Moving to a Macbook

[Rexxar]

Looking at making the move from a windows laptop, to a macbook. Slightly confused by the number of options available however.

Currently using a 15" XPS , which although it has a great screen and battery life, i do find it too big for carrying around with me. So i guess that puts me in the 13"/14" screen territory

I see that 13" and 15" are the only options for the macbook air, and that if i wanted a 14" , i would have to go to macbook pro

Can anyone comment on the differences between the 13" and 14" screen sizes ? Aspect ratio etc ? Is there much of a difference?

I don't think i need the processing power of the macbook pro, as i still have my desktop for any serious photo/video editing, but open to opinions here, i don't want to spend more for something i'm not going to use, but if it's a significantly better machine then open to going higher up the range.

So opinions please, 13" vs 14" ? Or are macbooks light enough to stick with 15" screens? And are there any major benefits to going for a macbook pro (Processing power aside?) I want something i can actually use on my lap without it getting hot or a fan kicking in, and i like the magsafe tech so assume i need to be looking at m2/m3 ?

Sorry bit of an "all over the place" post, new to the world of mac!

Thanks

 

[Rexxar]

@Rexxar, You're picking a really good time to do this, Apple extend the no quibble return period at Christmas so you get a lot of time to play with it.

Didn't know about this, that's a great point thanks.

R:E Sizing vs Budget - It's not a cost thing, but i realise my XPS 15 was overkill for what it gets used for and i value portability over weight, but obviously don't want to go to a screen that is too small. I did use a 13" laptop for a while (work machine) but that was pretty much used for emails and little else. Does sound like i should be looking at 14" then and that takes me into "pro" territory.

Is there a minimum ram/storage i should be speccing on this as it's not user-upgradable like windows machines usually are? Also want something that won't work too hard and get hot.

 

[Rexxar]

You could also keep an eye out for a deal on the m1 14 pro.

Refurbs come in and out of stock and are well priced.

Refurbished 14-inch MacBook Pro Apple M1 Pro Chip with 8âCore CPU and 14âCore GPU - Space Grey

M1 Pro takes the exceptional performance of the M1 architecture to a whole new level for pro users. Even the most ambitious projects are easily handled with up to 10 CPU cores, up to 16 GPU cores, a 16âcore Neural Engine, and dedicated encode and decode media engines that support H.264...

www.apple.com

Costco had these in stock recently, may come back. Wonder if they have them in stock in some stores.

Costco

www.costco.co.uk

Thanks, Costco's black friday event starts tomorrow so i'll keep an eye on the deals coming through.

An M1 14" would probably do what i need it to.

 

[Rexxar]

No one mentioned a big difference between the Airs with M1/M2 vs M1/M2/M3 Pro is that you can only ever use one external monitor with the non pro chips on the Air models. Main reason I use a M1 14 Pro as opposed to the M1 Air I had prior. I rarely use 2 external screens but still.

Edit: I had both the 8Gb and 16Gb Airs and I could easily make the 8GB one choke with a not unreasonable amount of tabs open. Even if it didn't choke now, it would in a year or 2 and these types of laptops should be lasting you 5 years at least unless you're a serial upgrader.


rp2000

I did query if i'd be bothered by the lack of multi monitor support. But does that mean you have two displays including the macbook screen , or is the attached screen just a mirror ? My work machine just extends desktop so effectively get 3 screens total.

I don't plan on using it for gaming, which is partly what i intended the XPS to be used for, but it just gets too hot and i revert to the desktop... So this is all about portability and actually getting things done on the go.

Can you borrow a MacBook to try out for a while?

The biggest issue you're likely to have long term is getting used to OSX over Windows and you might find you don't like it long term.

I have three laptops - an Acer Predator for Windows, a Dell XPS 13 developer edition for Linux and a MacBook Air for OSX. I switch between them as needed but always end up going back to the Acer. I also use a MacBook Pro for work (I work for a USA Tech firm so it's all Mac and Google).

I can borrow a 13 M1 Air i think it is, and I'll probably take advantage of the apple no questions return policy, to try out a 14 pro.

 

[Rexxar]

@Rexxar bought one yet?

Nope have to sell my XPS 15 first.