Ordered a "New" laptop, finally

[bunnspecial]

I've been complaining for a while about my M1 MacBook Pro with 8gb RAM(plus the stupid touchbar). It still has a lot of life left in it, but 8gb was never enough, especially when running a program like Lightroom and trying to do anything else in the background.

My wife's 2015 MBA is on its last legs, so I finally bit the bullet and got something that should last me as a main computer for a while-and what I'd have bought when I bought the M1 if it had been available.

I opted for a refurb 16" M1 Max 1tb/32gb. Ideally I'd have liked to spec 64gb, but you're at the mercy of refurb availability. Basically I ended up at the M1 Max because the improvements for what I plan on doing have been incremental.

Overall, I'm excited about what the 16" form factor offers, including getting rid of the touchbar and the return of Magsafe. I'm not wild about the notch, but most people I've talked to say you get use to it(and I did on my phone). Battery life should be on par with if not better than my M1(18 hours rated for the M1, 22 hours for the M1 Max). As long as it's at least as good I can't complain-my M1 already can easily go all day.

It should be here tomorrow.

 

[Kira]

Describe what differences you experience as you put it through its paces.
Good luck with it.

I had an ancient MacBook Pro which was failing and settled on an HP Envy without the better screen option. Seems to work OK.

 

[DuckRyder]

opted for a refurb 16" M1 Max 1tb/32gb. Ideally I'd have liked to spec 64gb, but you're at the mercy of refurb availability. Basically I ended up at the M1 Max because the improvements for what I plan on doing have been incremental.

that's what i have, plenty of juice.

 

[Rand]

Sounds decent.. The thing is you knew what you were looking for.
I cant tell you how many times people ask me how good their new laptop is and I have to plead the 5th or fake smile it.

ie they overpaid and got some 5 year old processor that has 1/4 the power of the laptop I would have recommended at a lower price.

 

[LDB]

Congrats on your upgrade. I'm debating an upgrade/switch from PC to the M3 iMac with 24GB ram in another thread. I hope I get as good results as you're expecting.

 

[pbm]

Sounds decent.. The thing is you knew what you were looking for.
I cant tell you how many times people ask me how good their new laptop is and I have to plead the 5th or fake smile it.

ie they overpaid and got some 5 year old processor that has 1/4 the power of the laptop I would have recommended at a lower price.

I'm in the market for a new laptop because my Chromebook (which I would never buy another of) won't allow me to upgrade to a more recent web browser and I can't access certain sights anymore ie: pay my credit card bill, banking etc...I don't do any 'gaming' or such....I just surf the web, pay bills, a little Youtubing and of course BITOG. What do you suggest I buy that's reasonably priced for my meager needs?

 

[Rand]

What do you suggest I buy that's reasonably priced for my meager needs?

What size.
13.3" to 17" are common with normal being 15.6"
Are you interested in touchscreen or any other features?

 

[pbm]

What size.
13.3" to 17" are common with normal being 15.6"
Are you interested in touchscreen or any other features?

Probably the 15.6" but any of them would do. No special features ....I'm used to a laptop and not a touch screen.

 

[bunnspecial]

I realized I'd never followed up on this.

Thanks to some delivery hiccups I didn't get the new computer until Thursday(I just missed the Fed-Ex man Wednesday, and fortunately my wife was home Thursday...I wasn't able to redirect to Walgreens like I do with a lot of signature required Fed-Ex packages).

In any case, I set it up to start transferring with migration assistant on Thursday evening and it was ready to go Friday morning.

So far so good, although I haven't pushed it a ton. Battery life seems just as good as my M1, although it runs a bit warmer. My M1 under moderate use normally hangs out around 40ºC, while the M1 Max isn't difficult to get up to ~60º. Still, though, this is nothing on Intel Macs(or really any x86 system I've used) and the fan(s)(not sure how many there are) still rarely run, or if they do are running so slow that they're inaudible unless the room is already silent.

The biggest shock I think was the size. Apple seems to have gotten over their obsession with thinness at all costs, and I think on the whole that's a good thing as that's likely a big reason why this is able to run so cool and quiet. It's thicker than my 2015 Retina 15"(which never was a main computer, but one that's now at work semi-permanently as a desktop) although probably about the same weight. It's still smaller and lighter than my old 2012 unibody 15". The overall shame/form factor reminds me of the aluminum PowerBooks and first gen MacBook Pros.

On the whole, this one is a win from my perspective, and I'm now transferring my wife's stuff over to my old one.