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
silvagti said:
Very Nice :cool: That's basically my current setup except I also have an older desktop PC I use with it and my current Macbook Air, a 34" Ultrawide with a Logitech MX Master Mouse. Trying to decide whether to buy an Apple Magic Keyboard or a Logitech MX Keys Mini (I prefer keyboards without the Numpad!) to go with my Macbook.
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I have to say I prefer the MX Keys over the AMK which I didn't think I would. I've had a few logitech keyboards over the years but for some reason they just never did anything for me - that being said the MX Keys is the most expensive one I bought so I guess you what you pay for.
I bought a second hand AMK (non numeric) for about £35 off Ebay and it was fine - it's just not on the MX Keys level. I ended up keeping the AMK for my iPad Air which is handy when I need it.
I didn't even know there was a MX Mini until you mentioned it - it looks good although double the price of a used AMK if you can find one.
 
whiskycycle said:
The MX Keys Mini is brilliant, but I sent the silver one back and got the normal dark version... the silver one was too "light" for me and ended up with the key caps being virtually invisible in the room I'm in! Adjusting the key brightness worked to a degree, but the normal version's much better (for me). I've got the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID as well, but backlight wins over fingerprint reader.

Also picked up a few Logi Bolt receivers and an MX Master for Business that uses Bolt as well, meaning an easy swap between machines without Bluetooth getting in the mix.
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Not Mac specific but how portable would you say the MX Keys Mini is? Ive got the full MX Keys at home and its excellent but had a K380 to chuck in my bag and wouldn't mind an upgrade.
 
chrismscotland said:
Not Mac specific but how portable would you say the MX Keys Mini is? Ive got the full MX Keys at home and its excellent but had a K380 to chuck in my bag and wouldn't mind an upgrade.
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Obviously a little heavier, but really wouldn’t be a problem carrying one around I think. My old K380 firmly in the cupboard now. Gave my missus my full size MX Keys s well, so no going back and I don’t miss the extra keys.
 
I really like the Mx Keys, use that for work and personal use.

I upgraded from the mid-2014 MBP to a 16" base model, my word what a world of difference, it actually makes me want to use my laptop than my desktop. I love it!
 
I was edging towards the Apple magic keyboard as I liked the feel of it in store for typing.

However given all the praise it’s received here I think I’ll go for the mx keys mini as the multi device support would make it ideal to use with both my MacBook and desktop windows pc.
 
Just an update, still blown away by the 14", but it is going back!

16GB is not enough memory even for my light loads. For example just WindowSever process can hit 8-12GB if watching full screen 4k videos on YT, and the OS is not releasing it so then swap is being used, something I want to avoid due to wear on the SSD.

In hindsight I should have gone 32GB RAM & 8/14 CPU not 16GB & 10/16 CPU.
 
Something is wrong there. Even my M1 Macbook Air with 8GB doesn't struggle with that. There is no way a laptop should need 32GB of RAM to watch 4K YouTube videos.

I'm on the 8GB MBA now and it's got a whole bunch of apps running, 5.3GB of RAM used, 0 swap and WindowServer is only using 364MB. It also hasn't been rebooted for over 6 days.

This was taken while playing a 4K test video on YT. I left it running full screen for a while:

Screenshot-2021-10-30-at-11-39-48.png


After closing the YouTube tabs, WindowServer is down to about 350MB used.

Now of course the MBA has a lower screen res which will undoubtedly affect how much RAM is used but I see similar results on my 14" Pro too. Something odd is going on to make your WindowServer process consume that much RAM.
 
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It is very odd, I also did a clean OS install with just installed chrome and edge, same thing.

I reported this to Apple, and they are aware of an 'issue' with 'WindowServer', it has something to do with the scaling of full 4k content to the 14" screen...
 
AdamM6 said:
It is very odd, I also did a clean OS install with just installed chrome and edge, same thing.

I reported this to Apple, and they are aware of an 'issue' with 'WindowServer', it has something to do with the scaling of full 4k content to the 14" screen...
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Do you need Chrome? It’s an absolute POS most of the time - especially on macOS.
I uninstalled chrome (and all its facets) from my 16” when I upgraded to Big Sur and it was a night and day difference.
 
GMac11 said:
Do you need Chrome? It’s an absolute POS most of the time - especially on macOS.
I uninstalled chrome (and all its facets) from my 16” when I upgraded to Big Sur and it was a night and day difference.
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Agree, but work uses Google services so I use Chrome just for them, for normal browsing I use Firefox or Safari.
 
AdamM6 said:
16GB is not enough memory even for my light loads. For example just WindowSever process can hit 8-12GB if watching full screen 4k videos on YT, and the OS is not releasing it so then swap is being used, something I want to avoid due to wear on the SSD.
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My work Mac is 32GB and it's using over 1GB of swap even when I have loads of spare RAM.

Before I purchased my new 2021 Mac, I didn't come into this thread. I was happily working away on my 2014 Mac for years with absolutely no complaints about performance. I think I'll carry on the same with my 2021 MacBook and get many more years of happy use from it.
 
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I think I have found a solution! WindowServer is now running around 190MB and never going over 250MB with zero swap file usage.

Other benefits are much better battery life and the computer now does not get warm at the bottom like it did before.

I need to test over a normal days use to be sure this issue is sorted.
 
AdamM6 said:
I think I have found a solution! WindowServer is now running around 190MB and never going over 250MB with zero swap file usage.

Other benefits are much better battery life and the computer now does not get warm at the bottom like it did before.

I need to test over a normal days use to be sure this issue is sorted.
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What was the solution?
 
A few thoughts now I have the 14" in my mitts.

The battery life isn't a patch on the 13" M1 macbook pro I had previously. This is kind of to be expected but i'm surprised just how different they are.

The screen is lovely and 90% of the time the notch doesn't even show up.

Promotion needs some work. Doesn't work quite a lot of the time and I have had some low frame rates dragging windows around a few times. I'm sure this will be fixed.

The keyboard doesn't feel that different (if at all) to the one on the previous gen macbooks. Has it actually changed? I thought they said they had gone back to the old old one (pre 2016). Its a great keyboard but just a question.

Fast as expected and the form factor and weight isn't an issue at all. The 16" is a chonky and heavy boy but so was the last gen to be fair.
 
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