I don’t like the new MacBook Pro, buy this instead

[@EoinDineen]

8GB of ram is atrocious for $1600 USD

[@adredy]

always you can take 16 or more ;)

[@hmuy0608]

people saying "just pay more" is insane 💀

[@TheBrandNewICumEverywhere]

@@hmuy0608 that is what the poors says

[@starship2023]

​​@slow_riding4225$300 laptops have 8GB why spend 5x more for the same performance when I get much better laptops for $700

[@Sanyu-Tumusiime]

i have 4gb ram on 2013 macbook air. why do you guys need 16GB? 4GB is more than enough. i can video edit, photo edit, coding, and everything i need. @@adredy

[@Dameworth]

Apple limiting the amount of displays you can connect to different laptop models should be a tech sin.

[@cameronbosch1213]

Yeah. Maybe for the original M1. But not for even the M2. That's ridiculous Apple is intentionally limiting it. Heck 2 external displays isn't enough for me (I use 3).

[@racerex340]

Well, you should just "get the message" and spend more to get those features, right? LOL After each one of these ridiculous intentional segmentation and ladder moves Apple pulls, you think they might assume they're squeezing their customer base too far, it's way too obvious, but not, people buy it up every time and Apple doubles down again. Apple will continue to do this shit until their customers finally vote with their wallets. $$$ drives behavior.

[@LuckyLego]

@@cameronbosch1213no the fact that the worse intel macbook air can do two displays is just sad

[@MaddTheSane]

@@cameronbosch1213 Some people rarely use one external monitor. Granted, for a pro computer, having more than one external display is usually welcome.

[@dhkatz_]

@@LuckyLego You need the M3 Max chip for 2 external displays. This was the case for the M1 and M2 MacBooks. Not sure why Johnathan didn't mention this. I have an M2 Max MacBook Pro for work and it does 2 displays just fine

[@jordanhaglin]

"The old and slow M2" me watching from my 2009 cheese grater

[@megatronskneecap]

Anything that is barley 6 months old to Apple is obsolete.

[@captdave-vh3xp]

Ha Ha Ha. Absolute Cheers, Mate!

[@shto4782]

its great also

[@PopStrikers]

Yeah. The last part of this video is spot on. If they leave the Air at M2 for the majority of next year to mimic the chip split they introduced on the iPhone, I'll be furious. Apple Silicon was such a game changer. Now they're just resting on their laurels. I hope Qualcomm kicks their ass.

[@cameronbosch1213]

​@@destructodisk9074 Then that's not going to increase sales.

[@samlawrence4670]

Qualcomm is nowhere near even matching them without pumping 80watts through their silicon they are so far away it’s scary.

[@MrKillswitch88]

Wouldn't mind a hybrid architecture that ran both x86 and arm code natively on the same cores.

[@thecanmanification]

They’re not resting on their laurels per se, the 3nm fab (which they bought all of restricting the competition from getting any) is not as good as the new one that TSMC has coming soon. They screwed themselves over and now have to try to make up the margins they could’ve justified with better performance or chip yields

[@PopStrikers]

@@samlawrence4670 From the benchmarks I've seen it looks like the performance difference from 25w to 80w is pretty similar. It seems to be able to compete with M2 at least. I think a PC with near M2 performance and battery life, little to no fan noise, and probably in the $600-800 range (probably with 16GB of RAM to boot) would be pretty compelling as long as Microsoft can incentivize ARM porting. That's probably the biggest hurdle to overcome at this point.

[@watercannonscollaboration2281]

It’s funny how Intel’s lowest end mobile CPU, the U300, supports 4 display outputs (so 1 internal display on a laptop + 3 outputs), while the base Apple silicon chips have been limited to 2 (1 internal display on a laptop + 1 output) for the last 3 generations

[@RinoAP]

Imagine spending >$1600 but still getting 8GB of RAM shared with iGPU

[@zeus1117]

That's 1800€ over here on a discount and sold at 2000€ normally.

[@clebbington]

it's unforgivable. i haven't seen many people defending this choice, and for good reason - i loved my base M1 air but there were serious limits to what I could do with that 8GB. parallels/virtualization was basically off the table, which really sucked as that was the best way to get windows games up and running until crossover got updated

[@Spoooce]

particularly because they still have configs with 16gb of ram, so they can't even make the argument that "oh well our memory management is so good that no one needs 16gb of ram"

[@flyboy7399]

Erm it's > actually ☝️🤓

[@Ifinallyvanquishedfinder]

Hehehehe....... oopsies

[@i-Sparki]

Honestly, even an M1 Pro isn't that bad a deal either. It's not as powerful as an M2 but the M1 is no slouch and while missing some features - is close enough to run along with little impedance to most tasks. Also, unlike the M2, the M1's are far more common since they were out for a mite bit longer (2 years instead of the 1 for the M2).

[@fuomag9]

in the tests and reviews I've watched M1 Pro was basically equivalent if not even better than the m2 pro (due to different core assignments). So I went with an M1 Pro and I am more than happy :)

[@ikuturso7570]

There was some crazy sales prizes on M1 Max/Ultra/whatever they call them with 32/64gb ram few months back. Still expensive, sure, but like 200€ more than the basic M3 with 8gb.

[@DialloMoore503]

@@fuomag9 Really?!

[@barkmonster]

The 8-core 14” M1 Pro is available as a refurb with a year warranty from resellers now for £1,100. It has 16GB, 6 P cores Vs 5 in the M3 Pro it competes with on specs or 4 on the base M3 it obliterates on price. You can get 10-core M1 Pro 16” models for £1,499 now too. They hit the ground running with the M1 and they’ve been chiselling at specs by substituting P cores with E cores while increasing total cores on the M3 and, if you look at the new iPad Pro’s, M4s too.

[@LunaticTheCat]

I'd make sure to get the M2 Pro if you have a 4K, HMDI only TV that you'll plug your Mac into, since with the M1 chips, you're HDMI output will be limited to just 4k60 instead of 4k120 with the M2 chip.

[@sergioaro8979]

Seems weird watching linus on this channel, that shows how well of a job the Mac Adress channel is doing in carving their own path. They just have a very different and cool vibe

[@PlayingItWrong]

Uncomfortable even.

[@PlatonicOwl941]

That was literally me learning this is an LTT channel, haha.

[@eboymario]

And with Apple starting to bring gaming on Macs they definitely can’t go with 8GB of ram anymore same goes for 256GB of storage on the base models.

[@racerex340]

@@destructodisk9074 what the hell are you talking about? Your average modern AAA title uses 10GB-12GB if it's available, many can use less with more aggressive swapping, but these modern AAA titles all want 6-8GB or more of VRAM, and as much as Apple would like to cram their fist up your arse while telling you that the unified system & GPU memory is amazing because you don't have to pipeline textures from SSD to DRAM to GPU VRAM and the GPU can just access the copy in system DRAM, games have to be fully and thoughtfully ported to Metal, and you can't get around the fact that if the game requires 7GB of textures in VRAM to run at 1080p high and you have an 8GB Apple Silicon machine you'd better home MacOS can get creative swapping system memory. Stop defending this disgusting practice. Your average current AMD powered laptop even without discrete GPU are shipping with pretty powerful RDNA3 iGPU's like the 780M and the minimum you see is 16GB now, 32GB DDR5-6000+ 1TB gen4 NVMe is basically the norm on sub-$1500 thin laptops, the iGPU can easily steal 8GB without causing an issue. My G14 has an a 680M RDNA2 that is on the 6900HS plus a 6800S 8GB dGPU, and even when my dGPU is disabled, the iGPU can get more video memory because the laptop has 32GB. Seriously, it costs Apple about $20 more to ship an M3 MacBook with 16GB rather than 8GB, yet they charge us $200. They do the same with SSD, charging us $200 for another 512GB of SSD capacity that costs them another $20 for the larger density NAND chips. And to put a cherry on top, the new MacBook pro 14 M3 is only PCIe Gen3, so you get SSD performance comparable to x86 laptops from nearly 3 generations ago, you have to pony up for the M3 Pro or M3 Max if you want even last Gen PCIe Gen4 SSD performance. They actually had to go out of their way to cripple the M3 base in order to force enough segmentation and ladder people up to the model they actually want you buying, just like the 16GB iPhone all over again, except with the iPhone 15, they charge you $100 for 128GB upgrade to 256GB. Or $300 to go from 128GB to 512GB. Yet people will still happily stand up for Apple and defend them when they continuously and increasingly pull this crap.

[@MarcusAntonius415]

@@destructodisk9074Hogwarts Legacy uses 22gb ram on high settings at 1440p

[@bloomface9146]

​@destructodisk9074 Well you are right about 16GB for gaming on windows. However on m series chips, GPU share the same memory pool as the CPU, 8GB is all they have to shared for base m3. With OS taken over 5 to 6 GB. The remanin 2 to 3GB is not sufficiemt for gaming. 16 GB will be at should be at least, but 24GB would be better for reducing swap usage and high end gaming (equivalent to 16GB DDR ram + 8GB Video Memory), although at that point the limiting factor will no longer be ram, it will be the CPU and GPU limiting the performance.

[@HorizonOfHope]

@@bloomface9146 Yeah, I can say from experience this is about right. The OS is pretty efficient but even then 8GB is too little. Assuming that RAM scales linearly across the lineup, I have an M2 Pro with 32GB RAM (got it in the refurb store and it's absolutely incredible). Even a native Apple Silicon game like X-Plane (excellent flight sim, btw, would recommend for anyone who is interested; scenery not quite as good as MS Flight but the plane physics are second to none) would struggle on 8GB. Activity monitor tells me that even when no external display is in use, 9.12GB RAM is in use just for that app (16.20 RAM is in use for the system, cos it's not the only app I had open). Even assuming a bit of the RAM is going to increasing the render distance, as well as the game being on the highest settings, but you'd think that there aren't too many savings to be made.

[@xmaverickhunterkx]

This is shared memory. RAM and GPU performance are tied.​@@destructodisk9074

[@pooriakhosravi9415]

Linus saying “you can’t say that” is just hilarious

[@crestofhonor2349]

The multiple display issue is solely an apple issue and it’s baffling that it’s even an issue in the slightest. All M series SoCs should support at least 2 displays but ideally 3 or 4. What’s even worse is the pricing as it should be minimum 16gb of ram and 1tb of storage at $1600. This would make it a killer deal. The SSD wouldn’t even be an issue if apple just provided an easy internal storage upgrade via m.2

[@jivewig]

Apple knows all this, and that’s why they won’t provide any of the aforementioned features so that they can make bank.

[@racerex340]

It's not "an issue", it's intentional.

[@tomikun8057]

​@@racerex340If everyone thinks it's an issue then there's better chances of Apple fixing it rather than leaving it as a feature

[@markclayton8977]

M.2 storage isn’t as fast as the onboard SSD.

[@snapstromegon]

@@markclayton8977 As far as I can tell from tests I've seen, the internal storage of the MBPs is not as fast as current gen PCIe4 M.2 SSDs. As far as I can tell the MBPro M3 Max can read with up to 5000MB/s while current M.2s usually reach 7500MB/s. If you jump to PCIe5 M.2s, it gets even faster cracking the 12000MB/s.

[@tld8102]

if you purposefully scripted in the Happy meal scene so that lunch counted as a product expense, i applaud you.

[@hhh-rc5gt]

I have a 14" m1 but if I was in the market, not being able to charge on both sides would be a dealbreaker

[@hisfatness522]

It seems like such a pointless thing to fuss about until you have it. I've charged on both sides of my 14" countless times and it's always nice lol.

[@jackcalow2430]

you can still charge these with any of the C ports

[@82496125]

@@jackcalow2430 You can't charge through HDMI. New design has both charge-capable ports on the left. Reminds me of the myopic "You're holding it wrong" days.

[@sorrai]

@@jackcalow2430yes but that’s not the problem, it’s the fact that with the base m3 macbook pro, i am now limited to charging on one side compared to the older or more expensive models.

[@costafilh0]

It's simple. They keep the basic 8Gb option available to market it for a lower entry price. They do the same with storage. If you are getting ANY new computer with less than 16Gb of RAM and less than 1TB of storage, you are doing it wrong. Unless you update every year, in which case you are also doing it wrong because no one should do that!

[@ryanhamstra49]

I agree. If you want a Mac because of the battery life and Apple ecosystem, base model air is good enough. If you actually need the pro features, you have to spend more. Now, idk why Apple can’t have this one do more stuff other than to make you buy the better one… limiting it to one extra monitor is annoying, but I wonder if it’s a gpu limitation?

[@huubjoanfranssen8980]

For me that the stock M processor has no second monitor support is weird. There are enough professionals whom just need the power of a stock M processor but benefit from double monitor support.

[@craxkerjack6057]

grab a lenovo/ dell dock or any other w/ a displaylink tech. Thats how i roll with my mac air

[@devcybiko]

It's confusing. A "Pro" Mac is for professionals, in theory. And most professionals are going to want dual external monitors. I could understand it for the M1 Macbook Air - it's a low-end consumer device. But a "Pro?" It's almost false adverrtising.

[@Huebz]

@@craxkerjack6057DisplayLink is inferior to DisplayPort and shouldn’t be needed at this price point at all.

[@cameronbosch1213]

It's not a GPU limitation. It's Apple doing it on purpose. Maybe with the base M1 SoC it was a limitation, but not with the M2 and certainly not the M3. If it has, that's pretty poor design.

[@theformerkaiser9391]

All this talk of Apple Silicon and I’m rocking a 13’ Mid 2012 MBP I fixed up after getting it from my high school. 16 gigs of ram, one SSD and an OpenCore Sonoma patch later and it works amazingly. Only problem is battery, but that to be expecting using a laptop from so long ago.

[@NeilVitale]

Bought M1 Pro for $2k on launch in 2021 and still rockin' it.

[@lcrazy8l]

That's probably the best deal still today if one can find it. a Refurb spec'd M1 pro lol. The user experience is so negligible that caring about m1, 2, 3 is pointless. Just get the right tier regardless of gen.

[@sidefmovies]

I swear choosing a mac many years ago was nice and easy. It came down to basic, medium or awesome. You chose one within budget and it was simple. I feel the choice now so confusing. I end up just giving up and sticking with my intel laptop. (With 64GB of ram I’m hoping it will last a little longer)

[@Muzikman127]

With 64GB of ram it should last until you drop it in the bath lol. Unless you’re doing some really intense tasks (editing ultra-HD video maybe), you should still have all the laptop you need with an older i7 and a boatload of ram realistically right?

[@LMacNeill]

The MacBook Pro has 8GB of RAM so Apple can say, "Look! A MacBook Pro that's only $1600!" When in reality, you need to spend $1800 because you need the 16GB of RAM. But "starting at $1599" looks so much better than "starting at $1799." I'll be sticking with my 16" M2 Pro MacBook Pro for a couple more years, yet. (I should've sprung for the 1TB SSD upgrade when I bought it, but a fast external SSD is easy enough to carry around with me if I need extra storage.)

[@NoTimeForNoodles]

Couple years? That thing can’t be even a year old. It should last you another five at least.

[@LMacNeill]

@@NoTimeForNoodles The 512GB storage has caused me a couple of minor issues already -- and those minor issues won't get better with time, given the work I do. The computer itself will last 5 or more years, easy, but I'll sell it and upgrade to something with more storage in the next 2 to 3 years, most likely. Someone else will definitely be able to use it, no doubt. It's a great machine, other than the base-level storage being an occasional issue for my workflow.

[@RunTheTape]

The problem by far from my point of view with ALL the new macbooks is that they soldered the SSD chips on the motherboard. That makes it that when the SSD wears out, the repair involves special equipment and set of skill instead of just plopping a new SSD in. That is the single reason I stay away from Macs from now on.

[@ThirdLife86]

I have never had a SSD wear out on me or break. What are you doing to make that happen ? I still have a First Gen Intel 160 GB SSD here from 2008/2009 which still performs like the first day, also had an OCZ Vertex 2 and 3 here. Still running. Same as every Samsung from the 840 to the 860 Series is working like day one. I am even raping a Gen3 PNY CS3030 NVMe from 2019 as a "pack/unpack"-disk which gets terabytes written on it. No problem whatsoever, still performs and no issues. If you want to make a case against Apple its probably more that they are pricing it totally unreasonable. SSD Failure seems rather uncommon to me.

[@RunTheTape]

@@ThirdLife86 it highly depends on what’s your usual workload towards storage IOPS. I usually have intensive writing in my typical day (VMs, Blender, databases, etc). My SSDs last less than a year most of the time.

[@ThirdLife86]

@@RunTheTape I'd call that the definition of an edge case (running several VMs and DBs). I'd get an external NAS for that with about 8 disks in RAID10. That should give you less wear and high performance for those apps. Just because one theoretically "could" run something locally in terms of CPU Performance doesn't mean you "should" run it locally. I think IO is the bottleneck currently in all cases - CPU and GPU performance is skyrocketing, efficiency is good but IO is always an issue. Feel you there brother. ;)

[@RunTheTape]

@@ThirdLife86 i have several servers and nases. That’s besides the point. SSDs wear out. You got lucky. Even without vms. I need to be able to replace the part that can naturally decay. And you need that too.

[@ThirdLife86]

@@RunTheTape Even our storages at work have not yet had a single SSD failure. Its just not as common as you're telling me. OR your personal use case is 20x more extreme than that of our 800 people company. Who knows ? Before the NAND dies i'd bet the controller or other surrounding hardware dies first. And in Apples case that would mean a new system board as its flash controller is on the M-SoC.

[@DewittOralee]

The editing on MA videos are just perfect. Capturing the vibe of a video that could have been made by Apple while also being a fair review of their products by somebody who uses them is perfected here.

[@owlmostdead9492]

A "pro" device in 2023 = minimum of 32Gb of RAM and 1TB of storage, anything less and its not "pro".

[@owRekssjfjxjxuurrpqpqss]

Love my air. Can do everything I used to do on my intel 2018 pro, far faster and with less battery drain. Amazing too for a device with no fan whatsoever.

[@xFoxDeath]

Who asked?

[@saipulivarthi]

@@xFoxDeath the host of the Video.

[@owRekssjfjxjxuurrpqpqss]

@@xFoxDeathseems like I struck a nerve…somehow?

[@UpLateGeek]

Yeah, if you don't need the fancier screen and you're not doing anything that would require better performance, just get the 15" M2 air. Before you buy, just leave activity monitor open in the background and if you're not frequently over 8GB, you're fine. And if you do need 16GB, the air is still going to be cheaper.

[@pieterrossouw8596]

Glad I pushed for the M2 Pro with 32GB RAM. It's super easy to push past 16GB too. In my previous Windows laptop I had 80GB of RAM (16 soldered + 64 upgrade) but its fans always ramped up for no reason, it's speakers and display were meh and Windows is filled with annoying ads and anti-user patterns.

[@YouGotPropofol]

Apple will make and put on their shelves an entire new computer solely made to make you buy the other model. How about that for environmental concern…

[@MaxHuisman]

This! Having "mother nature" in their keynote is just a big middle finger to earth

[@markclayton8977]

Apple still sells M2 MacBooks bro, they even compare the M3 to the M1 and Intel. Nobody is being sold this to go from M2->M3, if they do they’re idiots.

[@HorizonOfHope]

What I found weird though, is that how are they actually profiting off that? The Air's components are doubtless cheaper. That extra $100US gets you a better display, speakers, more ports and better chip. No way is that anywhere near the profit margin they'd make on a similarly priced Air. Surely Apple's best strategy is to make the Air as appealing as possible as I'm 100% certain that it would have a higher profit margin.

[@heroninja1125]

@@HorizonOfHope it isn't as much of a difference as you think it would be. In fact they rather intentionally leave out certain features like fast refresh rate and more ports to upsell you to those higher end devices. It doesn't cost much to add ports to a device and the difference in speaker costs is around $10. The most expensive thing is the "better chip" but as you can see the m3 pro base model doesn't have a better chip, as the m3 will be available very soon in the air. Not to mention the intentions of upselling you to the m3 pro is in hopes that you will spend another $200 on RAM which is highly profitable. But additionally for only $200 more you could upgrade to the m3 pro model. And then the upselling begins to make more sense because suddenly now you are $500 higher then the air in price.

[@HorizonOfHope]

@@heroninja1125 Yes and no. The markup on the Pro and Max chips are definitely less than on the baseline M. Most chips - Apple Silicon included - don't make the majority of their profit in their initial usage. Rather, as the cost of producing a chip drops over time, it makes money from its use in entry level products. Apple still makes M1 products sold as new today but hasn't cut the costs of those products despite production dropping.

[@ZedemMonk]

8GB of RAM is especially heinous when it's shared memory with integrated GPU on the SOC. 8 GB VRAM is already becoming paltry for GPUs. Given its supposed target market for Professionals I don't think anything with the PRO label should have that little memory to work with. This isn't the first time Apple has diluted the PRO branding it will just take enough folks realizing and selecting for function over form with the now more powerful similarly priced alternatives offered outside the Apple ecosystem for the minimum specs to be brought up to the standard they should be at.

[@Mebzy]

I've just realised that I've been watching this channel since it launched and I'm never going to buy an Apple product, I literally only watch this for Jonathan.

[@cardwitch91]

*looks at my M2 MacBook Pro* “I’m never letting you go.”

[@jaehaerys48]

Next year everyone will be saying that the M4 is a letdown, buy a used M3 instead. It's fairly clear that the basic advice during the Apple silicon era is buy a year old model if you want to save a bit because the performance difference won't be big. This is basically how it was during the Intel years too, the Intel-Apple silicon transition is really an exception, last time you had something similar was the PowerPC-Intel transition.

[@prathmeshjain]

I wanted to buy a new MacBook Pro this year, I was really excited for it too but I agree the base line up sucks! I currently use a 2019 16" MacBook Pro (The base model for which had 16GB RAM) After 4 Years of using this laptop, I thought it is finally time for an upgrade. I looked at the Base Pro model this year and it had insuffucient RAM, memory and Graphics. It does not feel like an upgrade. I am holding off for another year to buy a new one hoping that next year's lineup is better. 😔

[@Mattsunx]

Likely won’t happen knowing apple and their greed. Would recommend looking at getting a tech to clean out dust and put new thermal paste on your 2019 16 inch. Currently rocking a i9 9880h with 4gb graphics and 32 gb ram . It goes to 80 degrees on chrome and after I cleaned it out I’m sitting at around 50.

[@prathmeshjain]

@@Mattsunx That's a great idea! Did you get that done by apple or just an generic laptop tech?

[@lcrazy8l]

They didn't make a mistake. The Ladder will always feel like that for the base model every year.

[@Muzikman127]

I guess my question would be, if it still runs well, and doesn’t have anything broken on it, why upgrade? They’re still great machines

[@diotitus]

I would say this is another reason why I would always buy an upgraded refurbished MacBook Air or Pro within the last 1 to 2 generations with 16GB of memory instead of a brand new base model current generation MacBook Air or Pro. I always get a better deal going down that route than buying brand new straight from Apple.

[@4RILDIGITAL]

Fully agree on your frustrations with the 8GB RAM and storage issues. I've had similar experiences. It's a shame that Apple often compromises certain aspects in their otherwise excellent products. It's a tough decision for those looking for a bargain.

[@setaindustries]

My Lenovo Ideapad 3 was $500. It came with 16 GB of memory. It has support for 3 displays. Yes, the Ryzen 5 5625U is half the speed of the M3 (I checked) but the entire laptop is third of the price. Yes, I haven't measured the display and battery performance which will obviously be better on the Macbook, but the Lenovo is user serviceable, I could replace the battery, upgrade the storage, upgrade the memory or even replace the fricking Wifi chip. It even came with a slot for a hard drive if the included SSD wasn't enough. So basically if there was an Apple device that would make me consider overpaying for hardware and giving up long term upgrades this certainly wouldn't be it. I'll just leave the heavy tasks to my linux workstation, and use the laptop when I'm not near it.

[@shapelessed]

I love the $1599 american ($2300 elsewhere) price...

[@Blueyzachary]

“Happy meals. Happy meals.”

[@blunderingfool]

I'll never understand why apple decided to go full early 90s apple again and drop the 2x2 grid. All they had to do was expand it out a little and keep to those power profiles.

[@nihilriv3r]

As a space gray fan, I am very upset I cant choose it on my next computer since I'll be going for a Max level chip. I'll forgive your slander of the best color option for now.

[@vedanshchn]

I got a used MB Pro M1 for less than the cost of an iPhone 14 in April last year and I'm really really happy with the TouchBar. I'd rather get the M2 Pro someday and use it forever instead of downgrading to the newer Pros which are really bulky, have a vent cutout at the lower edges on either sides which feel unfinished in hands and don't have the TouchBar and then also have a tall notch! And then they bundle a MagSafe cable. Currently, I use my MB charger to charge my iPhone 15 PM as well. The newer Macs are full of annoyances and downgrades for my usage at least.

[@costafilh0]

16Gb RAM and 1TB Storage is the bare minimum. Everything else will depend on individual needs. Unless you are REALLY pushing it, the M3 is not necessary.

[@stewskeys]

getting my 14in m2 pro a month before m3 announced turned out to be a hugeee blessing, i got it $200 off via amazon. brand new i love this laptop

[@evildude109]

Eight gigabytes of ram is utterly ridiculous for a "pro" device. Every android flagship phone has more than that now, and no matter what sorcery memory management Apple claims they can do, a 10 gig video file is 10 gigs, not 8.

[@VibesInMotion]

Highlight: Blender V3.6 doesn’t support hardware accelerated ray tracing on the M3 series. You need at least blender 4.0 I can’t believe a Mac-centric channel is doing blender rendering tests on v3.6. You guys have done this for two videos now, first with the iMac M3 and now this. The M3 MacBook Pro supports hardware accelerated ray tracing in blender v4.0, making it almost as fast or faster than the M2 Max in blender. All of that shakes up the value proposition of the new M3 MBP compared to the M2 Pro MBP. If you care about blender performance it’s pretty important to choose an M3 series Mac over an M2.

[@jackdominiak445]

At last someone whose not a sheep and has his own brain!

[@cameronbosch1213]

Be ready to pay for that though. And ZoneOfTech and Max Tech both had crashes on Blender and Final Cut Pro with the M3 with 8 GB of RAM.

[@themrwinston9570]

i just got the 14 inch M1 Pro with 16 gb ram and 1tb storage. it was $1,425 on amazon and the unit is an "Apple Certified Refurbished" model with only 4 cycles on the battery. i have zero complaints.

[@one_step_sideways]

You got a used 2.5-year old laptop. For $1425. With an SSD that's likely been shot (I hope you also checked SMART health on these non-replaceable soldered drives). The jokes write themselves.

[@tomaszencore6100]

3:10 wait, is M2 Pro really faster than M3 Pro?

[@_mrleal]

no, M2 Pro is faster than the base M3... the M3 Pro is slightely faster

[@picklypt]

I am also confused. It has to be a mistake. I think they switched the labels on the graph. The m3 pro even has 32GB of RAM, no way it loses to the M2 pro

[@tomaszencore6100]

@@_mrleal look at the graph

[@_mrleal]

@@tomaszencore6100 oh, now I see... strange, it has to be a mistake

[@Lumilicious]

Wouldn't surprise me if this is another fuck up from labs by not labeling the benchmark properly. This seems like the score from the 11 core M3 Pro, so 5 instead of 6 pCores. Every single benchmark out there has M3 Pro and M2 Pro being about equal, except for GPU benchmark where the M3 Pro is 10%ish faster.

[@Crusader1089]

I continue to be impressed by the base M1 MacBook air. Edit 1080p video no problem. Export times might be longer and while that's a useful comparison it doesn't really matter because render time is not work time. I think if I had upgraded to 16 GB of ram and 512 gb storage I'd never feel like I was hitting any limits. As it is I have to be careful with how much I store on device, and I know that RAM SSD swap is going to be wearing out the ssd. But otherwise it handles everything I need a computer to do.

[@kirishima638]

The first gen Apple Silicon machines were TOO good and they’ve struggled to top them.

[@bariumlanthanum6298]

I have a 2 year old Dell Precision 5570 which can now be had for under 1500 USD used. It's got a 12900hk, 64gb DDR5 RAM (UPGRADEABLE), RTX A2000, 1tb of storage and a higher resolution screen. It absolutely walks over this mac. it's also just as thin as the Mac, and still fits in any backpack.

[@harmvzon]

I bought a M1 pro 16gb 14” last year. I still think it’s the best buy until now. M2 and M3 are faster, bit marginally. They’ve got more expensive for less performance, balance wise. I really hope the next macbook really delivers.

[@classicaloracle]

I'm working at home almost all the time so the requirements for a laptop have changed. 30 minutes ago I bought an M3 13" Air just for light work and holidays. Back home it will be a Mac Mini and homebuilt PC. It took me 2 weeks to think this thing through and I just hope I won't miss the larger screen and greater storage. I have today prepared a pile of all my old Apple kit and what is interesting is that all reached the end of life due to design flaws. As a result I'm aiming to spend less with Apple. Thanks for the excellent video.

[@JimmiezD]

I just bought a new MacBook Pro but I got a M3 Pro with 18gb of ram for $1750. To me that was a good deal.

[@thesailboatking]

Why does the audio change so drastically whenever the scene changes? Please use the same mic or a similar one throughout the video.

[@GriffinClipVault]

Apple did it before, in 2013 13" macbook pro apple chose to use 4 gb of ram in the base model. It was made to be an option for people who where shopping the Air but wanted the macbook pros case and retina display.

[@Sandilini]

I picked up a refurbished (basically new) base M2 Pro MBP during Black Friday for $1599 usd. Very pleased. Bonus: I could get it in Space Gray. Am I the only one that likes it more than Space Black? 😅

[@quixomega]

My midnight MacBook Air looks fine. The secret is to not keep it too clean, if there is a bit of hand grease on there it looks fine. It's only if there isn't enough that it's a problem.

[@plaisthos]

Thunderbolt 3 instead Thunderbolt 4 is also because of the display limitation. Thunderbolt 4 REQUIRES support of two external displays and the non-Pro/Max/Ultra chips cannot deliver that.

[@justinbailey3071]

Have you covered used Macbooks, what to buy, what to expect, and limitations with older Apple devices? New Macs are stupid expensive for even the Macbook Air.

[@tetenc555]

i’m still waiting for a deep purple macbook air. i love having colorful devices and the air being one would be perfect; i myself hate to only have to choose between silver or space gray (like on my iPad 9th). i was way happier with the color on my iPhone 12 (mint green, only cause didn’t found an 128gb purple available at the time, and almost got the red one)

[@MineTwine45]

Still rocking my 2020 Touch Bar M1 MacBook Pro. Don't see a reason for myself to upgrade yet, maybe when M4 comes out. Really is a sweet spot with price to performance ratio with Apple products it seems.

[@Spinks345]

I was you, and I lost my shit one day on the touchbar accidental presses. Like I literally opened a new tab and did a trade in + buy new one because I could not handle it anymore. If it doesn’t bother you, then no worries.

[@DangerousDac]

Why does this sound like it was recorded underwater?

[@Arcium]

Almost sounds like they used the MacBook Pro mic on some of the shots

[@alg003]

The fact that a "pro" machine that cost 1600 dollars before tax has 8 gigs of ram and a whopping 512 gigs of storage, none of which is upgradable, is actually inexcusable and incredibly stingy. I hate windows, but for 1500 there are so many better and upgradable options.

[@Tr4ns1st0r]

I feel the exact same way. I don’t even buy Macs from Apple anymore unless they’re refurbished…

[@magog6852]

this machine isnt for you then. apple is pretty evil, but if im running a business or making money in some form with a computer… who gives a shit about 1600 bucks lol

[@Tr4ns1st0r]

@@magog6852 This has got to be the stupidest take I’ve seen. Well done. You can be conscious about your financial decisions and still buy a Mac. Besides, if you get this piece of junk, you’ll have to spend much more than $1600 to make it usable for pro tasks.

[@alg003]

@@magog6852 anyone that runs a business properly knows that you should spend money where you absolutely have too and save it where you can. Thats just common sense

[@jfmezei]

Achille's heel for the Apple chips is the all-in-1 SOC. The more things you pack on the chip, the greater the odds that one will fail. Suspect Apple is getting fairly high failure rate for RAM in its M3 lineup so has to downgrade large number of chips to only 8GB. (which in 2023 is ridiculous). I am curous what the outcome would be if Apple were one step behind with more mature FAB that might have higher yields and allow for higher memory in the configured systems they sell. Being able to brag about being first to 3nm is good marleting, but looks silly if the best you can do is 8HB of RAM and only have limited quantities of the same chip with fewer defects and thus more memory enable.

[@rogermuggleton8127]

I appreciate your frustrations but for many of us the specs are fine. I use my macs mostly for running the financial side of a small local charity. My travelling machine is a base M1 MBA which is used mostly at meetings. I have four years of financial documents on this - they take about 2GB of space. Office documents are generally pretty small. Spreadsheets and their apps don't use much memory. My MBA doesn't need to connect to anything more than a single projector or screen, and runs for hours on battery so I never need to plug into the mains during working time. In the 'office' I have a base M1 Mac Studio. I don't edit video so the 32GB memory is never stretched and the 512GB SSD is only half full. I bought this only because I needed the multiple I/O ports. To be honest I can't see my need for any more speed, storage or memory. Basic screens are fine for my spreadsheets and photos. Even if I bought a maxed out M3 Max MBP or M2 Studio, I'm certain I'd see no difference. My MBA is 3 years old, and maybe in 2024 I may replace it with a 15 inch version, base spec with M2 or M3 if there is one. I'm just as professional as any video editor and the base machines do me fine.

[@RayHikes]

What I wouldn't give for a 13 inch touchbar macbook pro with the M3, bonus points if it's a reasonable price. I paid about $1000 for my M1 macbook pro, seems like apple learned their lesson on offering too good of a value on laptops. they're determined not to make that mistake again, let's make sure the Pros start above $1500

[@googleone5867]

Should’ve just named it ‘Macbook’. It’s still a great computer. The ladder led me to pick the M3 Pro MBP in black. The upside of picking a base config as opposed to configuring an M3 is that you can find lower prices and jump a few steps up the ladder. This computer is perfect. Absolutely perfect. And I say that as a lifelong Apple user who has lived with every Apple laptop since the G4 times.

[@B.D.F.]

I’m surprised McDonald’s wasn’t the sponsor given how much product placement there was.

[@fpvcentral2807]

I love how even though Johnathan is a die hard Apple user he can still point out the issues and problems they have. I see too many posts justifieg the price and saying 8gb is enough. Like only if all you use is chrome lol Edit:Also the fact that 1600 dollars is considered the “cheap one” is crazy. That’s a damn a lot of money to spend to be treated like you’re buying a cheap one!

[@tomv3999]

You're also going to have some difficulty replacing / upgrading that SSD. A bit over three years ago, I gave up on Apple. Went with System76 and Arch Linux. I'll stay put; it does what I need.

[@franniefromvenice]

I just got a 13" M2 Macbook Air in silver, for my type of use it's already way more than I need, and coming from an old, i5 2017 Macbook Pro the upgrade is immense. I love this little beast

[@benspadafore5358]

Wow! I'm coming from a 2013 i5 MacBook Pro and trying to decide between MacBook Pro m3 and Air M2. This beast is still trucking along, maybe down to 3 hour battery life. The M2 Air seems to be such a good value.

[@2nd-place]

Mac Address is basically just “I Hate Apple Address” anymore.

[@Moredrums]

Still rocking the 2021 M1 Max 14“ with 24GB and from the experience with pretty much any Mac I owned in the past I‘ll have that for another 5-7 years before I have to upgrade 👌🏻

[@ChiralWolf]

Man...512gb of memory for a pro device feels so bad too. Either need something external for mass storage or any photo or video or spend even more to get something with a reasonable amount of storage

[@joseabraham777]

The worst thing (at least here in Mexico) of Apple offering base 8GB Macbooks is that we can’t buy on retail 16GB Macs, we must buy them directly with Apple and they dont offer discounts or good deals with credit cards… so if i want a 16GB of ram Macbook i need to save a lot of money.

[@jonosono]

Maybe I missing something, but the graph at 3:11 is being used to illustrate how having less memory is a disadvantage. However, the M3 Pro - 36GB RAM is slower than the M2 Pro - 16GB RAM. Is that an error?

[@jonosono]

Later in the video, it's mentioned that the M2 Pro chip is faster than the M3 Pro chip. I wonder if that muddies the results for that graph, because RAM isn't the only factor.

[@Lumilicious]

No, what is being said is that the M2 PRO is faster than the M3 (which is in the base spec M3 MBP). This seems more like a fuck up on the graph, again. This looks like they took the score from a binned M3 Pro which only has 5 pCores, otherwise it doesn't make sense, or something else went wrong when they did the benchmark. I mean the later benchmarks all show that the M3 Pro is a bit faster than the M2 Pro, which goes in line with every other benchmark out there.

[@RoHo.3]

See it at 6:09. It sounds like they took a Pro or Max chipped 14” M2 and compare it against a base M3 chip. I suppose it advances the storytelling. But it doesn’t seem like a fair comparison and feels misleading. I do like the comparison though. The story of…buying the best of last years model for way less $ because you only lose out on 8 seconds of improvements…that angle makes a lot of sense to me.

[@Vikushu]

I don't think it's in error. The M3 pro has slower memory bandwidth than the M2 pro (150 GB/s vs. 200 GB/s). Of course more RAM is important during a video export test. But if the export takes a while (>20 mins.), memory bandwidth matters more than the amount of RAM you have, especially if the GPUs use the same architecture.

[@Pipsispite]

Apple couldn’t have included Thunderbolt 4 on the base M3 models since that required dual display output compatibility. It’s the same on the M2 Air models. They’re Thunderbolt 3/USB4 because of single display limitations.

[@13StJimmy]

I bought an M1 Pro when they came out (16gb of ram and 1tb storage) and honestly still have never had the thought of needing to replace it

[@goobfilmcast4239]

After using a base M1 Mini for 2 years, I needed a portable Mac for travel, on the go media consumption etc. Almost bought a base M1 MacBook Air (as low as $750) but finally settled on a post "Black Friday" deal on an M1 iPad Air 5 and a Brydge Max+ keyboard/case. Same performance I expect but cheaper and even more travel friendly than an M1 MBA.

[@VanlifeReality]

I will suffer with the finger prints on the midnight blue. Just how you loved the yellow iMac . I’m a sucker for blue

[@ericwright8592]

I do appreciate how apple consolidated the 13in MacBook Pro into the newer 14in chassis. I got the M2 13in MacBook Pro, I don't need more cpu cores, I did want a heatsink/fan and a larger battery over the macbook air. If I spec out an m3 macbook pro 14in with the same specs as my 13in MBP it's the same price as my M2 system. So you get more ports, a bigger battery and a crazy screen upgrade for the same price? Not bad compared to the 13in MBP from last year. You do have to pay for more ram and storage, yes. If you want the best deal, get a used MBP for sure.

[@AwSamWeston]

Apple needs to just stop labeling this one the MacBook "Pro" and just call it the baseline "MacBook" like they did in days of yore.

[@N3tigen]

I love silver MacBook Pro But in the sack of introducing Space black they literally turn silver colour MacBook into starlight. I want brighter colour not dark 😮

[@calebrasak6941]

I don’t understand why Apple needs to sunset previous chipsets if they’re in control of development.

[@akin242002]

Apple's pricing strategy is very anti-consumer for new products, but their refurbished store is nice. If you don't have professional needs, get a refurbished M2 Air with 16GB of RAM or a refurbished M2 Pro with a 16/512 configuration. As long as they are clean and not dented, no one cares that you bought it brand new or refurbished.

[@Errcyco]

This is basically a base MacBook Air + the nice ProMotion display. It has a market.. people who only stream KZbin and Apple TV and want the best experience? I’d just buy the upgraded 14” to get all the extra features.

[@FlameMirage]

This video came at the best time! I am about to go to uni again next year, and wanted to buy a new macbook but I couldn't tell the difference between pro models and air haha. Thank you!

[@VijitChandna]

The m1 pro model was so much better value, they were so good that i cant even find them used

[@Jooglesberry]

I went with a like new M2 Pro with 16GB ram and 512GB storage for $1500. I really don't understand what the point of an MBP with a non-pro chip is.

[@Jamo12]

People who want a new laptop with the quality screen and speakers at the lowest price. The people buying this don’t care about power.

[@jackdominiak445]

You paid the same money for an old chip with an inferior GPU 👏, you will know the point next year, when the new Mac OS launches with AI features 🤣

[@Jooglesberry]

@@jackdominiak445 surely

[@akin242002]

The base M3 doesn't even have the ports for multiple monitors. Just abusing the name "pro". For those who don't know, most professional workplaces offer multiple monitors to increase productivity. Therefore, a laptop that can only get 1 external monitor working is not a professional grade laptop.

[@Jamo12]

@twzzy3695 there are a large group of people who don’t want to buy a used/refurbished computer and will only buy from the manufacturer. They are not the people who will spend more than a few minutes of their time researching or watching videos like this. While yeah, obviously an M2Pro is going to be better in nearly every way.

[@slob5041]

I have a theory that the black keyboard well was once intended to feature a touch screen or a keyboard similar to the original Smart Keyboard Folio

[@solomon11581]

Gaming on a MacBook, that's funny joke honestly you got me

[@Filtersloth]

Gosh it’s so great that you put out a weekly apple complaint video.

[@Zantsak]

I wish you guys will include the M1’s. Most of us dont jump one or two generations.

[@efka28]

Question that we should be asking is “do I need Apple at all?” Or “do I need new computer at all”. If all the “I want it” put aside, is there really much reason then left? Is rendering done a little bit faster really that important?

[@DaniIhzaFarrosi]

I don’t like the side exhaust, it makes me uncomfortable when trying to pick it up

[@justwatchingnothingmore]

The Intel 16" MacBook pro with 32 gigs of RAM and 1TB SSD costs around 1000 bucks on Ebay, and in good condition. Still works well and even has a good battery.

[@FoolOfAToke]

I live right next to a major refurbishment site, which may change things, but an M3 Pro 14in has already popped up on my refurbished searches.

[@Bulldawzer]

I found a great deal on M1 Pro refurbished. It had 4 cycles on a battery and one almost unnoticeable scratch.

[@Lumilicious]

I am glad I went with grey when I look at how disgusting space black looks at 1:34. Had space grey on my 13" MBP and started to dislike it because of the discoloration around the palm rests.

[@_Matth3w]

Btw, about the screen issue. This is for a workspace an easy solve. Buy a "port replicator" with display link manager support. You can use multiple screens in that case. Greetings from my Macbook Pro.

[@one_step_sideways]

Salutations from a ThinkPad T480 owner. Imagine buying costly solutions to problems engineered by your laptop manufacturer. The absolute state of crApple owners.

[@PatrickSchraner]

I would already be happier if Apple just upgraded the base version of their Macs to have 12gb of RAM instead of only 8. It's not quite 16 but much more usable for most every day tasks or even light photo and video editing.

[@BenPingree]

Why does he sound like he is speaking underwater every time he is on screen?

[@dfaour1977]

I just bought a 13" M2 MacBook Air (16Gb ram and 512SSD) In the refurbished store at $1279. I think that was the best bang for the buck!