I was unkind to my laptop. I’ve had a 2018 15 inch MacBook Pro for about 4 years, and I slung it around in a laptop bag like it was a sack of laundry. As a result, I damaged the screen. In it’s day, it was a powerhouse – a 6 core i7 with 16 GB RAM and a 512 SSD drive. But even before I messed up the screen, there were other issues. Two of the keys were iffy, which was common in that model. The battery, while fully functional, said “needs service.” And most importantly, it farted out when I tried to play my Cherry Audio Mercury 6 synth.
I didn’t choose BUDGET keyboardist dot com without a reason. I needed something that was inexpensive but could do more than my 2018 MacBook Pro. So I spent about $410 on Amazon on got a refurbished M1 Mac Mini with 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD.
Apple has pitched 8 GB of RAM on the M1 and being similar to 16 GB or RAM on the i7. The Internet is full of people who violently disagree. The Internet is wrong – my M1 Mac Mini with 8GB RAM can do everything my 16 GB i7 did, and more. Does this mean I can’t choke it with tons of high CPU synths? No, I can still choke it if I want to. But it’s fairly easy to work around those constraints. Just don’t use 5 Cherry Audio plugins at the same time.
Ahem. The issue then became this: I still needed a laptop. I use a laptop around the house and when I’m out and about. But I wanted to spend a minimal amount of money, and I wanted something with good battery life and an M1 processor. The answer was obvious: I went back on Amazon and picked up a refurbished M1 MacBook Air for $610. The same specs as my M1 Mac Mini: 8 BG RAM, 256 GB SSD.
I know, I know. For a few hundred dollars more I could have gotten an M2, or an M1 with more RAM or storage. The key phrase being “a few hundred more.” A better way to look at it is that this laptop can do everything I need, and it has a great battery (still), and it never gets hot on my lap, and it has a retina screen, and it was around $600.
Side note – I was working on some videos for the channel, but I flew on several planes and now I’ve got an extremely bad head cold, so it’ll be a while before I do any more videos.