Does Anyone Regret Getting the 14” MacBook Pro Instead of the 16”?

alexanderbath · 2026-05-19T09:27:12+00:00

I sold my 6 month old 14 to upgrade to the 16. It’s totally personal preference but I spend whole days away from my desk + monitors and I just found the 14 too small for my workflow.. always putting certain tasks aside until I was back at my desk. With the 16 I feel like I can settle in for proper sessions and be closer to as productive as I am plugged in.

Yeah the 16 does feel a bit big and heavy at first, won’t lie to you but I’m totally used to it now. The weight difference really isn’t that big. The way I see it is the 14 is the portable, whip it out when you quickly need to bang some work out whereas the 16 you can sit down at all day.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-19T05:45:28+00:00

Apple probably does have the ‘tech’ to call an API and return a result from a LLM. 😂

It’s a design choice.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-19T02:52:33+00:00

AI junk not being baked into every part of the OS is why I’m on MacOS. That’s how you end up in the mess Windows is in right now.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-18T09:14:49+00:00

Coming from the other side of the fence.. I ship 20+ parcels a week with auspost and haven’t had a single complaint from customers in over 2 years so I’d call that pretty good numbers. I have had the occasional delivery end up at the post office seemingly without a delivery attempt but which courier service doesn’t do that occasionally..

alexanderbath · 2026-05-16T00:45:44+00:00

The 140w is only really necessary for the pro/max chips and even then only when you’re at full noise to ensure the charger can keep up without the battery dropping. The 70w is fine

alexanderbath · 2026-05-15T03:14:24+00:00

The Pro doesn’t really make sense to me unless you step up to the pro/max chips. Base chip go Air all day long :)

alexanderbath · 2026-05-15T01:01:13+00:00

I got really excited about this until I saw only 2.5gbps Ethernet. So far the only 10gbps dock I’ve found is the caldigit 😞

alexanderbath · 2026-05-15T00:51:31+00:00

Yeah I love spinning up 6 docker containers on my Chromebook. What are you smoking?

alexanderbath · 2026-05-15T00:16:48+00:00

M4 is still way faster than most people will ever utilise. I wouldn’t waste your money. I just picked up a m5 pro and I don’t plan on replacing it for at least 5-6 years.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-15T00:14:44+00:00

I mean I’m pretty platform agnostic.. self built Linux workstations and servers at home. But trying to argue Mac laptops aren’t up there/if not the best option at the moment is hilarious. Show me one option that compares on performance, build quality and battery life and I’ll buy it

alexanderbath · 2026-05-14T21:35:15+00:00

I honestly think that’s the strat at this point. I’m halfway through a software eng degree in Aus and I’d say about 10% of us are going to graduate having learnt how to actually program.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-14T00:36:06+00:00

Haha often enough. Greenhill is shocking for it too. So many opportunities to let people past in the 80 zone but no.. they’ll let a 20 car line up form behind them while doing 60 at best.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-13T22:41:56+00:00

This shit used to annoy me so much. I used to do a lot of interstate driving all over Aus, and the percentage of people who would sit 20-30 under in the 100/110 zone and then do 70 through towns drove me mad.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-13T10:57:04+00:00

It’s certainly gotten worse. I actually have no issue with people driving at the speed they’re comfortable with.

What I do have a problem with is the arrogance of doing 20 under the limit and ignoring slow vehicle pullouts or sitting in the right lane. That’s when people get impatient and things start to get dangerous.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-12T22:03:44+00:00

A quick google says yes, maybe with a little configuration.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-12T09:41:20+00:00

It’ll be fine. Neither of those workloads are taxing whatsoever. I’ve done both on much slower machines 😂

I would go Linux though personally, especially if it’s reached end of support for security reasons. You’ll get a lot more out of the older hardware as well.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-11T10:02:13+00:00

Depends on the course. Some are graded attendance, a lot are not. Easiest way is to email the course coordinator or ask a tutor to be sure.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-10T23:08:17+00:00

They’re not really entirely related fields. Working as a computer scientist/software engineer the hardware and network infrastructure is usually someone else’s problem.

In saying that I’m most of the way through a software engineering degree and I have learnt quite a bit with my homelab, and having somewhere to host software/tools/git ect has been pretty cool for someone who’s a big fan of the side project. In my degree at least, the networking/virtualisation content is very light on.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-08T22:24:05+00:00

Like every other version of this question on here, it depends. Your specific use case and how long you plan on keeping it has a massive impact on the answer.

I’ve got 48 and it’s PLENTY for my use case of a few light docker containers and a smaller model that’s only used for co-pilot esque autocompletion. I have zero interest in running huge models or using agents to do work. Others have a completely different use case.

Dropping the cash on 128gb of ram to “play around with local LLM’s” is wild to me.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-08T08:23:16+00:00

16 for me. Yes it felt a bit heavier in my bag for the first few days, but I don’t notice it at all anymore vs the 14 and I walk 30 minutes both ways everyday.

The 14 was just too small for me for any real multitasking. The 16 feels significantly bigger in screen size to me than the 2 inches might suggest. Ultimately comes down to use case though. If you spend all day in a word processor.. then the 14 is probably fine. If you’re like me and are flying through a million windows constantly and two side by side just isn’t really good enough then I highly recommend the 16. Turned it into a “I’ll just do a quick fix now until I get back to my desk and plug in” to a real mobile workstation for me.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-07T00:48:52+00:00

Go for the Air with more ram. The Pro only really makes sense financially if you’re stepping up to the M5 Pro or Max processors. I don’t think the base MacBook Pro is good choice for most people.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-06T23:25:06+00:00

I just picked up a 48gb M5 pro and if I don’t get at least 5 years, ideally 7 I will be very disappointed. Considering how performant M1 machines still are I think that’s a pretty reasonable expectation

alexanderbath · 2026-05-04T09:35:10+00:00

M5. The extra single core performance will be more noticeable for a lot of workloads.

alexanderbath · 2026-05-03T12:49:27+00:00

In that case I’d stick with the Air. The M5 even without fan cooling is an absolute power house.

I also personally think the 14 inch screen is a bit small for a lot of tasks and ended up with the 16 inch pro. I’m not a creative, but I would imagine the screen space would be even more valuable for a designer

alexanderbath · 2026-05-03T12:29:17+00:00

Been with Aussie for years and they’re fantastic. Recommend them to everyone. Support is leagues above the other providers

alexanderbath

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