Greer Loc: SOUTH GEORGIA

I run all Apple devices except my laptop, which is going to be a Christmas gift to my 93 year old mother. I want to seamlessly integrate my workflow by having all my devices running on the same operating system. I am learning Photoshop and need advice on which MacBook Pro to buy without mortgaging the house and that will be a smooth intergration to process my photos in Photoshop. I thank you in advance.

BebuLamar

Macbook Pro M1 Max Chip. Don't have to mortgage the house.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

MacBook Air M1 with 16GB memory and 1TB storage. I own that model and rave about it. It was $1400 in the Apple Refurbished Store online. Same as new, including same warranty.

Whatever you do, consider that 16GB and 1TB is reasonable for an Apple Silicon Mac.

I export 16MP raw files to JPEGs from Lightroom Classic in under one second each. I use Photoshop neural filters, which take seconds to process on this machine using the M1 16-core Neural Engine.

Keep the internal SSD less than half full and the system will run at top speed. MacOS uses virtual memory when needed, and that requires empty drive space. It’s super fast because the storage is stacked in a RAID 0 array.

The air is fanless and gets warm only when doing extended sessions of still or video file exports.

If you need more than this, you’re probably processing HUGE files or lengthy 4K videos on a regular basis.

John Matthews Loc: Wasilla, Alaska

I really like my M1 14 inch pro. It has a fair number of ports including an SD card slot. It is not as thin and light as an air but still very thin and extremely portable. The price was $1600 several months ago.

steveo52 Loc: Rhode Island and Ocala Florida

What Burkphoto said. I've got the MacBook Air 16 gig and 1 TB.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I was about to recommend almost the same thing - the base M.1 Air. I saw your picture and scrolled down. I have the same Air that you have, but I think his mother could get by just fine with the base model.

$649 - https://www.backmarket.com/en-us/p/macbook-air-2020-13-inch-m1-8-core-and-7-core-gpu-8gb-ram-ssd-256gb/01c45687-0465-4c8d-93cf-d52b35747910?shopping=gmc&gclid=Cj0KCQiAj4ecBhD3ARIsAM4Q_jHFbOT5uecq4nGx8je-KWARThYzUrm2RMfl9crovDBac2w1Tv6HhskaAnB5EALw_wcB#l=11

$799 - https://www.bestbuy.com/site/macbook-air-13-3-laptop-apple-m1-chip-8gb-memory-256gb-ssd-space-gray/5721600.p?skuId=5721600&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=460&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAj4ecBhD3ARIsAM4Q_jGugH3E_w5cXiCEZ5dxXXbFMhqbBPZ-2c_jdkw3NKyMJFhMpy_4wLMaAugZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

You're welcome. Where does Mother enter the process? All kinds of DIYs available on the new thing called the Internet. And when someone advises you to switch to Windows because seamlessness is easy, you may gently chortle. It ain't. (Colloquialism seems to fit here.)

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Do I detect reminiscence of Long John Baldry's song, "It ain't easy," there?

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

Probably not, since I have no idea who "Long John Baldry" is. Possibly "say it ain't so" regarding the Black Sox (I think).

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

"It Ain't Easy" is a song on his 1972 album of the same name. Long John Baldry was a British blues musician from the late 1950's and the 1960s who gave Elton John (Reggie Dwight) the 'John' part of his name. He had an incredible voice and wrote some really soulful songs. On the same album is a song called, "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll," with a rambling intro that is drop-dead hilarious. Baldry played on the same bills as the Beatles and Rolling Stones in the early '60s. He also gave Rod Stewart and Elton John their first breaks into the music business, as members of his band.