There is the annual summertime debate over purchasing anything new in the summer or waiting until the next round of hardware releases is announced (hopefully) later in the year.
Specifically I’m deliberating over between
Buying a refurbished MacBook, and getting more for my money than I could for new
Waiting until the next round of Macs are released
There is no urgency in my case, merely impatience as I’ve been putting off this purchase since the M1 and the lack of both hardware and software support for my (now) legacy MacBook is increasingly frustrating. The compromises I’ve made to keep this machine running via a suite of external SSDs and USB hubs has lost its charm. I’ve waiting this long. Can I really wait another 3, 4, 5, maybe every 6 months?
Absolutely.
However I no longer want to wait despite my head telling me that option 2 is the far more sensible thing to do given the potential performance leap in future M4 MacBooks.
Against this is my acceptance that all M4 Macs will probably cost more than the current M3’s. Driven both by Apple’s steadily increasing pricing for new hardware and and the reductions available when considering refurbished Macs.
So I go round in circles, without any decision or progress….
The RAM is more important. You can use an external SSD for overflow storage, but if at some point you find you don’t have enough RAM there’s nothing you can do about it short of buying another Mac.
I did exactly the opposite: I bought an “open box” (M1) MacBook Air 13" (2020) with only 256 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM, with the plan to “swap it” for a MacBook Pro/Air M4 (with a larger drive and more memory) when that is released.
I did this because I noticed that Apple does not give a dollar extra for any extra RAM, and offers way less for a larger SSD than you paid for.
My situation was a bit different though: I had to return my company’s (Intel) MacBook Pro 16" (2019, with 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD) and would be without a Mac if I did not purchase something right now.
So far I’m super pleased with this Mac and not even in need of a new one…
That sounds like a time-consuming hassle that would end up costing you more than either buying an M3 with the specs you want now or limping along with your Intel MB waiting for an M4 that’s probably not going to last you that much longer on the back end than the M3 would.
If you can afford it, I would wait for the M4. It’s not that much longer of a wait, and you may have buyer’s remorse if you don’t have the capabilities that may come along with the M4. While it could only be a matter of a year or so, the M4 will likely meet your needs for a longer period than the M3. That is pure conjecture on my part.
I’m currently wrestling with the desktop version of this one. It’s feeling like it’s about time, for a variety of reasons, to move on from my 2017 iMac Pro. But while a Mac Studio makes the most sense for the configuration I’d want, I’m having trouble justifying purchasing one built on a chip that’s now two generations out of date.
Waiting has been my plan. However I’d planned to buy on the M2 release, and delayed it to M3. Similarly planned for M3 and then we bought a house and that obviously became the priority.
Rather than buyer’s remorse a possible path out after picking up a refurb M1 Air is that my partner is a “MLU” where the L is for Light. Using a 2015 17” MBP she inherited from a family member, which is powered on when her phone doesn’t do the job. So she’d be the perfect fit for any MacBook Air. However up to now I’d assumed she’d get a newer model than a M1.
[Update: she has no interest in a new Mac]
In reality I’ll probably wait it out. However I’m really hoping for October rather than 2025 for M4 Macs
The yields are supposed to be better on the M4 chips, so Apple may just be using up already produced M3 chips before switching over. Then again, that’s just a guess, so it’s possible they’ll still be selling M3 MBs into 2025.
There’s also no guarantee which models will shift first. If they run out of the base M3s before the pros and maxes, they may upgrade the MBAs before the MBPs.,
• 14” MBP, space black
• M3 Pro
• 18Gb RAM
• 1Tb SSD
Which is £380 less than the new price.
Is the 18Gb enough? Well presumably. My old 27” iMac had 8 + the 16 I added to make it usable. Adding more obviously is no longer an option. However I do get by with 8Gb on my intel MBP and my ram limit has always been through my habit of rarely rebooting the machine rather than running high ram dependent workflows.
Is the 1Tb enough? Yes given that already have most of my data in iCloud and on a 2Tb SanDisk Extreme SSD.
Is a refurb good enough? Yes by all accounts. And I can always return it if there’s any issues.
Or I keep putting this off for M4. Have my Jam tomorrow not today.
But of course I won’t be M4 in day one in case there’s issues, I’ll give it a few weeks at least till the reviews come in and any latent issues get air time.
PCMag thought it was. Personally, I’m probably going to go with the 15 inch Air with 24 gb at a similar price (and thinner and slightly lighter than the 14 inch MBP) because I expect to benefit from the extra RAM and bigger screen more than the faster processor and extra ports. But my uses may be very different from yours.
For most people, yes, despite what some people say. I ran into RAM problems maybe 3 or 4 times in the 3.5 years I ran an M1 MacBook Pro with 16 GB and all of those times the RAM starvation was cured with a good dose of “well you don’t need all of this open at once.” Running Lightroom and PhotoLab and Safari and (too many) menu bar-resident stuff was no problem. Add Luminar Neo and Affinity Photo and it had problems.
I also had a 2 TB SSD (Samsung T7) that served as my (non-iPhone) photo drive, outside of the 1 TB M1. When I got this new M3 Pro MacBook Pro last month, I ordered it with 4 TB. I only got the M3 Pro because it was needed to get the 4 TB. Day to day at my desk, it doesn’t make much difference, but the freedom to just grab the laptop and go is liberating! Current free space is 2 TB. Room to grow!
Not sure if @Derek currently has an M1 or an Intel based Mac. I think this is the key difference. If I had a M1 I would wait, but the jump from Intel to AS is much higher than the jump from M3->M4 so I think I would go with an M3.
As a personal note, my i7 2018 MBP was fair and enough but I could not stand the fan noise, so I jumped into an M2 Pro Mini, which is absolutely silent. You may want to wait and see what Apple has in store for the M4, it’s only a couple of months I believe.
