16" MacBook Pro vs. 27" iMac

Bigger will get you better cooling and better thermals for processor-intensive work, and with a much bigger display.

Current iMac 27” is the outgoing Intel processor.

We don’t know what or when or if the iMac 27” be replaced. Or with what. Apple started the Apple silicon transition with the lower-end models and M1, then with the mid-range with M1 Pro and M1 Max, and what’s now left of the product line to transition to Apple silicon are the higher-end models.

Apple predicted a two-year transition from Intel to Apple silicon, starting back in 2020.

Look carefully at your actual use of portability, as a number of folks I’ve worked here with really wanted portability, and very rarely or never used it. Which is a bad trade-off. I’ve had a few go for iMac and iPad, and the aggregate cost was below the mid-upper MacBook Pro they were looking at.

Current iMac 27” Intel can have memory upgraded. We don’t know about future models.

No current M1, M1 Pro, or M1 Max model can have its in-built memory or built-in storage upgraded. What it ships with is what it has.

External connectivity is quite good on the most recent MacBook Pro and iMac 24” models, with Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4, and with USB 4.0.

Microsoft sells Office 2021, as well as Office 365 subscriptions. LibreOffice and alternatives are also available, and Apple iWork Pages, Numbers, and Keynote can read and write many Microsoft Office documents.

There is always just one question to ask, Do you need portability?" If you do then the answer is obvious. Both machines are very capable and one is not "better" than the other, they simply serve different needs.

Intel x86-64 is a common processor architecture and used for desktops, laptops, and servers.

x86-64 is the current version of what was the architectural foundation of Microsoft Windows.

In recent years, x86-64 performance tends to require lots of power, which means lots of heat, and lots of battery consumption. x86-64 is also not particularly customizable for specific hardware applications and software requirements, though Intel has recently announced plans to make that integration and customization easier for future customers.

Apple silicon is an Arm AArch64 architecture design, and that is the same architectural family as what is used in iPad, iPhone, and a huge number of other devices.

Apple has gotten M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max to be performance-competitive with comparable x86-64 processors, and that (unusually) also with much lower power consumption, longer battery life, and lower cooling requirements than with x86-64. With M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max, Apple has used what’s called a system-on-a-chip design, bringing the main processor cores, the statistical processors used to accelerate machine learning tasks, graphics processing, main storage, and memory all onto the same package. This is… dense. And it’s custom built to do what Apple wants and needs.

Per Apple: Family of Mac SoCs to Deliver Powerful New Features and Best-in-Class Performance

For over a decade, Apple’s world-class silicon design team has been building and refining Apple SoCs. The result is a scalable architecture custom designed for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch that leads the industry in unique features and performance per watt, and makes each of them best in class. Building upon this architecture, Apple is designing a family of SoCs for the Mac. This will give the Mac industry-leading performance per watt and higher performance GPUs — enabling app developers to write even more powerful pro apps and high-end games. And access to technologies such as the Neural Engine will make the Mac an amazing platform for developers to use machine learning. This will also create a common architecture across all Apple products, making it far easier for developers to write and optimize software for the entire Apple ecosystem.

ps: Biggest downside here for some few people that want or need it is no supported version of Microsoft Windows is available for purchase for Apple silicon, though there’s an unsupported beta around.

jojocino wrote:

Thank you. I am just wondering if it is worth it to wait to see if an updated 27" iMac comes out in a few months, or if I see a good deal on the current one if I should just get that instead. It will undoubtedly be a huge upgrade from my 10-year-old MacBook either way, but I hope whatever I replace it with can last many years like my MacBook has.

I can’t answer that one for you.

I do expect there to be a few years of transition to Apple silicon, but—if the previous 2005-era PPC to Intel architecture transition provides any guidance—app support for Intel processors will start to fade a few years after the product line transition completes.

The existing iMac 24” M1 model will be a sizable upgrade from what you have, too. (But go for 16 GB if you can at all swing that, and for as much storage as you can afford. The absolute bottom-end Mac model isn’t usually the best choice for longevity of use.)