My colleague Michael Burkhardt posed an interesting question earlier in the week: if you had to start again with your Apple kit, what would you buy?
There’s already one Apple product category I no longer use, and a second one I use only on a technicality …
I no longer wear an Apple Watch
Despite not initially seeing the appeal, I did end up wearing one for nine years. A couple of random events ended up changing that, and I now instead rely on a smart ring.
I’m totally sold on a much smaller device which only needs to be charged a couple of times a week (up from once a week when the battery was new) and which gives me the freedom to wear any watch I like.
I only use an iPad on a technicality
I own two iPads, a 2018 12.9-inch one with Magic Keyboard and an iPad mini.
The former now sees no use at all. The only reason I haven’t sold it is that it is worth very little, so I’m reserving it for a future smart home panel project.
I do still use the iPad Mini, but only as a dedicated e-book reader for Libby. That’s because in the UK you can’t download library books to a Kindle. I therefore use the iPad mini for that, and my Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition for everything else.
I don’t use AirPods
I don’t own any AirPods. My daily drivers (sorry!) are the Master & Dynamic MW09 in-ear headphones, and I also have a couple of pairs of over-ear headphones I use at home (the M&D MH40 and B&W PX7).
I’d replace most of my HomePods
Although I prefer the audio quality of third-party headphones, I have been extremely impressed by my original HomePods. So much so that I own six of them: stereo pairs in the living room and on my desk, and one each in my bedroom and bathroom.
Admittedly, having two full-sized HomePods on a desk is massive overkill. That’s mostly a historical throwback to when my office doubled as an entertainment room also. The bathroom one is also way more sound than required, and that’s because it was relocated from another room. If I were starting again, I’d have a HomePod mini in there.
My current MacBooks
I currently own two MacBooks.
My 2021 M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro with a 4TB drive is my primary machine, and for work and video editing it’s hooked up to a 49-inch monitor on my desk.
In truth, I’ve mostly bought MacBook Pro models for two reasons, neither of which is about the performance. First, I like the largest possible screen when I am using it away from home, especially when working from a hotel room or Airbnb apartment. Historically that has forced a MacBook Pro purchase.
Second, I have liked to have as much onboard storage as possible. That is again another area where Apple has historically forced you to buy the MacBook Pro over the MacBook Air, which even today maxes out at 2TB versus an 8TB maximum (I have 4TB).
Additionally, I own an M1 13-inch MacBook Air, which serves as my mobile machine for those times when I’m not going to be using it for work and don’t need the screen size of the MacBook Pro. This replaced the iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard combo I used previously.
Two things have changed
For a very long time, I used to say that senior Apple execs obviously lived in a Silicon Valley bubble, with high-speed mobile coverage available everywhere they went, as they seemed to imagine that cloud storage was viable for everything. Meantime, for the rest of us, it was very much not.
For a desktop Mac, that’s not so much of an issue as you can obviously plug in whatever external storage you need. But for a MacBook which does actually travel, then external storage is less convenient.
However, I’d say that my world has, to a large degree, caught up with theirs now. A lot of my professional and personal work is done online, and while there are still definite gaps in mobile coverage, it’s not the major issue it used to be. For that reason, I could get away with less onboard storage.
For some time, I also wanted a decent chunk of onboard storage for managing one video project at a time. For example, the interview I’m currently working on sits at 1.5TB of storage. However, I soon learned the hard way how quickly storage requirements can add up when you have an A-cam, a B-cam and a selection of B-roll, all of it 4K. For that reason, I now edit on an external SSD.
Additionally, now that the 15-inch MacBook Air is available, then the screen size gap has largely been closed.
So I’d probably opt for the 15-inch MacBook Air
In principle, then, I could have a single MacBook instead of two: a 15-inch MacBook Air with 2TB of storage. That would probably give me 90% of what I need.
However, the 13-inch model does have a couple of portability benefits, one minor, the other more significant.
The minor benefit is weight: 2.7 pounds against 3.3 pounds. This isn’t vast, but can still add up if you are carrying other things in a backpack, like a full water bottle.
The more significant benefit is size. I found that my 13-inch MacBook Air fits more easily on an airline or train tray table than its larger 16-inch brother, especially if you also want to leave room for a drink or two. This isn’t a deal breaker, and for me it would seem too extravagant to own both a 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, even if it would represent a bit of a compromise.
So yeah, if I were starting again, I’m pretty sure this is the way I’d go.
How about you?
If you didn’t own any Apple devices and were starting from scratch, what would you buy and why? Which of your current devices would you be willing to give up? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Highlighted accessories