[LONG READ AHEAD]
I'm planning to buy a base M4 14-inch MBP with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, the only model I could buy with my budget, I can't go past $1700 (about ₱100,000 in my country, the Philippines—a developing country).
I'm about to graduate in college now with one more year remaining, and I'm planning to use this machine for at least 7+ years for professional use, with: [1] a lot of productivity, management, and leadership work (emails, documents, spreadsheets, project management, reading academic and legal texts, etc.); [2] creative work that's not that intensive (i.e. photo/video editing, graphic design, etc.); and [3] entertainment for recreation and downtime (usually just Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify).
I really don't do gaming, I only program and code casually based on my own personal interest, and I don't see myself doing graphics work in the future as intensive as say, 3D modeling or CGI VFX.
I also travel a lot and tend to always be on-the-go, so the 16-inch MBP just can't be an option in terms of portability, plus I also need as many ports as I could have without dongles (again, on-the-go lifestyle) as well as active cooling for sustained performance, so the 13 and 16-inch M3 MBA can't also be options.
I have never owned a Macbook before, and am still a Windows user until I get that base M4 14-inch MBP. I'm really certain that macOS can allow me to be the most productive I could be. Windows is just the worst for the type of work that I do, with those annoying updates hampering how I accomplish tasks.
My current laptop is an HP 15-inch laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU with Radeon Graphics; 8GB RAM; and 512GB storage—again, the laptop I could buy with my budget (just about $400) in 2022, when I was just in my second year of college.
Here's the question:
Since it seems that the base M4 14-inch Macbook Pro is the most viable option so far with my budget and usage, what limitations should I expect with this machine when I buy it?
I hope anyone could respond with as much insight, I could really use the help to be more informed with my decision. Any response is valid—even the ruthless ones.
I'm planning to buy a base M4 14-inch MBP with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, the only model I could buy with my budget, I can't go past $1700 (about ₱100,000 in my country, the Philippines—a developing country).
I'm about to graduate in college now with one more year remaining, and I'm planning to use this machine for at least 7+ years for professional use, with: [1] a lot of productivity, management, and leadership work (emails, documents, spreadsheets, project management, reading academic and legal texts, etc.); [2] creative work that's not that intensive (i.e. photo/video editing, graphic design, etc.); and [3] entertainment for recreation and downtime (usually just Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify).
I really don't do gaming, I only program and code casually based on my own personal interest, and I don't see myself doing graphics work in the future as intensive as say, 3D modeling or CGI VFX.
I also travel a lot and tend to always be on-the-go, so the 16-inch MBP just can't be an option in terms of portability, plus I also need as many ports as I could have without dongles (again, on-the-go lifestyle) as well as active cooling for sustained performance, so the 13 and 16-inch M3 MBA can't also be options.
I have never owned a Macbook before, and am still a Windows user until I get that base M4 14-inch MBP. I'm really certain that macOS can allow me to be the most productive I could be. Windows is just the worst for the type of work that I do, with those annoying updates hampering how I accomplish tasks.
My current laptop is an HP 15-inch laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU with Radeon Graphics; 8GB RAM; and 512GB storage—again, the laptop I could buy with my budget (just about $400) in 2022, when I was just in my second year of college.
Here's the question:
Since it seems that the base M4 14-inch Macbook Pro is the most viable option so far with my budget and usage, what limitations should I expect with this machine when I buy it?
I hope anyone could respond with as much insight, I could really use the help to be more informed with my decision. Any response is valid—even the ruthless ones.
