Totally don't know what to do

At present, I own the following: 27" late 2013 iMac, late 2019 16" MacBook Pro (32GB, 1TB), 2020 M1 Mac Book Air, 32" 4K Philips monitor. I am a university professor who needs two setups, one at home and one at school. Retirement is not far off, though, and instead of having two machines to take care of, I would like to have just two to manage. I’m thinking of trading in the 16" Intel MBP (Apple will give me 82,000 yen for it ($720) - I live and work in Japan) and getting an M1Pro 16" (32GB, 2TB) and hooking that up to the Philips monitor. The concern I have is with the trade-in value of my 16" Intel MBP. Though I could keep my present set-up and wait a year until more shiney things show up, I imagine my MBP will have lost significant value by then and my overall cost will be higher (assuming the new shiney things still cost a sweet penny). Should I buy now or wait? Any advice would be appreciated.

Can’t you trade the 16” now and do not buy immediately? The M1 MBA is a more capable device anyways.

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I think your instinct to sell the Intel Mac now is correct, whether or not you buy now. (Though I’d hope you could get more through a private transaction on Craigslist or Nextdoor, etc.)

This could just be confirmation bias. I sold my iMac Pro nearly a year ago and have been in an unsettled state of computing since, waiting on the new iMacs.

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I decided that I prefer an iMac at home and use an older Air for travel. I sync everything via iCloud so all my data is on both machines. Previously I had used the Air with an external monitor but found it too much of a mess of cables.

I carry my 2019 16in intel MBP between three locations: home, office, and vacation residence. I have three nearly equivalent 27in monitors, one in each location.

One question you might face concerns keeping your university work isolated (private) from home work. I use two login IDs for this.

You do not say whether your university machine is purchased / owned by the university. Perhaps put differently, you imply that your university will not buy you your own (desktop) machine, making your decision only about what you need/want in your personal sphere.

With retirement “not far off”, I’d have to wonder if you should not wait until you retire, sell-off or give away (to a family member or charity) the “outdated” computers, and invest in a retirement gift–a computer that should stand for the next five to seven years of your new phase of life.

As for the trade-in / trade-up value, it is what it is. You may get more through third-party options. But you may also spend more time trying to make this magic happen quickly enough.


JJW

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That’s what I did. Was using a 2006 17” MBP that my wife’s sister had given us. Picked up my 15” MBP a month before I retired. Sold the 17” and my wife got an iMac. Used it until I gave it to a great-nephew earlier this year after disabling the dead GPU. Getting 8-9 years out of a laptop is pretty good.