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Old 04-29-2023, 04:07 PM   #1
wireframe
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I want to replace my old macbook pro with an air. I'm looking at either buying a new M2 or a used 2020 M1 for half the price. Looking for some advice from the hardware experts out there.


1. Is the upgrade from M1 to M2 significant? What changes besides the magsafe charger.
2. Is there any reason not to buy a macbook from Kijiji? Provided it boots and seems to work, can it cause problems for me?
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Old 04-29-2023, 06:33 PM   #2
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The M2 one has a slightly bigger and better display and has a constant profile instead of a wedge like the M1.

The M2 is of course generally faster and more efficient, how much so depends on what you'd be doing. General productivity you'd probably be hard pressed to notice a difference. Some targeted workloads could see a noticeable improvement (due to better CPU and more GPU cores and I think you can get 24GB RAM with the M2 but only 16GB with the M1).

Twice the price an M2 is probably not worth it unless you're getting paid using it and a 20% difference = real money.

I bought a used MBP off of Kijiji once and it was fine but it had some AppleCare left and they had original receipts. At the very least I'd be worried about it being stolen or that it's gone through something bad that hasn't been fixed.
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Old 05-02-2023, 10:18 AM   #3
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Photon provided a lot of the important points, with the key takeaway being "you will be hard pressed to notice a difference from a general productivity perspective". Both are a massive improvement on the intel macs.

The one concern with buying used is always underlying liquid damage, which the seller can be trying to hide. The damage is sometimes not spotted in a quick buy/sell inspection.

Definitely check every key, make sure the battery is not giving a service error.

And regardless of which one you go with, both of these models are fairly susceptible to screen cracks- particularly from closing the lid on any type of obstruction or debris. Our org has gone back to purchasing Applecare for all new units because of this, after declining the additional warranty for years. Authorized centres will charge around 650 to replace the display on the Air if you do not have warranty.
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Old 05-02-2023, 10:56 AM   #4
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You can also bridge some of the gap between used and new prices in a couple of ways:

1) Consider refurbished; you can get an M1 base model for $1,099 and an M2 for $1,349. Or education pricing if you don't mind bending the truth. I bought mine through that because I had a plausible explanation (my wife is a teacher), but they never checked or anything.

2) Watch for Apple gift card promotions. The last Macbook I bought, Superstore/Loblaws had a deal where you got 15% of the gift card value back in PC points. So I got about $200 in points from that that I just used on groceries I'd have normally bought anyway.

So between those 2 things, I was able to get an M2 Air for just over $1.3K including tax. Or I could have gotten an M1 for just over $1K.
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Old 05-03-2023, 11:08 AM   #5
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Missed in this is the storage aspect. There is a performance boost in the 512 M2 versus the standard model.

I own a new M2 and moved from an M1 and the screen like said was what I notice the most as well as the flat for factor which I feel is a bit more comfortable.
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Old 05-03-2023, 12:46 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Diemenz View Post
Missed in this is the storage aspect. There is a performance boost in the 512 M2 versus the standard model.

I own a new M2 and moved from an M1 and the screen like said was what I notice the most as well as the flat for factor which I feel is a bit more comfortable.
"Performance boost" might not be the right term. More like the 256GB SSD has a performance penalty due to them cheaping out with a single NAND chip instead of the normal two (which the M1 had for either option).
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Old 05-03-2023, 01:08 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Muffins View Post
"Performance boost" might not be the right term. More like the 256GB SSD has a performance penalty due to them cheaping out with a single NAND chip instead of the normal two (which the M1 had for either option).
There is also the change in chip as The standard M2 has 8 core GPU and the 512 has a 10 core gpu in addition to the change in SSD speed from the dual NAND
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Old 05-03-2023, 04:02 PM   #8
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The real question is what is your use-case/workflow?

I just switched from a sad 128GB 2017 Intel Macbook Pro that had terrible battery life and overheated to a hand-me-down M1 from my co-worker who switched to an M2 and for me, this is already like receiving a Ferrari.

I don't do any intensive tasks like video editing but I'm sure it will handle it quite fine.
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