I’m trying to help my brother who’s buying a new MacBook Pro 16” 16 GB RAM, 512 SSD. He has the chance to save $300 on a brand new M1 pro version right now off the cost of the M2 pro. He wants this computer to last a lot of years and not get outdated too fast. Should he save the money and get the M1 pro since performance between the two is really close or should he get the M2 pro to be as future proofed as possible?

Is there any concern with the longevity of the M1 being a first generation product? As an engineer I know you learn things from that initial release and make changes, fixes, and improvements on the second generation.

TimeWaster101 said:

I’m trying to help my brother who’s buying a new MacBook Pro 16” 16 GB RAM, 512 SSD. He has the chance to save $300 on a brand new M1 pro version right now off the cost of the M2 pro. He wants this computer to last a lot of years and not get outdated too fast. Should he save the money and get the M1 pro since performance between the two is really close or should he get the M2 pro to be as future proofed as possible?

Is there any concern with the longevity of the M1 being a first generation product? As an engineer I know you learn things from that initial release and make changes, fixes, and improvements on the second generation.

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If he plans to keep it as long as he can, its generally always worth getting the latest gen. Also depends what hes using it for as well

TimeWaster101 said:

I’m trying to help my brother who’s buying a new MacBook Pro 16” 16 GB RAM, 512 SSD. He has the chance to save $300 on a brand new M1 pro version right now off the cost of the M2 pro. He wants this computer to last a lot of years and not get outdated too fast. Should he save the money and get the M1 pro since performance between the two is really close or should he get the M2 pro to be as future proofed as possible?

Is there any concern with the longevity of the M1 being a first generation product? As an engineer I know you learn things from that initial release and make changes, fixes, and improvements on the second generation.

Click to expand...

Buying a Mac with Apple silicon and it not becoming outdated too soon is a harder task with Apple churning out new silicon on an almost yearly basis.

3nm a17 will be out soon and it looks like an M3 MBA might be here this summer. So by next year an M3 MBP might be in the cards.

Since Apple seems to improve not only CPU performance but GPU and faster ram and possibly faster SSD next year then I would say that the M1 MBP would feel rather dated in just a year's time possibly.

Even the moderate jump from M1 to M2 is nothing to sneeze at.

I think it really depends on his use case and needs.

I think the Problem with the Pro MacBooks is that they can be rather expensive once you move beyond the base configuration. Also the 16" is expensive by default. What does your brother do with his Mac? If he does a lot of heavy graphics intensive work then a Pro is definitely worth it.

And even though the M2 in CPU is moderate jump you get more cores on the CPU and GPU and the GPU is 30% faster. So the M2 on the Pro machines is actually a bigger deal than on the air.

If I were your brother and was going to spend a lot of money on a MacBook Pro I would get the M2 and since he wants to keep it a while all the more reason.

I would make another suggestion though if I didn't absolutely need a new Mac I would wait. I would see what comes out this summer and if a new MBP is coming out at the end of the year or start of next year. I know it is a while to wait but if Apple does a tick tock like they did with M1 and M2 then the big change should be with M3 and M4 might just be a slight bump. That means if your brother can wait he will get the longest lasting Mac for a while with the M3 version yet to be released. It may also have more cores and improvements to the GPU.

I know a lot of people say wait or don't wait and just buy what you need now. I get both sides of the argument. No one has a crystal ball and waiting carries its own risks in terms of future price increases.

If I were going to buy now I would pay the extra $300 to get M2 just for the extra cores and GPU performance since I would really feel bad with an M1 in a year or two.

Technerd108 said:

Buying a Mac with Apple silicon and it not becoming outdated too soon is a harder task with Apple churning out new silicon on an almost yearly basis.

3nm a17 will be out soon and it looks like an M3 MBA might be here this summer. So by next year an M3 MBP might be in the cards.

Since Apple seems to improve not only CPU performance but GPU and faster ram and possibly faster SSD next year then I would say that the M1 MBP would feel rather dated in just a year's time possibly.

Even the moderate jump from M1 to M2 is nothing to sneeze at.

I think it really depends on his use case and needs.

I think the Problem with the Pro MacBooks is that they can be rather expensive once you move beyond the base configuration. Also the 16" is expensive by default. What does your brother do with his Mac? If he does a lot of heavy graphics intensive work then a Pro is definitely worth it.

And even though the M2 in CPU is moderate jump you get more cores on the CPU and GPU and the GPU is 30% faster. So the M2 on the Pro machines is actually a bigger deal than on the air.

If I were your brother and was going to spend a lot of money on a MacBook Pro I would get the M2 and since he wants to keep it a while all the more reason.

I would make another suggestion though if I didn't absolutely need a new Mac I would wait. I would see what comes out this summer and if a new MBP is coming out at the end of the year or start of next year. I know it is a while to wait but if Apple does a tick tock like they did with M1 and M2 then the big change should be with M3 and M4 might just be a slight bump. That means if your brother can wait he will get the longest lasting Mac for a while with the M3 version yet to be released. It may also have more cores and improvements to the GPU.

I know a lot of people say wait or don't wait and just buy what you need now. I get both sides of the argument. No one has a crystal ball and waiting carries its own risks in terms of future price increases.

If I were going to buy now I would pay the extra $300 to get M2 just for the extra cores and GPU performance since I would really feel bad with an M1 in a year or two.

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I appreciate this perspective. I think he would really like something now. Sounds like the M2 is the way to go. I'll tell him to go M2 Pro. Thanks to both of you for chiming in. Really helpful and makes a lot of sense. That price drop on the M1 Pro was tempting but I think this makes more sense for the long term and even for resale if he decides to upgrade in a couple years.

What about the slower SSD in the 512gb M2 v M1, is it really worth worrying about or overblown?

Surfsalot said:

What about the slower SSD in the 512gb M2 v M1, is it really worth worrying about or overblown?

It depends. It is still a fast SSD. I think it is still faster than the M2 MBA 256gb SSD.

It is not going to be an issue unless you are doing huge file transfers often. If that is the case then it could be but beyond that I don't think it would slow anything else down.

According to Notebookcheck.com "While denser flash is welcome, the perceivable difference in speeds from a previous generation Mac is somewhat disappointing. That being said, the speed impact may not be felt in real-world usage. ZONEofTECH observed that the M2 Pro-powered MacBook Pro 14 can actually be faster in tasks like file copying although Lightroom imports were 2.25x slower with the newer machine."

It sucks Apple took this route with the M2 MacBook models on the base storage. It might be advisable to get 1tb if SSD speeds are important to your brother's work flow.

I still think even the base model M2 with slower SSD speeds is better than M1 because the CPU and GPU are faster and the SSD is still fast. So overall a net plus.

But if cost is more important than future proofing then the M1 might be better.

Maybe your brother can test out an M1 MBP at Best Buy and compare it to the M2. I don't think they would let you transfer files or run benchmarks but it might give a better overall idea if the performance seems any different. Try opening mail app and using safari and whatever else and see if he notices any difference. He may just say that the M1 is fast enough and rather save cash. The M1 MBP is still a very fast Machine but it is getting older so it is not now that is an issue but a year or two from now.

If he keeps the device 3 years that is an extra hundred percent year which less than $10 a month. Is that worth it? I can't say and a lot of Mac owners justify making higher purchases based on amortization on the total cost of ownership over the expected use of the device.

In my personal opinion tech moves so fast that I end up keeping my laptops about two years and maybe 3 at the most. So I would rather spend less and buy more often. That way I always have the latest. Trying to future proof by buying all the extras never seems to work.