Im sure its all of them…
there is a lot of truth in this. Modern Macs easily live up to 6 years doing just fine. The technology update cycle gets shorter and shorter, but the older machines keep going well for a few years more.
Just imagine what the M2, M2 Pro and M2 Max will be capable of not even 2 years from now… and the performance hype will start all over again.
I got into M1 as my Intel 16" MBP had difficulties driving my desk setup. The fans where going full speed no matter what I did. The M1 Mac Mini was a bliss. Silent, powerful and never complained.
The only reason I want to upgrade my M1 Mac Mini is lack of I/O. Definitely not for performance. I need it to drive 3 4K HDR monitors and it does now barely with the use of a DisplayLink Adapter. No Thunderbolt 4 dock will help in my scenario.
For mobile use, I am still contemplating to go iPad Pro only. With a remote Mac desktop available in MacStadium and also Windows 365 I will have the best of both iPad portability and desktop power when needed.
I’m actually wondering about this. It seems that a lot of year-over-year performance is coming from things like power efficiencies due at least partially to process shrink, and we’re apparently starting to approach a physics-based floor in process size.
I’m wondering whether future stuff is likely to get substantially faster per core, or whether it’s likely that we’ll just be producing more cores on a single die.
The iPhone processors seem to average a 10-20% increase in single-core each year. Future iterations of Apple Silicon are likely to be faster, but it won’t be the huge leap of going from Intel to M1.
Hope it’s ok to ask my question here but my wife asked me for a Macbook Pro recommendation and I’m not quite sure about that. She is a composer and spends most of her time in Logic Pro. She currently uses a 16" Intel Macbook Pro (16Gb standard config) which doesn’t seem to hold up for her anymore. She is oftentimes working with over a hundred tracks (is that right english word?). So which of the new Macbook Pro might be best suited for her? Go just with a M1 Pro? Not sure if the M1 Max would make a big difference with the special media decoders? 32Gb or 64Gb (in that case the M1 Max is a given).
Any one here with similar demands and experience regarding Logic Pro performance?
Thanks in advance.
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Nah, this generation is the performance revolution. It’s all evolutionary for the next few years.
Hop aboard, everyone! 
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Totally correct these machines mostly not required. But I did go for the 16” model maxed out in ram and cpu. In the hope it may become a excellent gaming machine.
The last time I brought a 16” Pro was like 10-12 years ago and it is still going strong, although no OS updates.
So if gaming developers start to consider the Apple M1 for games it could be a good option. Either way this machine won’t likely be replaced again for another 8-10 years, so a no brainer. (2029-2031).
I think go with what you can afford and you can’t readily change the configuration so bump something you later think will be important to have more of in later years (ram,HD).
So conflicted here (not really stressed! 
). I can get a 14" today and return my MacBook Air 16gb 1 TB I got on Saturday.
I got the Air as the machine “that is fine and will do the job and I don’t need that new shiny thing over there …”
The Air is enough but for an extra $550 I think I get a lot more for the money:
- bigger, better screen
- faster processor
- better webcam (I do a lot of virtual work with clients and that will increase)
I wish there was a 16-inch Air…
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I have a 1Gen 16MB MBP:
- data analysis: piece of cake
- 4K video cutting (I had to do a lot of staff training videos, webinars, etc. during COVID): did it in FCP (some in Premiere)…blazing fast
- photography/photo editing: yesterday I was working on a high resolution scan of a large format negative. Hold your breath: 293 Megapixels (!!!), 16 bits per channel, file size: 0,8GB. No problem at all.
- 3D stuff: COVID lead me to 3D-printing, designing stuff in Fusion 360, pre-rendering stuff… it flies through everything
Issues: every issue was due to software. Example: for 3D-Printing CURA is one of the preferred applications. But it only uses 1 core. I switched to Slic3er, which uses all cores.
Do I “want” one of the new ones. Yes. Do I “need” one. No.
Based on my current experiences with the M1, it’s good to go for the next 3-4 years. Then I’ll move on to whatever the new thing is.
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This is helpful. Thanks for sharing this.
I think you should go for the 14”! 
I did! 
Got it today and just setting it up …
Honest answer: how repairable are “repairable” laptops? You could change memory, drive(s) and battery.
The reality: if you had issues with the screen, CPU, the laptop “didn’t” start, it was replaced. At our company, we have HP and Canon. And we have an extensive service contract with HP, which can’t be prolonged after 3 years. Canon: we have a lease model and they change the printers every 2-3 years. And I know for a fact that they are not being refurbished, everything is shredded.
Why is that? They are not willing to store an endless supply of spare parts.
And I kind of like Apple, even if less “repairable”.
- high resale value
- I get the impression they are used longer
- a Unibody MBP can be recycled (and has the value of being aluminum)…my HP laptop (not cheaper) is plastic.
- battery is not user replaceable. But Apple replaces batteries on 5+ year old MBPs.
- it kind of makes sense to repair a 3 year old Mac, it’s still a great machine. Cheap, plastic laptops…not really
- the amount of packaging for my M1 was ridiculously little, and no plastic. Due to the pandemic I ordered a lot of stuff (home-office) from other suppliers for my staff. It was a mountain of packaging garbage, a lot of plastic
- personal purchases from other companies: it’s crazy how much plastic packaging!
I also hate computers which I can’t upgrade (RAM, drive)…but accepted the fact that Apple chose to ignore me. 
But at least they are doing something (packaging, materials), where other companies haven’t even started. My personal hate object: memory-cards. For a tiny card a huge shrink-wrap plastic enclosure, 100x the volume of the card.
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Hope you enjoy it! Which specs did you go for?
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Just the base model: 16/512. It’s more than I need I just couldn’t pass up that price.
Typing in the keyboard now it seems even better than the M1 Air’s keyboard.
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