For many of the reasons that folks here have suggested, I’m not sure I’d want to go back to a laptop-only life. The backup and external storage issue is a big one for me. On my iMac, I currently have two large (5TB?) external drives, one for Time Machine and one for external media (including a Plex library and my Photos library). Then I have two medium-sized external SSDs for special kinds of fast-access files, like audio sample libraries and scratch files that I’m currently working on. In addition to that, I have a bunch more USB peripherals.
When I used a laptop only, I found that I was often not locally backed up (though still had BackBlaze and Dropbox [which is not a backup but useful]) because I would often not plug in all these extra drives. Not because it was an annoyance but because I didn’t want to deal with ejecting them all the time, especially on my way out the door in the morning, since I often wouldn’t be waking up my computer before grabbing it and putting it in my bag.
Currently, I have a 5K iMac at home and a 2020 (Intel) MBP 13" (from my university), and to make things work, I carry a small USB hub with me everywhere that has my two hardware license keys (iLok and eLicenser) and a Samsung T5 SSD. I do not keep a TM backup of that laptop because all my data is in Dropbox, which will get TM’d and BB’d when it syncs to my stationary Mac at home.
I’m curious to know to what degree keeping something like a MBA plugged in 99% of the time wears down the battery. Especially if you’re using a dock in order to drive external monitors. Without those, I cannot see how a laptop at home is anything other than needlessly uncomfortable. @MitchWagner or anyone else?
@Robejazz, it seems as though only the m1 Mini can drive 2 external monitors. The MBP and MBA can drive only one external but it could be huge and up to 6k. Those of us with 2 are in a pickle. There’s a workaround with DisplayLink but it seems that requires a special dock and possibly includes latency. I’d love to hear otherwise from those better at this stuff than me.
It is interesting how we are often so different in our use cases and needs. I have a nice LG monitor on my desk to use with my 13” MBP. I may connect to it once a month; otherwise, I just use my laptop.
I charge mine overnight every night and never have any issues, replacing my phone every 3-4 years. I’ve had my phone for over a year and it’s still 95% on battery health.
Thanks for the reply. I am OK with a single monitor. Im just not sure which to get Model numbers/names tend to be confusing and the M1 MBP has some negative reports on monitors. I trust this group and looking to see what people here with the M1 find works well.
What are you using ? @Lars - sounds like you have one you like… what are you using ?
Not topping off is probably a hold over from the years I spent exercising nickel–cadmium batteries. I’d never checked the battery health on my iPhone 11 until just now. 99% after 478 days.
Can anyone who swapped from a 27” 5k iMac to a laptop and LG 5K 27” monitor offer any notes on comparing the screens ?. Is the LG as nice as the iMac screen ?
It is. When I bought it, 4k+AdobeRGB was just beyond expensive. So I had to weigh my priorities: 4k or excellent colors. I went for the colors. Right now, color calibration has some issues on M1 Macs. When that is solved (Q1 21?), I might go the 4K route.
What do you laptop only guys do with Photos and Music?
Music seems to be the easier of the two to sort, however, with Photos, do you have a system library stored on an external?
I was looking at dropping to just a laptop but I want a copy of all my photos for backup purposes. I assumed that I could set Photos system library to one on an external drive and it would download all the photos as normal but obviously not when connected.
I haven’t given up my Mac mini yet. Still unclear whether I will at this point.
But for photos, that’s why I paid for the 1TB drive in my MBP. My Photos library isn’t that large, only 80GB, but I tended to frequently have to have a “clean out” on the 512GB Mac mini and when Photos gets to 100GB, as it will, that’s ~20% of the 512GB!
However, for photos from my “real camera”, which currently total around 600GB, I have a dedicated Samsung T5 1TB SSD. I did this when I got the Mac mini, for obvious reasons, and now have just moved it over to the MBP from where Backblaze has finally completed backing it up again (and I also have a Backblaze B2 archive of the photos).
The T5 generally stays plugged into my OWC USB-C Dock so whenever I “dock” the MBP it’s available (including for backup) but I also “go portable” with it reasonably often, for travel or just for working on my photos somewhere other than in my study.
As for music, I’m an Apple Music subscriber. I have a bunch of stuff downloaded on my phone (“just because” really) but tend not to have any on my Mac even though I could.
I think that’s possible. I’ve thought of offloading some things onto an external RAID–is Synology the one everybody likes now? Indeed, now that I think of it, I think that would be a very good idea for a number of reasons (none of them actually having anything to do with my primary computer being a laptop).
My Photos library is only about 50gb. I try to get rid of bad or unneeded photos. Music is on a NAS and we have an Apple One subscription. I have a 1tb drive in my MacBook Air so I don’t have to worry about space.
I use a Synology for a NAS, partly because I’ve had one for years for media to stream to the TV, but also because it backs up my wife’s photos as well as mine and allows her to view them in the Photostation app. Whilst we share 200GB of iCloud Data, she finds the NAS the better option for viewing photos, as she can see mine as well (she’s iPad only and very rarely uses my laptop).
My MBA has 512GB - based on my usage case with Windows on a 256GB, I believe that I shouldn’t have issues with a 512GB and that I can have all my documents and photos in the photos library on the main SSD.
I ordered an Anker Thunderbolt Dock so it can use my 4K screen and I’ll give it a go, as it was one of the few to have HDMI out - however, I’ve just realised that only has a single USB A port, so it looks like the 7 port hub is coming back out.
I’ve avoided digging too deep into docks because I am confused by which connectors I might need. This made me feel like a dummy for a long time, but Merlin Mann has been complaining about similar confusion on some recent podcast episodes, and he’s a smart guy, so I feel better.
Model numbers/names tend to be confusing and the M1 MBP has some negative reports on monitors. I trust this group and looking to see what people here with the M1 find works well.