Anyone using the base i9 model? Any feedback or regrets?
Base i9 user here. The only complaint I have is that the fans get very noisy and the surface around the touch bar area gets warm easily. This occurs whenever the dedicated graphics are in use. So plugging the 16" to a monitor will force enable the Radeon card, and drive the fans to around 2800rpm without any background application running. If you were to run Zoom with external monitor, that would bump the fan speed to 4400rpm. This is in contrast to the idle fan speed of 1800rpm. However, this does not mean that the 16" cannot perform intensive tasks. In fact, the i9 never throttled. It just remained warm at 74°C consistently. If you currently own a Dyson fan or hairdryer, the 16" MacBook Pro fans will sound no different. It's the exact same sound frequency, some like it, others don't.
The 6-Core i7 will probably be quiter and cooler. But I can't confirm this.
Besides this, I must say the 16" retina screen with thin bezels are nice. The speakers are undoubtedly the best in the market. The tweeters can produce higher highs than my Bose 2.1 speakers. And of course, the aluminium body.