Apple M1 MacBook Pro Alternative - (For Photo Editing, Light Video Editing and Graphic Design)

[ErikSyUmali]

Hi Everyone,

 

My wife currently wants a MacBook Pro, due to how well it supposedly lasts, and how light it is. So I'm currently looking for alternatives to the MacBook Pro, knowing that Apple puts a premium on their products.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thanks in advance!

[BondiBlue]

So she specifically wants a MacBook Pro M1 and you want to find an alternative? Aside from the price, why not get the MacBook? You're going to be hard pressed to find an alternative with the same level of cooling, performance, and especially battery life as the M1 MBP. 

[NinJake]

The M1 macbook is a force to be reckoned with. Honestly you could probably get her the macbook air m1 for i think sub $1000. All windows laptops I've used in the past, whether it be business oriented like hp or lenovo, or casual home computing like asus, or even a custom gaming laptop with "good" specs... I'd still currently recommend that M1 macbook.

[LpoolTech]

If she wants Macbook pro M1 it will hard to beat especially if she's comfortable with the os. 

[mecarry30]

You can't, since this is one of the rare products that isn't overpriced. There is not a laptop like it on the market.

[Darkseth]

On 5/3/2021 at 10:18 PM, ErikSyUmali said:

Hi Everyone,

 

My wife currently wants a MacBook Pro, due to how well it supposedly lasts, and how light it is. So I'm currently looking for alternatives to the MacBook Pro, knowing that Apple puts a premium on their products.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thanks in advance!

The M1 macbook Pros have the by far best Bang for your buck, that every Macbook ever had.

The M1 chip is such as Dealbreaker, that even more expensive alternatives are worse, like the Dell XPS 13 (or the new Samsung Galaxy Book, LG Gram, Thinkpad X1 Nano / X1 G9, Razer Blade stealth 13, etc).

 

M1 Macbook Pro (even over the cheaper, but almost just as good Macbook Air) gives you a great performance, 20 hours battery life, zero heat issues, and a Fan you will only ever hear when starting a Benchmark, or rendering for many minutes.

Screen quality is superb, speaker quality, THE Best Trackpad on the market.

 

Trust me: There are alternatives. But there is no better "Bang for buck", if you want to stick to the 1k+ price range, and the "high end / upper class" Devices.

 

Btw: Those 20 hours i mentioned. They aren't just random marketing numbers, like on most Windows Machines. I did 8 hours office work straight with it, and my battery went from 45% to 5%. Screen was around 50-60%~ brightness.

 

Dell XPS for example has a slightly worse Display (less sharp, but just as bright, and has slightly less DCI P3 and AdobeRGB space, less batterylife, more heat/noise, less power.
Unplugged, the M1 Macbook Pro has literaly double the performance of the Dell XPS, which is similar priced, also 2-3 times the battery life, no heat, no fans kicking in.

[ErikSyUmali]

On 5/3/2021 at 1:21 PM, BondiBlue said:

So she specifically wants a MacBook Pro M1 and you want to find an alternative? Aside from the price, why not get the MacBook? You're going to be hard pressed to find an alternative with the same level of cooling, performance, and especially battery life as the M1 MBP. 

She wants a MacBook Pro M1 because it supposedly is a reliable laptop according to friends. I'm not inclined to buy one just yet because of two things:
1. Apple Premium (which I don't know how much it is nowadays)

2. She has used windows all her life. Her only interaction with an Apple product is the iPad Pro

 

 

[BondiBlue]

3 minutes ago, ErikSyUmali said:

She wants a MacBook Pro M1 because it supposedly is a reliable laptop according to friends. I'm not inclined to buy one just yet because of two things:
1. Apple Premium (which I don't know how much it is nowadays)

2. She has used windows all her life. Her only interaction with an Apple product is the iPad Pro

The Apple Premium for the M1 MBP is basically nothing. You aren't going to find something else that can match the M1 levels of battery life, performance, and especially cooling. You just aren't. 

 

As for having only used Windows - macOS isn't hard to learn. I've helped plenty of people get used to macOS from Windows, and it's not that hard to do once you figure out how the OS works. 

[ErikSyUmali]

 

On 5/3/2021 at 1:44 PM, LpoolTech said:

If she wants Macbook pro M1 it will hard to beat especially if she's comfortable with the os. 

That's a question that we still have to find out

 

On 5/4/2021 at 12:41 PM, mecarry30 said:

You can't, since this is one of the rare products that isn't overpriced. There is not a laptop like it on the market.

Oh, so there is no Apple Premium in this case? Good to know.

 

On 5/3/2021 at 1:44 PM, NinJake said:

The M1 macbook is a force to be reckoned with. Honestly you could probably get her the macbook air m1 for i think sub $1000. All windows laptops I've used in the past, whether it be business oriented like hp or lenovo, or casual home computing like asus, or even a custom gaming laptop with "good" specs... I'd still currently recommend that M1 macbook.

Sub $1000 is impossible in my country. And adding an additional 8gb ram plus pushing it to 512GB, I'm pushing it to $2K

 

1 minute ago, BondiBlue said:

As for having only used Windows - macOS isn't hard to learn. I've helped plenty of people get used to macOS from Windows, and it's not that hard to do once you figure out how the OS works. 

Good to know that it isn't hard to learn.

[ErikSyUmali]

8 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

The Apple Premium for the M1 MBP is basically nothing. You aren't going to find something else that can match the M1 levels of battery life, performance, and especially cooling. You just aren't.

By the way, what are your thoughts on the M1 Macbook Air? What's the difference between that and the MBP?

[BondiBlue]

4 minutes ago, ErikSyUmali said:

By the way, what are your thoughts on the M1 Macbook Air? What's the difference between that and the MBP?

The M1 MacBook Air is also a great machine. The advantages of the Pro vs. the Air are as follows:

Slightly brighter display

Touch Bar

Fan for cooling (useful for longer usage)

Larger battery (hence excellent battery life)

[mecarry30]

3 hours ago, ErikSyUmali said:

 

That's a question that we still have to find out

 

Oh, so there is no Apple Premium in this case? Good to know.

 

Sub $1000 is impossible in my country. And adding an additional 8gb ram plus pushing it to 512GB, I'm pushing it to $2K

 

Good to know that it isn't hard to learn.

By Apple Premium I would mean the value you get. The prices to upgrade the RAM/storage are still pretty high.

[ErikSyUmali]

4 hours ago, mecarry30 said:

By Apple Premium I would mean the value you get. The prices to upgrade the RAM/storage are still pretty high.

That is true. And that's making me really reconsider. I'm now looking at a nearly $1.9k Macbook air for 16gb and 1tb storage, or a nearly $2.2k macbook pro with the same ram and storage.

[LpoolTech]

1 hour ago, ErikSyUmali said:

That is true. And that's making me really reconsider. I'm now looking at a nearly $1.9k Macbook air for 16gb and 1tb storage, or a nearly $2.2k macbook pro with the same ram and storage.

I would consider the lower spec mac pro 8gb and 512gb, you can keep any extra data on portable hard drive or in cloud and save some money that would drop the price to 1499. The fan, better screen and longer battery life its worth to go with pro IMO. Keep in mind that the 16gb 512/1tb version come with intel cpu not m1 chip

[NinJake]

4 hours ago, ErikSyUmali said:

That is true. And that's making me really reconsider. I'm now looking at a nearly $1.9k Macbook air for 16gb and 1tb storage, or a nearly $2.2k macbook pro with the same ram and storage.

The 8gb RAM is fine. Definitely don't need to upgrade the internals too much. As LpoolTech said, go for 8gb and 512gb setup and use external storage for main storage/backups etc. However :

3 hours ago, LpoolTech said:

Keep in mind that the 16gb 512/1tb version come with intel cpu not m1 chip

This is false as you can get m1 macbooks with 16 gb ram and up to 2tb internal storage.

[LpoolTech]

11 minutes ago, NinJake said:

This is false as you can get m1 macbooks with 16 gb ram and up to 2tb internal storage.

I think you are wrong there mate     Well I'm wrong 

[Lamothe]

@LpoolTech Select one. Then you can.

 

 

[LpoolTech]

Just now, Lamothe said:

@LpoolTech Select one. Then you can.

 

 

shit my bad 

[Commodus]

5 hours ago, ErikSyUmali said:

That is true. And that's making me really reconsider. I'm now looking at a nearly $1.9k Macbook air for 16gb and 1tb storage, or a nearly $2.2k macbook pro with the same ram and storage.

I'd get the Air unless your wife is doing things that would seriously tax the processor (deep audio/video editing, that kind of thing). It'll be as fast as the Pro in the clear majority of cases, it'll weigh less, and it'll save you money you can roll into the RAM and storage.

 

 

How will your wife use the system, by the way? If it's for everyday use, you could stick with 256GB of storage and up the RAM. I'd only get more storage if she knows she'll have a lot of local media or you're going all-out.

 

[mecarry30]

7 hours ago, ErikSyUmali said:

That is true. And that's making me really reconsider. I'm now looking at a nearly $1.9k Macbook air for 16gb and 1tb storage, or a nearly $2.2k macbook pro with the same ram and storage.

Do you really need that much internal storage though? You could get 512 or even just the 256 GB base model, and buy way cheaper external storage.

 

Alternatively, try using the student discount. In my experience they never check if you are a student or not.

For example, here is the Macbook Air with the same specs for $1500:

https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/space-gray-apple-m1-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-8-core-gpu-512gb

And the pro is here for $1700:

https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch-space-gray-apple-m1-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-8-core-gpu-512gb

[ErikSyUmali]

57 minutes ago, mecarry30 said:

Alternatively, try using the student discount. In my experience they never check if you are a student or not.

Thanks for the suggestion. My wife and I will ponder on the moral implications.

[ErikSyUmali]

3 hours ago, Commodus said:

I'd get the Air unless your wife is doing things that would seriously tax the processor (deep audio/video editing, that kind of thing). It'll be as fast as the Pro in the clear majority of cases, it'll weigh less, and it'll save you money you can roll into the RAM and storage.

 

 

How will your wife use the system, by the way? If it's for everyday use, you could stick with 256GB of storage and up the RAM. I'd only get more storage if she knows she'll have a lot of local media or you're going all-out.

 

Good point. I don't think she would do deep video/audio editing. Will probably go with the GPU 8 core air.

As for storage... I haven't probed her yet. She just wants to get and forget. But good point about getting an external device instead considering these prices.

[ErikSyUmali]

4 hours ago, NinJake said:

The 8gb RAM is fine. Definitely don't need to upgrade the internals too much. As LpoolTech said, go for 8gb and 512gb setup and use external storage for main storage/backups etc. However :

 

7 hours ago, LpoolTech said:

I would consider the lower spec mac pro 8gb and 512gb, you can keep any extra data on portable hard drive or in cloud and save some money that would drop the price to 1499. The fan, better screen and longer battery life its worth to go with pro IMO. Keep in mind that the 16gb 512/1tb version come with intel cpu not m1 chip

Do I really not need the 16gb ram? I have only played with Windows, and 8gb is very limiting, especially when I have multiple programs opened at the same time.

[NinJake]

27 minutes ago, ErikSyUmali said:

 

Do I really not need the 16gb ram? I have only played with Windows, and 8gb is very limiting, especially when I have multiple programs opened at the same time.

I haven't personally tested but there are quite a few videos out there where people are stress testing the 8gb memory by opening a ton of tabs in chrome (100+) and other software etc... And still not encountering a decrease in performance or anything. It really comes down to how much you are willing to spend. However for a modern laptop, the "base" model air would be overkill for a lot of people.

[Commodus]

19 hours ago, ErikSyUmali said:

 

Do I really not need the 16gb ram? I have only played with Windows, and 8gb is very limiting, especially when I have multiple programs opened at the same time.

M1 Macs seem to be much more forgiving about 8GB of RAM. Not that you'll never see benefits from 16GB of RAM (it may be wise if your wife intends to keep this for several years or more), but it's much better-behaved than a Windows PC.