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Are there two fundamentally different kinds of the new M1-based MacBook Pro?

If one tries to buy a new M1-based MacBook Air, there are really two fundamentally different kinds. No matter how you change the customization options, one kind will always have only 7 GPU units while the other has 8 GPU units. (Those with only 7 GPU units are slightly less expensive.) That all makes sense.


If one tries to buy a new M1-based MacBook Pro, one is also given two different starting points. One starts out with 256 GB of storage, but it can be changed to have 512 GB. The other starts out at 512 GB and can be changed to greater quantities -- but not reduced to 256 GB. Since the prices of similar configurations seems similar, I would have guessed that there is no real difference and that a 256 GB model changed to be 512 GB is exactly the same thing as starting out with the 512 GB model.


However, there are two reasons to question whether they are fully the same. The first is the fact that they are treated as different on the web page. Why have two options when they are really the same thing? The other even stronger reason has to do with availability.


When I look at availability for pickup at Apple stores, the two are not similar at all. While the results change over time (e.g. as stores receive shipments or sell out inventory or fill up pickup times), at a given time I can see major differences in availability. Starting with the 256 GB model and upgrading to 512 GB, it may say that it is not available for pickup at all. But if I instead start with the 512 GB model, then it does show me stores in the region where pickup is possible.


That makes no sense -- unless there is some actual real difference between the two and a 256 GB model upgraded to 512 GB is still somehow different from an M1 MacBook Pro that starts out as 512 GB. Otherwise, how could it be that the same store one offer the latter for pickup but not a model that started out as 256 GB but was changed to be 512GB?


Yet I have not noticed any identifiable difference from these two ways of choosing a model with 512 GB.


Is this just bugginess in the Apple website that cannot recognize when a given model (e.g. 512 GB) is or isn't available for pickup at a store? Or is there some subtle real difference between picking 512 GB directly vs. starting with 256 GB and changing it to have 512 GB?


If there really is any physical or functional difference between the two, I would really like to know about that. Thanks for any clarification!

Posted on Nov 28, 2020 9:34 AM

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Posted on Nov 28, 2020 9:44 AM




Manderic wrote:


Is this just bugginess in the Apple website that cannot recognize when a given model (e.g. 512 GB) is or isn't available for pickup at a store? Or is there some subtle real difference between picking 512 GB directly vs. starting with 256 GB and changing it to have 512 GB?



On new releases there is a supply of stock units ready to ship locally— 24 hour delivery in the USA


One would be considered stock— and ready to ship


The other would be BTO (Built to Order) and would come off the line in China



You can order over the phone /get more insight—

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 28, 2020 9:44 AM in response to Manderic




Manderic wrote:


Is this just bugginess in the Apple website that cannot recognize when a given model (e.g. 512 GB) is or isn't available for pickup at a store? Or is there some subtle real difference between picking 512 GB directly vs. starting with 256 GB and changing it to have 512 GB?



On new releases there is a supply of stock units ready to ship locally— 24 hour delivery in the USA


One would be considered stock— and ready to ship


The other would be BTO (Built to Order) and would come off the line in China



You can order over the phone /get more insight—

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)


Nov 28, 2020 10:11 AM in response to Manderic

<< If there really is any physical or functional difference between the two, I would really like to know about that. Thanks for any clarification! >>


They are fundamentally the same. You should order the one that best meets your needs in every way.


In fact, they are likely even more the same than most users realize. When manufacturers build custom chips, they tend to build ONE Integrated Circuit assembly, and select-at-test for faster/slower more-capable/less-capable devices, which will get different part numbers screened on the top when they are packaged.


In this case, there is likely to be ONE M1 chip coming off the IC production line. That chip will be tested while still on the wafer for its capabilities, and customized for use in different devices. If one has a dust-spec in its 16 GB RAM array, Apple likely has a way of shutting off the bad half to make an 8GB part. If it has a dust spec in one GPU core, Apple likely has a way of disabling one GPU core. If it has additional defects or can not run at speed, it will be scrapped before it is packaged. IC yields are always FAR short of 100 percent good, fast parts.


Historically, the ways to customize have included using a laser to trim out certain critical connections to make a grand part into a petite part. It can also be done with slightly different connection signals to the finished, packaged part. For example, Intel used to sell much cheaper half-sized RAM chips which were marked A0-L, meaning that address line Zero was to be held low, to bypass the dead half of the array inside.


This improves yields substantially, but may mean Apple has to "hobble" perfectly good full-capability parts to make them act like the low-end parts. Later in the production process, yields often shift toward the "perfect" parts, so this may not be a wide-spread problem yet, but it may be eventually.

Nov 28, 2020 1:48 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks to Grant Bennet-Alder for taking the time to provide everyone with a better understanding of how the same chip (e.g. a full M1) may certified as having lower capacity (e.g. fewer GPU cores or less memory or less SSD storage), possibly in order to salvage a chip that has imperfections that make it less than fully functional.


That said, in my case this didn't solve my question, which is about why the Apple website is treating an M1 MacBook Pro that defaults to 512 GB storage as if it is different from an M1 MacBook Pro that defaults to 256 GB but has been customized to also have the same capacity of exactly 512 GB storage.


Nov 28, 2020 1:45 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks, leroydouglas. It would make sense that the two non-customize options we are given (plus all color variations) represent the mass produced "stock units" that are intended for the initial product release (as you described), and that anytime someone picks a "customize" option, then the website is treated all of those as "BTO (Built to Order)" as you say.


Even though technically some of these "customize" choices are effectively reproducing the other standard "stock" configuration, it would seem the website is just not smart enough to realize that. It seems it is taking a simplistic approach and just not recognizing when a "customization" is equivalent to asking for an existing "stock" model.


That seems to me to make sense as the reasonable explanation for the website's odd behavior.


Nov 28, 2020 6:13 PM in response to Manderic

<< Why have two options when they are really the same thing? >>


That is a largely question of Marketing and Psychology.


People like to have basic models that are simple to order, and not overwhelmingly complex. So the marketing department decides what is a basic model, predicting popularity and pricing those models expecting that many people will order a basic model with NO options. The basic models are what will be produced in large quantities to have in stock on opening day, and possibly more along the way to have as store stock.


Then if a buyer wants something else, they can add it as an option to an existing basic model. In many cases, that unit will be built to order on the Just-in-time manufacturing line, and shipped directly when completed.

Are there two fundamentally different kinds of the new M1-based MacBook Pro?

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