Budget 90k+ Macbook M4 Pro or Mac Mini M4

desi_gamer said:

I'd respectfully disagree. You won't need it till it happens with you, which is the entire point of insurance. I'm going to narrate personal anecdotes, and I hope it helps everyone involved here.

1. In 2019, I got an intel based MacBook Pro 13, the one with the infamous butterfly keyboards. Didn't have any protection plans.
   • 11 months later, the motherboard failed. It was peak pandemic, but apple turned it around in 2 weeks, free of cost (covered under warranty).
   • The laptop was bought somewhere in Europe, but I didn't have any issues getting it serviced in India, thanks to International Warranty.
   • Bought Apple Care (AC) for the first time. Back then, AC+ wasn't available in India, and you could add AC within 1yr of purchase (provide the device was not damaged).
   • Paid a total of Rs 18k for 2 years.
2. From 2020 to 2022, I had total of 4 MINOR incidents of keyboard failing on me.
   • Apple was replacing the keyboards free of cost, which they'd have done outside the AC too. I got buyers remorse for a while.
   • But since I had AC, on the 2rd incident, they replaced the battery, and then the entire bottom half on the 3rd incident (ship of Theseus anyone?).
   • On the 4th incident, they exchanged my laptop with a brand new Macbook Pro 14inch, free of cost. They offered 16 inches initially, but I declined as it wasn't portable.
   • I added AC+ on this device at $99/yr for 2 yrs
3. In 2024, the battery of above 14in MacBook Pro dipped below 80%
   • at which point Apple Saket replaced it for free.
   • this was within 2yrs of first use. (~600 cycles)

In total I have spent INR ~40k in various currencies including AC, shipping costs etc. In return, I managed to save INR ~4L worth of repair headache.

Now my work relies very heavily on these machines. I also have to travel a lot. Both of these may not be the case for OP. Having availed Apple's services in 7 countries across 4 continents, I now include AC as the cost of ownership of such expensive products. I'm attaching relevant documents, for each of the above cases.

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How did apple care+ help you? The only thing that you got out of it was a replacement of battery for the M1 Mac (which would most likely not even necessary. You would still be getting 8-9 hours of backup even with 80% battery health). Everything else would have been covered by the replacement plan for a faulty design of keyboard from Apple. Even for a heavy world traveler like you, nothing catastrophic happened to your laptops which would require you to spend your own money, what to speak of couch potatoes like us. I think insurance is a waste of money, if you can afford the replacement cost of the device. The only place where I buy insurance is life and cars both of which cannot be easily replaced by me in cash.

desiibond said:

Assuming, OP is not the owner of that company, most office laptops do not allow connection to outside devices and even if allowed, activity is heavily monitored. These are things that gives them ticket to kick employees out without notice.

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Fair point. OP can repurpose a spare laptop or tablet to remote into the Mac Mini. They are not sure about travelling. Spending 2-3L on a laptop which have a higher failure rate, higher wear and tear might not make sense at this point of time. It can also easily get outdated down the line as their work requirements might scale up by the time they decide to travel.

If they are clear about regular travelling then the macbook is the clear winner. They can always sell back the M4 mini with a minimal depreciation (as Apple is not going to increase the minimum ram for next few years) and get a macbook when they need it.

codwapeace said:

How did apple care+ help you? The only thing that you got out of it was a replacement of battery for the M1 Mac (which would most likely not even necessary. You would still be getting 8-9 hours of backup even with 80% battery health). Everything else would have been covered by the replacement plan for a faulty design of keyboard from Apple. Even for a heavy world traveler like you, nothing catastrophic happened to your laptops which would require you to spend your own money, what to speak of couch potatoes like us. I think insurance is a waste of money, if you can afford the replacement cost of the device. The only place where I buy insurance is life and cars both of which cannot be easily replaced by me in cash.

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The new MacBook was issued under AC plan. They would never do it due to the keyboard Issues alone, since it can be repaired. If they would, they’d have to replace 100 million Macbooks, and there wouldn’t be a lawsuit. Secondly, the battery replacement cost alone is equal to 2yrs of AppleCare. If you can stack up 600cycles, it’s definitely worth it.

However, I partly agree that we buy insurance for things which we can’t afford to simply replace with cash. For me, the MacBook crosses the limit. But iPhones and watches don’t, hence I never got AC for them. OP has to draw that line.

princeoo7 said:

3L plus

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Nah,it is about 2.8L. This would be better than paying 2.8L for M4 MBP with 48GB of memory (unless you are sure that you will need 48GB of memory for your productivity). Is there an Apple Store nearby? Once they have display units of nano texture display MBP, give it a try once.

princeoo7 said:

yes this is what I am more of a point on my end. now I was also looking into making mac mini connect with my 13inch ipad pro for using it as a display. I think its not natively supported but a app does the trick after setup. not a proper solution but you do get portability to an extend

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Sidecar works only once you have booted and you extend display to iPad iirc. Luna adapter will help you to use iPad as primary display. If you are thinking of doing this jugaad for on-the-go, it's better to go with M4 air when it is out. Air has very very good resale value and you will get buyers faster if you decide to go with bigger beast in the future compared to Mac minis. If you decide to buy the Mini, do not go with 256GB. Get 512GB at least.

desiibond said:

. If you decide to buy the Mini, do not go with 256GB. Get 512GB at least.

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256gb works fine for me. Just having external ssd should be enough imo.
Why spend 20k extra for something can easily be done for 5-6k plus you get 1tb.

solo_wing said:

256gb works fine for me. Just having external ssd should be enough imo.
Why spend 20k extra for something can easily be done for 5-6k plus you get 1tb.

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When used for productivity, 256GB is just not enough and we have to keep too much data into external SSD and whatever you do, it does not match the performance of onboard storage. Moreover, mine has 1TB and see that arrow. OS and System data itself is at 100GB. Moreover, we all know how reliable external drives are. I would not use them for storing apps and data and then out of fear, keep taking regular backups of the SSD itself. Mine is more than a year old and till date, I never thought of cleanup. When I had 128GB Mac mini back in 2015, I had to cleanup so much that I got fed up and replaced it with 512GB SSD. With M series, you cannot replace onboard storage so get the most you can get (memory and storage) that covers the need for next 3-5 years.

princeoo7 said:

why is photos like 174+ gb

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I took one with 1TB storage onboard so I keep most important albums in local storage. We open photos and videos very frequently, like every week, be it for school projects or just seeing kids photos or making collages for some occassions.

Moreover, there are events in kids school for which I record videos. Only once they are more than a month old, I remove local copy. Given that there is so much of onboard storage, I tend to be lazy. This "don't have to clean up often" state is peaceful. I have a 2TB external HDD that I use for Time Machine backups. Till date, I did not rely on external drive to pull data. It is either local copy or I pull from OneDrive where I have 1TB storage.

This is the peace of mind I have as I did not go with 256GB storage. No juggling, no cleaning up and I get best of storage speeds. When I purchased this one, I got 40k discount (M2 Pro MBP, 12 core CPU, 19 core GPU, 16GB memory, 1TB storage) and paid 2.1L for this.

Coming to resale value, the moment Apple ups base storage to 512GB, value of 256GB models will tank and they will be least preferred.

desiibond said:

Moreover, there are events in kids school for which I record videos. Only once they are more than a month old, I remove local copy. Given that there is so much of onboard storage, I tend to be lazy. This "don't have to clean up often" state is peaceful. I have a 2TB external HDD that I use for Time Machine backups. Till date, I did not rely on external drive to pull data. It is either local copy or I pull from OneDrive where I have 1TB storage.

This is the peace of mind I have as I did not go with 256GB storage. No juggling, no cleaning up and I get best of storage speeds. When I purchased this one, I got 40k discount (M2 Pro MBP, 12 core CPU, 19 core GPU, 16GB memory, 1TB storage) and paid 2.1L for this.

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Yes there is good peace of mind with getting extra storage but with little bit of work you also save atleast 13k (nfor mac mini) without loosing much benefit.

It's about saving money and dealing with bit of extra work . If one is okay with that.

desiibond said:

Coming to resale value, the moment Apple ups base storage to 512GB, value of 256GB models will tank and they will be least preferred.

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Storage will not hit the resale value as much as RAM does. As storage is still manageable in various ways.
There are clouds , there is good internet speed to download and upload easily these days.

But RAM can hit your resale value so hard that you will feel almost like throwing away.

solo_wing said:

But RAM can hit your resale value so hard that you will feel almost like throwing away.

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So, will you do 30K shipped with full shipping responsibility instead of throwing away your mini? I will take it for my secondary desktop.

codwapeace said:

So, will you do 30K shipped with full shipping responsibility instead of throwing away your mini? I will take it for my secondary desktop.

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Don't wish to go OT.
But a quick reply is -thanks but no.
I do think we should avoid dealing with each other. Nothing personal here ..just we won't meet each other's expectations as buyer and seller or vice versa and then it will unnecessary make the deal unpleasant for both side.

Hope you find what you looking for.

solo_wing said:

Storage will not hit the resale value as much as RAM does. As storage is still manageable in various ways.
There are clouds , there is good internet speed to download and upload easily these days.

But RAM can hit your resale value so hard that you will feel almost like throwing away.

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Will you buy Mac mini with 128GB storage now if you know that it cannot be upgraded? 256GB will be in same state. See the screenshot above where I shared OS and system data size. Apple went from 10-12GB for bare OS to 25GB for Sequoia. Apps are getting heavier. 256GB will become obsolete just like 128GB is stale now. There were few who argued here a month or two ago the 8GB memory is good. See how tables turned now.

For those who do not have the budget to get 512GB model, can understand the budget constraint. But if one has option to go for 512GB storage, better not skimp on that thinking external SSD is good enough and 'managing' storage is feasible. The worst thing is that this stupidity (soldered storage with no path to upgrade) is spreading to PC makers as well.

solo_wing said:

Yes there is good peace of mind with getting extra storage but with little bit of work you also save atleast 13k (nfor mac mini) without loosing much benefit.

It's about saving money and dealing with bit of extra work . If one is okay with that.

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I did this a lot with my Intel Mini that has 128GB storage (2014-2020). After a while, even to upgrade OS, I had to free space and clear apps. Upgraded to Samsung EVO SSD and the mini is still rocking at friend's place. I may get it back soon and will turn it into media server (plex).

desiibond said:

Will you buy Mac mini with 128GB storage now if you know that it cannot be upgraded? 256GB will be in same state. See the screenshot above where I shared OS and system data size. Apple went from 10-12GB for bare OS to 25GB for Sequoia. Apps are getting heavier. 256GB will become obsolete just like 128GB is stale now. There were few who argued here a month or two ago the 8GB memory is good. See how tables turned now.

For those who do not have the budget to get 512GB model, can understand the budget constraint. But if one has option to go for 512GB storage, better not skimp on that thinking external SSD is good enough and 'managing' storage is feasible. The worst thing is that this stupidity (soldered storage with no path to upgrade) is spreading to PC makers as well.

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I get your point.
Personally I would still go for 256gb if I can save 20k as I already have quite few external ssd as well. So I wont even have to invest on external ssd.

desi_gamer said:

In total I have spent INR ~40k in various currencies including AC, shipping costs etc. In return, I managed to save INR ~4L worth of repair headache.

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Thank you for sharing your experience. I just pre-booked my first ever MBP and opted for AC+, your experience is a great validation for that decision.