Hi All
Was trying to buy a macbook pro on ebay at 5% off and it failed due to commbank maintenance.
Thought i will check for other deals meanwhile and saw that costco is selling M2 Max Macbook Pro 16 inch 1TB SSD 32 GB RAM for 5299.99$
Saw that its lower than Officeworks price of 5597$
Went for a price beat and got it for 5035$
I am not sure about other models, but the previous gen was on sale for 4249$
Max purchase limit: 5
I am looking at a BTO one with 2TB with 64GB or perhaps 96GB RAM. So all these price matching and discounted deals aren’t for me. Good post though.
I can understand maxing out the RAM. But, why 2TB of HDD when external SSD prices are so much cheaper than Apple?
But people want it all built in. No need to bring an extra device they could misplace.
The internal flash drive is much faster than any external SSD, plus being a laptop, I want to minimise as much devices/dongles dangling from it. I would love to have 4TB. But as my config already shoots north of $6k. 2TB is the sweet spot for me.
Btw, not sure why my previous comment got negged…
Btw, not sure why my previous comment got negged…
Probably because you just told us you are not going to buy this deal because you're going to buy something else. Which is, er, totally useless information 😁
@Nom: OK, will not comment irrelevant stuff from now on!
P.S. At least I gave this post a like. Can’t please everyone it seems.
Doesn’t come in black, I'll pass for now.
I actually think a matte black MB would look really cool! I think they made them at one stage and are quite valuable for collectors.
I own a black polycarbonate MacBook('Blackbook'j frrom 2007. Older '90s Powerbooks are dark grey, really.
That Macbook has a Core 2 Duo, limited to MacOS 10.7, but that expects flash performance for virtual memory, so Snow Leopard 10.6 is the better choice. 1280x800 screen resolution. 4GB memory in slots (6 is possible), replaceable 3.5" hard drive and battery. First generation Magsafe power. Neat modular, user upgradable, design - I've replaced memory (was 1GB) hard drive (now 1TB), the power supply, and batteries. So many batteries. But current software and browsers won't run on the old OS, even though it has the App Store.
The black case ages far better than white, which fades and yellows after a couple of years; Apple charged extra for the black colour, with a slightly larger (120 GB) hard drive. No keyboard backlight, though. Black keys against a black case, but key legends have held up well.
On these models, the palmrest tends to crack at the edges where the two nub ridges from the top of the screen lid rest - I prevented that early with a stick-on palm cushion, with cutouts for the nubs, that increases contact area and spreads the pressure, while showing where the touchpad ends. And my Macbook is pristine, because it's always lived in a clear polycarbonate shell. These things were expensive and fragile, you spent a few bucks to protect the investment.
But a black plastic laptop? In the hot Australian sun? think again. Once Apple moved to aluminium cases and then black screen surrounds as less distracting, utility won out, and everyone followed suit. You could buy an all-black Intel M15 laptop, I thought of the sun and wanting to see the key edges and bought the grey naked aluminiumM15 instead.
Still, I'll entertain offers for my Blackbook. I've replaced it with white Ollee snowbooks these days. Cheap and light: $99 plus another hundred for a 1TB M.2 flash drive, and at that price, who cares how much a snowbook case yellows or how it lasts?
That’s not a consumer device, so consumers shouldn’t complain about the exorbitant price tag. It’s meant to be used by software developers or people in creative professions.
Consumers will generally find that a MacBook Air has more than enough horsepower to meet their needs. Or that a Windows laptop is the better choice to begin with - especially if they are into gaming.
MacBook Air with either M1 or M2 are awesome.
software developers
More so businesses who claim tax rebates off their devices anyway. Even most software devs would consider these prices goofy. The only thing making this a preference for devs the dev environment on macos. Specs don't justify this pricetag, even for a non-consumer device.
1tb storage and price tag makes me not even want to look at rest of the specs.
For that price. I expect 3tb
How'd you arrive at 3tb?
Seems like a reasonable number for 5k 😂
I'd go for 4TB (expected ;) I paid $209 for fast 2TB T7 Shield (to share with $700 for Acer Nitro5 AN515-56 i5-11300H with 8+8GB +$35, 2TB M.2 for extra $210… & can attach few 4K monitors :)
This or two 4080 cards that I can clap together. Decisions, decisions.
If you're reading this. NO, you don't need this for browsing the web!
Instructions unclear. Now im watching youtube on it.
I actually upgraded to this one from my i9 2019 Intel Mac and got it yesterday. exported 350 hi-res jpegs from RAW in Capture One this morning - a job which usually took 30 minutes on my old laptop was done in under four minutes on this one. speed of editing probably saved me a good 30-45 minutes and was actually a joy to do instead of a pain. video editing smooth too. if you make your living from photography or video work it'll serve you well.
Boom. This. Every minute saved stacks up for time away from the device.
That's the best deal you'll get on interest in your life.
another point is that my MacBooks have always yielded a fairly good resale to recoup some of the cost of the machine ($800-1200) after a few years of use, where as my old build-to-order PCs proved impossible to shift end up in the garage 🥲
If only they opened up their iOS on iPad Pro M1.
Beastly. I won't complain about the price; when you work in my industry (filmmaker & author), a deal on something like this is a deal.
When you know what a good machine can do you for you, it makes its bank back again and again.
What films and books have you released recently
Not something I'd share on OZb; old account. DM if you're legit interested.
They're also pretty popular in tech companies. Article: Uber, Twitter among companies giving engineers 'fully loaded' M1 Max MacBook Pro.
Yes — always do you for you
Wow and people say Razer is expensive
That is a pre order model and far better specs than the apple listed here.
A comparable Razer would be this one and is cheaper https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/laptops-&-notebooks/gami…
No. It will lose to this laptop in many ways. There is a YouTube video where they compare a 3080ti laptop MacBook wins. And MacBook on battery all the time and windows laptop connected to power.
@John Doh: i9 12th generation in the razor is marginally quicker than the m2 max chips.
But, for battery life nothing is better than m1 or m2 laptops atm.
@serpserpserp: Nobody buys macbook for gaming. I am not here to defend it. These are mostly puchased by corporates for software engineers OR free lancers buy this to make thier work faster and easier on the go so they can work from anywhere. This thing literally runs 20+ hours on battery while coding at FULL SPEED. If you want to game buy a 4080 desktop for less money.
So by far better specs you mean less RAM, worse trackpad, worse speakers, less thunderbolt 4 ports, dramatically worse battery life and a lower resolution screen.
Razer are pretty good when you get them on clearance.
On clearance they are beasts. Might not be perfect for video editing, but for all around performance across all applications (including gaming) excellent.
Is this able to keep up with my twice a week email check and Google Chrome browse?
Yes, but you can only open up to 380 tabs in Google Chrome. So, you might to spend another $1000 to get the 96GB RAM model.
For now. 32gb may get you through the next year. Chrome processes, chrome tabs, and memory use all increase every year.
Yes, but you might want to switch to Safari or Firefox just in case anyway.
Is Safari still relevant among the browser leaders? Apple is hardware co. Let the S/W guys do what they are best for.
On Mac and iOS I'd guess Safari is still king. On PC I can't imagine many people use Safari, and afaik Safari isn't even available on Android.
what about the gram and twatter, can this run that also
What a stitch up. If you must buy Apple, 99% of the time an M1 Air will get you there. 1% of the time the M1 Pro will keep you go..ing.
Faster storage, too.
the slower storage thing seems to be a thing on the 512gb M2s alone. not an issue on anything over 1tb.
So it seems.
The base M2 Mini is great bang for buck.
Agreed. The moment you upgrade anything, the price skyrockets. Highway robbery. Microsoft products are much the same in that regard.
This spec grade and price isn’t for personal use, so no, it’s not a stitch up.
This is a beast if you use XCode and Android Studio to develop mobile apps. Way faster than the Intel countrrparts. It’s very expensive but saves you time when building your apps. Time is money.
When did XCode come to to Mac OS?
Your move nVidia.
Huh?
4090s at Costco would be nice
waiting on the chrome tabs comment.. slow day today ehh..
There is a very good change that won't need this kind of a laptop.
Time to upgrade. Dropped off my MacBook M2 Pro 15 at Cash Converters and got this. Thanks!
How's the trade in value?
$55 then negotiated and got $60
Noice
Did you go to Cash Converters or Cash Con-artist?
@congo: Definitely Cash Converters because I got treated with respect and got a great trade-in value
thx op, bought 5
I don't think 'productivity' justifies the price. Even cheaper desktop processors crap all over M2 (eg. 7950x or 13900k), let alone epyc, threadripper or xeon which are closer to the M2 price bracket.
desktop processors
Keep the comparison fair - you need to compare to laptop processors. Even then it's not the full story, you need to compare the full device -
Professionals can't use desktops, workstations or servers? They win on all those points you mentioned.
Not if they are bloging and travelling.
Depends, I'm a developer and a desktop doesn't make any sense. I couldn't do my job without a laptop.
@FatBlanket: You are not professional then ;)
Real professionals work from home & can work via virtual machines.
@taki: Not sure what your requirements are for being a professional but I’ve got the CS degree, been doing this for a decade and manage 10 other developers, who are all issued with laptops. I have never worked anywhere that wasn’t the case, even for remote workers. In fact It is so much the standard that I’m not aware of what the official reason for not issuing desktops is, as I’ve never even heard it mentioned as an option. Im not sure what you’re talking about regarding virtual machines as I use them every day from my laptop. I do not understand the relevance.
@taki: As someone who is forced to use virtual machines for security reasons, i can assure that it's not no way near to using a regular machine.
When you try to look smart by downplaying others you are exposing how ignorant you are towards a lot of things in real world.
You can use PC if it works for you, but many who work from home, office, international client offices PC is not an option.
You also seems to be in a stage of life you havent realised Time is the most expensive thing and it makes absolute sense to spend money on things that save time.
For some people their workflow might be faster in Mac. This goes for people who use apple software which is tuned for apple hardware.
We all are here for bargain, not tech advice.
Have a look at what is issued employees at larger tech companies.
Desktops:
build quality - lasts longer
screen quality - superior with non-reflective 4K adjustable screen
power use - unlimited plugged in
battery time - save the money for accessories
processing power on battery - more seaved money
noise - choice of fans & distance
heat - nice during winter ;) high performance creates heat ;)
ability to drive high impedance headphones - even $100 PCIe card will beat laptops
speakers - any $100 headphones will beat laptop speakers
keyboard/trackpad quality - always pathetic with Apple (I use Logitech on laptops)
OS - Unix, cloud computing, … even Windows for usability & touch
As all of this applies to laptops in general, why are you buying gaming laptops?
Isn't your comment just hypocrisy?
@ihfree: It's called context, you should look it up. I don't see where he's using that post here, shame on you.
The OP that comment was replied to, wasn't looking a professional grade laptop like what we have here.
So no, not hypocrisy at all.
@Sheep Whisperer: Many tech companies choose laptops over workstations. It's lucky the Ozbargain brains trust knows better.
Not really sure what you're trying to achieve by assuming I'm a girl. It's probably indicative of some insecurity. If it makes you feel any better, I've never once assumed you're a man.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@ihfree: Saying 'many tech companies' is a logincal fallacy - appeal to authority and appeal to popularity, which can be ignored.
You can also get desktop CPUs in laptop form factor cheaper than M2 if really nessasary
eg. https://www.metabox.com.au/store/b412/Metabox-Prime-Ai-NH58J…
(About $4K for i9 12900T, 3070Ti, better everything than Mac, 2-3x multi-threaded perf of M2 max)
But I doubt the use case over better ways eg. distributed compute.
@ihfree: Myself being involved is tech is irrelevant to my point about this laptop being expensive for the performance, stick to imperical evidence.
Distributed computing was just one example but applicable to the comment below on folding
@brenwildman: Not really, it goes a long way as to whether you're treated as a Harvey Norman salesperson or someone who knows that they're taking about.
The example you've given - folding is a very specific workload which would be far from typical everyday usage.
@ihfree: You keep using logical fallacies rather than relevant emperical points.
Eg. Arguement from authority (knowing what you are talking about), ad hominem (treating as Harvey Normal salesperson) and no true scottsman (typical everyday usage). Folding to some people is everyday usage and it was an example only.
Importantly, your reasoning is non-sequitur to my simple point - desktops provide better performance per $/watt/effort etc., even other laptops do compared to the M2. There are some exceptional use cases like needing hardware locked propiretary software which might drive the decision to get an M2.
@brenwildman: Ok.
You assume that the only important thing in productivity is raw processing power. You're completely ignoring things like meetings, hybrid work environments, office planning, hot desking, etc.
Good luck solving this one with no knowledge of the subject area, pure logic, and critical thinking.
Desktops
You forgot storage.
When C drive is getting full, just drag your files out onto the desktop to free up space again.
LoL touched a nerve
Perfect for my F@H setup
Fap at home??
Thanks mate, bought 5.