Should i get the M1 Macbook Air or the 2015 Macbook Pro 15'?

[DanTheMan99]

Hi there

I'm a film student about to finish his degree in film and Tv. I plan on freelancing next year and i need to upgrade my current laptop, a 2011 13 inch Macbook pro with 16gb of ram and a 2.7ghz i7 processor. I don't have a big budget being a student and realistically can only afford the cheapest mac that can get the job done. I was originally looking ay getting the 15 inch 2015 macbook pro with the top of the line processor and 16gb of ram. Now i see that the M1 Macbook air is out and causing all this buzz and i was wondering if that would be a better option. Where i live in South Africa the two choices are around the same price and I'm struggling to pick between the two. I love the idea of having a 15 inch screen and 16 gb of ram with the 2015 mac but wonder if the M1 chip is worth giving those up for? Let me know your thoughts thanks>

 

[SorryBella]

6 minutes ago, DanTheMan99 said:

Now i see that the M1 Macbook air is out and causing all this buzz and i was wondering if that would be a better option.

It will, simply from the fact that x86 mac will be on a massive limbo with it basically on its way to full discontinuation, in both apps and hardware sense. If you wanna keep your laptop for more than 2-3 years from now, M1 Macbook.

[jaslion]

M1 no doubt. That and depending on which 2015 you get you can get the terrible butterfly keyboard that is guaranteed to break basically.

 

That and I don't see apple supporting x86 based macs for much longer.

 

Also keep in mind the difference in performance between a i7 2011 and i7 2015 is not that big the difference isn't even 30% between the highest end ones of 2011 and 2015.

 

The m1 kinda destroys it in terms of performance and if you do the thermal pad mod for it then yeah you literally have a m1 macbook pro but in the shell of an air in terms of cpu power.

[DanTheMan99]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

M1 no doubt. That and depending on which 2015 you get you can get the terrible butterfly keyboard that is guaranteed to break basically.

 

That and I don't see apple supporting x86 based macs for much longer.

 

Also keep in mind the difference in performance between a i7 2011 and i7 2015 is not that big.

Do you think that the 8gb of ram is enough for professional level video editing though? over say the 2015 with the 16gb?

 

[Eigenvektor]

As far as performance is concerned the M1 should be the clear winner. Plus it'll be supported with new OS updates for longer.

 

The only downside might be apps that are not (yet) compatible, but the number of those is fairly low. I'd investige which tools you use and if there are known issues.

 

Otherwise, at the same price the M1 should be the clear winner.

 

Just a heads up that an M2 (or whatever the official name will be) should be announced sometime soon.

[jaslion]

Just now, DanTheMan99 said:

Do you think that the 8gb of ram is enough for professional level video editing though? over say the 2015 with the 16gb?

 

No 8gb is not enough but don't get a 2015 one that one will most likely be end of support in the next year or so and become well not really usable within 2 years after end of support if even that.

 

So basically save up for that 16gb m1 model at all costs.

[DanTheMan99]

Thinking of getting the M1 Macbook Air and wondering if it's 8gb of RAM is enough to run Premiere Pro and DaVinci resolve well with high res footage? I edit professionally but don't have a big budget for something with more power. Wondering if this will cut it.

[Zmimgo]

34 minutes ago, DanTheMan99 said:

Do you think that the 8gb of ram is enough for professional level video editing though? over say the 2015 with the 16gb?

 

As always, it depends. It will work, just maybe not very well. Spend the extra on the 16GB, it's worth it

[lieder1987]

Also unless you need it right away, I would hold off a few weeks and see if a new one is announced.

[barclow]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

The m1 kinda destroys it in terms of performance and if you do the thermal pad mod for it then yeah you literally have a m1 macbook pro but in the shell of an air in terms of cpu power.

Do this only if you will use the laptop with an external keybard and on a desktop, you are basically converting the bottom aluminum in a big heatsink, it will bring a considerable amount of discomfort to use it overlap.

[Lightwreather]

10 minutes ago, lieder1987 said:

Also unless you need it right away, I would hold off a few weeks and see if a new one is announced.

That would more than likely be 14" and 16" MBPs which would probably a lot more expensive than the current 13" MBP

[LogicalDrm]

*** Threads merged ***

 

No need to post again about same subject.

[Darkseth]

6 hours ago, DanTheMan99 said:

Do you think that the 8gb of ram is enough for professional level video editing though? over say the 2015 with the 16gb?

 

I think, the MASSIVELY higher CPU Performance will outweight the lower Ram.

 

Plus, the 8gb Ram on M1 can do more, than 8gb Ram on previous Intel models. It's alot faster, and Unified Memory Architecture also can work a bit of Magic.

Of course, 8gb won't magicly turn into 16gb.

 

Get M1 air with 16gb Ram, if you can afford it. If not, be happy with the base model.

Silent at all times, fast, long battery life, efficient.

 

But get the M1 Macbook over any previous Intel Macbook, unless you absolutely NEED to have x86 Windows running on it too.

[Roswell]

8 hours ago, jaslion said:

That and I don't see apple supporting x86 based macs for much longer.

They're still selling them and will continue to be doing so for at least another year since they've only replaced less than half of their model lines... x86 support isn't going away any time soon.

 

8 hours ago, jaslion said:

 2015 one that one will most likely be end of support in the next year or so and become well not really usable within 2 years after end of support if even that.

This is pretty wrong. The 2015 models will support Montery (and likely another release after). After that, older OS versions are not end of support, they get guaranteed support for 2 additional years and then another 3 or so years of security patches. So that 2015 model, even if they stop after Montery will be officially supported for another 6.5+ years.

[jaslion]

7 minutes ago, Roswell said:

They're still selling them and will continue to be doing so for at least another year since they've only replaced less than half of their model lines... x86 support isn't going away any time soon..

Powermac was replaced 3 years after the first x86 laptop came out. This was whilst there was only a macbook at first. They are doing the exact same thing again.

 

9 minutes ago, Roswell said:

This is pretty wrong. The 2015 models will support Montery (and likely another release after). After that, older OS versions are not end of support, they get guaranteed support for 2 additional years and then another 3 or so years of security patches. So that 2015 model, even if they stop after Montery will be officially supported for another 7ish years.

The os might be supported but software development won't. 10.5 was going for a long while after but not even 2 years later Adobe one of the biggest software companies at the time dropped support for the power pc. You could buy a powerpc mac till about a year before it new.

 

So yeah don't take the gamble apple has proven they will move on and ditch their users.

[Roswell]

47 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Powermac was replaced 3 years after the first x86 laptop came out. This was whilst there was only a macbook at first. They are doing the exact same thing again.

 

The os might be supported but software development won't. 10.5 was going for a long while after but not even 2 years later Adobe one of the biggest software companies at the time dropped support for the power pc. You could buy a powerpc mac till about a year before it new.

 

So yeah don't take the gamble apple has proven they will move on and ditch their users.

None of this is relevant to your original misinformation that I corrected. You’re just moving goalposts for some bizarre reason now.

 

You said the 2015 model will be end of support in the next year or so. It literally can’t be because it supports Monterey. It will continue with updates for years and years after. Even your given example of PPC Macs had like 6 years of updates after they were discontinued.

 

You also state that you don’t “see them supporting x86 for much longer”. Again, they’re still selling them. They’re still going to be selling them through the next year. Even if they follow in the PPC transition’s footsteps, you’ll see another 5+ years of support after the last x86 machine is sold.

Also… Adobe supported PPC for 4 years with new/current software after the last PPC model was discontinued. Not sure where you’re getting your numbers from. Adobe CS5 came out in 2010. The final PPC model was 2005, discontinued in 2006.