Should I buy a new MacBook now? Probably not: 2020 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air In Limbo

I have rejected my plans to buy a 13-inch MacBook Pro 2020, should I?

tl; dr: If you tend to hold onto a MacBook for a long time (over 3 years), you should wait for Apple to phase out Intel processors and switch to its own A-Series chips.

That is because:

(one) New Macs are likely to be more efficient * than Intel Macs. (Think: long-lasting battery like an iPad).

(two) As a corollary to the above, the new MacBooks could be a completely new version of mobility and connectivity for Apple laptops.

(3) Eventually, you’ll have some app compatibility issues with an Intel-based MacBook, though Apple will try to make the transition as smooth and painless as possible through emulation and other means.

(4) Good luck trying to sell your discontinued “old legacy” 2020 Intel MacBook.

In a typical scenario (before Apple made the transition announcement), current Intel-based MacBooks would be viable for years.

For example, if you buy a high-end 13-inch MacBook Pro 2020 with a 10th-generation Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, that kind of power and feature set should last for several, if not many , years.

The problem now is (after the announcement), you are stuck on a platform destined for obsolescence.

Of course, for some, as long as their favorite / essential apps are still running, they don’t care.

For me, I always heard that clock ticking in my head. Check, check, check … your hardware is dying slowly but surely.

And any issues you had (overheating, crashes, software issues) would always be attributed, rightly or wrongly, to the outdated Intel-based platform.

Summary:

I would suggest erring as a precaution and at least wait until Apple announces its first new Apple-powered MacBook. This could happen later this year or early next year.

——

NOTES

* Although this remains largely unknown, a new Apple chip-based MacBook could be as fast or faster than an Intel-based MacBook. One possibility is that the Apple processor in a new MacBook is more powerful than the processor in the iPad Pro 2020.