[Window Shopping] Best Mac for Big Sur and beyond?

[WanderingAries]

Note: I AM looking into the "unofficial" installation process on the below machine.

 

My current Mac for reference:  

 

Spoiler

 

For testing purposes as the performance isn't that great for CoX (not why I bought it):

 

 

Mods since purchase:

• HDD upgraded to:
  • Samsung SSD 860 EVO 512GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-76E250B/AM) (OS/App drive)
  • Partition Schema: Mojave, Catalina, Bootcamp / Win10.1909
• Optical Drive moved into external enclosure and replaced by:
  • Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive HDD – 2.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 5400 RPM 128MB Cache (Time Machine / Shared Data)

_{*Yes, I paid WAY too much, but got what I was aiming for at the time}

 

 

So I was doing research for work this week and came across some sad news. My test Mac has been left to pasture for the next OS. I knew it was going to happen sometime as I've had it since 2nd hand purchase with Sierra on it. It handles Catalina with no perceivable issue and I can't tell too many differences between it and Mojave besides how it handles the Tequila installations and some odd issue with Webroot not ignoring drives that are on the blacklist.

 

That all in mind, my brain went to Window Shopping mode (thank god I'm mostly broke >.<) for a device that will take on Big Sur and beyond. At first I priced out a brand new 16" build on Apple and (after I forced myself to think realistically for needs) I ended up with a reasonably priced Mac (stop laughing). Now it's WAY more than I wanna pay and I know that there's likely an older model that will do what I want, but with ALL the issues the MBPs have had over the (recent) years, I'm scared to even consider one. I chose the above with help and managed a bit of a Unicorn when I bought it. IDC about the dead camera as it's been generally good to me with its limited use. So this is where we are in the purpose of the thread.

 

What new(er) model should I consider that has the most tolerable (repairable) issues should I end up with one that's not quite 100%? What will last me the longest based on known issues for a device that won't see a high level of usage? Will any of them be user repair/upgradeable? General thoughts, etc?

[RogerWilco]

What do you need and want to use it for?

Laptop, desktop, what applications, how much storage?

 

I am typing this on a 2018 Macbook Pro. In general I haven't been to pleased with the Apple hardware choices over the past 8 years, and this is certainly a machine with some drawbacks.

 

I might be able to give some advice if you give more details.

[WanderingAries]

@RogerWilco, I did manage to get the beta working on my 2012, then as a result of the partitioning I did, I broke bootcamp. Tried fixing that and now the Beta partition won't boot, so I get to fix that again. :p  Luckily though, it was a really simple install if you're not put off too much about the lack of wifi and I'm sure I can do it again, but I may wait until after someone patches the release version and try again. It's really more about testing the OS, screen captures, etc. I upgraded Parallels to 16 and can now run the OS within Catalina (with almost no vRAM for some reason). Beyond that and a pipe dream, I don't have much else purpose wise.

 

I certainly agree with the poor quality of hardware in most of the intel line, so maybe they'll do better with the Apple Silicon. All things considered, it'd likely be a couple Years before I could seriously consider even the MBA (I'd rather pro).