recommendation Buying a new laptop, Macbook Pro 14 on a budget

[cincomeister]

Hello, I am planning to get a new laptop for web development work. I’ve been a Windows laptop user for all my life but I want to dip my foot into Apple laptop and see what’s up. I’ve seen reviews and just the battery life alone intrigues me.

 

I have a budget around $1800-$1950(USD). Here’s some context, where I am situated these are some of the options that I am wanting to get. These are all brand new prices

 

Macbook Pro 14” M1 Pro base model = 1750$

 

Macbook Pro 14” M1 Pro (10c-16c, 1TB SSD, 16gb RAM) = 1820$

 

Macbook Pro 14” M2 Pro base model = 1920$

 

Personally I would love to get the upgraded M1 Pro with 1TB of storage. The SSD of both base and updated model is faster than the M2 by quite a lot and with the bigger capacity I can use the device for longer without having to store data outside via external means.

 

However, I am not sure how that battery would hold up even though it is brand new from 2021. Is the battery degrade overtime inside the sealed box? I am curious to know how other people’s 2021 Macbook Pro 14” are holding up, especially the battery.

 

What do you think of those 3 options? Which one should I get?

 

Thanks in advance and have a great day!
 

 

 

[filpo]

3 minutes ago, udyrisop said:

Hello, I am planning to get a new laptop for web development work. I’ve been a Windows laptop user for all my life but I want to dip my foot into Apple laptop and see what’s up. I’ve seen reviews and just the battery life alone intrigues me.

 

I have a budget around $1800-$1950(USD). Here’s some context, where I am situated these are some of the options that I wanting to get. These are all brand new prices

 

Macbook Pro 14” M1 Pro base model = 1750$

 

Macbook Pro 14” M1 Pro (10c-16c, 1TB SSD, 16gb RAM) = 1820$

 

Macbook Pro 14” M2 Pro base model = 1920$

 

Personally I would love to get the upgraded M1 Pro with 1TB of storage. The SSD of both base and updated model is faster than the M2 by quite a lot and with the bigger capacity I can use the device for longer without having to store data outside via external means.

 

However, I am not sure how that battery would hold up even though it is brand new from 2021. Is the battery degrade overtime inside the sealed box? I am curious to know how other people’s 2021 Macbook Pro 14” are holding up, especially the battery.

 

What do you think of those 3 options? Which one should I get?

 

Thanks in advance and have a great day!
 

 

 

If you need the 1tb of storage I would go for that one. And no the battery won't degrade over time if it hasn't been used (or it hasn't been used in a long time)

I would get the upgraded m1 pro

[Zando_]

5 minutes ago, udyrisop said:

However, I am not sure how that battery would hold up even though it is brand new from 2021. Is the battery degrade overtime inside the sealed box? I am curious to know how other people’s 2021 Macbook Pro 14” are holding up, especially the battery.

Should be fine. You'd have to check the Serial # through one of the free services online to see how long it's actually been in the box. I use a 2020 M1 MacBook Air, it was manufactured January this year (2023). The year in the name is just when the model was introduced. 

 

As @filpo said, get the one with upgraded storage if you're going to make use of that. IIRC the difference between M1 and M2 is not very big, so I doubt you'll miss the slightly better performance. 

 

Whichever one you go for, do be sure to keep backups unless you keep your work files in dropbox or some other off-device service (or even a NAS at home). The drives in these are soldered so if they or any other part of the logic board fails, your data is gone (barring very niche recovery services which I believe are quite expensive). 

[RONOTHAN##]

32 minutes ago, udyrisop said:

I am curious to know how other people’s 2021 Macbook Pro 14” are holding up, especially the battery.

Base model 2021 Pro 14" here, the battery is still fine on mine. I'm easily getting more than a day out of it, if I don't use it that much I've gotten a week. Still at 96% maximum capacity as reported by software. 

 

As for which one to get, out of those three I'd probably get the upgraded M1. 500GB is usable (that is the config I'm on with mine), but if you actually need the upgraded horsepower of the M1 Pro compared to getting an M2 Air you probably will use the extra storage as well. Only reason mine is the 500GB model is I bought it used for a great price where I was willing to put the money into getting an external SSD for all my projects. 

 

24 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

Whichever one you go for, do be sure to keep backups unless you keep your work files in dropbox or some other off-device service (or even a NAS at home). The drives in these are soldered so if they or any other part of the logic board fails, your data is gone (barring very niche recovery services which I believe are quite expensive). 

^^

Time Machine is super easy to setup, you might as well use it so you're not stranded if your device ends up kaput.