But by the same token, your elderly parents wouldn't be in the market for the Pro anyway.
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8GB RAM in M3 MacBook Pro Proves the Bottleneck in Real-World Tests
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But by the same token, your elderly parents wouldn't be in the market for the Pro anyway.
That's probably true. Then again, whether you're someone convinced you need more than 8gb of memory and don't, or someone who doesn't need a laptop with active cooling but is convinced you do anyway, it unmasks the emotional element to many of the choices we deem as rational. The debate was similar about 30 years ago but in MB rather than GB. We'll be debating the same thing 30 years from now, too.
I agree. It's the same for my elderly parents. However they also don't need a MacBook Pro and do fine with an Air. (Though they do need more than the pitiful 256GB base).
MacBooks have been made with Aluminum for over a decade, and it’s still a great material. Not everything needs to change for change’s sake on a 5 year, 10 year, or whatever update cycle.
They might just for the better display and the better speakers. Light users without an in-depth technical background, understand a better display and better speakers, but are at a loss when you talk about RAM, memory bandwidth, Clock speed, etc
MR represents a very distinct and unique portion of the Apple community in general. To get a more realistic answer I think you’ll have to search more than just the threads on an MR.
True. I really don't think the segment of "I have light needs, but I'll upgrade to a MacBook Pro for the better display and speakers" is especially large, though.
It's certainly not something Apple highlights too much. For example, https://www.apple.com/mac/ says:
Air: "Strikingly thin and fast so you can work, play, or create anywhere."
Pro: "The most advanced Mac laptops for demanding workflows."
Sure, underneath that, it points out the display, but it doesn't even mention the speaker difference at all.
If you then go to 'Pro', the four highlights are, in this order:
"The most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer."
"Up to 22 hours of battery life for the ultimate in pro portability."
"The world’s best laptop display. Brilliant in every way."
"A pro laptop without equal. Now in a new color: Space Black."
So I would argue they aren't really emphasizing it that much. (Especially the speakers.) If they were to go to an Apple Store, it sounds like the salesperson wouldn't use "you should get the Pro; it has better display and speakers" as an argument.
And I say this as someone who has the M1 Pro 14-inch. Its display and speakers are indeed fantastic!
Except the blooming, the edge shadow and the poor pixel refresh speed that makes it 120hz lite. It is a great screen, and the pixel refresh rate has become faster since the M1 Pro models, but it's not perfect. The edge shadow irritates me the most on my work 16 inch Pro, when using a browser with a white background. I'm every bit as happy looking at my MacBook Air M1, even despite its limitations.
I gotta say the blooming doesn’t bother me one bit on mine. I don’t really notice it.
Doesn't bother me either. Just saying it wasn't perfect
'Blooming' with static, bright UI elements isn't the true achilles heel of mini-LED. Where it really, truly, drastically, cataclysmically falls apart is with the silver clouding in video content. Dark scenes in dark movies all too often result in horrendous milky clouds following the content around the screen. Sometimes falling back to sliver rectangle mode when it gives up, and then alternating back to milky cloud mode to have another go. Not great.
On balance of pro vs. con I'd still choose mini-LED backlighting over vanilla LED, but it's very far from the miracle that Apple would have buyers believe. OLED of course runs rings around them both but brings its own potential issues to the table in a laptop computer setting.
On balance of pro vs. con I'd still choose mini-LED backlighting over vanilla LED, but it's very far from the miracle that Apple would have buyers believe. OLED of course runs rings around them both but brings its own potential issues to the table in a laptop computer setting.
Well, if you intend to keep the machine for, like, five years, I recommend you get 16. If you only do basic stuff on it and will get a new one in two or three years, 8 is fine.
That's been my contention as well. I'm retired, I do basic stuff on my Mac and I never go into the yellow re: memory pressure. So for my usage, 16GB is spending money on something I don't need. I also by the most inexpensive Mac which happens to be the M2 Mini and in 5 years I will gladly sell it for the next base model Mini. In fact I paid $465 tax included for my Mini and Apple will currently give me $301 in trade for it.
My basic rule in life is, always buy the cheapest because you can never be disappointed.
I was just kidding in a facetious observation of 86 pages of oh yes it is, oh no it isn’t.
I already know it isn’t enough for me, and even if it were I still wouldn’t buy an 8GB MacBook Pro just on general principle 👍
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OMG this topic has been trashed to pieces so many times. Most REAL pros who buy notebooks will demand at least 16GB or most likely a lot more to be efficient in workflows to meet client deadlines. So it seems ludicrous to offer 8GB RAM in a machine and call it PRO. But are Apple targeting a DIFFERENT pro? Those that want a better display or better speakers and have the income and therefore not care about being constricted with 8GB RAM? Maybe there is a market to justify why Apple still continue to go down this path. I would have hoped that Apple, who brag and place so much priority on its MacBook Pro line up, cease existence of 8GB RAM configs and move to 18GB standard across the board. People who want a better display or better speakers have the money anyway to fork out for a base machine with 18GB RAM. Apple should get serious about what PRO actually means. These PRO machines nowadays in Tim Cook's era come with a VERY HIGH price tag.... and if you are a real pro it is no issue cos a few projects later you are breakeven.
But I guess in the end.... with Apple .... and hard core bean counters ....MacBook Pro is an abbreviation for MacBook PROFIT.
But I guess in the end.... with Apple .... and hard core bean counters ....MacBook Pro is an abbreviation for MacBook PROFIT.
Pro in Apple's world is more options/features. You can have a base "Pro" with the same specs as a non Pro machine. But, you can increase it if you wish more than the non Pro machine. You also tend to have more connectivity (more and faster ports). Some professionals just need access to a or more bigger screens for presentations. They don't need 16GB of ram to make a presentation. Just more ports to connect to screens. Or maybe they have lots of external storage and don't need so much internal storage. Not every professional needs max specs.
And I actually bought it, on that basis (Mac mini, M1, 8GB). This was my first instance of buyer's remorse in probably two decades of Apple product ownership. I await the release of the M3 hopefully this Spring, and will definitely pay the price for the 16GB. The extremely high price!
I can't believe I'm read (again) this ancient thread that just refuses to die. 8 GB is okay for some and not okay for others. If you think you might someday run a video or photo editing program then 8 GB will probably not be enough.
No argument it is a great material, in most cases. But not so much when you've got acidic skin (like mine) which causes deep black pits in the trackpad areas in a relatively short space of time.
A revisit to Titanium as a chassis material would be really nice on a the premium machines.
One of the toughest laptops I've ever owned though was the Polycarbonate 12" iBook (MacBook not so much) - my god that thing was indestructible!
And the RAM hardware has improved, so your claims about “hardware engineering” don’t make sense. The RAM technology has gotten faster and more efficient over the years, that’s hardware engineering at work. Some people are wanting Apple to drop all of those hardware engineering advances to return to antiquated RAM cards. And you’re still ignoring the point. Some specs remain good for longer than others. There’s no need to arbitrarily upgrade RAM every five or ten years, when it’s still plenty for most base spec users, and satisfaction is high among most base-spec customers. Those who want more RAM can just buy it. Specs like RAM aren’t updated on a 5 year or 10 year cycle, their updated if and when they need to be, and the base RAM is still plenty, so there’s no need to change it.