I've had a 14" M1 MacBook Pro for over 4 years now, and it's served me well since then. Apart from storage limitations (500 GB), I haven't felt held back by this machine at any point.

However, I can't say I haven't been temped by shiny new things. Every time there's been a new generation of M chip released I wonder what the increase in performance would feel like.

But performance on it's own is unlikely to convince me to upgrade. I usually need three things:

• Some level of base performance. It can't be substantially worse in any area.
• It needs at least one objective improvement. This may be a performance boost.
• Something interesting. A new colour, chassis, display...

itsThe MacBook Neo certainly fits the last point. It's an interesting device, I like the size, the colours, and that it's super cheap and can be used like a travel laptop. But there's no objective reason for this to be an upgrade. It can just stay as an interesting device.

The MacBook Air is also intriguing. I like the 15" model, as I'd get a slightly bigger screen size, and a thinner chassis. Even if it's fan-less, and not a Pro version of an M chip, I think a base M4 chip would perform better than an M1 Pro, so there's an objective improvement. For something interesting,I like the darker grey colour, and I would really like a thinner laptop. But the screen would be a downgrade, so it doesn't meet the first point.

Once I was at this point, I thought I'd check the MacBook Pro. It's the same model, so it definitely meets the base expectations compared to my current laptop. It's the newer model, so objectively every component is better, especially the chip. But it's the same chassis, same colour, same weight... There's nothing particularly interesting about this laptop.

So without anything breaking, or my use case changing, I don't think there's a suitable upgrade available for me. After 4 years.

If I was being negative, I'd say the Neo was rubbish, the Air has a poor display, and the Pro is boring.

But I think the reality is that the base model 14" MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip is simply an incredible device. I wonder if after another 4 years, people will still be happily using M1 chips. I suspect so.