Tek Deals Store via eBay has
16" Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max Laptop (Refurbished, Silver, 2021, MK1F3LL/A) on sale for
$1388.99.
Shipping is free.
Thanks to community member
Dr.Wajahat for finding this deal.
Condition Note: "Signs of wear, if any are minimal and do not affect the normal use/functions of the item. Does not come in its original packaging."
Specs:
- 16" Liquid Retina XDR display (3456 x 2234)
- Apple M1 Max 10-Core 3.20GHz Processor
- 64GB Memory
- 1TB Solid State Drive
- Apple GPU w/ 24-Core Graphics
- WiFi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0
- Backlit Keyboard
- MacOS
- Includes Power Adapter
- Ports:
- 1x HDMI 2.0
- 3x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C
- 1x 3.5mm Headphone/Mic combo jack
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Top Comments
The M1 Max is far superior to the base M1, and in many ways, it's pretty much just as good (if not significantly better in some tests) than the M4 base chip.
Let me break it down:
- the M1 Max single core is slightly slower than the base M4, but it's so close, you'd be hard-pressed to see the difference in real life use.
- the M1 Max multi-core is just as good & better than the M4 (depending on the benchmark test being used). There are some benchmarks where the M4 performs modestly better on multi-core, but it's not easily perceptible under normal conditions. This is even more so when factoring in thermals (see next point below). If you have a real-life usage scenario that uses the M1 Max's extra video encoders, you will see a very sizable performance gain over the M4.
- This is probably the most important performance factor right here -- the M1 Max is inside a large 16" Macbook Pro chassis, which has active cooling (fans). This means it can sustain continued high-demand tasks near indefinitely. The M4 base is in a smaller/thinner non-cooled chassis (M4 Air 13" or 15", for example), which gets heat-soaked really quickly, leading to thermally throttling the performance. It happens REALLY fast with multi-core performance, but a little slower with single core. In short, M4 Airs will experience thermal throttling under heavy loads. So yes, the M4 might have "faster" specs on paper or in laboratory benchmark tests -- but in the real world, it doesn't have the stamina to maintain that top speed.
- This is a 16" Macbook Pro with enhanced screen, speakers, and microphone + a larger trackpad. The Pro screen is absolutely gorgeous, and the speakers are probably best-in-class for ANY laptop. A 13/15" M4 Air will be smaller, and they don't have those premium tier components. Don't get me wrong, the Air isn't a slouch -- it's some of the best ultraportable hardware to be had at the $850-1000 pricetag. But the MBP is in an entirely different quality class.
- Last but not least -- you're getting a 1tb drive and 64gb of ram. That's a massive upgrade to the base specs of the M4 Air -- which you can only max out to 32gb of ram. The extra ram will help performance in a variety of high-stress applications. What Apple charges for extra storage and ram in a new machine is almost criminal.
The closest machine to the specs of the deal above is the 15" M4 Air w/ 32gb ram + 1tb ssd, which will run you $2000.
Simply put, this is an excellent value at sub-$1400, and it will outperform any M4 Air. I'd suggest going with an M4 Air only if you are on a strict $1000 budget or absolutely need the weight + size reduction instead of performance.
1. Single core performance is ~50% faster on M4 vs M1 Max.
2. Multi core performance is generally similar to, albeit slightly higher on M4.
3. M1 Max has 2 media engines so video work that can take advantage of that will be faster.
4. MBA will thermal throttle under constant load but the impact is workload dependent.
5. MBP chassis is nicer but, especially in the 16" config, it's also much larger and heavier.
6. More storage and RAM is always nice, but 64GB is well past the point of diminishing returns for most people.
I'd also add a few things you didn't mention:
The M4 MBA has:
A. A 2-3x faster Neural Engine for many ML tasks (AI denoising, transcription, etc), and a GPU with support for mesh shading and ray tracing.
B. An actual warranty from Apple so you can get service anywhere without having to deal with being reimbursed, and you're also AppleCare+ eligible.
C. A longer software support window from Apple
D. Some newer tech like Wi-FI6E.
The M1 Max MBP has:
A much faster GPU; around 2x as fast as an actively cooled M4, and could be ~3x+ the sustained performance of a fan-less MBA (in games.)
64GB of RAM which is indeed very nice if you have a use for it.
I disagree. There are a lot of good reasons to choose a MBA at this price point. In fact I would argue that unless you know you can benefit from what the the extra RAM, GPU grunt, and screen size that the 16" M1 Max MBP offers, and are willing to tolerate the tradeoffs, you'd probably be better served by the MBA
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Everything looks good except the battery is maximum capacity 83% with 195 cycle, does it matter too much?
I'm thinking will use it probably within couple of years, my understanding i will run out batter faster, no other impact?
I do know the guy responsible for deploying the Mac laptops, so if I see him I can ask him if he has heard of anyone else having issues. Again, this was months ago so maybe people eventually figured their crap out, but I was a bit shocked that anyone had any issues as I thought the M4 was simply an upgrade over the M3, which didn't feel like something that would cause an issue to me.
I just know Kenny, the laptop deploy guy, mentioned to me at the coffee machine that he had a few people get the M4 and had issues, then asked if they could get an M3 instead. I distinctly remember joking to him that if he gets a ticket for me to get upgraded to the M4 to just ball it up and toss it, and also that that explained why my Teams was blowing up.
I also held out on refreshing from the 2019 i9 to the M3 Pro for the exact same reasons (incompatibility with tools), so when it comes to my work machine I am probably last to migrate anything. I was supposed to get the M1, then the M2 but kept telling them no. I only updated to the M3 Pro because my laptop had an actual hardware issue with the battery expanding and it was no longer on Apple Care so I didn't have a choice. I'd prefer the devil I know, so to speak.
Hope that satisfies your curiosity. Sorry if that's not enough details, but that's what I remember about the situation at the time.
- I am on an M3 Pro, so wasn't affecting me personally and at the time I has some agrgessive deliverables.
- I am usually one of the 5-or-so people in our medium sized org that helps support the scripts used to install the tools for new laptops. I was pissed because no one wants to help support these "quality of life" projects ever, so at the time I was intentionally ignoring all of it. But I couldn't help hear the dings in Teams, so I did catch some of it. I don't know what happened specifically, if anything was "fixed" or if they found a work-around.
- If memory serves, as I said to the other guy, I believe it was something with openssl not generating the certs for mTLS correctly for local service development, plus some crap with VS Code...maybe installing the plugins or whatever. Our Laptop Scripts are pretty intensive and take about an hour to run from start to finish, so it could have been anything from installing brew, or packages with brew, or setting up any of the 3+ IDEs people typically use, or configuring local certs, gitlab/github, etc etc.
I just know Kenny, the laptop deploy guy, mentioned to me at the coffee machine that he had a few people get the M4 and had issues, then asked if they could get an M3 instead. I distinctly remember joking to him that if he gets a ticket for me to get upgraded to the M4 to just ball it up and toss it, and also that that explained why my Teams was blowing up. I also held out on refreshing from the 2019 i9 to the M3 Pro for the exact same reasons (incompatibility with tools), so when it comes to my work machine I am probably last to migrate anything. I was supposed to get the M1, then the M2 but kept telling them no. I only updated to the M3 Pro because my laptop had an actual hardware issue with the battery expanding and it was no longer on Apple Care so I didn't have a choice. I'd prefer the devil I know, so to speak. Hope that satisfies your curiosity. Sorry if that's not enough details, but that's what I remember about the situation at the time.Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
If you're just doing office work like spreadsheets or written work, reading email, and surfing the web then you don't need this and you'll be sacrificing power and battery life when idle in class or a board meeting.
The M1 Max is far superior to the base M1, and in many ways, it's pretty much just as good (if not significantly better in some tests) than the M4 base chip.
Let me break it down:
- the M1 Max single core is slightly slower than the base M4, but it's so close, you'd be hard-pressed to see the difference in real life use.
- the M1 Max multi-core is just as good & better than the M4 (depending on the benchmark test being used). There are some benchmarks where the M4 performs modestly better on multi-core, but it's not easily perceptible under normal conditions. This is even more so when factoring in thermals (see next point below). If you have a real-life usage scenario that uses the M1 Max's extra video encoders, you will see a very sizable performance gain over the M4.
- This is probably the most important performance factor right here -- the M1 Max is inside a large 16" Macbook Pro chassis, which has active cooling (fans). This means it can sustain continued high-demand tasks near indefinitely. The M4 base is in a smaller/thinner non-cooled chassis (M4 Air 13" or 15", for example), which gets heat-soaked really quickly, leading to thermally throttling the performance. It happens REALLY fast with multi-core performance, but a little slower with single core. In short, M4 Airs will experience thermal throttling under heavy loads. So yes, the M4 might have "faster" specs on paper or in laboratory benchmark tests -- but in the real world, it doesn't have the stamina to maintain that top speed.
- This is a 16" Macbook Pro with enhanced screen, speakers, and microphone + a larger trackpad. The Pro screen is absolutely gorgeous, and the speakers are probably best-in-class for ANY laptop. A 13/15" M4 Air will be smaller, and they don't have those premium tier components. Don't get me wrong, the Air isn't a slouch -- it's some of the best ultraportable hardware to be had at the $850-1000 pricetag. But the MBP is in an entirely different quality class.
- Last but not least -- you're getting a 1tb drive and 64gb of ram. That's a massive upgrade to the base specs of the M4 Air -- which you can only max out to 32gb of ram. The extra ram will help performance in a variety of high-stress applications. What Apple charges for extra storage and ram in a new machine is almost criminal.
The closest machine to the specs of the deal above is the 15" M4 Air w/ 32gb ram + 1tb ssd, which will run you $2000.
Simply put, this is an excellent value at sub-$1400, and it will outperform any M4 Air. I'd suggest going with an M4 Air only if you are on a strict $1000 budget or absolutely need the weight + size reduction instead of performance.
Blant lying. Since what M1 max is only slightly slower than M4? It not only slows 50% than base M4 10core, but also is 20% slower on multi core. Crap
This is a deal because of the amount of RAM, the storage size, and it being a MBP.
The downsides are lower CPU performance and battery life.
The form factor is can be either a pro or con depending on your use case.
Here's info on the M series performance:
Comparing each of these max M series
https://medium.com/@kellyshephard.
Comparing each of these M4 series
https://medium.com/@kellyshephard.
Guy is a fan of old M1 max and anything can be ignored to be "insignificant" by their means
Everything looks good except the battery is maximum capacity 83% with 195 cycle, does it matter too much?
I'm thinking will use it probably within couple of years, my understanding i will run out batter faster, no other impact?
You can pay Apple to replace the battery when it's under 80%, back to brand new 100%
The lower percent the lower max capacity and thus less battery life
https://browser.geekben
It shows single core by default but hit the multi-core tab to see how much more power the pro and max chips have comparatively.
Seems this a good for large 4k editing
Its definitely not refurb if it 83% battery, more like cert used with 1 yr warranty. So worth $1200. Ask for $150-200 refund for false advertising if this a reputable seller
Comparing against M4 Air is laughable as fair comparison is M4 Pro or M4 with fan.
M4 Air is meant for small 15 minutes light projects. Competes against 258v and other ultraportables
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