The machine is eye-wateringly expensive and people on Twitter (where else?) are up in arms about it.

— Baby (@DanAtreides01) October 19, 2021 Honestly? It’s a reasonable concern. The most tricked-out version of the 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro will cost you $6,099, before tax — with the cheapest M1 Max build crossing the $3,000 mark. A huge sum, but with the new chips and high specs, there’s no doubt you’ll get a beast of a machine… but who really needs a machine that beastly? Being a staunch advocate of democracy, I’m going to let Twitter provide us with the answers. That, friends, is called working smart.

Work, work, work, work, work, work

While a lot of Twitter users echo the point we’ve made before that Apple’s new hardware won’t revolutionize how we use laptops — and that an 8TB SSD is ludicrously excessive — there’s plenty of people who are ready to defend it.

— Sanjiv Sathiah (@t3mporarybl1p) November 3, 2021 So this dude’s brother got the maxed-out version — without any hesitation. I think we can safely say all professional composers need this. And the same goes for any people doing intense video work (although most don’t specify if they actually went for a full 8TB SSD).

— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) November 3, 2021

14″ M1 Max w/ 24-core 32GB RAM 2TB SSD Damn it’s so quick. Rendering videos like nothing and still using the laptop whilst it renders. Doesn’t sound like a jet engine. The screen makes all other screens look crap. It’s crazy good. pic.twitter.com/vFs1RkCA11 — Oliur (@UltraLinx) November 2, 2021 Photographers are also deeply impressed, especially those averse to electrical sockets.

— Austin Mann (@austinmann) October 27, 2021 From what I can tell, the M1 Max is for professionals who can justify it to themselves (and have the means) to ‘invest’ in an overpowered tool. However, it also works great as a recruitment tool for ethically bankrupt corporations.

— Mahyar McDonald (@mahyarm8) November 2, 2021

Sweet, sweet indulgence

The M1 Max doesn’t have to be just for work though, it can even be used for… gaming.

— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyQ) November 3, 2021 I know mentioning Apple hardware and gaming in a non-derogatory context is blasphemous, but hey, just look at that comparison. To be fair, the PC performance in that screenshot might be slightly affected due to recently updating to Windows 11, but still, look at those numbers! And this isn’t an isolated case.

Installing some great games now :) pic.twitter.com/0eAUak3wK9 — Daniel (@ZONEofTECH) October 29, 2021 In the end though, no matter what the good netizens of Twitter claim, I think the honest answer to the question ‘who needs the maxed-out M1 Max MacBook Pro?’ is… nobody, but boy would it be sweet to get it. So if you’ve got a lot of spare cash and the burning desire for a gorgeous piece of tech, just treat yo’self.

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) November 3, 2021