With the holiday season fast approaching, I thought it would be useful to put together a buying guide for the Apple Mac line up, since its undergone a few changes recently.

Last week we were all treated to most of the line up being upgraded to the new M4 chip, which everyone was eagerly awaiting, since the iPad Pro M4 launch back in April. Only the Mac Air has been left out and it looks like the Air will have to wait until next Spring. Apple secretly added in 16GB of RAM, to the whole Air line up, so it wasn’t left out entirely. The whole range was also treated to this upgrade in RAM, which is something we have all been asking for.

MacBook Air:

Lets get into this buying guide then, by starting with Apple’s entry level laptop, the Mac Air. The Air has undergone many changes throughout its lifespan, since its launch back in 2008. It has being subjected to many design changes, throughout the Intel era. Once Apple swapped over to the M series chips, this gave the Air a new lease of life. It was no longer considered under powered and was thinner than ever (due to Apple Silicones efficiency).

In its current form factor, the laptop is very well made and has a lovely screen, either in 13” or 15” both are the same resolution retina displays (2.5k). I have the 15” model and in my recent long term review, mentioned that I loved the screen and found it’s portability easy to use around the house and on the road. As I stated above, the Air has not been upgraded yet to the most recent chip (M4). This isn’t a reason not to buy it, as the upgrade to the M4 chip wont happen for sometime. It doesn’t feel underpowered at all with the current M3, but it wont be the best choice for content creators or full time professional video editors etc, due to thermal issues, because of its fan-less design.

Anyone looking for a well built, long lasting laptop to help them run a business or office work, will find the Air more than capable. You now have two choice in sizes and it comes as standard with 16GB of RAM to run Apple Intelligence smoothly. In terms of which model you should go for, I wouldn’t spend anymore than £1499 on the 15” model. This gets you 16GB of RAM and 512GB hard drive, which should be plenty for everyday use. You can even get away with the £1299 model, this just downgrades the storage to 256GB. For budget conscious buyers, Apple still offers the M2 model in 13” variant only and has also given this 16GB RAM upgrade, making it look excellent value at £999. The M2 chip is no slouch, so if you need a computer for school, this would be an excellent buy and also comes in the same color choice.

iMac:

Apple’s iconic mainstream desktop computer, is now more powerful than ever, with the new M4 chip. I picked one up last week to try out and use as my main computer in the house. So far I have been very impressed, with the amount of power now available in Apple’s all-in-one desktop. The prices start at £1299, which gets you into the base model, that has a cut down CPU and loses out on a number of ports on the back. I would not recommend this model, unless £1299 is your absolute max budget, as you wont get the full iMac experience and it won’t be as future proofed. Spending £200 more (£1499), is the model I would choose for most people. This has the full M4 chip and comes with a complete set of USB-C ports on the back for expansion. These are important as you can use them for plugging in extra monitors, hard drives, SD Card readers etc. Trust me, you can use them up really quickly, so if you choose the budget range model, having only two ports will become a pain.

You can pay more and choose the next one up for more storage space, but Apple charges a lot for the privilege (£1699). Be careful with the options list as well, if you decide to configure one as it can get very expensive. For example to add a 2TB of storage, Apple will charge you £600, which is nearly the price of a new laptop! I opted for 512GB and bought an external SSD for £120, with 2TB of storage. I haven’t noticed any performance issues as its a thunderbolt 4 SSD and I can use it to edit video off with no problems and I have saved myself £500!

A new option this year is Nano-Texture glass, which is becoming the norm across the Apple range. I personally didn’t go for this, as I don’t use the iMac in a bright room and if you do choose it, the screen looks slightly dimmer. I would check out one in the Apple shop before choosing it, as its an expensive option and changes the look of the screen, so I don’t think its for everyone. Only consider it if you have had issues in the past not being able to see the screen due to glare from windows. I have seen recently that sports teams are using iPads, with the nano-texture display as it enables them to see the screens in the bright stadiums. This gives you an idea of the sort of use, the option might be aimed at.

There are some very nice colours, which are the same as last years model essentially, but changed slightly, so they can say they have been changed! I personally think you should choose a colour, as this is what the original iMac was all about and I like to continue this heritage. I choose the light blue and everything that comes with the Mac is colour coded, even the power cable, which is a really nice touch and makes it feel a premium product.

So, for most people, I would choose the pre-built £1499 model and expand the storage with an external SSD if needed. With iCloud storage, 256GB should be fine for a lot of people as a general family PC. The FaceTime camera has also been upgraded, so makes for great quality family get togethers!

Mac Mini:

The Mac mini is fast becoming one of Apple’s best selling computers, because the redesigned model is so compact and really packs a punch in terms of raw power. I also ordered one last week and I could not believe how small the device was. I ordered the M4 Pro version, which packs in 24GB of RAM and it really is amazing how much power is inside this tiny device. As good as the M4 Pro version is, the standard model at £599 is the best value and the one for most people. If you already have a decent screen, keyboard and mouse, then for less than £600 you can upgrade your set up to the new M4 chip. I have been testing the iMac with the standard M4 chip in and I am literally amazed how powerful it is. I have rendered 4k 60 projects in Adobe Premier Pro and it hasn’t even broken a sweat. The M3 MacAir when I did this was considerably slower, with the same amount of RAM.

The M4 does seem to run reasonably warm when under load, as I found this in the Mac mini and also the iMac, which isn't a problem as the cooling system in the Mini is really quiet and rarely kicks in. I think before deciding on the iMac, have a look at the Mini in the Apple Store as it really deserves to be on your shopping list, for a powerful desktop computer. It also looks very neat on your desk, so don’t worry about it feeling cluttered as it looks great.

MacBook Pro:

Apple recently added the M4 to the MacBook Pro line up and also upgraded the RAM to 16GB, making the entry level Pro look better value than ever. The standard M4 MacPro, now starts at £1599 which gets you 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, which makes it look good value compared to the Mac Air. You get a slightly smaller screen at 14” but also a better screen (mini-led technology and higher refresh rate) and more ports, with an SD card reader. I think based on my testing of the standard M4 chip, this will be plenty of power for most people, even many content creators. It makes the Pro line up much more accessible for most people to, because you don’t have to spend the money upgrading the RAM straight away.

The 16” model, still starts at £2499 and comes with the M4 Pro chip and is an absolute beast in terms of size and performance. This is only worth looking at, if you don’t travel regularly as it weighs a lot and isn't very easy to carry around. This again demonstrates how good value the Mac mini is, because for £1399, you can get the same performance as the MacBook 16” pro, which costs £2499, which is £1000 more just for portability! I would get an iPad and the Mac mini as this gives you some portable options and the performance at home when you need it. I appreciate there will be people who need to take that level of performance on the road with them, such as content creators, so there is a market for it, but its more limited now.

I have recently also been testing out the MacBook Pro M4 Max, with 32GB RAM. I choose the 16” screen to test as I knew I would be using it for video editing. The amount of power in the laptop is crazy. I added 8k footage and rendered it, taking only 5-8 minutes where on the M4 Pro it was taking 12-15. The laptop did get slightly warm, whilst doing this but nothing more than the M4 Pro Mac Mini. The cost of the M4 Max laptops is quite prohibitive to most people as you are looking at nearly 4k, which is so much money to spend on a laptop. It also feels quite heavy after using the air for a year, so I do miss the lightness of Apples entry level laptop, which still has a special place in my setup! I think for most people the M4 entry level MacBook Pro 14” represents the best value for money, as it offers great performance at a good price and in a portable form factor. If you know you need the max chip and have the cash then go ahead, you won’t need to upgrade for years. It feels substantially faster than the M1 Max laptops, which I tried it out against. The entry level MacBook Pro also gets you all the same screen and ports, so this year it’s the one to go for!

Mac Studio

For those of you who haven’t seen the accompanying video guide on my YouTube channel, the Mac Studio I think has been left in a strange place after the arrival of the M4 Mac mini Pro. Testing by other reviewers shows that the M4 Pro chip, puts out a similar level of performance to the M2 Ultra chip, but for a lot less money. I appreciate the Studio always had a niche market of creatives who needed the power and upgradability to silly amounts of RAM, SSD space etc, that only the Studio offered. I think Apple saw it as a sort of Mini Mac Pro in a smaller form factor and it still does have a limited market, but I think for the average consumer it isn’t really suitable anymore. When it is finally upgraded to the M4 Ultra chip, then I think it will be one of the most powerful computers on the planet, but that wont be until next year. So for now, I wouldn’t look at the Studio unless you know you need it!

Mac Buying Guide Winter 2024

iPhone Buying Guide