Apple Preorder

Should you preorder or buy the 24 inch M1 iMac?

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It is only less than an hour before preorders for the new 24 inch M1 iMac start. Have you decided if you are going to buy one?

First things first. Uninformed outlets (including the idiots whom MacWorld UK pay to write their trashy articles) think that Apple shrunk the 27 inch iMac to 24 inches and gave it a low end processor, making it a “down grade” in their eyes.

That is not the case.

The new 24 inch iMac is a replacement for the 21.5 inch iMac, which was always a low end computer filled with low end parts to meet a price point. If you are a current 27 inch iMac user (like myself) you should wait for now.

If you were already thinking of buying a desktop Mac and price is more important than more performance and the absolutely biggest screen size, then the 24 inch iMac is a no brainer (unless of course, you prefer to use your current monitor to save some money or you hate all-in-ones).

The 24 inch is an absolute steal. You get power that’s better than the majority of intel Macs being sold until today, all at a starting price that is only 50 USD more than the 12.9 inch M1 iPad Pro (which comes with no accessories).

Of course you should really buy at least the mid range model to enjoy the benefits of the new system, like the TouchID keyboard and the power adapter with built in Ethernet. But if you prefer to save some money the entry model is definitely as powerful as the other two models. You just will not have the choice of purple, yellow or orange colours if one of those is what you wanted to go for.

If you are a first time Mac desktop user and wonder if the iMac will last you long enough to make your investment worth it, here is an example – my first iMac is the 2007 model, and it is still being used today. Macs are built to last, and the massive performance overhead of all the M1 Macs ensure that you will have them at a usable performance level for probably way longer than the latest Intel Macs (or any x86 machine, for that matter).

The final question is, of course, what colour will you pick? (I pick purple, because while I cannot decide between blue and purple, purple is limited to online sales and only reserved for the higher grade models).

Are you going to buy the iPhone 12 mini or iPhone 12 Pro Max? [Poll]

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Four more days to the preorder of the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, likely the two most coveted phones of the iPhone 12 launch. Have you already purchased an iPhone 12/Pro? Or are you waiting to see how small the iPhone 12 mini is or the improvements of the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s cameras?

I will love to run a poll.

Screenshot! Opens new window to actual poll!Click on the screenshot above to open the poll page.

For the time being, with regards to the popularity of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro in Singapore, the 12 Pro is way more popular than the regular 12, according to street information. The 12 Pro is, after all, a lot more phone for just a little bit more money. The 12 Pro is out of stock everywhere, but you can still find the regular 12 in ample stock if you know where to look.

And right before the 12 mini and 12 Pro Max reach us on the 13th of November, Apple will hold its third event in three months, titled “One More Thing”, on the 10th of November (11th November Singapore Time). Apple is likely to announce their first Macs running on the new Apple Silicon.

Which iPhone 12 Should You Buy?

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Writing this after the 6.1 inches 12 and 12 Pro preorder day is over sounds counterproductive, but despite recent reports of Apple’s own predictions of which iPhone 12 will sell well, for the bulk of people who are likely to be early buyers, the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max are more likely to be the preferred models.

Coming from a Singaporean perspective, the easy answer here is to buy either the 128GB or the 256GB models of the 12 Pro Max, with the rational that since you are already spending upwards of 1.5K for most of the regular sized models, the Max at 1.8/1.9K is not that far off price wise, not to mention that the Max is spec-wise, the best iPhone 12 in the whole line-up with its improved camera sensor.

What about the regular 12 and 12 mini then? The mini’s price points this year is exactly the same as that of last year’s iPhone 11, and simply put, if you are unwilling to spend the kind of money needed to buy a Pro iPhone, the ambiguous prices for the regular 12 ($1369 for 128GB, $1539 for 256GB) and the kind of tradeoffs (no zoom lens, aluminum frame, less ram, no ProRAW) versus the Pro make the regular 12 the phone NOT to buy if you are looking for the best cost-performance ratio.

The mini, however, is quite a bit cheaper than the Pro Max for the same capacities (mini at $1219 for 128GB vs Max at $1799 for 128GB), has the highest PPI screen, and the added benefit of fitting the one hand use of people who refused to add a bunker ring to the back of their phone cases. With the allure of the MagSafe charger and accessories this year (making it hard to add a bunker ring if you want to use them), a small phone is very attractive. If you do not want to spend Pro Max money, and want to use your iPhone with MagSafe, and have no problem with the smaller screen, the mini is your iPhone 12 of choice.

Lastly, the regular Pro is really only for people who absolutely refused to buy the Max, for the price difference is only $150 but you get the better sensor, you get the longer range zoom lens, and you get a bigger display for what you will spend for lunch for three people in a stationary Airbus A380.

All prices in Singapore dollars