New MacBook? M2 Vs M3? Refurbished M1?

endlesseuphoria on 10/04/2024 - 11:56
Last edited 10/04/2024 - 22:49 by 1 other user

Hey all, I know these questions are often asked, from browsing I couldn't find a similar thread (at least, not one that resolves the question I have).

My sister is looking to finally upgrade her Mac after using a 2018 Macbook Air for six years.

The options seem to either be a refurbished M1 for around $1200 (M1, 8GB/256GB), a new M2 for around $1400 (M2, 8GB/256GB) or the new M3. To make the M2 a little better, upgrading to 16GB of RAM pushes it up to $1700 (with 256GB storage still). Adding more storage brings it up to $2000 (so essentially M2, 16GB/512GB).

I don't believe my sister wants to spend $2000. The last setup is what I have - M2 16/512. I love the machine, it hasn't skipped a beat since I got it. It never reaches the RAM max capacity, and even if it did, my hard drive would do well enough to keep things running well, if a swap was needed.

So anyway, that's the question - which is best for her? It will be used purely for emailing, browsing (e.g. Chrome with 10-15 tabs open), Spotify, some light photo editing, work in Word/Powerpoint/Excel (nothing extreme). No gaming, no video editing, nothing too memory or processor heavy.

My main concern is that the base level M2 8/256…. I worry that a) the storage will fill very quickly, and b) the RAM will prevent it from being "future proof", if that's even a thing. I just want it to last her at least, at the minimum, four or five years. And the last thing I want is for her to max out the storage and find it slowing down after a year or two.

But as I said - it's not cheap to upgrade. This is all with the student discount (validly haha). I checked refurbished (that's how I bought my M2), but there are very minimal M1 products on there - the ones that are on there are either the base model, which is only $200 less than the M2 base model (i.e. $1200 vs $1400), and then the 16/512 M1s on there end up almost the same as the upgraded M2s.

Let me know what you all think. I know that the M1 and M2 are very powerful laptops. It just feels wrong to me to get the 8/256 setup…. but if it will last my sister a good four, five, six years, I'd be happy to recommend that to her.

Final thing is that she has plenty of iCloud storage, so photos from her iPhone are backed up to the cloud, they wouldn't need to be put onto the laptop. And I think she'd happily stream music rather than download it. Likewise, again, she won't be saving big video files or anything like that.

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• 

  Nillionaire on 10/04/2024 - 12:26

  refurbished M1 for around $1200

  Wait why refurbished? Is that not how much brand new ones were going for recently? I know Apple stopped selling them but are they all OOS at all retailers already?

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  Doly on 10/04/2024 - 12:42

  M3 is basically out of the question as it's not worth it.

  Depends on what you classify as 'light photo editing'. even basic editing on adobe photoshop, which I've known to bog down 8gb windows laptops. Web tabs are never really an issue either. You would want to predict what she would be doing 2-3 years later with it. Is she going to need to use more editing programs (adobe suite)? Consider 16GB a requirement if that is the case.

  I got my younger sibling a 8GB soldered windows laptop, regretting that now as I did not consider the increase in use of photoshop/illustrator (regarding media subjects they are doing) and everything on it is just slow.

  • 

    endlesseuphoria on 10/04/2024 - 15:47

    When I say light photo editing, I literally mean just changing the contrast, brightness, saturation etc, either with the default editor or with Lightroom (but I doubt she'd even use Lightroom). Mainly just mucking around with photos from her trips overseas, nothing serious. I use Photoshop quite heavily and so got the 16/512 M2, and it works brilliantly, but her usage won't be the same in that sense.

    I'm just not sold on the 8GB of RAM. It's so hard to recommend that… I've just read so many posts here and on Reddit (and Whirlpool) where people have said they bought an 8GB M1/M2 and regretted it after a few months. But others say it's perfectly fine for what my sister would use it for. Damn Apple, as always, a ridiculous price to add another 8GB of RAM - $270 to upgrade it to 16GB is a joke. It is "worth it" if you're in the Apple ecosystem - as I am - it does make a big difference, especially a few years down the road, when apps and programs become more demanding.

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  kevkay on 10/04/2024 - 12:51

  +2

  I'd go for the M2 with 16gb and 512gb for longevity

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  Ynk on 10/04/2024 - 12:51

  +1

  With her usage only the storage might be an issue, it's impossible to know but she could get away with the 8/256. As budget is a strong consideration I would suggest not worrying about it lasting 4-5 years the great thing about Apple laptops is they have great resale value when/if the storage becomes a problem just offload it and upgrade at that time. She can most likely offload her old Air for $300-$400.

  • 

    endlesseuphoria on 10/04/2024 - 15:50

    Thank you for your comment! I guess the question, overall, given the responses, is - is it worth upgrading the RAM or the storage? As in, from Apple we could get the M2 base level for around $1400, but from what I know, that has the slower 256GB SSD compared with the 256GB on the M1 and the M3. So you'd think, both from a storage and performance perspective, that it would be better to upgrade the M2's storage than the RAM. But on the other hand, if that's not an issue on the M1 or the M2, and if my sister won't need more than 256GB, it might be worth going to 16GB of RAM.

    But as you noted - price is a big consideration. For me… price was a factor, but I had to take into account value and longevity, and hence went for a 16/512 M2 (last year, using 15% off Apple GCs). But for my sister, money is a limiting factor. Pushing the price up to $1700, $1800, $2000… she can't afford that. Well, she can, but just doesn't want to spend that much on something she only uses casually for the uses I listed (web browsing, Word etc).

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  tonester on 10/04/2024 - 13:34

  +1

  16/256 (M2 256 caveat) - JB price matches AOC :)

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  shrugies on 10/04/2024 - 13:36

  If you're in Sydney, there's an OZB user selling a sealed M1 for a very good price.
  https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/840324

  $900 asking price

  Has emails etc regarding the warranty replacement that they're happy to give too. Would have bought it but had another think and I didn't NEED it :(

  • 

    tonester on 10/04/2024 - 13:45

    +1

    seems worth considering if documentation provided and ok with 8gb :)

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  LanceVance on 10/04/2024 - 13:55

  Get a refurbished M1 Air, I've got one as a work machine and its fantastic. Get 16GB of RAM for longevity and however much disk space she needs, probably 512 is the sweet spot. They're a great machine.

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  AustriaBargain on 10/04/2024 - 15:23

  What about the 15 inch Air? Could be worth paying a bit more for.

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  sumyungguy on 10/04/2024 - 15:40

  +1

  Can you get her to $1,719? 15-inch M2 8GB/256GB. If/when she needs more storage get an external 1TB SSD. People hate on Apple for selling 8GB but for use cases like your sister's it's quite satisfactory.

  • 

    endlesseuphoria on 11/04/2024 - 15:38

    Thank you for your comment! I have the M2, 16/512 and adore it. Part of the reason I got the extra storage, though, was to avoid the whole "the 256GB M2 isn't as speedy as it only uses one drive" (or whatever it is). I also download a lot my music via Apple Music, usually in lossless, so that I can easily use AirPlay to cast my music to my Sonos setup. Anyway.

    The options seem to be:

    • 1) M1 (8/256) via Amazon for $1278
    • 2) M2 (8/256) via Apple Edu for $1439
    • 3) M2 (16/256) via Apple Edu for $1709
    • 4) M2 (8/512) via Apple Edu for $1739
    • 5) M3 (8/256) via Apple Edu for $1649

    I asked my sister, and she said she didn't want or need the extra screen space that naturally comes with the 15" version of the M2. What do you think is best? I know it's so hard to say. The M1 could be more than enough for her, which is dirt cheap compared with the others.

    I'm worried that the M2 with only 256GB would run slow, just with the whole "oh Apple stupidly used a single drive which means when the RAM maxes out and the Mac has to do switch, it will be much slower than normal".

    On the other hand, upping her budget to ~$1700 would be tough. I do think, though, that if she feels she doesn't need the storage and will put her photos etc onto a hard drive/iCloud… 256GB may be enough. In that scenario, given the supposed issues with the SSD on the M2, it seems either the M1 or the base level M3 would be enough for her. I do think I can sell the whole "M3 is the latest and greatest and it'll be the youngest of the three options".

    Even though I personally, if I was just buying one now, would get 16/512 M2 again in a heartbeat. It really helped that I could combine the refurbished price for mine with stacked 15% off Apple gift cards. It brought the machine down to roughly $1700 which, given it was October or so last year, was a pretty damn good deal!

    I'm leaning towards suggesting the base level M3 to her. And I will just need to reiterate that she should get something like my hard drive (Samsung T7 shield) to avoid issues with only having 256GB. And I do think that the whole concept of "getting the base level" somehow causes you to spend more.

    I guess it's just that feeling of a) wanting the newest version and that justifying spending the minimum of ~$1600 and b) feeling as though you're not being extravagant or anything (by upgrading the RAM and storage).

    Final thing is just that it annoys me so much that Apple charges more and more for their entry level Macbook. $1600 for a base level M3… if it was a 16/256 setup, that might justify it. But for a laptop that is marginally better, to still be paying that much, compared with the M2, it's just crazy. Even the fact that for a brand new M1 in the base configuration it is almost $1300. Oh well.

    • 

      sumyungguy on 11/04/2024 - 17:03

      I have a Mac mini M1 8GB/256GB (pre-owned) with a 1TB Samsung T7 as my strategy with computers has always been to spend as little as possible. Your sister seems of like mind. Anything with Apple Slilcon will comfortably out-perform her 2018 MacBook Air. For example, there's an M1 MacBook Air via Cashies online with battery cycle count 3 for $999. Or this one for the same price BNIB

    • 

      tonester on 11/04/2024 - 18:32

      +1

      why Apple EDU instead of AOC? and don't forget about when cashback increases to 5-8%

      unless upgrading every new generation, increasing memory rather than storage is generally recommended, and i don't think that the M2's slower 256GB ssd would be as noticeable as limited ram for your sister's usage

      hence i'd suggest M3 16/256 > M2 16/256 > M3 8/256

      though if considering only 8GB, then this could be best

      • 

        endlesseuphoria on 13/04/2024 - 11:40

        Sorry for the late reply! Thanks so much for commenting and linking all of those, very handy.

        Yes, the general consensus seems to be that if I am to upgrade one or the other, RAM vs the SSD, RAM is the preference. So I think I'll recommend the 16/256 version of the M2 or the M3 to my sister. I think it's around $200 more between the M2 and the M3. Thanks for reminding me that the AOC discount is better than the general student discount!

        So I just wanted to ask - do you think the difference in speed between the M2 and the M3, in the 16/256 configuration, would be noticeable? Both meaning the better processor in the M3 and then the better SSD (well, "better", two times 128GB instead of a solo 256GB, if it even makes a difference, so many people online say it would never be noticeable, unless you are constantly reading and writing files and transferring big amounts of data on and off). But correct me if I'm wrong! My sister will not be doing anything like that - again, general web browsing (10-15 tabs open), Word, Outlook, Spotify, notes, calendar, WhatsApp desktop version etc.

        Plus yeah, I agree, and so many people seemingly agree - that the RAM can't be upgraded after the purchase, but the SSD is less of an issue if you use an external SSD to store most of your things (and as I mentioned, my sister has plenty of iCloud storage). I personally do that with my 16/512 M2 - I have a Samsung T7 Shield 1TB. Amazing hard drive, it is so fast, and it is tiny, so, so portable, and the IP65 rating for water/dust/shock proof, or whatever it is, it's good peace of mind. So easy to have it tucked away on an overseas trip, ready for you to dump a heap of photos onto it as a hard backup.

        The only thing I worry about, given the difference between the 16/256 M2 and M3 seems small, is just the size of the hard drive for storing things internally. I know my sister will be careful to keep minimal things on the laptop's SSD. But at the same time, on my M2 Air, iOS alone is taking up like 80GB or something crazy. So wipe 80GB off 256GB and you aren't left with much. I guess it's still around 170GB, but nevertheless, it just makes me nervous that it will suddenly be full, the laptop will really start to struggle, and it will become a disaster.

        Again, for me, it was important to get the 16/512 for that reason. I still backup my Mac and iPhone to the external SSD regularly, but I just wanted to be in a position where I never have to worry about it too much. My sister's budget won't allow both to be upgraded. I guess the one advantage, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that if my sister gets 16GB of RAM, it is far less likely to need to do any form of swap with the SSD. Especially given how light her usage is?

        Thanks so much again for your help - it means a lot to me.

• 

  bloomer on 10/04/2024 - 16:52

  I have an M1 8/512 and the only thing that stresses it is running Firefox with a few hundred tabs (uhuh) at the same time as Window 11 (Parallels Desktop). That gets unpleasant. :P

  I do photo editing and occasional video editing. All fine, unless (for video) you are impatient.

  • 

    endlesseuphoria on 11/04/2024 - 15:20

    Thanks for your comment! I am tempted to recommend the M1 to my sister. Sadly you can't get it directly from Apple anymore, otherwise I think a 16/512 M1 would be perfect for her. Do you think that $1278 at Amazon for the 8/256 is a good deal? I'm just at a loss as to what my sister needs. It really wouldn't be for anything intense. My biggest issue is her running out of storage - which is my absolute worst nightmare. And part of it is the fact that I got a 16/512 M2 and adore the thing, and can see it lasting years.

    But even to get those specs is $2k with the student discount, only $150 less than I paid in November last year. My usage is a little different, though, I do some video editing and some Photoshop work. Hence me investing in the extra ram, and the extra storage was to a) avoid the whole "M2 256GB being slow as it only uses one drive" and b) because I travel a lot and put a lot of photos onto my laptop (in reality I could just put them onto my Samsung T7 shield).

    • 

      bloomer on 11/04/2024 - 22:36

      I don't watch the market, so I'm afraid I know nothing about constitutes a good deal, sorry. As for storage, I really think teaching someone to learn to backup is important, which of course a really large internal drive often doesn't do. Based on your description of her usage I can't see any reason for 16GB of RAM. I would be inclined to go for the M2 (if its RAM usage/performance is at least as "good" as the M1) just because a newer model will get longer support, and is the difference in SSD speed between M3 and M2 something that has any relevance to her activities on a laptop? It's easy to be distracted by specs/issues/questions that have no real life relevance for a specific user.

      And if there's spare cash leftover, invest it in unfancy external hard drive(s) and teach her about backups and how you don't need to keep everything on your laptop. (I manage my photo collection via external drives - just keeping my software and database on the Mac. For editing/creative work, I might move material into a working folder on the Mac, depending on various factors.)

      I know my 512GB of internal storage makes me poor at cleaning house sometimes. I know my older Macbook with 256GB made me be quite disciplined…

      • 

        endlesseuphoria on 13/04/2024 - 22:50

        Thank you for your reply! 🙂 No stress, don't worry about deals, I think ultimately, we will go through AOC/education directly through Apple. If I can get some discounted gift cards for that, that'd be great, but if not, I think it's still our best bet, given I think (well, my sister wants to do this now that I've explained it all to her) that we should get the M2 16/256.

        My reasoning for that, other than having so many people recommend it to me across here, Whirlpool and Reddit, is that you can't upgrade RAM down the line, storage you can easily get a really good external SSD. I'm like you - a little more lax, but I have 512 to play with. Anyway, I told my sister she'd have to be really disciplined not to store too many photos, videos, songs etc on the internal SSD, and she said she's willing and able to do so.

        She ended up today just getting the external SSD I have and love, the Samsung T7 Shield. It is insane that you can get 1TB into something that tiny, and the dust/shock/waterproof element is peace of mind. Anyway, that's another discussion! I remember back when I had a hard drive that had to be plugged into the wall socket to power on 😂

        And in terms of the RAM ("unified memory") - as I said, people told me that it's better to upgrade it rather than regret it down the line. And many people agreed with me when I said that it would partially future-proof the laptop. I know a lot of people hate that saying. And I get it - in reality, regardless of if it's a 16/512 or more, my sister will guaranteed get a new laptop within five years.

        On the other hand, she might decide to keep it longer, and given that apps and software (and the iOS) are becoming more memory-demanding, I don't want the laptop to slow down after a year or two 🤔

        Likewise, if she decides she wants to start doing things that are more memory-demanding, whatever it may be, she has that RAM on hand. And, of course, given it would be the M2 (due to our budget), and the base level storage, and given that storage may be quite full, and given that the specific SSD on the base M2 is slower… I don't want her to max out the RAM and then be unable to easily swap across to the SSD. Correct me if I'm wrong, that's just my general understanding, based on what people have told me!

        Ultimately, it just comes down to the whole value vs budget issue. My advice to her, if she was willing to spend $2k, would just be to get mine, the 16/512 M2. Amazing machine, there would never be any issue about her running out of storage, it has the extra RAM. Naturally the M3 version would be even better, but I think that's $250 or so more.

        But given that the specifications I'd choose are out of the equation, I think the 16/256 M2 would be best. What do you think? It's just so hard. So many people say that you don't even need the extra RAM at all, for things like my sister's workload (ultimately, pretty rudimentary stuff).

        Others say that if you can afford the extra RAM, you should go for it, for the reasons I listed. But overall, I think I'm sold on "just" getting the 256GB. Gone are the days when it was a real pain to carry around a huge, clunky hard drive. The T7 Shield literally is half the size of my iPhone, if I put it into my pocket I barely even notice it. Likewise, I can easily put it into my backpack, it just chills there if I'm taking the laptop to work etc.

        So the question is whether it's worth bothering upgrading the RAM for $270. That also gives you the 10-core GPU as a "free upgrade", but I doubt that'd make any difference for her haha. Likewise, it's worth noting that she can afford the 8/256 M3, if that would make any difference in speed. But I personally think an M2, with 16GB of RAM (added for $270 to the base price) is better value than the base level 8/256 M3. As in, a 16/256 M2 is more or less the same cost as an 8/256 M3. I think, from memory.

        Although, I'm not an expert, far from it, I'm a lawyer, I don't know much about tech at all 😂 I used to build my own computers etc. These days it's just my wonderful M2 Macbook and I'm set. I have to say that after a year, since buying my M2, it hasn't skipped a beat. I have never had any slowdowns, crashes, spinning wheels, nothing. Not even with 50 Chrome tabs open, plus huge Excel spreadsheets, Apple Music playing away, often editing photos in Lightroom and Photoshop, the list goes on, often with all of that and more running at once. Nor has it ever gotten hot. Nor has the battery charge just tanked with the workload, even with heavy use I can get it comfortably through 8am to 8pm or so.

        Thank you again for your help - it means a lot. Sorry this turned into a rant of sorts! 👌

        • 

          sumyungguy on 13/04/2024 - 23:07

          @endlesseuphoria: For her use-case as described, 8GB is fine (per @bloomer) - that's why Apple still sells it. I run two Apple desktops, 2014 & 2020 models, both 8GB, both with SSD. I've never needed more RAM, just faster processors and bigger SSDs… solved like you with a T7.