Poll: *** The official 2021 14" and 16" Macbook Pro thread (it has an SD slot and everything!) ***

Will you be buying a new MacBook Pro

  • Yes, 14"

    Votes: 43 31.9%
  • Yes, 16"

    Votes: 28 20.7%
  • No

    Votes: 64 47.4%

  • Total voters
    135
Don
OP
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First impressions of the 16 while it’s transferring; it’s solid and weighty. Feels much more solid than my M1 13. The Apple startup sound had bass!
Screen is bright and pretty even staring at the transferring screen.
The one thing I need to complain about is the notch. I just don’t see why it’s needed. My iPad pro has bezels of a similar size to the new MacBook but doesn’t need a notch. That’s got a Face ID scanner in it too.
 

fez

fez

Caporegime
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Tunbridge Wells
First impressions of the 16 while it’s transferring; it’s solid and weighty. Feels much more solid than my M1 13. The Apple startup sound had bass!
Screen is bright and pretty even staring at the transferring screen.
The one thing I need to complain about is the notch. I just don’t see why it’s needed. My iPad pro has bezels of a similar size to the new MacBook but doesn’t need a notch. That’s got a Face ID scanner in it too.

How thick is your iPad vs the screen on the macbook pro? I'm going to guess about twice as thick.
 
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Initial impressions of my 2021 14" MacBook Pro

1. The sound quality is night and day compared to my 2014 MacBook Pro, there is actually bass now! A vast improvement.
2. Build quality is incredible, just what you would expect from an Apple Pro machine.
3. Form factor is perfect IMHO, not as thick as I expected, and very close to my old 2014 13" MacBook Pro.
4. The OS feels very snappy and everything is near instantaneous to start. Also no lag on wakeup like I had with my old machine.
5. Notch is no issue, after 10 minutes I forgot it was there.
6. The keyboard is very good, key travel was more then I was expecting.
7. Machine has been running cool with no fan noise even when running various intensive benchmarks.

My Specification:-

Apple M1 Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
96W USB-C Power Adapter
 
Soldato
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6 May 2004
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Fareham
I'm so close to ordering one and just picking it up from Southampton later on tonight. It is a bit annoying that the M1 Pro 14" ones only come with the 67w charger as standard. I've got a spare 87w Apple USB C charger lurking around so I wonder if that'll give any fast charging benefits or whether it's reserved for the 96w only. I might just go for it and find out.
 
Associate
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18 Mar 2007
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1,838
I'm so close to ordering one and just picking it up from Southampton later on tonight. It is a bit annoying that the M1 Pro 14" ones only come with the 67w charger as standard. I've got a spare 87w Apple USB C charger lurking around so I wonder if that'll give any fast charging benefits or whether it's reserved for the 96w only. I might just go for it and find out.

only the base model comes with the lower watt charger.
 
Soldato
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Northern Ireland
I have to admit I'm kind of tempted by the lowest end 14" MBP; I was about to order a new Surface Pro 8 but the sheer power and battery life on the MBP is tempting considering its basically the same price
I have an order in for the base 16" although it'll be the end of November before I see it so I still have time to consider.
I'm still tempted by the base 14" but I'm waiting to see how it performs against the 10 core in the base 16" as well as against the current M1 chips.
 
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Soldato
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Northern Ireland
I'm so close to ordering one and just picking it up from Southampton later on tonight. It is a bit annoying that the M1 Pro 14" ones only come with the 67w charger as standard. I've got a spare 87w Apple USB C charger lurking around so I wonder if that'll give any fast charging benefits or whether it's reserved for the 96w only. I might just go for it and find out.
I haven't looked into the details yet but a few reviewers have said the base 14" will still fast charge over USB-C - so you might find that charger could do the trick. But USB-C has that many different protocols now I don't know what you would need to fast charge.
If it's true that would suffice for me as it would be used (plugged in) at my desk 90% of the time anyway so while the 'slower' MagSafe would be fine for me. Then if I needed the fast charge in a pinch I could still use USB-C.
 
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My 2021 14" MacBook Pro (10 Core) Geekbench Scores:-

Single-Core Score: 1764
Multi-Core Score: 12585

Wife's 2021 14" MacBook Pro (8 Core) Geekbench Scores:-

Single-Core Score: 1768
Multi-Core Score: 9965

My 2014 13" MacBook Pro (2 Core) Geekbench Scores:-

Single-Core Score: 703
Multi-Core Score: 1549

My Ryzen 5950X Desktop (16 Cores) Geekbench Scores:-

Single-Core Score: 1717
Multi-Core Score: 17615
 
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Soldato
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27 Nov 2005
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Is there anyway to run AAA games like MS Flight sim 2020 on one of these new M1 pro/max macbooks ?

I tried finding a filter setting in steam to find which of my games would work on a mac but i could not find any filter in steam that would let me filter which games would work on a mac :confused:
 
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Soldato
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14 Dec 2003
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5,683
Is there anyway to run AAA games like MS Flight sim 2020 on one of these new M1 pro/max macbooks ?

I tried finding a filter setting in steam to find which of my games would work on a mac but i could not find any filter in steam that would let me filter which games would work on a mac :confused:
Basically.. no

Unless it's on Xbox cloud gaming?
 
Soldato
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5,683
Enjoying the new 14 here.

Keyboard looks really different, they've coloured the gaps between the key in black and I like it less than before, harder to see the edges of the keys.

Screen, speakers are amazing and the touchpad up to the usual great standard.

Haven't tried any proper apps yet to need the full power though!
 
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