The reason why it is better not to buy a 256GB MacBook

Life Hacker [Japanese version] Reprinted from the article published on June 8, 2020

In 2012, when Apple launched a MacBook Pro with the first Retina display, the smallest flash storage capacity was 256GB.

About 10 years later, in 2020, the introductory MacBook Pro storage remains 256GB unless you upgrade.

On the other hand, the capacity of the 2012 iPhone 5 was 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.The 2020 iPhone 11 capacity is 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB.

Why doesn't Apple increase the capacity of MacBook?And is the 256GB capacity enough?

This time, the next time you buy a MacBook, let's examine why it is better not to use 256GB capacity.

Storage price is unstable

In many cases, if you spread technology, you will think that the price will decrease.However, it is not always the case for parts such as memory or storage.

In the tech industry, shortage and rarity are one of the biggest factors in price rise.Consider that video cards were expensive between 2017 and 2018, when cryptocurrency mining is very popular.

The price of SSD storage has fallen overall in the last 10 years, but it has also risen prices.

After a sudden drop in the price in December 2016, some manufacturers rose high prices from the beginning of the following year.Increased prices are affected by changes in manufacturing technology, rising raw materials, demand for parts in other fields, and great disasters like Thailand floods in 2011.

Apple is also affected by the fluctuations of PC memory and SSD prices.However, Apple has much more negotiations with manufacturers than consumers and most retail stores.

This is the reason for increasing the storage of iPhones than (from 16GB or 32GB to 64GB) to increase the basic capacity of the MacBook storage (512GB or 1TB).

Apple's high -end products (such as iMac Pro) are now equipped with 1TB SSDs, but these models are very expensive.

The price of the iMac Pro is more than $ 5,000 (Japanese price 558,800 yen/tax), and no one is required unless you are a creative industry professional.

On the other hand, the $ 1299 13 -inch MacBook Pro (Japan Price ¥ 134,800/excluding tax) can be upgraded to 1TB SSD for $ 400 (Japanese price 40,000 yen).

Regardless of the cost, Apple should provide more laptops as the main product, not just 256GB.

Is it enough for 256GB?

If the main PC is a MacBook, you will have to save a photo or iTunes library.

All iPhone photos and videos are the storage location of those that are purchased and managed on iTunes.

You can save a MacOS library in another place to ensure the capacity, but it is inconvenient.You will have to rely on external driving and driving on local networks.

If you don't pay for the iCloud storage and have not backed up a mobile device in the cloud, it's better to regularly back up on a regular basis.

The backup is stored in the "~/library/Application support/mobile/backup/backup" folder on your computer.

Depending on the capacity of the device, the capacity of the backup data can be enormous.You can save it somewhere else or save it on an external drive.

While the MacBook is very reliable, there is also one side that it cannot be replaced with a PC because it lasts longer than expected.

If you don't have the money to upgrade your hardware, or if you don't know the meaning of replacing a completely used laptop, you'll regret choosing a small model.

If you use a cloud storage to sync files from other PCs, you may occupy the capacity a huge amount.

It is easy to access everything easily without changing what you sync, but you need free space for that.

Don't forget to open the capacity for the app.

If you are a web browser and the other half is a document creation app, it is not a problem.

However, if you are a photographer who is a subscription of Adobe Creative Cloud, you will want to install the required app for the amount of money.

Apps such as "PREMIER PRO CC" and "Lightroom" may occupy a few gigabytes.

Finally, you need a space for the current job.

It may be a place to put Lightroom libraries and edited video files.

If you are working in a high -bit rate video or a media that you need to read at high speed, it is highly likely that you must put source files on your PC SSD instead of an old external drive.

You should buy a large storage

Rather than upgrading at a later date, you should buy storage of storage with more than the required capacity.

You can exchange old model drives to increase storage capacity, but most MacBooks since 2016 cannot be upgraded themselves.

The latest MacBook Pro models use their own SSDs that cannot be obtained outside of Apple, except for Apple.

You can buy compatible SSDs in gray markets (illegal and legal markets), but they are likely to be cheap when you want to replace them.You also have to upgrade on your own.

Currently, you can only buy SSDs that are upgraded in the MacBook Pro model before 2015.If you are using a compatible model, it is a great cost -effective option, but there are also drawbacks.

If you upgrade on your own in this way, the warranty and AppleCare will be disabled.There are other methods (English sentences) to add storage to MacBook, but the latest model does not have an SD card reader.This was a popular way to add a storage capacity storage on a laptop computer.

Apple is pushing iCloud

MacOS Sierra has a function to automatically upload files to iCloud.

If the storage capacity is low, only the recently opened files will be saved, so you can access them locally.

It works only when the function of iCloud has plenty of room (English) and the function is enabled with "System Environment Setting> Apple ID> iCloud".

Similarly, iCloud's "photos" can save high -resolution MakeUseof, so you can secure low -resolution copy capacity locally.

If you register an Apple Music subscription, you can access about 30 million songs and listen to all devices in iCloud music library.However, you have to connect the data to stream.

For most people, the main reasons for purchasing iCloud storage are to secure backup capacity.

That way, there is no burden to save all backup data locally.Apple has not increased the free storage capacity from 5GB since the introduction of the service in 2011, but we recommend it to customers in the cloud.

However, even if the shortage can be compensated by iCloud, local storage capacity is required.

If the capacity of MacBook may be small

If you have a desktop or other main PC, you don't have to worry about the storage capacity of the MacBook.

If you do not save photos or data purchased in iTunes, productivity may be improved.

Works that burden the storage can rely on the main personal computer, but MacBook can save money with a smaller storage model.

Other than that, if you are wondering how much you need MacBook, consider how long you want to use until you buy a computer, and how much capacity you need.

512GB is enough if you plan to install a large -capacity app or save a large number of photos and videos libraries.

Conversely, if you have such a plan, you will need at least 1TB.

Otherwise, you will have to use an external drive, cloud, and network storage to open the MacBook capacity.

If the capacity of the personal computer is small and cannot be upgraded, check the way to open the Mac space (English).

Image: Akhmad Dody Firmansyah / Shutterstock.com

Image: Makeuseof

Original Article: Why You Shouldn't Buy a MacBook with ONLY 256GB Storage by Makeuseof