Sterkenburg said:

No major issues, it does not have a butterfly keyboard and it is a solid design.

I have to say, though, that using it next to a M1 16" (I have two MBPs b/c company issued laptop) really shows how significant the leap to the Apple Silicon was. The difference in battery and thermals is especially ridiculous.

In all honesty, with configs like the base 14" M1 Pro going on sale for $1599 it's a little difficult to recommend pre-2020 models right now unless it you need Intel for a specific reason or the price makes it an absolute bargain.

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sennomulo said:

I’ve had one since it came out, and I’m looking forward to upgrading when the new models drop later this year because, at least for me, the fans have been a problem on this device. Granted, I regularly push it for hours on end playing CPU-intensive games, so I have somewhat of a unique use case, but I’ve had it cleaned twice and I can still hear the fans whenever the computer is on, even if it’s completely idle or in sleep mode. From what I read the M1 model does a much better job with thermals, and I’m crossing my fingers that holds true for the M2 as well.

Fear12 said:

It's a fine machine. It has decent specs. It gets hot and is loud. There are threads in this forum you can read more about it on. I use mine docked most of the time so the heat part is easier to ignore.

Like Sterkenburg said comparing to the M1 or M2 stuff is night and day. I have a direct comparison since my wife has an M1 Air. Sure, the 2019 I have with the i9 probably has more horsepower technically but her user experience is 10x better than mine. She gets all day battery, smoother interface, instant wake from sleep, no fans, etc. etc. etc.

glhiii said:

I have a 2019 16" MBP. It is quite a good computer, but I don't push it very much so I have no issues with heat or battery. I was thinking of upgrading to the M1, but I don't really need to, so I will wait a year or two and see what Apple comes up with. For me, the biggest advantage of the M1 would be the screen.

sennomulo said:

I’ve had one since it came out, and I’m looking forward to upgrading when the new models drop later this year because, at least for me, the fans have been a problem on this device. Granted, I regularly push it for hours on end playing CPU-intensive games, so I have somewhat of a unique use case, but I’ve had it cleaned twice and I can still hear the fans whenever the computer is on, even if it’s completely idle or in sleep mode. From what I read the M1 model does a much better job with thermals, and I’m crossing my fingers that holds true for the M2 as well.

HeadphoneAddict said:

Mine has been great - bought March 2020 when my 2014 MBP died. I only bought myself M1 Max MacBook because my wife needed my 16" MacBook to replace her aging 2015 iMac, and she needs to be able to run Mac for home and Windows apps for work.

With 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD it does everything I needed it to do. I use Turbo Boost Control app to turn off turbo boost when the battery is low or the fans go too fast, and so it's never too loud or hot for me. You can also get TG Pro or Macs Fan Control to run the fans at a fixed rpm and rarely hear them or get too hot. I have it set for low power mode on battery, and battery jumps up from 6 hours to 9 hours in low power mode (performance drops about 20%). The speakers sound great, and the screen colors are very accurate too.

When running Windows 10 in a virtual machine it runs about the speed of a i3 or i5 Windows machine, but with an incredibly fast SSD vs a PCI Gen 3 PC. I don't really game with it, as I have a gaming PC, so I can't give feedback about that.

The Passmark PC benchmarks in July 2020 were pretty decent running as a Windows virtual machine. The graphics score was about half that of a GTX 1080 though (maybe like a GTX 1050 or 1050Ti I don't know?). I planned to set up BootCamp to run it as a dual boot with a windows only mode, but never needed it do run PC apps any faster than it does and didn't bother since I can give windows 16-24GB of RAM.

I see the 32GB/2TB models going for $1600 on eBay, but if you don't need the extra RAM and storage, and that's in your budget, and Apple Silicon Mac might be a better choice.

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magbarn said:

Good luck with the gaming part. My 2019 still can play many more games than my M1Max due to boot camp.

I also have both MBP 16 machines but my Intel one stays at home due to much shorter battery life. I got the loaded standard model of my m1max MBP and the only thing I prefer on my Intel is the 2tb SSD in it and the ability to run boot camp. The m1max screen is so much better and the fans hardly ever come on.