Apple's Exciting Week of Announcements
TIME TO REPLACE YOUR OLD MAC? THIS IS THE NEWS YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR.
One of the most common questions I get from clients is “should I upgrade my Mac?” And my answer is always based on the actual need they have and the user experience they can expect by doing so. There are always considerations, and everyone’s situation is different.
In most cases though, when their Mac is not actually failing, I recommend sticking with it until the next upgrade cycle, which is usually within a few months. This is when Apple refreshes their Macs with ever faster, more powerful processors and often a few new features or a redesign. You get a measurably better Mac at about the same price as the prior model.
So waiting it out has been my advice since last March or so and now the rubber meets the road. This week, Apple has announced an “exciting week of announcements” with enough leaks and pundits’ insight to know that several new Macs will be released over the next few days.
Time to check your wallet and tune in for details.
What’s new this time is that the refresh is expected to introduce the fourth generation Apple Silicon - M4 processors - with much faster performance and better support for Apple Intelligence, Apple’s own flavor of Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning that runs securely on-device.
The expectation is that we can expect new MacBook Pros, iMacs, and a completely redesigned Mac mini with the Apple M4 chips. Other announcements are also possible. What’s different this year is that Apple has booked out most of the week to drip announcements to media over days (like Apple TV+ series) rather than their signature one-stop presentations with Apple leaders sharing the spotlight. So we won’t really know the whole launch story until later this week.
But let’s assume that all the rumors are true and that we can expect a full collection of upgraded, zippy new M4 Macs to land soon in Apple Stores. In general, here is how I see the upgrade decision tree.
1. If you are still nursing along an Intel-based Mac, this is a good time to take a leap. Even the early M1 chips beat out all but the most well-equipped Intel-based Macs and enable some software features that require the Apple Silicon. Jumping to an M4 would be light speed by comparison.
2. I recommend a minimum of 16GB memory and 1TB of storage. More if you are doing much photography or video and want a portable. At the very least, add up all the storage space you are using on your current Mac and double (for office use) or triple (for active photo/video use) that in a new purchase.
3. Get the fastest processor you can afford. The faster processors usually come with more memory and storage configurations anyway (see #2).
4. Consider a desktop - iMac or Mac mini - if you rarely move your MacBook from its place on your desk. You can buy one of the desktops + a nice portable iPad for the same price as a comparable MacBook Pro.
5. Buy AppleCare on the yearly plan. It allows you to extend the coverage for the life of the Mac and it’s those later years where AppleCare really pays for itself if you need repairs.
The thing about buying a Mac is that they last a long time. A 10 year useful life is not extraordinary. I still use a 2013 MacBook Pro for some basic tasks and backup processing that is not mission critical. But it was also back in the day when you could upgrade after purchase.
All the newer Macs are so light and compact because they are essentially a one piece circuit board in a tight body with no aftermarket upgrades possible. You need to buy your Mac today with a thought to what you’ll need in 5 years, not 5 months.
How many pictures, videos, and documents do you have today?
How much space do they take up?
How much more space will they take up in 5-7 years?
You want to buy the biggest, fastest Mac you can afford today, to ensure it will serve your future needs and you won’t have to replace it just because you ran out of speed or space.
Having said that, budgets are budgets, and the by-product of these Mac updates is that you can usually find good deals on the last generation of Macs at resellers and on the Apple Refurbished website. A good backup choice, and still a huge upgrade if you are nursing along an old iMac or MacBook from 2010-12. I see a lot of those.
It’s always exciting to see what Apple comes up with and spreading it out over a week makes it all that much more tantalizing.
But I guess that’s the point.