Anybody has a headache in choosing Apple products?

[ericwn]

Yes, base models may not be very useful. Upgrading the base Mini M2 to 16-512 makes one wants to pay a bit more to get M2 Pro Mini. Then, paying a bit more moves to the Studio territory. Similarly, for 15" Macbook Air, base model is not that useful and upgrading to 16-512 moves to MBP territory. Knowing that people would upgrade the ram more than ssd, Apple made the cheapest two configurations of these models 8GB only. Whatever we buy now, in 6 months or so M3 Mini and MBP M3 Pro 16" come out which can beat M2 Max Studio in some areas. The bad thing is evil Tim is selling M2 series base models with slower SSD on purpose. Not very happy to give Apple money especially these Mac cannot even remember multi-display settings. Some even have wifi and bluetooth issues.

Not sure where you are getting the impression that base models aren’t useful. Apple sells a ton of these and having a base 8GB Air around in the household I can tell you from actual first hand usage that these are far from useless. Apples product line has a few quicker chips but as long as you know what you need, you should find a match. Will it be cheap? No but pole hardly ever is. Doesn’t make the product buying deci any more complicated though.

 

[ericwn]

Buy the computer you need when you need it.

that’s pretty much all there is on the topic. Very well said.

 

[chrono1081]

I think it's easy personally but then again I know my computing habits and know I need more ram/graphics power than the average user. The only thing that caught me off guard was how well the M series chips ran. I never thought I'd be running the applications I'm running at the performance I'm running them at on a MacBook Air.

 

[maflynn]

Many people seem to get themselves into a situation due to analysis paralysis. Buying a laptop is not rocket surgery, determine your needs, i.e., does the computer run the apps you must use, and want to use? Does the computer fall into your budget range?

Sometimes people try to force a round peg into a square hole. The M1/M2 Macs are great machines at somethings, not so great at others. Need windows specific apps? You may be better with a PC. Want to play games, a PC. Do a lot of design work, or want great battery life - get a M2 Mac.

Don't be loyal to the logo, while a maker's track record plays into the decision, don't be so tunnel visioned that it has to be X or Y, when maybe Z is better.

Just my random ramblings of a grumpy old man

 

[hajime]

I am in such analysis paralysis. PC is my main work computer as applications that I use do not have a Mac version. Parallels is not suitable as I tried and I don't want to pay for annual subscription to be able to assign more RAM to a virtual machine. I prefer to have a Mac as a secondary machine. It will be traded in when M3 or TB5 is out. So within 1-2 years? I am not buying with the intention to keep it for many years. Something that can just get the job done (basic office productivity) is sufficient.

The Mini M2 and M2 Pro prices are good. As they are so cheap, I don't need to buy Apple Care. However, they have wifi and bluetooth issues. Some people said they have no issue but some do. I have tried a few and returned all because of that. Apple Support I talked to just said that they were not aware of the issues but I read that Apple has been contacting customers to gather data and replacing the motherboard. Haven't heard any update on it. I also do not want to have wires on my desk and my room is far from the router. So ethernet connection to it is not possible. There does not seem to have bluetooth and wifi adapters that are compatible with Silicon Mac.

The MacBook Air 15" is quite good but the screen is a bit small. If I buy a MacBook Pro 16" now and Apple releases a M3 Pro version in a few months, I will be unhappy given that I have waited for about 8 months already.

As for MacStudio, as I can't run Windows applications on it natively, 32GB and M2 Max are a waste of money. However, it is the next thing, after the Mini series, that has a built-in 10G ethernet option.

We know that when a new generation is released, the trade-in price is half and we cannot get much from the cost of upgrade.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Many people seem to get themselves into a situation due to analysis paralysis. Buying a laptop is not rocket surgery, determine your needs, i.e., does the computer run the apps you must use, and want to use? Does

Rocket science or brain surgery

 

[Algus]

I used to have a lot of analysis paralysis or worse became convinced I needed whatever the most powerful thing available was.

I ended up buying the base Mac mini in 2012 because it's all I could afford and that little box has been a trooper for me for 11 years. It really helped me evaluate my spending habits and made me think about just how much I needed to spend to get the computing power I needed.

 

[hajime]

Another problem is that Silicon Mac seems to be optimized at running only Apple-made applications for video/photo editing and music production, nothing else. I guess the majority of the current generation of customers bought the Mac for such applications and Apple just goes with the flow to cater the products for them. The current customer base is very different compared with that in the Apple II era.

 

[boss.king]

Another problem is that Silicon Mac seems to be optimized at running only Apple-made applications for video/photo editing and music production, nothing else. I guess the majority of the current generation of customers bought the Mac for such applications and Apple just goes with the flow to cater the products for them. The current customer base is very different compared with that in the Apple II era.

Apple Silicon is great at running just about anything. Apple-made stuff is often greatly optimised, but non-Apple software also flies on AS hardware.

Are there any specific examples of software you need to use that you fear won't perform well, or is this purely hypothetical?

 

[Sweet_Caroline]

Not at all. I just hit add to cart 😂
I enjoy it, I like looking at all the options.

 

[spiderman0616]

Not at all. I just hit add to cart 😂
I enjoy it, I like looking at all the options.

Same here. If I need a computer, I need a computer. And if spec it out to a level where my wife starts sounding upset about the price tag, I either dial it back in the areas where I feel like I can cut corners or we talk through why I feel I need to spend that amount. Not saying it never ends in some bickering, but still, I would never let something like a computer add stress to my life, including my marriage. In the end it's just a big giant calculator I'm going to replace in 4 or 5 years anyway.