Sup. I’ve never posted before but I read everything and this is one of my favorite places of it’s kind. This forum/message board is all meat and no potatoes and has given me way more than I could ever give it so thanks to everyone for all the information I’ve gotten from you without giving any back. Someday I’ll make it up to everyone…
Backstory: My first Mac was the 15-inch Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro with 16GB of Memory, 512MB of flash storage and the dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics card - It was love at first sight. Ever heard or Leo da Vinci? My wife and I used to call it Mona Lisa. It was simply a work or art. It became a part of me for the 4 years I had with it. They were some of the most joyous moments of my life and shaped me not only as a an electronics user, but as a man and a human being. Unfortunately, its “I’m a MONSTER!” moment came one rainy evening after kissing it goodnight and closing the lid with the magsafe power cord in between and the Retina screen got Phantom of the Opera’d. AppleCare was expired and the cost to fix it was steep. After 4 years I felt I had gotten everything I wanted out of it and the latest MacBook had just been released so figured it would be the same blissful relationship only with fully updated emotions.
I WAS VERY WRONG. My next Mac was the 15-inch mid 2017 Retina MacBook Pro, specs blah blah blah, doesn’t matter, don’t care, because from the start it was just a disappointment and straight up embarrassment. Ever read Of Mice and Men? My wife and I used to call it Lennie. It meant well but it was just a plane crash during a shark attack in every way imaginable. The touch bar was impossible to use out the box. Innovative software like BetterTouchTool helped but was basically Jordan 1’s on the most unathletic guy at the YMCA. The butterfly keyboard should be put on trial for crimes against humanity. I had to have it replaced 4 times in the 3 years I had it – each time sending it off for a week secretly hoping Apple would lose it and have to replace it with a super secret prototype they were cooking up as a new model they hadn’t publicly revealed yet. Using any peripheral gave me depression and mental illness because everything required an adapter or dongle. The portability of it was non-existent because the cord gore it left you with rendered it an aesthetic crime scene. I hated everything about it and longed for my previous MacBook every time I had to interact with it.
As soon as the next major hardware update was out I would take it out back and Old Yeller it. I dreamed about it every night. Unfortunately that was a long ways off and it took FOREVER for Apple to make a new MacBook Pro that cycle. Finally when it did, the announcement exceeded any expectation I had. I would have been happy with a new keyboard or just bringing some ports back. I would have paid any price for one of those – I never imagined getting both at the same price I paid for my current monstrosity. Here, take my money and my soul.
I didn’t bother with pre-order since I wasn’t needing a built to order version so the day they came out I bought one for in-store pick up the same day and initiated a trade-in for Retina Hitler Pro that netted me a cool $750, which ended up turning into a fight after the third party Apple uses claimed it was damaged and worth $0 that had to be escalated for weeks until it was resolved – a final 'eff you from the grave by history’s greatest failure I suppose.
From day one with the 16-inch 2021 M1 Pro MacBook Pro everything was finally good again. Mind you, It wasn’t love at first sight like with the one that got away, but IT JUST FELT RIGHT. It has some extra weight, but a MacBook Pro should have some curves – it’s what nature intended. It’s a beast of a machine. A total flex by Apple that leaves me with no choice but to forgive them for their previous abomination that I vowed to never let them live down.
But therein lies the problem – my work has changed a bit since Covid and permanently working from home. Previously I had my work office Mac Mini and my home MacBook Pro that I would use anywhere and everywhere. It’s proving more difficult trying to use this current MacBook Pro in a home office as well as at home anywhere and everywhere. It’s mouth watering luscious curves and extra weight makes it unruly to use anywhere and everywhere and it’s power makes it seem like it wants to be a stationary workhorse in an office but it has just enough portability that it also wants to be used anywhere and everywhere.
Basically it’s so good at both that it’s not good at either, if that makes any sense.
What I need now to be productive is 2 machines, one that is in the office and one that is with me everywhere.
What’s the best way to turn this MacBook Pro that I simply don’t deserve into those 2 machines without ending up in the poor house? I’m thinking sell this one at it’s going rate of $2,200-$2,400 but what 2 machines do I get to replace it?
The M1 Mac Mini with 16GB is perfect for the office and I’m keeping an eye on Apple Refurbished but keep missing out but will be getting one as soon as I can. The new Mac Studio seems great too so it’s an option but a more expensive and quite possibly less needed and over-powered option since my office work is light design that the 2020 M1 Mac Mini should handle with ease. As for the MacBook Air, I just don’t know – I’m hesitant to pickup a refurbished one from Apple because I know a refresh is long overdue and is so close and far at the same time, so I either keep waiting and possibly waiting….and maybe waiting and then eventually either end up getting it anyway after the price or specs for the announced model turn out to not be worth it or they are worth it and I get the new one, but spend an uncertain amount of time struggling to use my current one for work and personal use and not doing either very well. Should I just get them both now and deal with possibly getting the newer light laptop when it’s announced or do I wait?
TL/DR - Best way to go from an M1 Pro MacBook Pro to a M1 Mac Mini or Mac Studio and an M1 MacBook Air, considering a MacBook Air refresh is imminent.