Just adding myself to the chorus suggesting you max the disk space as your budget allows.
My experience with MacBook Pros is that they’re exceptionally well made and last a long time. I’m typing on a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro (RMBP), which has traveled with me on countless business and family trips and is still going strong! My previous MacBooks also lasted a long time (though not this long). When I got this RMBP, I was sure I would never need more than 256 GB of SSD. I didn’t realize how long I’d be using it. A few years ago I replaced the original drive with a 1 TB Aura Pro from OWC (MacSales.com); it already has 600 GB of content on it (nearly all work-related).
As best as I can determine, the most recent 16" MacBook Pros (the 2021 MacBookPro18,1, MacBookPro18,2 models) do not allow you to upgrade the internal storage (continuing Apple’s obnoxious recent practice of reducing upgradeability). Combine this limitation with the likelihood that you’ll be using this MacBook for a long time, and to me that’s a compelling argument to get significantly more storage than you currently need.
Apple stopped supporting my RMBP as of macOS Catalina. I’ll most likely be replacing it within a year. Disk space will be a top priority when I do.
(Funny that we still call SSDs “disks,” even in the acronym!)
Like @BLUEFROG, I’ve had good luck with WD hard drives for many years (can’t vouch for their SSDs, though). Over the last ~20 yr, between work and home, I’ve probably bought a couple dozen WD drives. One had an issue on installation (in an external enclosure), and they replaced it immediately with a new drive that worked until I retired it.
I recommend paying attention to the warranty period of drives. That’s a statement about the manufacturer’s own sense of the reliability. Except perhaps for an occasional modest-sized drive with noncritical content, I don’t buy anything with a warranty shorter than 3 yr (drives in the WD Blue and Red series typically have a 3 yr warranty). For critical content, I look for a 5 yr warranty (e.g., the WD Black series). You pay a premium for that, but I’ve never had one of those long-warranty drives fail, even used as a backup drive for longer than the 5 yr warranty period. I tend to swap to a new drive not long after the warranty period; with a 3 yr or 5 yr drive, that’s probably around the time you are outgrowing the space anyway.
That is exactly why I have not bought AppleCare in the past. I think I got it only once. My mid-2015 computer has given me most trouble since I started using Macs which was around 2002 or 2003.
It turns out that with the somewhat swollen battery on the mid-2015 computer, the internal antennae is being pushed and so bluetooth functions in a really odd way: I can use the wireless keyboard but not the wireless mouse. Repair will cost around $600. Since 2015, I have had two issues with this machine: first a really swollen batter which I did not even realize was an issue and now swollen battery with a side effect. I did not pay for the change of the batter the first time (they did it for free), but all in all it would have cost me $1000 for repairs. I think it evens out if I pay for AppleCare or not.
I think so. Generally the laptop is propped on books where the keyboard is located; it hangs in the air where the battery is located. However, if I have to place the laptop on a flat surface, I could hear the fan working hard and the computer generally getting really hot, so may be that is what caused the issue. This happened about 2 years ago, so now I see the consequences.
My suggestion is to make sure you max out the RAM as much as you can afford, and prioritise that over the internal storage. But you seem to be spending a lot, so money is probably not much of a concern for you at the moment.
I have 16gb on my mac mini and desktop imac, so I am starting to see a slight lag on my 8gb M1 Macbook air. Funny to think that 8gb is now the minimum for decent performance.
As for storage disks, I use a Samsung T7 SSD - incredibly fast. You can copy something like 50gb over USB-C in a matter of seconds. I’m sure there are better drives out there, but for a casual user like me, its sufficient.
You might also like the Sandisk Extreme Pros - similar read write speed.
But I don’t work with videos. Perhaps your needs are a little different.
Some of the T7 drives have a thumbprint sensor security device which is an annoyance and a possible problem in any sneaker-net.
You don’t have to activate the thumb-drive security feature if you don’t need it. I have one of these T7s, but I don’t even use the thumb-security. I didn’t realise I didn’t need it when I bought the drive. A regular T7 without the thumb-security is sufficient.
This assumes the “you” is one person who knows what they’re doing and is the only one handling the drive.
For my purposes, I would rather there not be a way for anyone to lock the drive to a mysterious thumb. One less thing to go wrong.
oh money is definitely a consideration. I guess I was mentally on a spending spree for a moment. Good times! I will not be getting the extra monitor I want, but at this point it looks like the new computer (it finally arrived) does not recognize my Dell monitor. I tried at least three different cables without success. Onto the Mac forums.
Make sure you check the cable you are using. I spent a while trying to find the best Dell for my Mac mini.
But when I plugged it in, nothing showed up. Then I realised I was using a data-only USB-C, or something like that. There are cables that are charge-only, and there are cables that are charge + video.
This might be one of those “is it plugged in?” type of observations, but, it happens to the best of us sometimes.