Apple Silicon (ARM based) Macs buyers and owners thread (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

I was momentarily considering a new mini, if it could use my iMac as display. Thankfully, crisis averted.

 

[Sam Posten]

Apple working on a 32-core processor for high-end Macs

Alongside processors meant for new iMacs and Mac Pros.

www.theverge.com

 

[Sam Posten]

Chooo chooooo.

Read both these articles.

M1 Macs: Truth and Truthiness

The M1 is up *here*, running fast and cool, and all the competing chips from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Samsung, and whoever else are down *there*, running hot or running slow, looking around for their recently stolen pants.

daringfireball.net

On the Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro

I've been loving computers and computing since I was five years old, and in the intervening 25 years, I've never been more excited about anything in computing as much as I was about the Apple Silicon M1 chip when it was announced on November 10th. The M1 promised to bring huge leaps in...

nadim.computer

And:

Apple Silicon M1: A Developer’s Perspective

The excitement around Apple’s new M1 chip is everywhere. I bought a MacBook Air 16 GB M1 to see how viable it is as a main development machine.

steipete.com

It runs as fast as that -IN EMULATION-.

=)

And again, these are the first CONSUMER macs with M1 class chips. My mind continuous asplodes thinking what the pro chips will look like, specs wise.

And they are all the same SoC. Will the iMac, Mac Pro and MacBook Pro all have the same SoC? Will there be different levels of RAM available? Will Apple just say 32/64 gigs should be good enough for ALL pros?

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah the more I read, the more I see those write-ups, the videos like the guy struggling with FCP to be the outlier, easily explained by problems with either the video codec, FCP, or Big Sur as opposed to attributable to the M1 hardware.

Once the 16" M-Class MBP comes out, it's all but a fait accompli that I will be ordering one (COVID-decimated finances would be the main stopping point).

I will say I hope they up their FaceTime camera game in the new 16" MBP. The $60 Logitech C920 that I ordered for my Wintel PC really puts both my MBP's camera to shame, which is sad because both machines cost $3K at the time of release (including the 2019 one). I don't need the goodness that's in the 12 Pro Max, but the camera is the one thing in a top-end laptop that's almost embarrassingly behind the times, surprising given how uniformly excellent their cameras are on their mobile devices.

 

[Carlo_M]

Also poor Moorhead. Not sure he was expecting the unwanted enema Gruber gave him in that article, but he certainly earned it.

 

[DaveF]

You don’t need as much RAM as you want to need:

16GB of RAM and 75 open apps…what could go wrong? – The Robservatory

robservatory.com

 

[Sam Posten]

Honestly articles like that shouldn’t legitimize or cater to the idea that having that many apps open is normal. It’s not. And reviewing tech based around that edge case is a huge disservice.

and soon enough the OS is going to treat all desktop apps the way iOS does where it’s only an illusion of apps being open anyway.

 

[Carlo_M]

I appreciate when reviewers can do a mea culpa. It actually makes me respect peoples' opinions more when they can admit any errors they may have initially made.

However they should have mentioned there's more of a difference between the Air and Pro is more than the presence/absence of a fan.

 

[Carlo_M]

So get this...I'm now super tempted to get a 13" MBP...as an iPad replacement (and concurrently may help to retire my 2015 MBP whose fan has started making an occasional clicking noise when it kicks up). I will still get a 16" MBP at some point down the line as my "power machine" with the larger screen.

Let me explain the iPad replacement part.

I've owned several iPads over the last 6-7 years. They've been fine devices, but I notice the iPad versions of apps I use most are...either equal to or better on the iPhone. And the iPad doesn't handle a few things well (like the mobile version of this forum, specifically the reply feature, which is why you can tell when I'm typing on my iPad/iPhone vs. PC because after two carriage returns the first letter isn't auto-capitalized).

Further, I've learned that unless it's a small screen like an iPhone, I greatly prefer a mouse/trackpad to my finger. An example is Destiny Item Manager, a browser-based app which I use to move weapons and armor around on the video game I play on XBox, the act of dragging and dropping is super frustrating on an iPad compared to just moving it with a mouse or trackpad.

So I think my 2018 iPad will be my last iPad and it's getting less and less use now that I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The irony is that the price for an iPad Pro in 2018 and an entry level 13" MBP is...not that far apart (especially since my academic discount knocks $100 off the MBP price).

I'm not going to rush into this decision. I have holiday shopping that's going to zap finances. But hopefully in early 2021 Apple will start hinting at when we can expect the 16" M-class MBPs. If it's by summer, I may just hold off and save up and buy one machine. But if it's fall or early 2022, I may decide to use my tax refund to buy a 13".

 

[Ted Todorov]

Ted,

Congrats on your purchase! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the M1 Air.

The M1 MacBook Air arrived yesterday, in the brief few hours of using it -- it is every bit as wonderful as I hoped it was -- unfortunately it will be primarily my wife's Mac good thing I tend to wake up earlier, so I'll get to play with it at least little every day.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Some excellent news just announced that should greatly help potential M1 owners like myself who have been concerned about this issue...

M1 Mac with ultrawide monitors – Apple will fix resolution issue - 9to5Mac

Apple has acknowledged problems experienced when using an M1 Mac with ultrawide or super-ultrawide external monitors. M1 Macs don't ...

9to5mac.com

 

[Sam Posten]

Lol I just texted that to you! You beat me to it

 

[Ted Todorov]

Nothing but additional positive words for the new MacBook Air — every software I’ve tried has been faster, better, problem free.
The only thing I really strongly prefer on my 2018 MacBook Pro: the touch pad, specifically for click and drag a bunch of already selected files. And the new “good riddance butterfly” keyboard doesn’t feel any better (FWIW, the Magic keyboard on my iPad Pro that I am typing this IS a “butterfly” keyboard, so while its very real reliability problem needed to be fixed, those people who hated it simply for being different from the scissor switch keyboard I don’t agree with.)

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Nothing but additional positive words for the new MacBook Air — every software I’ve tried has been faster, better, problem free.
The only thing I really strongly prefer on my 2018 MacBook Pro: the touch pad, specifically for click and drag a bunch of already selected files. And the new “good riddance butterfly” keyboard doesn’t feel any better (FWIW, the Magic keyboard on my iPad Pro that I am typing this IS a “butterfly” keyboard, so while its very real reliability problem needed to be fixed, those people who hated it simply for being different from the scissor switch keyboard I don’t agree with.)

Ted, congrats on your toy.

I have an Intel MBP and I must say, I am very envious of your purchase.

Glad to hear that the AIR lives up to the hype.

 

[JohnRice]

Sounds pretty cool. I can see an ARM Mini in my not so distant future. Guessing they will release an upgrade model next year.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Sounds pretty cool. I can see an ARM Mini in my not so distant future. Guessing they will release an upgrade model next year.

John,

That is my holdout right now. I don't want to buy the current Mini.

However, speculation is that it could be another 18 months until we see the Intel Mini refreshed.

Many I have talked to on Apple forums feel that Apple won't release a refresh too soon as it will piss people off who had to buy the limited spec version.

Of course, nobody can predict what Apple will do, but I tend to think we won't see a Mini upgrade until 2022. Again, my own personal opinion.

 

[JohnRice]

John,

That is my holdout right now. I don't want to buy the current Mini.

However, speculation is that it could be another 18 months until we see the Intel Mini refreshed.

Many I have talked to on Apple forums feel that Apple won't release a refresh too soon as it will piss people off who had to buy the limited spec version.

Of course, nobody can predict what Apple will do, but I tend to think we won't see a Mini upgrade until 2022. Again, my own personal opinion.

And if that's the case, that's fine. My i7 mini is still only two years old and I replaced all three minis at work in the last year, so I really don't need an update. Imagine if the upgrade Mini beats most current Mac Pros, which it seems like it should, aside from gaming level graphics that I don;t need.

I still might try a MacBook Air next year, just for kicks.

 

[JohnRice]

One thing that impresses me in the current ARM Mini is the single core speed. I use FileMaker Pro a lot at work, and it has to run some extensive scripts. For some reason, it only uses one core, so it's a LOT slower than it needs to be.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

And if that's the case, that's fine. My i7 mini is still only two years old and I replaced all three minis at work in the last year, so I really don't need an update. Imagine if the upgrade Mini beats most current Mac Pros, which it seems like it should, aside from gaming level graphics that I don;t need.

I still might try a MacBook Air next year, just for kicks.

I would expect the refreshed Mini will have the next generation M1 chip (MX1?) that is going into the upcoming 16" MBP.

I mean, if we are talking 18 months out, Apple is certainly not going to put an older chip in its newest Mini.

And, yeah, it would be pretty wild that the Mini would outperform most Pro machines.

I may also buy a Macbook Air next year but not until it's refreshed which is supposed to be late next year or early 2022.

The way I look at it now, as much as I want an M1 computer, we all know that the potential for twice as powerful machines are only a year or so away. I would rather sit and wait it out instead of rushing to get an entry-level product.

 

[Thomas Newton]

FWIW, the Magic keyboard on my iPad Pro that I am typing this IS a “butterfly” keyboard

According to Apple, the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro and iPad Air has keys that use "a scissor mechanism with 1 mm travel".

Apple – Magic Keyboard for iPad Air (4th generation) and iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation)