Apple

Hello Apple,

I am really torn between an Air and Pro. I am hoping you can look at my workload and make a recommendation. My main concern with the air is that it will throttle too much during use, but I really do not know if that is a problem.

The country I live in does not have returns, so it is a little stressful as I do not want to over spend, but I also do not want to get a computer that can't handle my workload.

I know the pro has a new processor, I can wait until the Air gets a new processor before buying it, so I am not concerned about that.

I'm considering the $1299 air or the $1500 pro. (The prices are a bit different in my country, but these are the models I am considering.)

Main Task

I will have Excel, Powerpoint, PDFs, Word, and software like Zoom all running at the same time. I may be in Zoom meetings with cameras on for up to 10 hours straight. (This is where I am concerned about throttling) I will also have a few other open programs like discord, telegram, and a web browser (probably firefox).

Secondary Task

I will be doing some video editing on it and recording with OBS the recordings would be up to an hour at the most and probably in 1080p for both the recording and editing. I will be using final cut as I used it in the past an am familiar with it. I'll do this about once a week.

Additional Irrelevant Info

This is mainly a work computer that will be used closed and connected to a monitor for most of the time working on it. I do need a laptop so I can work remotely often enough.

I will not be gaming on it or anything as I have a SteamDeck for that. I might run some AI stuff on it to play around, but if it works well enough I might run it for work. But, I can offload those tasks to the cloud so it is not a big deal to work on the Mac.

Anyway, thanks for your input. I am guessing the Air will be fine, I just don't want to get stuck with the wrong computer.

Relevant details that might make this a headache.

• Most my passwords are saved on the safari password manager and I use the “sign in with apple” on a bunch of websites
• My photo library is currently backed with an icloud subscription

For example, I have the app of Pandora playing music and Pandora is displayed on the watch. It shows what song is playing and who’s singing. I lower my wrist to continue doing the work I’m doing. Sometime in the next 15 minutes 20 minutes I’ll bring my wrist back up to look at the wash to see who is singing the current song And it has gone back to the time

I did not have this problem before I updated the watch last night. It would stay on Pandora or whatever screen I set the watch to.

I don’t mind the watch going to sleep to save battery power that’s fine. But when I bring my wrist up to look at my watch, it should still be at the display that is that I set.

How do I adjust this? How do I get it to stay on for example Pandora or Apple Music or whatever I want the screen to be at? Again to clarify, I’m not saying to keep it from going to sleep. I just want it when I bring my wrist up where the screen lights up. It is on the display that I have set it to.

I have two 1440p 170Hz monitors that I want to use with the new Mac Mini, but I'm a bit concerned whether they can reach their full potential. Apple's spec page says

Up to two displays: One display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI

Doing some math, it seems like it should be supported. 5K at 60Hz should be equivalent bandwidth wise as 1440p at 240Hz. They say that can be paired with an 8K display at 60Hz, and 1440p at 170Hz should be lower bandwidth than that. But I would like to hear from others who have first hand experience.

Another question I have is if it's possible to get a Thunderbolt 4 hub that has two HDMI 2.1 ports or DisplayPort 1.4 ports and use that. Based on some Amazon listing warnings, it seems that MacOS only lets you use one of those ports to extend your display, the other would be just for mirroring. Though this shouldn't be the end of the world since the the Mac Mini has HDMI 2.1, I would just need to get a thunderbolt to HDMI 2.1 cable for my second monitor.

I would also appreciate Thunderbolt to HDMI 2.1 cable recommendations that are known to work at high refresh rates. Some Amazon reviews report the cables maxing at at 4k 60Hz (and not mentioning anything about 1440p max Hz).