8 ms·

I suspect there are a lot of us in that boat, with 5-to-8-year-old Macbook Pros. Apple really missed the mark with the intervening generation, by removing usef

I suspect there are a lot of us in that boat, with 5-to-8-year-old Macbook Pros. Apple really missed the mark with the intervening generation, by removing useful features and replacing them with features unattractive to developers. Maybe this big leap in processor / thermal / battery life (and a revision back to proper keyboards) will be enough to get us to switch! I think 64GB (or at least 32GB) would be a nice sweetener.

woahAcademia 6y ago
That's pretty much how I feel too. Nothing enticing because my computer is lightning fast and this means having to use the Apple ecosystem. It's almost like Apple has a culture of forcing people to do things the hard way, just so it feels rewarding when it's done. Gamifying the experience?
claudeganon 6y ago
I upgraded to a high spec MacBook Pro 16 after the M1 model was announced. I need solid virtualization support for Windows and Linux now, plus Big Sur seems kind of a mess from the design and privacy side of things. I'll probably wait 3-5 generations until everything with Apple Silicon is worked out to upgrade again, maybe get an Air as a device for travel if things look stable sooner.
alphabettsy 6y ago
I keep seeing this, but the performance gains and real-world, Docker and all, battery life are significant in the 16 inch MacBook Pro‘s more so than even my 2017 15”.
DrBazza 6y ago
I'm still running a late 2013 Macbook, now on Big Sur. The battery life is now about 3-4 hours even if I'm doing dev work, but otherwise it's still pretty good otherwise, for a 7 year old laptop. I had a Sony Vaio back in the early 00s, and it started with running XP 'ok', and then... Vista, which made it dog slow. My point being that I'm surprised that a 7 year old laptop is still "good". A new laptop isn't critical to my work at the moment, so I'm happy to wait for an M2, if that's what it will be called. Looking at Apple timelines a new chip tends to be 1-2 years apart, and I'm fine with that. I'm also reluctant to give up Magsafe, or at least have to buy a magnetic USB C connector.
- Tagbert 6y ago
  With Apple moving forward rapidly on this architecture change, I expect them to upgrade the processors at a faster pace than normal. They are 6 months into a 2 year plan to migrate all of their systems. I would expect the next version of M chips in 6 to 12 months with higher RAM limits and faster GPU. That would be targeted at their other laptops and the iMac. It will likely take longer for them to get to something that can be used in the Mac Pro and maybe an iMac Pro where RAM and GPU needs are even greater.
  - michaelmrose 6y ago
    I wonder if they will simply provide a motherboard with more cpu slots for M1 v2 for higher end machines like iMac/iMac Pro/Mac Pro.
    - potemkinhr 6y ago
      The ages old AMD philosophy, shovel more cores at it? With such low TDP it might work
    - glangdale 6y ago
      It seems unlikely. There's a lot of extra complexity with multi-socket and there's no actual reason for them to do this. I'm not a CPU designer but they might do the equivalent of what you said with a chiplet design like AMD (Intel also has announced plans to eventually get to chiplets).
- ldrndll 6y ago
  If it’s any consolation the battery life on my 6 month old 16” MBP is also 3-4 hours when I’m doing work. The CPU is an absolute dog, and the fans kick in under the faintest of loads.
  - desiarnezjr 6y ago
    Same battery life here. :( Love the actual machine but the battery life is a disappointment. Just got a 16MB 500GB M1 Air and so far everything is at least as snappy as the 16" Pro, and battery looks like a full 8 hour day + so far... it's a keeper I think. I also find the keyboard a bit nicer to type on personally than on the 16", so accuracy is up.
heisenbergs 6y ago
The reason it has been stuck to 16GB is precisely because Intel mobile chips did not support any more than that up until a year ago. So rather than blaming Apple, it should rather be placed on intel. I don't think expecting more than 16GB of ram for entry level Apple laptops should be expected. The low amount of ram, energy inefficiency and plateauing performance are the exact reason why Apple is moving away from Intel and onto a platform where they can control their own destiny.
- ffggvv 6y ago
  what do you mean entry level laptops? they don’t offer more than 16 and their base ram is only 8... and how are the macbook pro or mac mini entry level laptops?
  - djrogers 6y ago
    The mini is their cheapest computer. The Air has been their entry level laptop for the last several generations. The 13” Pro has had 2 versions since 2016 - a low-end 2 port model, and a higher end 4 port model. Every device with an M1 available today is Apple’s lowest-end (and least expensive) offering.
- Tuna-Fish 6y ago
  The actual reason the M1 Macs cap out at 16GB is that they use LPDDR4, and that on a 128-bit bus caps out at 16GB. Assuming that they move to LPDRR5 as it becomes available (hasn't Apple generally been pretty quick on the uptake on new RAM standards?), that limit goes up to 64GB.
  - DCKing 6y ago
    It's a conservative spec for sure given the rest of the M1. Samsung has shipped their own LPDDR5 in the Galaxy S20 since February. Maybe production capacity is still too limited.
    - Tuna-Fish 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
z6 6y ago
Yeah, maybe. It's still hard for me to envision giving up a 2014 and 2015 MBP. They both work flawlessly and don't compromise on any of the useful features, like having USB A ports, SD card slot, MagSafe, no touchbar, reasonably sized touchpad and so forth.
smnrchrds 6y ago
I don't even want to imagine how expensive the 64 GB version is going to be.
novok 6y ago
My plan is to get a min spec M1 air as a personal laptop and then get the real 14"/16" M2 version with touch, more cores and more RAM later on. As one apple employee told me, you never really want to get a v1 with apple anything if you can. With the 'touchification' of big sur, it seems pretty likely apple is going to release some sort of convertible macbook or maybe something iPad style. Or maybe iPads can start running macos? Work laptop will get upgraded to an M1 one way or another anyway.

woahAcademia 6y ago

That's pretty much how I feel too. Nothing enticing because my computer is lightning fast and this means having to use the Apple ecosystem. It's almost like Apple has a culture of forcing people to do things the hard way, just so it feels rewarding when it's done. Gamifying the experience?

claudeganon 6y ago

I upgraded to a high spec MacBook Pro 16 after the M1 model was announced. I need solid virtualization support for Windows and Linux now, plus Big Sur seems kind of a mess from the design and privacy side of things. I'll probably wait 3-5 generations until everything with Apple Silicon is worked out to upgrade again, maybe get an Air as a device for travel if things look stable sooner.

alphabettsy 6y ago

I keep seeing this, but the performance gains and real-world, Docker and all, battery life are significant in the 16 inch MacBook Pro‘s more so than even my 2017 15”.

DrBazza 6y ago

I'm still running a late 2013 Macbook, now on Big Sur. The battery life is now about 3-4 hours even if I'm doing dev work, but otherwise it's still pretty good otherwise, for a 7 year old laptop. I had a Sony Vaio back in the early 00s, and it started with running XP 'ok', and then... Vista, which made it dog slow. My point being that I'm surprised that a 7 year old laptop is still "good". A new laptop isn't critical to my work at the moment, so I'm happy to wait for an M2, if that's what it will be called. Looking at Apple timelines a new chip tends to be 1-2 years apart, and I'm fine with that. I'm also reluctant to give up Magsafe, or at least have to buy a magnetic USB C connector.

Tagbert 6y ago
With Apple moving forward rapidly on this architecture change, I expect them to upgrade the processors at a faster pace than normal. They are 6 months into a 2 year plan to migrate all of their systems. I would expect the next version of M chips in 6 to 12 months with higher RAM limits and faster GPU. That would be targeted at their other laptops and the iMac. It will likely take longer for them to get to something that can be used in the Mac Pro and maybe an iMac Pro where RAM and GPU needs are even greater.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  I wonder if they will simply provide a motherboard with more cpu slots for M1 v2 for higher end machines like iMac/iMac Pro/Mac Pro.
  - potemkinhr 6y ago
    The ages old AMD philosophy, shovel more cores at it? With such low TDP it might work
  - glangdale 6y ago
    It seems unlikely. There's a lot of extra complexity with multi-socket and there's no actual reason for them to do this. I'm not a CPU designer but they might do the equivalent of what you said with a chiplet design like AMD (Intel also has announced plans to eventually get to chiplets).
ldrndll 6y ago
If it’s any consolation the battery life on my 6 month old 16” MBP is also 3-4 hours when I’m doing work. The CPU is an absolute dog, and the fans kick in under the faintest of loads.
- desiarnezjr 6y ago
  Same battery life here. :( Love the actual machine but the battery life is a disappointment. Just got a 16MB 500GB M1 Air and so far everything is at least as snappy as the 16" Pro, and battery looks like a full 8 hour day + so far... it's a keeper I think. I also find the keyboard a bit nicer to type on personally than on the 16", so accuracy is up.

heisenbergs 6y ago

The reason it has been stuck to 16GB is precisely because Intel mobile chips did not support any more than that up until a year ago. So rather than blaming Apple, it should rather be placed on intel. I don't think expecting more than 16GB of ram for entry level Apple laptops should be expected. The low amount of ram, energy inefficiency and plateauing performance are the exact reason why Apple is moving away from Intel and onto a platform where they can control their own destiny.

ffggvv 6y ago
what do you mean entry level laptops? they don’t offer more than 16 and their base ram is only 8... and how are the macbook pro or mac mini entry level laptops?
- djrogers 6y ago
  The mini is their cheapest computer. The Air has been their entry level laptop for the last several generations. The 13” Pro has had 2 versions since 2016 - a low-end 2 port model, and a higher end 4 port model. Every device with an M1 available today is Apple’s lowest-end (and least expensive) offering.
Tuna-Fish 6y ago
The actual reason the M1 Macs cap out at 16GB is that they use LPDDR4, and that on a 128-bit bus caps out at 16GB. Assuming that they move to LPDRR5 as it becomes available (hasn't Apple generally been pretty quick on the uptake on new RAM standards?), that limit goes up to 64GB.
- DCKing 6y ago
  It's a conservative spec for sure given the rest of the M1. Samsung has shipped their own LPDDR5 in the Galaxy S20 since February. Maybe production capacity is still too limited.
  - Tuna-Fish 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

z6 6y ago

Yeah, maybe. It's still hard for me to envision giving up a 2014 and 2015 MBP. They both work flawlessly and don't compromise on any of the useful features, like having USB A ports, SD card slot, MagSafe, no touchbar, reasonably sized touchpad and so forth.

smnrchrds 6y ago

I don't even want to imagine how expensive the 64 GB version is going to be.

novok 6y ago

My plan is to get a min spec M1 air as a personal laptop and then get the real 14"/16" M2 version with touch, more cores and more RAM later on. As one apple employee told me, you never really want to get a v1 with apple anything if you can. With the 'touchification' of big sur, it seems pretty likely apple is going to release some sort of convertible macbook or maybe something iPad style. Or maybe iPads can start running macos? Work laptop will get upgraded to an M1 one way or another anyway.