I have a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro (M1 pro, 16/512) and I'm looking to upgrade sometime in the next few months - I just bought an ultrawide display for gaming, flight sims, and a bit of work/productivity, and the M1 chips can't drive it at full resolution (7680 x 2160), and I'm getting the stupid "your system has run out of application memory" message 4-5 times a day, so getting something with more storage and more RAM would be nice as well, and the HDMI 2.1 & 8k support on the M2/M3 chips is a huge bonus.
I'm going to trade this current laptop in and get the cash for it (yes, I could get more on eBay, no, I don't want to go through that hassle) but ignoring that, and for the moment ignoring the price (though I'm not looking to empty my bank account for the top specs that I'll never make use of), what would folks here buy?
Background: I'm an academic physician and use my computer predominantly for writing papers, data/stats stuff, presentations in PowerPoint/Keynote, email, lots of Zoom calls, and Citrix for electronic medical record and patient care things. However, I do need a large enough resolution screen to look at MRI/CT imaging when at home (part of why I bought the gigantic 57" monitor I have now) and not have it be crowded (there's a reason our radiologists have gigantic 32" very high-resolution monitors). I'm rarely doing video editing and when I do, it's not Hollywood-style stuff with advanced graphics and CGI. I have an Alienware Windows box that's stupidly powerful I use for gaming/flight simulator stuff, but the Mac is my daily driver.
When on the go, I'd like a machine that's powerful enough to get all of the above done, but if I'm traveling, I won't need to be looking at imaging, so screen size is slightly less of a concern, and it kills me to admit that as I'm getting older, my eyes aren't what they used to be, and the small text is hard to read. I use SwitchResX to bump up the screen resolution artificially but usually don't run it at full 4K since it's too tiny even on the 16" screen I currently have. For whatever reason, running dual 4K on my monitor is fine though. The 16 MBP I have is fine, I run it at higher than the max default resolution, but not 4k. However, it's large, and while it's fine to use at a desk when I travel, it's harder to use on the couch and nearly impossible on an airplane.
At one point I had the 12" MacBook to take with me places, and I would use an iMac at home - LOVED that combo, but they don't make the 12" MacBook anymore. I should mention I'm fine waiting and don't need to make changes right now, and I want to see if they release any new devices at WWDC (e.g M3 Mac Mini/M3 Mac Studio).
To summarize, my requirements:
I'm going to trade this current laptop in and get the cash for it (yes, I could get more on eBay, no, I don't want to go through that hassle) but ignoring that, and for the moment ignoring the price (though I'm not looking to empty my bank account for the top specs that I'll never make use of), what would folks here buy?
Background: I'm an academic physician and use my computer predominantly for writing papers, data/stats stuff, presentations in PowerPoint/Keynote, email, lots of Zoom calls, and Citrix for electronic medical record and patient care things. However, I do need a large enough resolution screen to look at MRI/CT imaging when at home (part of why I bought the gigantic 57" monitor I have now) and not have it be crowded (there's a reason our radiologists have gigantic 32" very high-resolution monitors). I'm rarely doing video editing and when I do, it's not Hollywood-style stuff with advanced graphics and CGI. I have an Alienware Windows box that's stupidly powerful I use for gaming/flight simulator stuff, but the Mac is my daily driver.
When on the go, I'd like a machine that's powerful enough to get all of the above done, but if I'm traveling, I won't need to be looking at imaging, so screen size is slightly less of a concern, and it kills me to admit that as I'm getting older, my eyes aren't what they used to be, and the small text is hard to read. I use SwitchResX to bump up the screen resolution artificially but usually don't run it at full 4K since it's too tiny even on the 16" screen I currently have. For whatever reason, running dual 4K on my monitor is fine though. The 16 MBP I have is fine, I run it at higher than the max default resolution, but not 4k. However, it's large, and while it's fine to use at a desk when I travel, it's harder to use on the couch and nearly impossible on an airplane.
At one point I had the 12" MacBook to take with me places, and I would use an iMac at home - LOVED that combo, but they don't make the 12" MacBook anymore. I should mention I'm fine waiting and don't need to make changes right now, and I want to see if they release any new devices at WWDC (e.g M3 Mac Mini/M3 Mac Studio).
To summarize, my requirements:
- Must be able to support 8k to use the cool monitor I have now (meaning I have to have a Pro or Max chip)
- Must have a large enough screen to see all the windows/things I need to see, but driving up the resolution is fine too.
- Portability is important, and my shoulders would prefer something lighter than a 16 incher