Apple NEVER Learns.

[atxcyclist]

18 minutes ago, Commodus said:

I'm curious to see what the next 14-inch Pro's performance looks like. I wouldn't expect a huge leap, but the M2 Pro chip (even in its base form) will probably have enough of an edge over the regular M2 that it'll be easier to justify even if you don't care for the 14-inch model's other benefits.

 

As it stands, the M1 Max won't necessarily help much in some scenarios compared to the M1 Pro. Your videos might not encode much quicker, and your middling-demand tasks might not be noticeably faster. It's mainly for the folks who know they need the most possible computing power and are willing to give up a bit of battery life for the privilege.

Some of it is just the “buy once cry once” concept for me. I don’t do heavy work, though I want to delve into Xcode, but I take good care of my stuff and this could conceivably last many years. I’d like it to still be a relevant computing device while it has life left in it.

I also do want to game on it, and it looks like the M2 Air gets heat soaked even playing Minecraft, and that’s just a joke. If I didn’t have such disdain for the touch bar I’d buy an M2 Pro and just ignore the lack of MagSafe charging.

 

I think this is just finally going to prod me enough to spend $3,699-4,099 on the 14” Pro configuration I’d want, and go weep in the corner with my wallet, haha.

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, atxcyclist said:

Some of it is just the “buy once cry once” concept for me. I don’t do heavy work, though I want to delve into Xcode, but I take good care of my stuff and this could conceivably last many years. I’d like it to still be a relevant computing device while it has life left in it.

I also do want to game on it, and it looks like the M2 Air gets heat soaked even playing Minecraft, and that’s just a joke. If I didn’t have such disdain for the touch bar I’d buy an M2 Pro and just ignore the lack of MagSafe charging.

 

I think this is just finally going to prod me enough to spend $3,699-4,099 on the 14” Pro configuration I’d want, and go weep in the corner with my wallet, haha.

If I was going to buy a 14-inch MBP with value for money in mind, I'd get the higher-spec M1/M2 Pro version, enough storage to be reasonably future-proof (1TB if I still have a desktop, 2TB if not), and 32GB of RAM. To me, that's the ideal config for a smaller laptop where portability and battery life are still very important. I'd get a 16-inch machine for the Max due to the larger battery and greater space for cooling.

[Paul Thexton]

5 hours ago, atxcyclist said:

I also do want to game on it,

Unless there are specific games you’ll be playing that you know up front run well on macOS with the Max variant chip, then buy the M1Pro (or M2Pro if you want to wait) instead of Max, and use the few hundred $ you saved for an Xbox or PS5. seriously. 

[atxcyclist]

6 hours ago, Paul Thexton said:

Unless there are specific games you’ll be playing that you know up front run well on macOS with the Max variant chip, then buy the M1Pro (or M2Pro if you want to wait) instead of Max, and use the few hundred $ you saved for an Xbox or PS5. seriously. 

I've got a great gaming machine at home, R7 2700x, 32gb RAM, 3060 Ti, 2TB NVMe drive, but want something portable at least competent enough to play Minecraft or other games in that realm. My current 2015 MacBook Air gets like 20fps on low settings, and if I start messing around in xcode it turns into a furnace. 

 

I think I've convinced myself the Touch Bar is an acceptable compromise to get a fan, so I'll likely just buy an 13" M2 Pro with the RAM and SSD maxed-out, it will serve my purposes fine I imagine. I really don't need a full-fledged M1 Max, I would just feel like kind-of a doofus buying the lowest-spec of a given model.

[vmdyap2022]

13 hours ago, atxcyclist said:

It would be much better if I didn’t find it so hard to justify the base spec 14” Pro. 
 

$2k just like an almost topped-out M2 Air, but you get half the memory bandwidth of the M1 Max, only a 512gb SSD, only 16gb of unified memory, two fewer processing cores than the Max, and a GPU that’s significantly cut-down from the higher Max variants. Just seems like a waste to buy the Pro and not get any of the actual benefits, aside from just a fan.

 

Of course it’s faster than the M2, but it seems like a “baller on a budget” option and I’d always know I cheaped-out.

if you spent $300 more you can get the 14" mid m1 max specs with 1tb hdd, 10 core processor, you also get a better screen but again still depends on what you need and will use it for. It will be a waste of money to spend a lot for a MBP for daily task as I mention before. 

[Paul Thexton]

3 hours ago, atxcyclist said:

I think I've convinced myself the Touch Bar is an acceptable compromise to get a fan, so I'll likely just buy an 13" M2 Pro with the RAM and SSD maxed-out, it will serve my purposes fine I imagine. I really don't need a full-fledged M1 Max, I would just feel like kind-of a doofus buying the lowest-spec of a given model.

Personally I quite like the touch bar as a concept but I do understand why others don’t. For me it should have been in addition to F keys rather than replacing them, and should have been as configurable (via the OS directly) as a Stream Deck. Missed opportunity from Apple IMO.

Edit: This might help you with Touch Bar frustration, and is a good thing to mess around in Xcode for potentially https://github.com/Toxblh/MTMR

 

[rikitikitavi]

On 9/29/2022 at 2:49 PM, Paul Thexton said:

Unless there are specific games you’ll be playing that you know up front run well on macOS with the Max variant chip, then buy the M1Pro (or M2Pro if you want to wait) instead of Max, and use the few hundred $ you saved for an Xbox or PS5. seriously. 

It's painful every time I think how much I've been overpaying for my MBPs so I can game on a mac... 

Even today with the mighty M1Pro+ lineup the lackluster ('blockbuster') gaming support is not promising.

[atxcyclist]

On 9/30/2022 at 2:37 AM, Paul Thexton said:

Personally I quite like the touch bar as a concept but I do understand why others don’t. For me it should have been in addition to F keys rather than replacing them, and should have been as configurable (via the OS directly) as a Stream Deck. Missed opportunity from Apple IMO.

Edit: This might help you with Touch Bar frustration, and is a good thing to mess around in Xcode for potentially https://github.com/Toxblh/MTMR

 

Well I'm going to see just how interesting the touch bar is, because I ordered a Space Gray M2 Pro, 24GB, 2TB configuration, and it should arrive in a few days.

 

 

[SprinkledDount]

On 9/29/2022 at 12:24 PM, Just that Mario said:

1. He literally talks about tech reviewers being most important people for consumers in tech world and that's why he is in this business and why he is building a super high tech lab. There is no point in a performance and benchmark oriented review when all thoughts in it are skewed. Might as well watch a MKBHD video at this point and he'll get to the points and thoughts much faster and clearer.
2. While true, I am sure he reviewed it. If not, I would find it rather odd he phrased an opinion or two as "I personally...".

3. I am not sure why you are replying with this? I get it is a decent competitor in size class, but my critique was more about how in some comparisons the XPS was simply discarded and only comparison was made with other Apple laptops. What's the point of a comparison when one of the subjects disappears without an explanation why it was not included. Overall it was still more of a SOC comparison than a laptop review.
4. Let's be real - Linus is building the giant lab because he has the need to be the king in the industry.

1. He does say that in the video but he also in the past said that you shouldn't take what reviewers say as the end all and be all. He is also building the lab as a source for non-biased information on tech products, not to review them. It's similar to what Gamers Nexus is doing with their stuff, but I think that this is going one step further.

2. Why is it weird that Linus phrases his opinions with I personally? That is what an opinion is, a personal thought about something.

3. Only comparison was made with other Apple laptops because they are running Apple Silicon and the XPS is not. It made sense with the M1 processors to compare performance against intel machines because that is what the industry had been using for over a decade but now LTT can do an apples to apples comparison. You also said it yourself, it was more of a comparison.