Back in June, Apple announced their intention to move away from Intel and transition to their own Apple Silicon chips in late 2020. In fact, there’s rumours that on October 27th they’ll reveal the new non-Intel MacBooks. But I won’t wait. This is why.

Wait… What’s Apple Silicon?

For many years, Apple has been using Intel microprocessors in their Macs. Apple Silicon are custom-design ARM chips that Apple will use for all their Macs in the future. These are similar to the A-series that we see in their iPhones and iPads but with an enormous amount of power.

Right… Why Is This Relevant?

If you own an Apple computer, then you should know that Apple is planning to finish the transition within 2 years. This takes us to approximately December 2022. This would be the deadline for Apple to upgrade all the existing lines with their own chips.

Oh… So, I Need To Sell Soon?

Here’s the thing. The fact that Apple will finish the transition in 2 years doesn’t mean that they won’t support your Mac after that. Surely there will still be OS updates for a while. At some point, they’ll certainly stop upgrading their OS but your computer won’t die.

However, developers already started working to adjust their existing software to ARM-based Macs. Let’s say you do a lot of video editing. If you use Final Cut Pro X, then that’s easy, it will work straight away in Apple Silicon as Apple is the developer. However, if you use Adobe Premiere Pro this might take a bit longer but will still work. The challenge is for those apps that are not widely used.

You’re Going In Circles…

Well, I’m trying to say that there’s reasons to wait for the new Apple Silicon chips and reasons not to. I decided not to wait but I’ll explain both.


Why To Buy The Last Intel Now?

  • Because you were already thinking of upgrading your old Mac and wanted something a bit more powerful, reliable and stable… or your Mac no longer works and you truly need one now!
  • Because you change your computer every 2-3 years and you know that Apple will support you during that period anyway.
  • Because you currently have some specific apps from not so well-known firms and are concerned about how fast they can adjust to Apple Silicon, so you don’t wany any risk but you still want something more modern.
  • Because you know that the MacBook Pro 13” was only released 111 days ago and the MacBook Air 158 days ago. So there’s a good chance that even if new Macs with the Apple Silicon chips are released later this year, they won’t be in line with your expectations in terms of specs.
  • Because you’re not an early adopter and want others to do the initial testing for Apple Silicon.
  • Because you might also use Windows via Boot Camp on your Mac and you know that it won’t be supported in the new Macs.


Why To Wait For Apple Silicon?

  • Because you care about the overall performance and Apple Silicon has very promising expectations.
  • Because you want a better battery life and thermal management compared to Intel.
  • Because you don’t upgrade your computer very often so you want to make sure if you spend money it can last long time. Ideally, 4 years or more.
  • Because you want finally a better design.
  • Because you are an early adopter and want to be the first on everything.
  • Because you want to run your iPhone and iPad apps on your new Mac!


Final Thoughts

This is a personal choice and there’s no right or wrong here.

I’ve decided to upgrade now because my old MacBook Air 13” was from Mid-2013. Yes, 7 years! Back in the days I bought a 1.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM and 500 GB storage. Not too bad to be honest but because I started to do more Photo and Video editing as well as using multiple apps at the same time, I realised that my old Mac was struggling too much and this was impacting my workflows and logically my productivity.

I’ve upgraded to the 2020 MacBook Pro 13” 2.3 GHZ Quad-Core (10th Generation) Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD storage. I also bought it with the objective of selling it in couple of years once I make sure that all the apps I need work fine in Apple Silicon as well as having a new design and Face ID on the way.

You might think why if I needed power, I didn’t go for the 2020 MacBook Pro 16”. Great question! Reasons below:

  • 284 days since last release. This means end of the cycle and will be updated soon.
  • I travel very often and 16” is huge, so 13” is the best option for me.


Hopefully this gives you some information to make your decision.