Even after going through a ton of posts here and also comparison threads on YT/reddit i still have my dilemma left on choosing the right macbook upgrade. Need your help folks 😅 For context, I’m currently on a Late 2013 15" MBP, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, Dual Graphics (Nvidia + Intel). I have 300GB+ free in the hard drive. But the problem is i cannot run any tasks without it getting freezed. It gets warm and fan starts to make intense noise when opening Chrome or spinning up a terminal instance. Opening a Google meet itself causes to freeze. Not to mention the frustration of running Cypress test. Feels to throw this out of the window LOL I am looking for an upgrade that can handle these tasks smoothly without any jerks and also last for ~4-5 years. Currently working on FE but may plan to work on DB/BE side as a hobby if not for job. Since i’m coming from 4th gen Intel i7, I’m wondering if just an upgrade to a base model M1 would work? or should i also upgrade the RAM to 16GB+ I’m looking at these ones 1. M1 Air 8Core/16GB/500GB (or 1TB) 2. M1 Pro 14" 8Core/16GB/512GB 3. M1 Pro 14" 8Core/*32GB*/512GB I’m impressed by the reviews on Air that it is likened by many and it is much more cheaper. I can also use the remaining budget for an external screen but as said, not sure if 16GB would work given that it is the maxed out RAM spec in Air. But Pro seems to have better CPU, better screen, webcam, speaker and ports 🤷‍♂️ I can’t remember myself to be so confused before this. Will appreciate your wise comments 😄🙏

Don't buy Air now, might as well wait till March as we're likely to see M2 Air with new design. Also, 8 core M1 Pro with 32 GB RAM is an odd combination.

Macbook Air makes sense only for the base model (8GB ram, 250GB)- because of the value for money factor (half the price of the base 14 inch) If 16 GB/512GB minimum is the requirement, the 14 inch gives you a lot for the extra money, and makes sense for the long term. (Using the 16GB M1 Pro since 2 months now, handles heavy workloads smoothly for me)

Hey @creamy-dawn-73235 I used a 2012 13” MBP (modified with SSD + 16GB Ram) for a very long time before I upgraded and it still works ok (a bit slow) for most of my programming stuff + Slack + zoom. Webstorm + Django + PGSql backend and stuff. If you decide to wait a little longer before the upgrade, I would recommend the following steps to get more juice from your machine: 1. Format it and do a clean install of MacOS. 2. Remember to backup your projects and docs and stuff to an external drive. 3. Avoid using Chrome as your primary browser - or don't reinstall it again. Edge / Brave are decent Chromium alternatives. 4. Only install Chrome if you need it for tests and stuff and prevent it from auto starting, auto updates, etc. I feel just doing a clean reinstall + removing Chrome will give your MBP a good performance boost.

^ also get it opened and cleaned for dust. It's been years, it'll make a difference.

@creamy-dawn-73235: lateral view here, do you need a laptop or will the Mac Mini M1 do? I have a Mac Mini M1, and I haven’t been able to throw it off balance so far. Disclaimer: I don’t use Chrome. Also, my plan is to upgrade to the Mac Pro, when I can afford, and continue to reap the benefits of the rest of my hardware for years, so that is another advantage.

@loud-glass-33663 I actually installed Edge and used it the whole of yesterday (yes, before i wrote this post) instead of Chrome and the difference was noticeably huge. Seen the lags only while running cypress. I was surprised that ditching Chrome would make such a difference 😮 Maybe a backup/format would be fine for now to last it for some more time. I wish it will remain like this for next few months 🤞 and maybe wait for few more releases as @flat-morning-91037 mentioned. @dry-monkey-93718 actually the last service was between 2020 dec - 2021 Jan 😅 @cold-school-3088 Just curious, how do you handle portability aspect with Mac Mini? I had a glance on Mac Mini but I’m afraid of portability. I don’t go out but things can change 😄

Number of years you plan to use your new mac would determine what config you’d want to buy, ideally MBP 14/16 with M1 Pro (10 Core) and 16 GB RAM is plenty, in fact M1 Pro gives better battery life compared to M1 Max.

@creamy-dawn-73235 I haven't used Cypress. We use Selenium here which is difficult to get going with the pure Chromium browser. But instead of using Chrome, you can install Chromium (which is Chrome without the Google services and other stuff thrown in). So it keeps it light. I still wouldn't use it as a browser - but you can have that running just for tests with Cypress if you can get it working quickly. Just make sure you remove all of Chrome + Updating Service + all Chrome Background services to see the difference it makes to other system performance as well (not only while browsing).

@creamy-dawn-73235 Code is not central to my work. So I just use an iPad Pro 12.9 (with the full shebang). I still have my MBP (2017), so that is the option if I critically need something more flexible for a few days. I just like the idea awesome 98% of the time, than mediocre 100% of the time.YMMV! I would probably second @flat-morning-91037 and say this; wait for the next desktop or prosumer laptop with the new class of chips, because it’s not far away. The MBP is overkill - you will not use 90% of the things 90% of the time - and hence not worth the money IMHO! And if you go desktop, just keep your current laptop as backup for the 2%.

I use MBP 16" 2019 intel model with 16GB RAM and have been mulling over the same thing, however, my laptop stands strong even in the heavier dev workloads (I stay mindful about whatever I’m spinning). I don’t have a strong reason at the moment to change. I think I’m gonna stick for this and see if Apple offers a better value for money deal this year

I've been using the 3rd option (M1 Pro 14" 8Core/*32GB*/512GB) for about a month now. Happy to answer any queries.

@witty-gigabyte-47737 I think yours would still last for many years. Mine is 4th gen i7 released on 2013 so upgrading to M1 would definitely be an overkill for me 🤪 but just for future proof because eventually apple would’t support them and would turn into vintage. @witty-air-63049 Thanks! I have a question for you - My current MBP with 16GB RAM is almost unusable often times so wondering if upgrading to M1 would suffice or should i also consider upgrading the RAM to 16GB+? Do you still use that much amount of RAM or just for future proof?

Mostly future proofing. I used to use a 2017 15" MBP with 16 GB RAM. My work env is a little heavy so, on that laptop, fans would start as soon as I started Docker/webpack, laptop would get unbearably hot and laggy, and the battery would barely last 2 hours. Reasons for getting 32 GB over 16 GB: 1. 16 GB on old laptop wasn't enough. Who's to say it's going to be enough on the new laptop? 2. Upgrade to 32 GB is 40k INR. If a year and a half into the new laptop I decide that 16 GB isn't enough anymore, it's going to cost a lot more in terms of time and deprecation to upgrade to a new 32 GB laptop. 3. 40k over three years comes out to be ~36 rupees per day. I'd definitely pay 36 every day to use a laptop that doesn't slow down on me.

@witty-air-63049 That makes sense 🙌

@creamy-dawn-73235 what did you do eventually? I was wrong. My experiment with the Mac Mini and iPad got inefficient. I have had to "plan" things to be done. And I lost spontaneity. Have ordered a Macbook Pro - M1 Pro 10-16-16 Cores, 32 GB, 512GB. Slightly future proof, hugely overkill.

My macbook issue went worse and had to urgently get one, so I went for M1 air (16gb, 512gb) + External Monitor. It’s been one month already and very happy with the decision

@creamy-dawn-73235 Mulling over a similar decision right now. Just wanted to check in with you regarding your long term experience? My only concern with Macbook Air is that the lack of fans may cause throttling.

@faint-energy-11966 no issues so far. Totally satisfied.