will feel like a dream!
@@cncfan Does it work on apple silicon macs?
@@spacebb Why would you need Dosdude for a new silicon Mac?
@@spacebbdosdude not really up to date anymore. I think it works only until Catalina. For the newer stuff, there are other patches which are much more up to date
Thats exactly what I had!!!, In Aug 2022 I upgraded to the M2 MacBook Air... IT AMAZING...thing lasts 18 hours...is super quick and I can't believe I missed YEARS of all the convienient features like making calls from Mac/ answering calls from iPhone to the Mac vise-versa.... the latest OS get every detail.. El Captain is SOO out-dated. my 2009 MBP lasted 13-years.
What’s dosdude? Isn’t OCLegacyPatcher the solution for updating to unsupported version?
Upgraded from Mid-2012 13' to M1 Pro base model last year. Only life-changing improvement other than gorgeous screen with the notch and slight general fluidness was when I did a demanding task like rendering a video, which you also can do with the 13' - much slower but effortless still. Daily tasks like checking your E-Mail, browsing and/or writing a document would feel just about same. I do not regret the purchase since it is the base model and 10 years is pretty fair time for an upgrade but I still wish that I would use its full potential, for which I paid for - regardless I use it or not. Don't upgrade your Mac unless you are absolutely sure what your benefits are. I get the FOMO but you won't be missing out anything if you don't need it.
I have the same Mid 2012 15 core i7 and still runs crazy...
I really struggled with the future proofing bug when I bought an M2 MBA a couple of months ago. If I doubled the memory and storage of the base model I was getting close to MacBook Pro territory, especially when the MBP 14 would go on sale. I had to take a serious look at my budget and my actual needs in a laptop. I finally ended up with the base model M2 MBA and I've been happy as a clam ever since (so has my wallet).
Yup same dilemma here. Went for the base M1 model
@@1zy hey, can I ask you a question?
I’m looking for a MacBook to buy but im not sure if I get the MacBook Air m2 base model or the M1 with upgrades in storage , etc. what would you recommend since you bought the m2 base model?
@@1zy great azy, thank you so much!
@@ghfuser1745 which one did you go with ?
I had the same dilemma, went for a 14 inch macbook pro.
Another important thing to remember is the larger your SSD is the longer is its life span. TBW is the term SSD manufacturers use and the storage size of the SSD is directly proportional to its life span.
In theory….yes….in reality it dies when it dies lol….
longer life span and usually faster also
@@becontentandsilencethemind1562 In reality, everything dies. Getting a bigger storage size ensures the lifespan is much longer. This is a fact, don't sound stupid trying to sound smart.
@@sandman4128 While I'm not arguing your point, I'm using a 2010 MacBook Air with only 128gig ssd to watch this video and comment here. 13 years later on a some what low storage laptop seems to suggest that even a lower storage device will still get a decent lifespan. As always though it depends on the usage of said device.
This is true, although after a year+ of ownership I have only written 4.4 TB to my SSD. At that rate I have another 68 years before I hit the industry standard of 600TBW per 1TB of storage.
Considering the significant price bump in the EU, even the base model is a big investment. As such, people tend to opt for higher specs - we don't know what will be sufficient for how long, but one thing is for sure, the year-on-year price increases.
This is the same issue in Australia. The base m2 air is $1899 aud on the apple website and at this price point It's not worth it comparing to its competition. Even the base m1 without any discounts is $1499 even though it's labelled as a affordable macbook.
Does it? In the UK the RAM upgrade on the MacBook Pros is still the same. Last year going from 18GB to 36GB costed £400, this year going from 24GB to 48GB still costs £400. Same price, but you get +12GB of RAM over last year, so it’s essentially cheaper. Still very very expensive though.
I was about to get the M2 Air 16GB and 512gb ssd, but I got a deal and bought the 14" M1 Pro for the same price. Don't regret it a second. I doubt I can see the difference between the 6 cores of the M2 and the 8 of the M1 Pro but I can for sure tell the difference between the standard display and the Mini LED near 4K 120Hz of the Pro. Plus even the 14" is tiny compared to my previous laptop, so no issues in portability.
I think that 16GB ram is a must for a computer for me (I actually think that it is low for a windows pc, but apple optimises ram better) and 512GB is borderline for the SSD. Ideally I would opt for a TB but I definitely didn't feel like paying the extra and waiting a couple of months to get a custom ordered device. Plus considering the 6 and 8 cores, one has to keep in mind that for heavy tasks the M2 has actually only 4 performance cores while the M1 Pro has 6 performance cores, that was a big selling point for me.
Do you find the 14" M1 Pro much heavier than the M2 Air? I am struggling to decide between the M2 Air 16/512 and 14" M1 Pro, the price difference is a little more than 300 dollars locally for the refurbished.
@@Bryan-oq2vz I tend to lean on my MBA when I’m at home for general use but for heavy processes, the 14” MBP is the way to go. If I had to do it all over again I’d still play the same game but upgrade the MBA to 16GB of RAM and probably be just fine.
@@Bryan-oq2vz Got my 14'' Pro Base 2 days ago and to me 1.6KG is not heavy at all. Of course if I would travel the *whole* day with it in backpack without using it then I may feel the weight but I seriously suggest you not to worry about weight. You may travel for 1-2 hours a day with laptop but even then I would still go for 14'' Pro than 13'' Air M2 just for the screen.
Also I don't think that buying 32GB 14'' or 24GB 13'' M2 is worth it, because I have 16GB RAM and half is free considering that OS is caching files and apps for responsiveness.
Then the question is whether you should buy 14'' Pro M1 16/512 or 13'' M2 16/512. 14'' Pro has support for 2 monitors, better screen (read about ProMotion) and faster CPU/GPU. As I am a developer for me it's important to have not only enough RAM but also good CPU for faster compiling with 14'' Pro I do not experience any problems.
Even if you have money to buy more expensive model I do not see the reason for it. Better to save money and buy new MacBooks in the future. Hope my answer helped you.
@@Bryan-oq2vz I would say go for a 14inch pro. Data transfer speeds and SSD management in MBA are not good. Also 14inch Mac is overall astounding - Next level screen, RAm and performance
@@Bryan-oq2vz form factor vs power. What’s more important to you? The 14 is much more bulky in person.
Just buy a step above what you need or what you currently use, and you should be fine. 16GB/512GB was close to the limit for my 2020 laptop so I went up a step with 32GB/1TB for my new M1 Pro. I think it's fine to configure your new laptop one step up but anything more than that is unnecessary money spent on 'future-proofing'.
@Carl Gunderson Well i guess if someone knows that they’ll NEVER need that spec bump with certainty then there’s no need for it. But for me , I see myself hooking my M1 Pro as a desktop replacement in the foreseeable future so a 32Gb Memory and 1Tb Ssd doesn’t seem crazy
@Carl Gunderson that’s what I thought when I bought the MacBook Pro m1 base model cause my previous MacBook was a 2014.
I bought what I needed at the time and it exceeded my expectations but soon I started working with more intense video timelines that struggle on my MacBook.
Here I am … needing more power on the road , considering the m2 Pro…
We’ve got a 2008 MacBook Pro (with SSD upgrade) that still runs just fine for web, email, Word, Excel and even a bit of photo and video editing for the kids school projects. I’ve just to swap out the battery every few years (easy, Apple allowed back then to have an under plate with clips to change your battery tool free in a minute).
My every day Mac is a 2014 MacBook Pro 16GB RAM Quad Core i7 Retina. The main motivation to upgrade from here will be because Lightroom is sluggish.
Both these MacBook Pros were beasts in their day, high spec because I was “future proofing” and together with Mac reliability we’ve gotten more than 14 yrs use from two Macs. Retina display on the 2014 is still good and it’s powerful enough to do creative stuff with.
Smart👍🏻
I think my Late 2013 MBP would still be good had I took more RAM. It has gotten slow.
@@AnqaOdyssey i think the 16GB RAM I got makes a big difference. When I upgraded my MBP from 8 to 16GB RAM (the first unibody Macs you could just open up with clips with switch out a lot of the hardware).
so what will you do now? will you upgrade?
.... like most companys... apple is the absolute top elite of milking their clients last penny out ^^
Is that why there's a big scar on my chest where my kidney used to be?
@@CreatedTech at this rate, perhaps you may need to go for one of your lungs as well 🤔
How about the software updates and future MacOS updates intentionally making the Macs slower? Same tasks are eating up more resources producing more heat and draining the battery...
For example just check how newer versions of MacOS is aggressively dropping support for older models. For example, a 2015 iMac running with i9 Intel processor with 64 GB RAM can't run the tasks what a 2017 entry MacBook could run. Strange. Steve Jobs would slap on the person who makes such decision.
But in the end, if you play the game smartly: the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the Apple ecosystem is the lowest around.
I just got for Christmas a 2022 MacBook Air with 16gb of memory and 1tb of storage. Definitely for future proof.😅
To be honest it doesn't really get that confusing, the upgrade options are pretty basic.. the only questions is if you know what you need and if it is worth it to you.
Exactly, ppl forget the days where apple had ENDLESS options. If you know, you know!!!
When I ordered my M2 MacBook Air as my new computing device for 2023 so-called future proofing was never in my mind and same with my choice of Windows laptops. As far as my budget would stretch I’d get the most powerful configuration so that my apps would open and run faster and get things done more quickly.
It's not future proofing if you're buying upgrades for use right now. That's why I always believe in upgrading storage space first; you'll notice it no matter what. Plus, you have a good feel for how much you'll need because you probably have a machine right now so you know how much space you're using. With RAM, you know if you need it. If you're on the fence, you probably don't actually need it.
RAM is more important. Storage you can always add via an external SSD but you can't plug in extra RAM via the USB-C port.
This guy clearly does not do anything beyond "surfing the web" if he thinks 8gb of ram is just fine in this day and age.
32 gigs of ram to prevent memory swapping , 2 tb to make sure it lasts atleast 5 yeayrs considering TBW of SSD, 16 inch so that need for an external monitor can be avoided while travelling.
tf u need 32 gigs of ram for? rendering 4 videos at once while playing cyberpunk?
@@niklasbl4030 That's Apple Silicon for ya. I have a 32gb model and my current usage is 24gb. Guess what I have open? Safari (with only four tabs open on articles), mail, Spotify, Whatsapp, Word, password manager, Zoom and Discord at this moment. Memory pressure is in the green and swap is at 0 bytes so there's nothing wrong with the system or a memory leak but yeah ram usage on Apple Silicon is pretty high due to it being unified memory.
Also funny thing is, rendering a video pushes the Mac into yellow memory pressure, so that makes me believe even 32gb is becoming questionable at times for me. It's crazy.
@@niklasbl4030 u think that all people work as youtubers?
@@Andrushe4kanka oh sorry i forgot about nasa
IMO, the vast majority of users shouldn't upgrade the processor. But almost everyone should upgrade the storage to at least 500GB. Likewise everyone should upgrade to 16GB of RAM.
The RAM upgrade is for two reasons. If you're going to upgrade often, you don't care why you just feel like you're missing out with the base model. For those who won't upgrade, more RAM means it won't page as often, helping the SSD physically last longer. So unless you really want to put your laptop in an envelope, the base model 14" Pro seems like the best bet for almost everyone.
16 GB of RAM is so 2013 (that's what my 2013 MBP had). I won't buy anything less than 32GB. 16GB is not enough for the 2020s.
@@acasualviewer5861 16GB remains enough for almost everyone. Hell, 8GB is enough for most people. Except for extremely intensive media production or running multiple VMs, there is 0 performance benefit upgrading from 8 to 16GB of RAM on Apple Silicon. I don't mean very little, I mean 0. The paging algorithms and SSDs are just that fast (except the 256GB M2 Air).
Even on Windows, if you're just doing office type tasks and inane web browsing, 8GB is enough. I still use a laptop with 4GB of RAM running Windows 11 at work; if I had to use it more than 30 minutes per week, it would definitely need replaced, but it still works well enough.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 then just buy a Macbook Air. For PRO workloads 8gb is very much insufficient. I've had my 10 year old MBP die because it ran out of ram with 16gb.
Buying 8gb today is absurd. And 16gb as well. You might as well buy an old used machine. With so little ram you're just hampering your CPU and overusing your SSD (so it will die sooner).
If all you do is browse get a Chromebook or an Air.
@@acasualviewer5861 Like I said, paging to the SSD as often as Mac does with just 8GB of RAM will wear out the SSD very quickly. Upgrading to 16GB is not a performance upgrade (for most of us), it's a longevity upgrade.
There are lots of reasons to buy a new computer that don't revolve around RAM capacity. New computers are better at everything, not just having more memory.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 if you don't have enough ram (for example if you leave 40 tabs open on chrome), your computer will begin trashing, your cpu will starve, and yes you will have performance issues.
Reading from RAM is always faster than reading from the SSD (at least for now). CPU starvation affects performance.
Also compiling huge projects in code will benefit from more RAM, as will any graphics heavy work.
A lack of RAM is not only a performance limitation, it is usually THE MAIN reason for performance degradation in a computer. SSD latency is measured in milliseconds, RAM latency is measured in nano-seconds.
Mac's aren't immune to realities of computing just because Apple makes them.
As someone that's been in the IT industry for 20 years, I don't have a huge problem with some moderate "future proofing" since I do tend to use my Macs longer than PCs. Apple's pricing is steep because they tend to use higher qualify parts vs most others - in addition to paying the Apple Tax - so it all adds up. CPU/GPU upgrades are normally my first choice in an upgrade simply because I know I will use it. I want to make sure I have at least 1TB, likely 2TB of storage, then I see how much memory I can reasonably afford. Keep in mind that I'm likely buying for both personal and business use - not just ranting on social media. What I consider a reasonable upgrade is very different than the average Mac user. For students, the base laptops are normally enough - perhaps bump the storage up a tier (up to 1TB). If you have the money, go for at least 16GB of RAM. They will likely value battery life over performance. A Mac laptop should last all 4 years of college and likely the first year after. Once you have a real job, you can consider replacing your laptop at that point.
they buy parts from typical vendors and sell as higher end parts. Apple doesn't make parts themselves. Tfor instance, storage imported from samsung and charge double for same shit. people are just tech-stupid when comes about apple. and Apple has some of its perks to establish itself such way
What do you suggest for software development will the 2 core difference between m1 pro and m2 pro will have a huge difference
struggling to make a decision so need recommendation
@@RobertShresthawolf I don't think you will see huge gains, but probably a 10-15% uplift while compiling code. Depending how often you do that, it might or might not be worth it. For me, I got the M2 Pro MacMini because I wanted the extra ports and the ability to support 3 4k displays natively (sans DisplayLink). I already have an M1 Max MBP for work/travel, so not upgrading that anytime soon. I'm hoping to get a solid 3-4 years before giving it to my kids.
@@freaky425 It depends on the specific parts. There is a significant difference between Samsung SSDs and cheap no-name junk often used by Dell, HP and others on the PC side. If you built a PC with the exact same parts, you would arrive at a similar number + plus the typical name-brand tax. On the PC side, I don't bother with pre-built systems, I just build my own.
@@JasonTaylor-po5xc definitely, If you make custom build in the PC side means we are of the same boat. I don't mean to say apple uses mediocre parts by any means, what I meant is apple just charges double or even more for the part which OEM would sell normally to consumers.
I opted against updating my Intel MBP from 8gb to 16gb in 2018. Now I have issues with both the battery and lack of memory. If my machine had 16gb, replacing the battery for a couple of hundred dollars would be a no-brainer. It would probably last me another two or three years. Now, I'm getting a new MBP instead. And I'll future-proof it by updating the memory.
I'm running a 2012 retina mbp 15 which originally came with 256GB SSD and 8GB ram. I upgraded the SSD to 2TB a few years ago and the computer is still useful for Office, browsing, video watching, music, etc tasks. However when I look at the pathetic 512GB offered with MBPs these days and that these SSDs are soldered in, I'm not happy. To continue my lifestyle I will need at least a 2TB SSD machine and those are expensive. Otherwise I would have to downgrade, and carrying external SSDs is a downgrade.
@@peterc.1419or just get an external SSD for the files you don’t need regularly for small money
I have found that a notebook (brand or OS doesn’t matter) has a practical life of 5-6 years. I buy with this lifespan in mind. After 5 or 6 years, the device likely won’t be able to stay current on the OS without involving upgrade methods that aren’t practical for the average person. Falling behind on the OS is the beginning of the end for application compatibility and more importantly security. I do have a 15 year old MBP that still works - so, yes, they will last that long, but it isn’t my “daily driver” because of how old the OS is and how it affects my ability to effectively collaborate with others on projects. My daily driver is now 4 and will get replaced within the next two years, once the OS begins to slip behind.
Drive space and memory are cheap, even from Apple. I always over buy in these areas because the benefit-to-cost ratio is really that good. Just about everything one does these days, except for perhaps the most basic tasks, will benefit from having more RAM and storage.
I have never upgraded my processor and have never noticed an issue. Maybe I don’t know what I’m missing. Upgrading the processor can get spendy, and the situations that benefit noticeably from more processing power within a 5-6 year lifespan are not as numerous for people who don’t really push their machines to their limits. The benefit-to-cost ratio isn’t as good for most people. I say most people. I understand this isn’t true for everyone, and one should put some thought into how they use their machine before deciding.
I guess my philosophy is don’t over think ram and storage - buy as much as you can afford, because it will come in handy.
I am the person who purchased a future proof Intel MacBook Pro in 2020. My refurbished M1 is in the mail. Thanks for the video.
I've been in doubt about which Mac buy, but at the end of the day I bought the basic M1 Air model: right now, I don't need extra RAM or extra space (until now I've just used an iPad 9 with a keyboard with zero problems and a lot of satisifaction) and if I'll ever need them it means I've a job that will allow me to afford a new MacBook Pro.
Solid thinking, tbh…
I bought a M1 MacBook Air when they first came out. I bought the 16GB of ram and 1TB storage, 8 core GPU model. I love it! It is still a BEAST in 2023. Runs whatever you throw at it.
Ive got the same spec on my air. Best Macbook ive ever had!
I bought an m1 mac mini for school and personal use. I went with the 16gb even though I am the user you described in the beginning of the video. I went with the 256gb ssd only as well as I use icloud the most so I can access files and documents on my ipad pro, or iphone. I think if you have the money to spare sometimes it is worth it cuz you can get a slightly better return on resell with more ram. Before my mac I had a samsung laptop with 8gb of ram, and would constantly max out my ram with only using teams, multiple excel and word docs, and multiple browser windows. I know the m1 macs are more efficient, but figured better to have and not need then regret not ordering it. I paid less than $800 for the mac too with student discount, and plan on keeping this for a very long time. I will upgrade my ipad before my computer I bet lol as that is my true on the go device.
I am upgrading from a 2012 5,1 cheese grater tower. Bought a M1 base mini. Just to test the pro audio app performance. But stalled up till now. It’s a computer I use a lot and it’s performs amazing. Was going to upgrade to a Mac Studio. Now I’ll just get more large capacity thunderbolt drive and save myself $1900 from upgrading a base max studio. Down the road I’ll have solid choices.
Cheese grater lol
Me too. 8gb256 its amazing.
External 1tb ssd
You need 16 gigs of ram minimum so that you don’t SWAP ram on the SSD. Which kills it. Always get 16 gigs ram. If you like to have a lot of windows or apps open get 32!
I work for a cyber sec company, and we always buy the latest MacBook Pro with 32gb RAM and a 2TB SSD for our technical employees.
Advanced workloads grow and it also ensures resale value in the long term.
Of course, if apple allowed RAM, GPU and SSD upgrading instead of soldering everything nowadays,and frequently changing the os so it wont run on older machines (as well as changing chip manufacturers which render the older computers obsolete) , future proofing would not be an issue.
The design of putting the SSD processing, ram and CPU together on a single chip has given us a far better experience than intel+ non soldered components.
That improvement despite my preference for self upgrades, comes at the price of no upgrades to RAM or SSD.
@@Patricia-kk8tr I'm typing this on a 14 year old mac pro, which still is a highly useful machine, you wont be able to use ANY current mac for that long. Care to actually state why making the SSD and ram non upgradeable is an advantage , other than it makes apple a LOT more money ? I'm bloody sure that they could engineer those components as separate items if they wanted to do so.
What's the best configuration for someone who would do the following:
1. Research and academic work (Word and Docs)
2. Excel / Google Sheets
3. Canva Presentation / Light edits
4. Analytics softwares-- Jamovi, Tableau
Lastly, the heaviest or the thing that I can't decide with is because of the need to use microsoft os once in a while--- I need a laptop capable of running parallels on it without a problem.
Any Apple silicon Mac will handle that workflow easily. I would recommend 16GB of RAM if you want to use Parallels though.
@@CreatedTech I see, thank you for your insight. I consulted with my professor if we will be using windows-only software. Fortunately, we'll use cross-platform and cloud-based ones. Do you think the base model is sufficient?
@@macbp41 I'd still recommend 16GB of RAM if you can afford the upgrade. Especially if you plan to have a lot of programs open at the same time.
Future proofing, that is, buying versatility that can accommodate future contingencies, largely consists in this: the ability to upgrade and service your device. Unfortunately, Apple and other manufacturers have made it a policy of denying those options. My 2012 i7 Mac Mini and 2011 Dell Latitude (both dual boot) have been upgraded or repaired through the years with SSD's, extra RAM AND modern Linux OS'es with updates for years to come.Both continue to be responsive and capable devices for my use cases. When another of my duct taped laptops finally gave up the ghost I removed its CPU, RAM and drives to upgrade my family's devices. Meanwhile the future proofed Apple is headed to the landfill.
512 GB storage and 16 GB storage is a sweet spot for software development
Not really, it depends what type of software development. If you are just doing code, then sure. But many of us have to use massive non-code assets, and more RAM at least is vital.
@@MichaelGGarry I’m curios about which software engineering fields you mean
I’m thinking of getting 24GB ram and storage of 256GB instead. Would this matter much for software engineering? I’m considering studying it
If you have the money go for it, else you don't need 24, 16 should be more than enough, unless you use shit tons of docker vm or Android dev you are doing.@@cloudyair7395
@@cloudyair7395hey don’t even think about getting 256gb… it’s 2024 go at least for 512gb
Why should anyone buy a macbook only for basic tasks in the first place? I mean, things like browsing the internet, emails, videocalls, and even editing word documents can be done by a good Windows laptop of 600-700€ (or even less). Why should anyone pay 1200+€ on a laptop just for basic casual use?
Disclaimer: the comment isn't aggressive, rather it's general. Because I always hear things like "the basic macbook air (8GB ram, 256gb ssd) is enough and it's doing the job for people who want to do the basic tasks" and I get so confused about why people are eager to spend that much money for no reason. And even if the macOS was the reason, I can't find any good argument on how windows could be less effective on emailing/browsing etc, so that the macOS would be the preferable operating system.
I know, right? It is just funny how people are thinking about a macbook for a huge amount of money to do things that can be done on chromebook for 50-200€ (used/new), not having even windows or full linux on board. And proper laptops can also be quite cheap and even upgradable if you want this afterwards. But macs are made these days like a single use device without any upgradeability and with awful service options %)
I bought the highest end MacBook air m2 besides the 2tb ssd (just got the 1tb SSD) the reasoning behind it is, it fits my work load, I need space, I work in game dev and I need a portable device for when I travel. If I had got a MacBook pro, I wouldn't be able to travel as light. I don't need the extra ports and high refresh rate screen. Those were the biggest temptations but I came to realize the portability was more important.
i really like the macbook pros base models. 16 gb RAM and 512 gb SSD is such a great sweet spot for average or above average users. 8 gb RAM is just simply not enough for even moderate multitasking and 512 SSD is faster and good enough storage for a lot of people. Unless youre a graphics/video creator, upgrading the chip is the biggest waste of money and the one i would avoid the most. The M1 pro also gets better battery life than the M1 max. No one should be getting 8 gb RAM unless you are purely a netflix/email user that doesnt do anything outside of that lol
I have a rMBP from mid 2012 with an upgraded SSD, it has 2TB. SO for me how is this a sweet spot if I will have only a quarter of available space? That means I don't have everything on hand. And I would need to pay a small fortune to upgrade to 2TB.
This is why I still use my base model M1 Macbook Air. It's hard to justify the price jump of the 14" Pro when the base M1 is still really fast for 90% of my tasks at the $800 price point vs double or more price for the 14" Pro.
Now consider that the base 14’ mbp in France is 2400 euros, or more than 2500$, so 3 times
16bg & 512gb should be the starting base now. My 2012’s still work pretty fine (16gb & 1tb hd) . I just use them to download music. I really wish we can get back to upgrading them ourselves
There are two sub-sets of laptops, ultrabooks and prosumer devices (including gaming). There is no need for a 16GB/512GB base, as if OEMs did this, they would need to raise prices accordingly. So let consumers decide if they need the extra spec, then buy it.
@@andyH_EnglandThey should decrease the prices of the base models then.
Eh, I switched from 2011 (16gb 512gb ssd), that was unbearably slow, to base M1 and couldn't be happier. Even with like 5gb of swap it's really snappy compared to old Intel with poor Apple cooling. Would 16gb be better - sure, but upgraded version would cost me as much as 50% more of the price I paid, while I could barely afford base M1 as is.
Most people don’t do that much on their MacBook laptop and someone have a iPad too they will use it more than their MacBook laptop
@@saharajohnson6481 I rather it be like that so it will last me at least 10 years.
Appreciate the video. You caught me at the right time, been thinking of upgrading my 2018 Intel Macbook Air to something more “futureproof.” Definitely more to think about after watching this. Subscribed! Good stuff.
To make it easy for anyone looking to buy a new MacBook, probably having issues picking one of those (14' MBP m2 or MB air m2.
Points to consider:
1. What do you need it for.
2. Is size and weight a big matter to you
3. do you have other laptops for gaming / heavy tasks
4. where you will mostly position your laptop desk, bed etc ...
Since both machines will cost nearly the same at the same specs , the main problem will be size and weight , heat/noise. If you are a light user who watches movies read docs and pdfs and play some Apple arcade games etc. I believe this is the best machine in the right size and weight, where you can carry it around and put it anywhere easily.
If you are more concerned about heavier tasks and it will be your main machine , and size and weight is not a problem to you then MBP m2 would be a better option.
Also consider picking more RAMs than going for the base model.
Thanks
Also the 16“ should be considered as well as someone used to 15“ notebooks.
The 16“ models are smaller and lighter than the last good 15“ MacBook Pros.
I just got my brand new MacBook Pro 16" with an M1 Max, 32GB of Unified Memory.
Yes, the latest and greatest came out a month ago but financially is a better choice when considering how much money I am saving.
This laptop is an investment for the type of work I do and part of investing is also being wise on doing so.
This laptop I'm sure it will give me a lot of time to work without issues.
Loved the video.
I'm using a MacBook Pro A1278 and i'm fine with it. I upgraded it's RAM from 4 to 10 GB and changed it's HDD to an SSD in order to make it faster and it worked. I'm waiting for a MacBook Air with OLED screen.
I personally like/ prefer a notebook with a 512GB storage capacity, and 16GB RAM. Purchasing a 2TB SSD makes the best sense to me. I only like having software applications and word documents on my notebook's physical storage. Media files all get stored on the external drive.
I have a rMBP 15 from mid 2012. I upgraded the internal SSD to 2TB for peanuts and I also have a MicroSD slotted SSD with another 128GB storage. You have your you 512GB and you feel good about it, because you have to justify this to yourself, but I have this ancient computer with all the files I need on hand and I can download apps/media files/software etc without issues. An upgradable SSD slot would have been so much better, but Apple said fsck you customers.
Why is your late 2013 MacBook Pro retina STILL running on OS X Mavericks (10.9) that came out in ... 2013??
I’ve wasted so much money because I didn’t upgrade to enough ram and ssd space and then later got frustrated and got a slightly better version, and then later realizing that wasn’t enough either.
So I’d hard recommend bumping up the ram and ssd as much as you can afford.
Knowing what you're gonna do is crucial. Most people just web browse and Atchison cat videos/social media. They don't need much for that.
I'll agree,
Really depends on each user & their actualy daily computer usage.
Look at it this way.
Buying a brand new 2023 base macbook is like buying a 3-5 year old High End spec out Mac just a few years ago.
Example: today's pricey top tier MacBook Pro 2023, well in 3-5 years time anyone that buys a 2026 base model will be equal in performance or better.
Again, it's not just the year of the machine itself but the parts that define that year.
Most folks that dished out a lot of cash ti have Mac Pro are kicking themselves because today's macbook pros can compete and in many areas surpass performance.
I am a software engineer and some of the programs I use require a lot of RAM. A good example is Docker Desktop, which won't even start if you have 16 GB of RAM and have 16+ tabs open in Chrome. You have to exit Chrome and other programs to be able to start Docker Desktop, then re-open the other programs, which will end up using swap memory allocation. Because of this and other similar scenarios, I did get my MacBook Pro 16" with 64GB of RAM. So yeah, it depends on what you're going to be using your Mac for and the specific requirements of the programs you'll run. Now, my MBP 16" is late 2019 so it has the i9 processor, but it runs fantastically great, so I'm not upgrading to the new M2 model, no need for that. Nice video, it should help some people save money, keep up the good work!
Very helpful video. I am one of those future proofing guys but your logic of buying what you need, use for 4 or 5 years, resell the unit and repeat is the winner.
Genuinely helped me out. Thank you…
Going with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD are good future proofing steps. External storage is much less expensive than upgrading the internal SSD, so unless you’re going to be working mobile most of the time and know you’re likely to need more than 512GB of storage, upgrading beyond that is of questionable value. Going to the 512GB SSD improves expected life span and increases performance.
RAM is a big deal. While virtual memory swapping can work well for switching between multiple programs, it doesn’t work as well if you have one program that uses a lot of RAM. Extra RAM is definitely likely to be helpful in the future too as programs and OS’s are always getting larger. Plus, more RAM means less virtual memory swapping, which means longer SSD life.
Extra CPU/GPU cores. Not very useful to most users. There are specific tasks that benefit from more cores, but most mainstream applications will see little/no benefit from more than ~6 CPU cores. Intense games and a few specific compute tasks may benefit from more GPU cores. Mainstream users won’t even notice.
I have thought about upgrading but struggle to find a good reason to so far. I am writing this on a 2016 MacBook Pro I bought for college. Now, I have graduated college for a couple years but still using the same MacBook pretty regularly. Surprisingly the battery still works well enough and the screen is still in great quality. I have never needed any repairs for the device either. I think purchasing a more expensive model with more RAM and storage than I needed at the time was the right call as I am really glad I have those upgrades now. It saddens me that the Touch Bar is gone and I would be losing that feature if I do upgrade but it would be nice to have more performance, longer battery, and a better keyboard since some of my keys occasionally get stuck after years of typing. It is also concerning that my Operating System is quickly becoming more and more out of date and I am beginning to feel less comfortable managing business and financial accounts on a system that is no longer receiving frequent software updates. I am pretty impressed though that nearly a decade later this laptop still feels pretty snappy and can handle my daily tasks with ease. Easily the best laptop I have ever owned despite its high initial cost.
Even though you primarily cover Apple stuff, TH-cam recommended me this video (I'm a desktop Linux user!) and I'm going to say this: your opinions also apply to ARM-based PCs! Dare I say, your opinions also apply to x86-based PCs that have limited upgradability!
I was considering getting an older ThinkPad Yoga, but I forgot that my workflow had changed in 2021 to be more cloud-focused, so the stuff I only really run on my ThinkPad X250 these days are Web browsers, Web-based productivity apps, and remote access apps. The cloud-focused thing is really just mostly my own homemade cloud with my NAS and my desktop PC, since I can't use regular online storage services as I currently don't have the time to clean them of years of data.
Edit: I think TH-cam recommended me this video because I watch PC-focused tech channels that sometimes cover Apple stuff, like Linus Tech Tips.
Am planing to get my first MacBook
I ll use the MacBook Air M2 15 inch for
1. Multiple tabs in browser - article reading and TH-cam videos.
2. Content viewing.
3. Ppt
3. Since am planing to get iPhone 15 pro, may be learn to do minor photo & video editing ( tour videos).
4. Teleradiology ( viewing and very minor graphic processing 2D to volume rendering) _ bigger screen is better here.
5. Use my iPad as sidecar in reporting.
6. May connect a monitor in future.
With these uses, Since MacBook Air is well built am planing to use for atleast few years 5plus
Should I get 8 or 16 gb ram keeping in mind on the works and future proofing for macOS updates.
and sometimes you're someone who loves tech, especially new tech and you're getting to the age where you know you're not going to outlast your money and you just buy what you want and not what you need. The truth is most people don't need more than a M2 Air, and even more so if it came in a 15"-17" screen size
2011 iMac here... Still works perfectly well with the SSD upgrade which was done 5 years back. Great computer...
512GB Hard Drive, 16GB Ram is the most popular entry option for Apple Buyers.
If you are in USA, you can get a 16GB Ram, 512GB Hard Drive MacBook Pro for $1499. Which is $1799-$300 discount.
Which is even cheaper than the 8GB Ram, 512GB Hard Drive version you bought from the Best Buy.
Base MBA M1 renewed is $709 on Amazon and a Base M1 iPad Air is $450 on Amazon.
Got them both for under $1300 including Tax & AppleCare+.
Save your money if you need to upgrade anything save up for the next trim of the product you want.
Great video as always.
I really wish Apple would acknowledge their products have two sides with different lifespans - the inside & the outside. I thought Apple Silicon would allow them to drop the 'motherboards' (insides) into a stick which could then be replaced maybe 2-3 times over the enclosure (outside) lifespan. Not as green as we thought, shame.
You're an optimist 🤣, apple doesn't care about the environment or it's customers, only profit.
They make attractive well designed devices which are very reliable and stable but maximising profits is their aim at all times and they have zero scruples
I've gotten years more life out of my i7 16 GB iMac that I ever would have gotten out of the 8 GB i5 version.
Problem is they treat all the models the same in terms of support/updates etc.
You did not take inflation into account.
My personal practice with large purchases is to overbuild and get more options than I think I will need, especially when buying brand new. Then I keep it for a long time.
My last iMac was a 2015 27” retina. It was top of the line back then. It has a 4TB fusion hard drive and 32 GB of RAM. It has been 8 years and undoubtedly it still slows down and there are limited updates with it. Even with the 32GB of RAM, these last few years it has really slowed down.
I paid around $2,500 for that 2015 iMac. Adjusted for inflation, that is $3,200 in 2023 money.
So 2,500 divided by 8 years is $312.50 per year. And adjusted for inflation, an equivalent purchase in 2023 should be around $3,200.
Therefore, I decided to get a MacBook Pro M1 Max with 1TB hard drive and 32GB ram.
Is it overpowered for my everyday use? Yes.
Is it a lot of money? Yes.
But it will really come in handy and pull through for those few times when I’m on the road and I need to edit/render/export a 2-3 hour 4K video, or recording in my music studio, or using ableton live on a live performance, or live-streaming on twitch while simultaneously recording the feed.
After doing lots of production work over the years, I’ve learned that what really matters is having the capability you need in the moment so that you can best capture the experience.
Being able and having the capability to perform in the moment matters way more than worrying you will never use a feature.
Buy once, cry once. The only regret is spending a lot of money.
I’d rather do that instead of hitting the ceiling on your gear because you skimped out. That’s a WAY worse feeling, ESPECIALLY when you are in the moment and you need the functionality to capture and create.
Immensely sensible. My kind of guy
Totally agree. I followed the future-proof concept and come up with MBA M3 16/512 and very happy with it. I wasn’t aware of the ram for using apps can go up to 15GB RAM very often with my daily work. 😂😂😂
Well when I bought a mid to high-spec mac in 2000, 2007, 2011, they all have lasted more than 10 years--and my 2016 and 2019 purchases going strong. When I bought a low spec mac in 2015, it was already too slow three years later.
My 2015 MacBook Pro is fine, but the screen needs to be replaced. Wonder if it can pay to do that? 🤔
My two bobs worth…., I purchased a MacBook Pro early 2014, with 500 gb. Im a low level user, and figured that would be ample storage. 8 years later, the computer is full, thanks to photos, music and documents. So I’ve been through all my albums, deleted heaps of pics, but still have very little disk space to update to the latest operating system. I should have bought a 1 tb, but cannot remember if it was even an option. Now I find I can upgrade my storage, so I’ve ordered 2 tb to install. Hopefully that will get me another 5 years. Cheers.
My 2012 macbook pro with CD drive still works perfectly. I even have logic pro x on it. Reaper works perfectly! basically the limitation can only be on Heavy tasks like 4k video editing, and big music projects. but it can do usual covers-recording, music creation with no extreme tracks, Microsoft office etc perfectly at normal speeds. I believe that 90% of an average day user can get any mac and you are good to go.
That extreme example happened to me 😅. Bought a fully speced MacBook in mid 2020 & Apple launched silicon chips after few months.I was gutted. I just sold that intel MacBook and looking to upgrade to M2 Pro chip now 😁
You made the right decision in 2020. I also bought the 2020 intel MBP but with 8gb ram and 256gb ssd, and it became faulty on June 1. The repair store is talking about replacing the logic board…
I think if you will be using your Mac for work, never buy the base model
The trouble is most people don’t know how to tailor the specs to their usage requirements, then there’s the temptation to get bigger and better. Throw in some fear of missing out and bragging rights and there you have it.
This video has totally changed the way I’m looking at my next Mac purchase
My grandpa uses an iPad 4th Gen for basic stuff like web browsing, emails and looking at the news.
I bought m1 macbook when it was launched in 2020. It was base model 8gb 256gb. In first 2 years it was very fast and smooth. After each major macOS update it became bit slower. Now i just sold that 15 days ago. In 2022 for development it was quite good. Now it wasn't performing well with android studio. It was using all of RAM with 8-10GB swap. Now I purchased M3 Air with same base config(I didn't had enough money for 16gb 🥲🥲). It is performing almost same as M1 with android studio (10-15% faster ) but still no enough because it's using almost 16gb Ram( 8gb ram + 8-10gb as swap). So if you are a developer/graphic designer or want to become then buy atleast 16gb varient. If you are hard core developer like me then buy 24gb with 512 storage atleast
I feel the same away about this idea of "future proofing". Especially when talking about Apple products as they have an extremely high upgrade cost. I'm also a tech nerd who loves new tech toys so even if I could push my laptop 5+ years I'm probably looking to upgrade to the latest tech by then anyway. The entry level MacBook Air is all and more than the avg user even uses on a daily basis. Paying for future proofing is a complete waste of money. For what it would cost me to upgrade the SSD and memory I'm already looking at over half the cost of a new laptop in 5 years time so I just rock the entry level for until I want to upgrade and use the money I saved by not upgrading and apply that to my next toy.
Waste of money? I'm running a mid-2012 rMBP 15 inch with 8GB of RAM and because the SSD is slotted I could put a 2TB SSD in this machine. It's currently at 85% wear level, so in about 2 years I've used up 15% of this SSD's write cycles. But my original MBP came with 256GB SSD from Samsung and that was not enough, even in 2012. In 2015 I replaced the SSD with a 1TB from OWC and 2 years ago with a 2TB SSD which is full of stuff, I have 300GB free. Now to get the same level of comfort I would need to pay for a MBP with a 2TB SSD, which is very expensive. Apple has made future proofing expensive in not allowing post sale upgrades of their memory and SSD.
Excellent video, mate! I opted for 16GB RAM + 8-core for my M2 Air, but stuck with the 256GB SSD. I don't edit videos/photos or do any intensive work requiring heavy GPU use, so the slower SSD isn't a problem for me. I have several external portable SSD drives should I ever need a lot more storage.
i bought a totally base m1 a year ago as my first mac, you may want to try a synology nas, i got a little ds220 and put 2 fat hard drives in, now my little air has 16 terabytes of raid1 storage and backup at home or anywhere on the planet i have internet👍
@@thomaskatt4450 Good idea! 👍
I max out upgrade my Mac desktop because that is where the heaviest work are done. In my Mac usage history, so far, I upgrade/change my Mac desktop ever 9-10 years. So, by maxing out my hardware, usually it will last me for 10 years. This is my my second desktop and the third one is not far on the horizon.
I'm still using a 2012 macbook pro and not until recently has it started to show its age. But one feature that really made me think about a new Macbook was upgrading Lightroom and Photo shop. With the new M1 and M2 I was unable to upgrade and use the new feature from Adobe.
I have a mbp from 2012 with an upgraded 2TB SSD. To get this level of onboard storage I would have to pay a fortune to Apple for a Macbook Pro. 512GB is peanuts.
8:47 If you're okay with not selling it, you can give it to a cousin or some family member. That's what we do with gadgets in our family.
Yup, my 2nd cousin a few months took my 2014 i5 16/256 13 inch MBP in what I can describe as mint condition. eBay suggests it would fetch almost £200. She can now use it for most of not all of her school needs as actually, only my photography work demanded more nowadays. If only the MBP 14 had a tighter hinge lol
I use a MacBook Pro M1 Pro 14 with 16GB ram and 512GB SSD for data development. Since I always use an external SSD plus Git repos the configuration works fine! The is no real need to spend more money. Next time I‘ll choose the 1TB SSD version. Ram was really never an issue. The base CPU is perfect for me.
Bought the 256GB (2024). People keep talking about 512 being a must, but NONE say WHY! Barely anyone checked their real needs, what they do on a daily or weekly basis.
I noticed that your old 2013 MacBook Pro has 16GB or RAM. That does not hurt when making use of it today.
It is fascinating that 10 year old Apple computers essentially came with the same amount of RAM, and more disk space, compared to todays baseline. Someone I know is replacing a 10 year old iMac with 8GB/1000GB baseline configuration, to a brand new 2022 iMac with 8GB/256GB configration. Same RAM, a quarter of the storage.
Whoops, looks like I used the wrong footage. It should have been a 13" 2013 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM. I actually also tested some web browsing on a 2012 Mac Mini with 4GB, still worked! Although you wouldn't want to have more than 5 tabs open with other programs running in the background...
@@CreatedTech I just replaced my MacBook Air 2014. It had 8/128.
I would say the extra RAM extended its useful life significantly. The SSD was too small, but adding a mini USB-storage of 256GB compensated.
I agree with your conclusions in your video... but I think buying a computer in the end of 2022 with just 8GB of RAM may be a mistake for quite many people, although not all.
At work I have used a 2015 MacBook Air with 4/128GB. That is... too little in 2022.
The new unified memory will be a faster 8GB than the 8GB RAM that's on the older computer. (And obviously the hard drive is smaller on the newer machine because SSD is more expensive than HHD.)
i’m a java developer and i work on my company’s windows pc. i’m getting an m2 macbook air tomorrow that i will use mostly for basic tasks but from time to time i will use it for side projects and that got me thinking: java microservices? don’t need that much ram. a database server? meh. two ides running at the same time? still can handle with 8gigs. even if i wanted to start writing neural networks i could cope with 8 but one thing just crossed my mind: motherf’ing virtualization. i don’t wanna be in the position of not having that option. i would like to study security and i definitely wanna be able to run a kali vm. so i’m getting 16 and i’ll enjoy not stressing over chrome tabs
Wife's 2009 iMac will not only not allow an OS upgrade, but Chrome won't update either, so even Google Maps won't run properly anymore. Sure, that's 14 years old and it's been internally upgraded with SSD and extra RAM, but the core system is now abandoned. Only good for a linux machine now to keep up. My 2013 MacBook Air can only upgrade to Big Sur and still feels like a lovely machine. It hasn't worn out or broken down, but is still "not good enough" for daily tasks anymore. So yes, our next machines will be monsters to hopefully get another 10 years out of them. It's cheaper than 3 base models purchased 2 or 3 times in that same decade.
I was planing to get an Air M1 with 16gb of ram CTO from Apple. However, there was a great deal from a local Apple retailed store (we don't have amazon here and if you want 16gb version, you need to order directly from Apple), and the base Air M1 cost about 800 usd post tax. I grabbed the deal and just live with 8 gb of memory. There is some limitation here and there (don't left too many apps open or Safari tabs). Having said that, I would definitely buy it again. In this case, the price different to upgrade from 8gb to 16gb were at about 355 usd!
For Gods sake don't use Safari. Switch to Firefox. You get adblock and 10x times the security. Safari is as buggy as the old IE.
@@dingdong2103 Aw okie. I will check it out. Thank you
Thank you very much for this review i want to buy mac mini m2 and i will use it in video editing and am torn between upgrading ram or m2 pro as my budget will only can choose one of those so which one of this configurations will be faster in video editing ?
Mac Mini M2 24GB 512GB 8-CPU 10-GPU 1199$
Mac Mini M2 Pro 16GB 512GB 10-CPU 16-GPU 1299$
Get the M2 Pro
@@CreatedTech Thanks for your recommendation does it will be faster in timeline working or only in exporting time as i don't mind wait longer while exporting videos but i want to be faster at timeline working does not the 24gb ram will be faster in that ?
@@Shady.Moustafa It will be faster in both. More RAM is usually better for video editing, but there is also a significant performance boost when going from M2 to M2 Pro. As long as you're not doing any intensive effects/animations that require RAM, you should be fine with 16GB, especially with the hardware encoders on the M2 Pro (ProRes, H.264 HEVC etc)
@@CreatedTech Thanks
Excellent video! I bought a base 13" Macbook air M1 last year, was afraid the base config would not be enough for me (a casual user) but it turned out fine. I saw the little spinning wheel only 3 times in a year due to loads of Google pages loaded but that's it. So this year I am getting a base 15" Macbook air M2 and I'm no longer worried of the specs. I came from a Windows gaming PC with crazy RAM and HD. But I no longer need these specs for casual browsing and app gaming. I have been "future proofing" my laptops all my life. But I still never kept a PC for more than 3 years. So the video is true.
I’d say internal storage is one of the best upgrades - I got 2gb of internal storage for my Mac Studio and even tho Apple charged painful amounts, its the best decision I made. So much headroom and insanely fast - finally stopped stressing and juggling files for running out of room - totally worth it for me.
Oooh all 2Gb? When did you buy it, in 1992? 🤣
Yeah Apple storage prices are crazy! Hahah oops, yes 2TB not 2gb !! 😆😆
Good advice. Generally 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD is a good base for a MacBook. I splurged and went with 64GB RAM on an M3 MacBook. Granted I run several Linux VM'ssimultaneously
I bought my first Mac at 2016 highest specs ( 16 GB Ram at that time was the highest + 1 TB SSD) , its been 7 years with zero decrease in speed . the only thing that it decreased is the battery life of course . Everything else is super smooth . I read its better to have 16 GB Ram M1 than M2 8GB Ram. Laptops are not like phones you buy it says with you for min of 5 years + MacBooks have a very long life span especially if you take care of it .
I use my computer to perform OCR work. Lots and lots and lots and lots of OCR, basically in an infinite loop. As far as I can tell, MacOS uses the Neural Engines for doing its OCR work. Strangely enough, there's no tool in MacOS that tells me the load levels of the Neural Engines. (It can tell you about the CPU or GPU, but not the NE.) I'm still using an M1 Mac, and I've heard that the M1 Pro Mac has a faster NE, but I suspect that an M2 Mac will be even better. So an M2 will probably be my next Mac.
You're right. I didn't know which mac to buy. Ended up buying the base model M1 air two months ago. And man, it flies, it as all I need. And it's cheap!
I know this video is over a year old but man oh man it still rings true to this day. I am the guy that wants his computer to last as long as it can. I bought my M1 MBA base model just wanting to use the computer. I spent as much money as I had for it because I needed it for photo editing and everyone told me that it was not enough and I am hear to tell you I have no issues at all it is not slow and it just gets the job done. I bought software for editing that will work on this beast of a computer even after Apple will no longer support my computer. So in 2030 I will be due for an upgrade and I may get a new MBA if the iPads are not better by then. I bought a iPad 10th gen and it is a beast with editing photos like a champ.
atm the only heavy app I use is DaVinci Resolve exporting and editing 4k 30fps, but I have the 8gb ram m1 MacBook Air, but does use a lot of swap but no hiccups. can I use it for 4 to 5 more years?
My MacBook Pro is currently 11yrs but I’m finally making jump to upgrade!
I usually upgrade my Apple Devices every 3-4 years, and how often should I upgrade my MacBook because I know that Macs can last quite a while?
I’ve been rocking my 2014 MBA and besides the battery lasting less and being stuck on Big Sur, nothing else to report. Before this I had the MacBook White 2008 and it took a while to die too (8 years). The MBA is doing way better comparatively, probably due to the SSD.
Getting 8 years out of a laptop is super unheard of and the only reason why I’ll probably still buy another MacBook when my MBA finally becomes unusable. Solid machines
I think the video is not meant for me. I chose the 16GB RAM, so I can easily run many VMs at the same time, to simulate for example Spoofing-Attacks between different devices. 24GB would be even better for that case, but I am not that rich actually 😂. And I took the 512GB , so I can run large programs like Vivado Vitis (VHDL programming) directly on the internal ssd for higher speeds. For other programs or games I use an external ssd with 1 TB and around 800-900 MB/s. I would recommend the use of 16GB…when your RAM is full, then the mac will take some SSD space as RAM. But your SSD of 512GB has a lifespan of approx 250TB of data being transmitted to the ssd. So every time your Macbook does „Swapping“, it consumes the lifespan of your ssd
6:48
ayyyy, you are watching someone from Australia, funny videos from him, how did you found him
I recommend M2 Air 8c8c, 16GB RAM, and either 512GB or 1TB NVMe for folks needing thin and light; if you need the 8c10c then get the 13.6" M2 Pro for that active cooling. I wouldn't bother with 32GB RAM for these laptops; if you need more then do yourself a favor and start spec'ing a Studio. I stay away from 8GB RAM machines and friends don't let friends buy the 256GB SSD. You're not wrong about the future proofing thing, but I see cheap/budget build M1 Airs hit my desk with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD and they're glorified Chromebooks. I just send them to surplus. We don't repurpose. An M2 with only one controller would be much worse.
when it comes to a more or less "good" performance to price ratio, there are only 2/3 options depending heavily on the needs and how long you expect them to be usable:
- 14 or 16" M1 Pro base model or 1TB SSD upgrade
- 16" M1 Max 32GB etc for the freaky needs
- M1 Air, still best value for money but only the 8/256 base model, any upgrade makes it even refurbished expensive
The absolute compactness of a M2 MacBook Air diminishes as soon you realize the display is too small, the performance in long term is more like a glorified tablet/iPad and it gets HOT under heavier, longer load...
The 14" Pro models are only a bit heavier and thicker but a PROPER COMPUTER, the M2 Air is a glorified Ultrabook for a very high price tag, especially with 16/512 or more upgrades
I personally found myself to be in the best spot with going "full size" on the notebook, so a 16" M1 Pro base model and a basic iPad Air but with 256GB (64GB are atrocious...), the iPad Air alone (or a M2 Pro iPad) is a much better option than a M2 MacBook Air, but a proper Mac and iPad is superior over a single, overpriced M2 MacBook Air.
Especially when you consider apple still refuses to build ANY sort of "hybride" device with MacOS/Macbook like and touchscreen, there is more or less no way around a iPad + MacBook (Pro or Air) combination.
A friend for example is fine with a basic M1 Air + iPad Air, he is much on the go and partially annoyed by the 13" screen, but is mostly using it via external monitor and mouse+ keyboard so its fine. The iPad Air and the Macs screen matches very good, the iPads screen is just slightly smaller than the MacBook Airs screen and thats a damn compact and powerful "Dualmonitor" setup i would prefer over any M2 Mac.
❓Rookie question:
Is there a way to suspend tabs on Safari on a Mac as there is on Chrome on a Chromebook (an extension or Chrome itself)?
I bought an 8/256 M2 MacBook. I'll be a light user for sure, but now I wish I got 16/256, because I'm worried that having several programs open plus many many tabs will cause hiccups and slowdowns.
Any knowledgeable advice would be appreciated.
One thing you get with higher specs is peace of mind. I don’t need 16 GB ram, but knowing I have that reserve ability is always present. 200 extra on already expensive computer gives you the sense of security all the time, whereas always watching how much storage you have left or if you’ve maxed the RAM… not favorable.
in most cases for these who watcing 256gb is ok, RAM is recommended to keep your mac releable over the next few years
Thanl you dor the advice; i see a lot pf consoder as a mac user; lo g ago only buy the second tier or the base line new; i necer nees and upgrqde just be creative with a 2016 early adopter mac and a 2015 imac i use bootcamp to archieve all needs and i be ok all this time; now i eant another mac for working at home
i watched this video on my $80 2010 MacBook Air, even though i have a 2020 MBP M1. Sometimes old hardware still does the trick.
80$ ?
Most times go for the slightly updated ram and don’t upgrade the storage. If your pro then go for the pro if your not then don’t bother. You can add a storage drive easily with a usbc ssd after the fact.
Nice tips! I need a new MacBook air for my travel setup. I use regularly lightroom for my photography. Which is the best price/quality ratio you suggest me? Thanks a lot 😊
You pretty much got rid of all of my anxiety with my 8gb model macbook. Thank you
I ‘future proofed’ my current 2017 MBP “13 by getting 16GB RAM. The machine is still lightning fast for my use case (50 chrome tabs, knowledge work in Google Workspace etc). I’m glad I upgraded my RAM. Otherwise I would have wanted to upgrade a few years ago already. Bottleneck now is the battery that only lasts 2-5 hours.