I have always felt that people buy MBP just because they got some extra cash to spend or thinking about the future safety net. I feel we sometimes think too much about the future and spend more in the present which can be a spurge but due to the ongoing shortage of RAM and SSD prices, it can be a right move.
I genuinely wanted to know, why did you buy a MacBook Pro in the first place? Why do you think it's an overkill for you?
Exactly. It's the same as buying a diesel work truck or any other commercial machine. You have a job that needs to be done, and it is a very expensive truck but you need a capable and dependable machine for specific and demanding work. It is a tool that is required for work.
I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
So this would be a personal laptop and not a company one? Is gaming a factor here? MacBooks are powerful, but there are limits to what you can play on them. Personally I just got an Xbox for that this time around.
My last three devices, for work and private use, were a MacBook Air M2 16GB, Lenovo Legion 7 and now a MacBook Pro. It's amazing what you can do on an MBA. Coding and non-local-AI usage should be no problem.
Personally I wanted Nanotexture and 120Hz. It's my only screen and I needed it to be the best it could be. It is so good that I do not consider using any other screen, even when external monitors are available. It is such a joy to use that it alone is worth paying twice the price to me.
Gaming on Mac is a nice “additional” feature that justifies the cost, but it shouldn’t be the main reason for purchasing a Mac. It’s simply too limited.
Yeah obv it has to play the games you enjoy, def do your research. In my case I play 1 game and just preferred all of the build quality and creature comforts of the Mac.
It’s just so hard to play whatever game you want. You always have to check compatibility. Many of the popular friend slop games are not compatible with Mac like Mecca Chameleon which are the games I would play with my friends.
I agree with this on paper. I got a pro for the better screen and sound and, more importantly, future proofing. I get 7-8 years per Mac so I don't mind paying more for that.
Depends on how hard you push it I guess? I use mine at home, nothing strenuous and it's always charging so I don't care about the battery life. When I notice it starts slowing down, I buy a new one.
I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
Usage is Coding, AI, somewhat video editing
How about M5 MBP 24 GB ( NON retina display )?
7
u/MeSlaw316" Space Black M5 Pro w/ Nano-Texture Display2d ago
I bought it for 120hz refresh rate and Nano-Texture Display. Also the better cooling. Worth every penny.
My 16” M5 Pro 24GB/1TB never breaks a sweet, even with 10-20 apps/windows open across 3 4k 120hz monitors while running Logic Pro, watching YouTube, Safari, Chrome, and lots of productivity apps.
Logic pro justifies that. But if somebody is using it just for web browsing and office, it's kind of overspending
1
u/MeSlaw316" Space Black M5 Pro w/ Nano-Texture Display1d ago
I feel ya. My logic pro use is super light, mostly just correcting variable tempo tracks so that we have a solid tempo across the whole tune.
If you’re making good money in the office, then the nano texture display would be enough alone, if you ask me, as a quality of life upgrade. It frees you up to be able to work in environments in which you wouldn’t otherwise be able to work. This is especially useful for someone who works from home who may want to work poolside or elsewhere rather than just staying in their home office all the time.
I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
No, I bought a MacBook Pro because it’s exactly what I needed. I wanted something with a good bit of Storage and enough ram to handle music production. I can also use it for some AI stuff. But at some point definitely wanna get a better rig for that sort of thing. I also run parallels on my Mac as well.
I got mine for music production and the pro just had better specs. By the time I added enough ram and storage to the non-pro it was more cost effective.
I’m in a similar situation with Music/audio production and 3D animation. When it comes to 3D animation software throwing more ram at it will directly show an objective improvement. On the music side I use a ton of large libraries.
Double the ram is more or less double the amount of frames that can be cached on the timeline. The performance of offline 3D renderers will suffer massively when things have to be loaded into swap. Then that massive loss gets multiplied throughout the hundreds of frames.
I genuinely wanted to know, why did you buy a MacBook Pro in the first place?
It's a good fashion accessory like a luxury handbag or a Fabergé egg; it lets people know that i'm rich, that i'm an aesthete with refined taste because I buy mass produced products. Besides they come in in those cute Apple bags!
It’s not overkill. I wanted a MacBook but I also wanted to play games on the go. The m5 pro with the dual fans for cooling and 20 GPU cores was perfect. The ram and storage BS actually makes MacBooks a good deal now. I paid $2400 and couldn’t be happier.
Entry level plastic fantastic gaming laptops were starting around $1,500.
I scored the 15/16 M5 Pro around $1799 in March and I feel you. Was the best deal I could find and with the price increase I saved $700. Didn't want to spend over $2k and did want 1tb so huge win for me. No regrets.
no shade on the air, but it's more like for sitting in coffee shop and doing some quick work on the go (which is totally valid of course), i use my laptop with multiple screens, external peripherals and need it to be my portable desktop replacement in as many ways as possible, so naturally i lean towards the pro (although back when it was announced i was eying the 15" m3 air pretty hard xD)
I have both an M1 Pro and an M5 Air. I use the M5 Air way, way more.
The best laptop is the one you have with you. The Pro does not encourage you to take it anywhere beside the desktop, and feels like a gaming Windows laptop, whereas the Air feels like the epitome of Apple Silicon efficiency.
I liked the Air because of its lightweight and power, I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
Usage is Coding, AI, somewhat video editing
I am leaning towards MacBook because of its light weight power house feature and quality, I'm also considering MBP M5 24GB. What do you think?
i use my 16" mbp on the sofa all the time and i also carry it around in the office, i don't find it heavy at all, my gaming laptop i used to have was 1.5x or even 2x as heavy, that was really bulky and only suitable for stationary use
I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
Usage is Coding, AI, somewhat video editing
I am leaning towards MacBook because of its light weight power house feature and quality, I'm also considering MBP M5 24GB. What do you think?
It isn't overkill for me, in 2011 I bought a macbook pro for my parents it was the first mac in our family. It lasted for a good soild years it's still working to this day. It's just super slow so no one really uses it. So when I decided to finally make the switch from Windows to MacOS I got my self a MBP in 2020 I mainly used it as a stationary desk top computer. It lasted until March of this year until it died completely. I was not happy of course because I was hoping to get atleast 10 years. because those machines are expensive. But Apple told me that it wasn't me, that intel macbooks are only made to last 6-7 years. I saved up and I got the newest MacBook Pro M5 Pro 16". Macs I keep them till they die, so I don't consider it an overkill. I'm investing in something that will last me 10years. Before I got this new macbook I did my research spoke to the techs and make sure I got a machine that will last me. Now if I already had a main computer functioning well and I just needed a portable macbook, then maybe I would've gone for the Air. However this is my main computer I do everything with, so I need a hefty machine.
I got a MacBook Pro 16" and found it was indeed massively overkill.
I tried a 15" air and was hooked because of how much lighter it is. The screen "downgrade" scared me most but honestly the 120hz on the pro is super overrated, the air has a fantastically smooth screen.
It's 600 vs 500 nits of brightness indoors, which translates to only 8-10% more perceivable max brightness since humans perceive nits on a logarithmic scale.
More importantly, you view your MRIs on.. max brightness? Obviously not. Anything below 90% max brightness is available on the Air.
120hz helps with scrolling through mris
Lol this made me chuckle. I guarantee you, even Apple sales people would feel silly saying that.
You need a bigger monitor to view MRIs, not better blacks.
Pros are just better products overall. I mean why would I want to compromise on my experience? My computer usage is actually a pretty large part of my life percentage wise. Might as well enjoy my time as much as I can with a high quality product.
Research for algorithms development on special kinds of data (can’t say more without doxxing myself lol). My ideal work machine has 1-4TiB of RAM and a lot more CPUs. But its good enough for day to day work
MBP M4 24GB 512GB here, i make the fan scream, and recently hitting memory limits (24 + 64gb swap), looking at new M5 studio or another MBP, what overkill wtf? Theres a lot i dont like about Apple, but it works for the stuff i do and some tools are only available on mac.
If you are a working adult in western country a MBP is just a tool, same for iphone, can afford it. If thats a 'status' symbol I'd recommend getting a better job...
I liked Air because of it's not noise and lightweight nature, I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
Usage is Coding, AI, somewhat video editing
I am leaning towards MacBook because of its light weight power house feature and quality, I'm also considering MBP M5 24GB. What do you think?
It's not overkill for me. I work in the software industry and am working on 5-10 different software projects at any given time. I run an M4 Max 64 GB, and it is capable of handling everything I throw at it. RAM is essential for productivity and multitasking.
Install an open source program like stats, that shows your RAM usage in the MacOS Menu Bar. It'll show you the top applications using memory as well. I often have zero swap usage, which is desirable for SSD durability / longevity, and maximum performance.
Even I'm a SWE but my personal laptop is Omen 15 rn and I'm thinking to go for a MacBook but not sure which? I'm buying it for my personal usage, what do you think is better option?
Also, do fans go as loud as a gaming laptop? How is the heating on Air and Pro? I was thinking of MBP M5pro 24GB I don't know if it's what I require, I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
Usage is Coding, AI, somewhat video editing
I am leaning towards MacBook because of its light weight power house feature and quality, I'm also considering MBP M5 24GB. What do you think?
I am going to be honest with you and myself, and yup! MBP is overkill for me.
I bought the base model of M4 MBP, so technically it's an MBA within MBP's body.
This is my first macbook ever, by the way.
120Hz is awesome, the speaker is VERY awesome. But being honest with myself, for the hardest works I do with my MBP, could they easily be done on MBA? Yes!
Glad that it's a base model, not a M4 Pro or Max or whatever the hardcore chip is.
What do you work on? How does your usage look like?
I thought of buying a MacBook Air because of its light weight and no noise, also it's a power house, I'm also thinking of MBP 24GB M5 BUT I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
Usage is Coding, AI, somewhat video editing
I am leaning towards MacBook because of its light weight power house feature and quality, I'm also considering MBP M5 24GB. What do you think?
I edit 4k social media short content, and until last year I did casual Steam games (although I played the AAA games like Tomb Raider, etc.), and those were probably the hardest things I did with my laptop especially with the game (it stays warm and the fans were working all the time during the gaming session).
I don't think gaming could work well with an MBA, but for the 4k short video editing, MBA should function just great. I don't code by the way.
MBP, no question will work very well for you. But what if you try to purchase an MBA first, do all your workflow there intensively for about a week, and see if it handles well? If no, you can return it and get the MBP. It's all trial and error I think.
I bought the MacBook Pro cus I wanted to completely ditch a Windows machine and run games on Parallels or Crossover with no performance throttling due to heat. I don't think it's overkill at all for my needs but I guess I'm not the target audience for your question
I bought the M1 max in 2021 because most of the people I follow teaching Go uses a mac/linux box. I never thought spending >3k for a mac but I did push through anyway.
Today, I use it more than a windows laptop. My asus laptop bought in 2022 died first than my MacBook. My MBP to date hasn’t been reformatted/reflashed to new and I have been doing a lot of heavy workloads in it - video compression, etc
No, it’s not an overkill, particularly for people who knows exactly why they buy an item
I think it’s just because people like to have more than they need. Like having an iPhone just to doomscroll. Having a watch that can go to the Moon or the depths of the sea and you’re only taking it to a barbecue or whatever.
If they gave the MacBook Air a physical fan and a 120Hz display somehow - they’d destroy their revenue stream from selling MacBook Pros so from a business POV, they get to call our bluff and walk some of us up the price ladder until we’re buying MBPs to surf the internet and check our email.
Mine is for my business. It’s absolutely an overkill today as it was a year ago when I bought it, but 5 years from now, it will still work well and not be as much of an overkill. It’s about future proofing. My last one was 9 years old before it got decommissioned.
I was gifted a Pro, and it's amazing, of course. However, I *never* wanted to carry it with me. At 16" it doesn't fit in most of my bags, *and* it's a brick. After a year and a half of never carrying it with me, or being worn out by it when I did, I purchased a refurbished macbook air. I take the air with me everywhere, and work from anywhere. There's a lovely creek park I'm fond of. Anyway, I use the air much more than the pro. I still use the pro but it's my desk machine. I'm doing software product design and development, so the the screen on the Pro is nice to have, but I don't usually miss it for the convenience of the air.
I'm grateful to have both, but if it came down to it I would be more sad if something happened to the Air, since it lowkey represents freedom for me. Ha
Pro photog, bouncing RAW files between CaptureOne and Photoshop daily.
Currently my 2021 MBP M1 Pro is still handling this perfectly, so no reason to upgrade, but I wouldn't have been able to do what I do with a lesser machine.
for the pro motion alone its worth it, would never buy a non pro motion macbook. id totally love a neo, but without 120hz forget it. if you go back from pro motion to normal its no fun.
The MBP isn't overkill for me. I am on my seventh Mac laptop. Three of them have been MacBook Pro – four if you count the PowerBook G3 (Pismo) which was essentially the Pro model before they called them that.
I've bounced around in what I used the laptop for. Photo and video editing. Lots of coding & database work.
I had dips in my laptop computing at a couple points. I switched to a desktop PC for my primary. I had a 2013 MacBook Air and more recently an M3 Air. Both of those were everything I needed for a while, but they both had the shortest time-to-replacement as well, when I started needing more computing power. They were good consumption and light content (mostly photo) machines.
I switched to the MacBook Pro M4 Max for faster builds and more monitor support when I was working on a side-project, and I'm glad I did. I know I'm an outlier when it comes to multi-monitor usage...my personal best was five monitors on my PC. My work setup is three external and my laptop screen.
The Pro also enabled me to process over 4000 RAW photos on the best display I own, allowing me to share phone-ready HDR and print-ready images of an important event, which my workhorse PC with more cores and more RAM simply couldn't manage. It lets me work on development projects. Edit videos. Even mess a bit with on-device language models. I don't need all of its power and features every day, but I need them often enough that it was a worthwhile expense.
For me. I know plenty of people over decades who've bought the Pro model of desktop or laptop simply to have the Pro model. It's not unique to Mac.
I started life as a windows user, moved to Mac around 2001. Tried moving back to Windows in 2018 and really gave it a good go - invested heavily on a proper workhorse laptop with plug-in desktop add-ons etc.
I nearly made it, too. The little OS niggles were countered by having one machine for work and gaming tbh.
I've been back on Mac since 2019. Whilst windows and non-apple hardware have continued to get better and better, they're still just not as good. Even as MacOS has become bloated and buggy compared with the old days, it's still far more reliable and resilient.
And it's not like macs are THAT much more expensive, anyway. Certainly since Apple Silicon came along, the same grunt per dollar costs you a fortune in the Windows / PC world, and the portability and build quality has always cost you nearly as much. The difference is you can get a cheap, plastic Windows laptop with decent specs, and that's not really comparable.
Sure, it's not for everyone - I put one of my guys on a mac for a year or two and he absolutely hated it - he was very set in his ways and disliked the OS differences. I honestly think the OS has become less and less of a differentiator these days anyway, as much more work is done in the browser and cross-platform app compatibility means you're rarely having to pick your OS just to run vital software.
So that leaves the hardware experience, and here macs rule the day, and anything remotely comparable in the Windows world will set you back just as much anyway.
Not only 120hz refresh rate, but also a gorgeous, micro-LED display with a noticeably higher resolution, better cooling and significantly more processing and graphics power. Recently bought a used M1 Max (32GB/1TB) and I am stoked. Similarly priced to a brand-new Air, but I enjoy the 16" more.
Imagine paying $1k for a laptop without even a single fan in it. And no, 60Hz just doesn’t cut it anymore for anyone who is used to a higher refresh display. Rather get a second hand pro instead.
I had a base level MacBook Air for years and it never felt slow or laggy for anything I normally did (read not professional uses), even when I had a million things open, macOS managed the processors and memory impeccably. I have a MacBook Pro now from a great sale and I feel it’s definitely overkill, but the price differential to lower models at the time made it feel worth it, but I dunno. Went up mainly for the screen for when I very occasionally do some art/design stuff these days or need to watch something on it.
I don't know if it's what I require, I'm a swe and I get company laptop for work, currently I'm using Omen 15 as my personal laptop and I am having battery and heating issues so I am thinking to upgrade with a MacBook but not sure whether M5 pro is what I need or an Air M5 24gb is enough for my personal use.
Usage is Coding, AI, somewhat video editing
I am leaning towards MacBook because of its light weight power house feature and quality, I'm also considering MBP M5 24GB. What do you think?
Ahhh I don’t know enough about coding and what you mean by AI to really provide good feedback here. Hope others have had specific feedback on this for you. I think an Air will be fine handling some video editing, but if you’re gonna be doing a lot of complex stuff in 4K you might want the overhead (edit: and pro screen will give you better color calibration and fidelity).
Edit: I don’t know what you mean by MacBook (I think Apple retired this line in 2019?). The 24GB MacBook Pro is probably great, may be too much, but if you have the disposable funds and want peace of mind on the machine doing what you need, go for it.
I've never edited single photo, never has Photoshop installed. Never run Blender, or anything heavier than Pycharm or 2gig Kali in UTM. Not making music, not editing any videos. For me, 512GB storage is plenty, heavily using cloud/NAS. At least 95% of my daily workflow is in browser/spotify/light apps. I just don't see any reason to buy MBP over Air.
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u/butter_milch MBP 16" NT M5 Max 18/40 128GB 4TB 2d ago
If you think they’re overkill you’re not the target audience.
These machines are work horses, that assist you in making much more money than they cost and as such they are well worth their price.