Don't waste your money!
Well, let me explain. What I mean is… Investing your money on a new MacBook Pro but keep the
cost to bare minimum.
But that would be a crappy video title. In this video I am not just going to repeat what
you know already…
I will go through some options to help you save some of your hard earned cash when choosing
your new M1X MacBook Pro.
Because Apple… you know, they’re out to get your cash. Awesome products but they can
be sneaky!!
Given we are about to hear from Apple.. like in a few hours about this long awaited machine,
I think is a good time to go over some cost saving options before you hit that “buy
now” button on this new M1X MacBook Pro.
And when we are about to drop Two, two and half, three or four thousand on a new laptop,
I think there are a couple of things to watch out for and try to keep that cost to a bare
minimum.
If I learned anything with Apple recently, is that they will absolutely make us believe
that we need certain features that will increase the total cost of the product.
They hyped up the M1 iPad Pro and made some of us believe that having 16GB RAM was the
right option but that was a few extra hundred dollars that was 100% unnecessary.
It’s been 5 months with this product and having that extra memory made zero difference.
So I really believe that there is a small portion of the Apple consumers that are really
going to take advantage of a fully spec’d out MacBook Pro.
But judging by how incredible the M1 was, I think there will be a large number of people,
including myself who don’t need to fully spec it out.
In late 2019 when I got my Intel MacBook Pro, I did see the value in getting a higher spec
CPU and going for 64GB RAM because I fully intended to use this for my video editing.
64GB of RAM, and when you’re working with software that is optimised to take advantage
of that RAM, then it makes perfect sense to go as high as you can afford.
But it annoys the heck out of me that less than 2 years later this Intel MacBook Pro
is grinding to a halt and the battery won’t charge anymore for example…
But that’s a different video. Right to repair anyone?
Size The first option on cost saving for you is
the most obvious one, which is the size.
We know it is likely that both 14 inch and 16 inch will have the exact same spec so here
is a clear cut recommendation.
If you use your MacBook Pro at your desk in clamshell mode, all the time, whilst connected
to a larger display… then the 14” is the perfect option for you.
It’s compact, you can store it out of the way a little bit easier than the 16” without
losing any of the performance.
If we were talking traditional laptops, you could say that heating could become an issue
on the smaller version but with the M1X, that problem is likely to go away.
And of course if you are travelling and taking your laptop with you, and working on trains
and aeroplanes for example then the 14 inch is again, the obvious choice.
Storage The next most obvious cost saving component
is going to be storage.
We are due to get up to 8TB SSD as an option. That is incredible.
But… With this new M1X MacBook Pro we are also getting more ports and with that, the
opportunity to hook this up to fast performance storage options.
That means, we can keep the local storage to a reasonable size and take advantage of
that Thunderbolt speed for external storage.
Sure, you lose some of the convenience of having everything on the internal SSD but
you really don’t lose out a lot in terms of transfer speeds.
I would caveat this by saying that if you have a heavy workflow of generating hundreds
of GBs in image, audio and video files… Then 1TB should be the minimum spec for you.
I would only go with 512GB if my workflow was very light, maybe a photographer who is
not really generating more than say 20GB, 30GB a week.
In that scenario it would be very manageable to have and external storage setup where you
keep files locally that you are working on but every month you archive it off to an external
SSD, something like these from Sandisk or bigger ones like this from LaCie.
Display Before we talk about the next chapter, just
a quick reminder to like this video if you are getting any value from it and if you are
enjoying my stuff, it would mean the world if you subscribed to my channel.
That’s it.
When it comes to the display, I am not sure we are gonna get different options. If we
do, my previous point on size still applies.
If you’re using the MacBook in clamshell all the time, the display is irrelevant.
And even if you take it out occasionally, does your workflow really benefit from a higher
display spec?
As I said, I am not convinced they’d offer different displays but you never know…
Design Shall we mention the notch?
Yes I will mention it. I don’t really care, it doesn’t bother me. If we are getting
more screen real estate, a webcam that is not a potato… super thin bezels and maybe
FaceID…
Well, I don’t mind the notch. Plus let’s not forget, there’s a menu bar at the top
that will probably cover most of it.
So the notch may not be getting in the way as much as we might think.
It could be as simple Apple just being Apple and keeping their products “recognisable”
and trying to stand out from the competition.
I don’t know, it does feel like a weird move, and maybe Apple just like to divide
opinion… Who knows!
TouchBar being gone might annoy some people, but I am sure we will get over it. It’s
not much use really, I personally only use it for emojis in the rare event I am not using
it in clamshell mode.
And MagSafe.. Meh whatever.
Back to the point of this video, the M1X MacBook Pro will be a powerhouse! When Apple brags
about speed and power before the release, they are usually about to drop something incredible.
So if you can wait for the first reviews and really see how the different specs perform,
that would be the safest thing to do.
But if like me, having the M1X tomorrow would start saving you time and therefore returning
the value, then it’s best to be sensible and only go for the top specs if your workflow
is really high end, like heavy video editing, 3D modelling and things like that.
Exciting times again!
I will be and unboxing one the M1X MacBook Pros, and reviewing it… As well as doing
some accessory videos for it!
So I will see you and your smiling faces on the next one.
Bye!