I'm likely to be moving on from my 2015 Macbook Pro in the near future so an M1 mac seems the way to go. I'm fairly sure the software I currently use all works OK but I'm interested to hear how folk are getting on with theirs. Most of the stuff I've read/seen about them has either been overwhelmingly positive or just some well-groomed men shouting about benchmarks.
I'm not after purchasing advice, more just tales of joy and woe from your computing experience please.
Very happy so far, MBP with M1 processor and I edit video and photos for work everyday. It’s fast, runs smooth and zero issues so far. Much quicker than my old I7 iMac
I just replaced my 2017 top spec Macbook Pro with a 14" M1 Pro and honestly it is blindingly good. Battery life is easily a whole day or longer or constant use, the speed of the thing is blindingly quick compared to my four year old machine, the keyboard is a delight (god I hated the old butterfly keys on the 2017 models), the function keys are back and the beyond stupid touch bar is gone and I've even got an SD card slot (damn and just when I stopped shooting digital and moved to film!) and, bless me, the mag safe.
I've been waiting for a good 18 months for the M1 Pro specs to come out and now they are here I'm super happy. I do a lot of image processing of film scans that come in around 400MB per image (these are medium format high res 16-bit TIFFS) and the speed with which my PP now works is just a delight.
M1 pro since Saturday, the only pain point so far is I used to be able to virtualise some networking kit, and now can’t. Otherwise all the standard work stuff still works just fine.
Went from a 2012 pro. It’s quite an upgrade though all I can really say so far performance wise is the old one was at its limits and the new one barely ticks over.
Also very well here. Fast and seems reliable so far.
M1 24" here. I do corporate video, and it glides through C500ii footage like butter
Another recommend.
Moved from a 2014 13' MBP to a M1 16Gb 13' MBP last year, zero complaints apart from the recent 14' MBP Pro envy.
Exactly what Jude said above. Replaced my 2017 pro with a 14” 10 core 32gb ram and its simp,y stunning.
The M1 Pro actually makes a MacBook very tempting even for someone that until now would never have contemplated one before.
Sorely tempted. Let's see what the Christmas bonus looks like from work 🙂
Moved from a 2011 13" MBP to a 13" M1 and it's great. Battery life unbelievable.
Very compact and light too.
My old one fried its SSD just after I bought the new one, so I whacked in the old HD and sold it on.
Good timing!
My old one fried its SSD just after I bought the new one, so I whacked in the old HD and sold it on.
That you can actually do that makes those older MBPs quite desirable. I have one from, I think, 2009 that I 'retromoded' for my eldest son to use. I stuck in 16gb of RAM, a 1TB SSD and installed the latest OSX (although that took quite some doing as the machine was so old I couldn't just download the OS from Apple and had to get some help hacking the kernel to get the machine to install from an external boot drive).
The machine works a dream now!
M1 Air astonishingly faster than a 2010 MBP ever was. Edit photos an videos with ease. Not compatible with Aperture but no worries. Don't use time machine, just copy files over manually. Makes for a good clear out anyway.
Agree re: migration assistant
Does not play well moving to apple silicon. Better to move files.
I used it thinking 'great this will be easy' - ended up having to do factory reset. It tries to port all of your applications as X86. Bad. Easy enough to just re download creative cloud etc myself again - only change computer every 5 years anyway
Thanks all, particularly for the heads up on migration assistant.
I guess the question will be do my family need food this year or should I get a 14" MBP?
Wasn’t the M1 MBP restricted to just one external monitor? Was that just MBP or any M1 machine? And has it been resolved now?
Ha, that's funny to hear about migration assistant. I used it in 2015 when I moved to my current MBP and it was bollocks then. Interesting to hear that it's still no good 6 years later!
the keyboard is a delight (god I hated the old butterfly keys on the 2017 models), the function keys are back and the beyond stupid touch bar is gone and I’ve even got an SD card slot (damn and just when I stopped shooting digital and moved to film!) and, bless me, the mag safe.
Btw if anyone else fancies spending 2 grand on a MacBook with a proper keyboard, function keys, an SD card slot and magsafe, I've got a lovely 2015 MBP you can have... 😉
2021 bottom of the range MBP. Only issue I've experienced is seemingly poorer wifi performance than my previous 2015 MBP. No idea why but side by side, the old one manages to connect and maintain stronger wifi signal.
And if the esc button stops working do a restart!
M1 14” 32GB + M1 Mac Mini for work. Both awesome. Finally time to upgrade for everyone running the old 2013-2015 vintage MBP.
Only downside is it’s a tad bulkier and looks a tad Dell’ish in comparison to the old models. Not getting any wifi issues with either. Performance, battery, keyboard all where they need to be to justify the upgrade for pro users IMO.
Latest parallels is now good for those that want latest Windows as you can’t dual boot. Only thing they won’t run is Age of Empires 4!
For home users buying themselves that don’t need portability it’s well worth seeking an official refurb M1 Mac Mini. Great value machine!
Were got the mid range iMac to replace a 2012 version. Straight off the shelf, what they had in stock.
I do miss the SD slot, but a Satechi port takes care of that. Bit wobbly though, it's designed for a MacBook.
Biggest issue is photos on an external HDD is a bit sluggish. Probably should get a Thunderbolt SSD.
Well.
I replaced my son’s hand-me-down 2014 15” i7 MBP with an M1Max 10/32 32GB 16”. Apparently works fine on Minecraft with everything turned up (including ‘shaders’) and The Sims with no fan noise yet. Seems OK for more serious pursuits too.
Replaced my 2017 15” i7 MBP with a 14” M1Pro 10/16 16GB. Noticeably faster at basic things and great with lightroom touch ups. Lightroom still gets my goat with its poor thumbnail scrolling but…
Instant on is nice. So far so good.
Ref the multiple monitors, I think with the M1 pro chips you can now connect 2x 4K screens @60Hz
I have recently got an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage. Replacing a 2016 i7 mackbook pro with a similar spec.
I pretty much use it solely for running Logic Pro and NI Maschine for music recording. So far so good, I have not really taxed it much yet, I need to install some of my other software synths on it to load up some of my projects that struggled on the old machine.
I am running two monitors on it one on HDMI and one from a USB C/Thundbolt port.
Happy so far.
Slightly different case to most on here, I was given a half decent windows laptop to use for work so I replaced my old personal MPB 15'' with an M1 Air almost a year ago. Its been fantastic, the battery lasts seemingly forever (although it's no longer used for anything too strenuous, web, light office work and some photo editing).
Anyone running xcode and/or any intellij IDEs - i know there were some issues when the M1 first came out. M1 specific support is in Beta on intellij but I think that's an optimized version and the normal one should be ok - that's what i think but be nice to hear some real-world experience. If OK now I might take the plunge.
I use a Mac but not near the M1. Nearer the M25.
I bought a MBA 16Gb 8/8 last Nov straight after the first official reviews came out. It's my daily driver and still astonishes me with how effortlessly it handles everything thrown at it; video prod in FCP, graphic design, 20-30 Safari tabs, Parallels, Office all running simultaneously.
Also, it's totally quiet, cool and the battery lasts forever, even when using SwitchResX to run my display at 2048x1280. It powers my 4k LG screen effortlessly - no lag whatsoever.
Before the recent refresh event, I thought I might consider upgrading to the newer M1, most likely a 32Gb Pro. But TBH, my M1 MBA does everything I need so there's no point throwing £2500+ at a machine that will only give me a slight real word performance advantage.
EDIT: like a lot of people, I found Chrome to be a battery hog when I ran it back in Dec/Jan. So I removed it and switched permanently to Safari. Not sure if that's been fixed yet. Google Sync (or whatever it's been rebranded as) can be a bit niggly too - you won't lose any files, but you might occasionally have to use Finder to open something instead of going via Recents.
I use a Mac but not near the M1. Nearer the M25.
Not near junction 21 then.
The big problem with the M1 Macbooks is that it's cold now and they don't warm your hands up like the old models did.
No other downsides. My work and personal laptops are both M1 (base MBA for personal, pimped up first gen MBP for work) so they're used pretty heavily.
Only issue I’ve experienced is seemingly poorer wifi performance than my previous 2015 MBP.
I've seen a few of these issues at work, if you're using big sur or above try turning off the private Mac address on the device this seems to cause performance issues.
I've had a M1 since last Christmas use it for Go pro editing and Logic and for that its been excellent. Only problem I had was with Chrome it was causing really bad memory leakage, I must have been one of the first to experience it at the time as there wasn't much on the web about it. It seems it a common issue across an a number of programs.
Anyone running InDesign with big files on an M1 yet?
Chrome and Xcode all good. Also nice to be able to run iPad Apps without the need for simulator. Had to AirPlay / connect iPad over zoom for 3rd party apps previously which was a nightmare.
If you are not doing any video, anything RAM intensive and are fine with a single external monitor the previous version M1 is a bargain as a refurb. 14” and the Mini will run multi monitor fine. To be fair so could my old Dell latitude from back in the day, used to live those laptop docks 😂
Not much more to add to this, other than that work issued me with an M1 Air about six months back and I love it. I’m no power-user, but it’s seriously quick for my needs compared to any Intel equipped model I’ve used and I can do almost a whole day’s work on battery alone. Nice that they got rid of the junk keyboards too.
For home users buying themselves that don’t need portability it’s well worth seeking an official refurb M1 Mac Mini. Great value machine!
Do you think that's a good alternative to the full 24" Mac?
I was waiting for John Lewis to get the Imac 24" 512mb machines back in stock and I have just had an email saying they are back :-0
But your comment on the mini has got be all of a dither now !!!
I suppose the full machine obviously has the mouse, keyboard and the great monitor, but its another £800 for that lot, which is a lot of dosh 🙁
aarrgghhh
Depends on your preferred setup.
For pure performance per £ the Mini wins.
If you are new to Apple ecosystem and don’t have a monitor, want your monitor on an arm or have any special requirements it may be better to go iMac for simplicity.
If you have a 4k/5k monitor or 2 on an arm/s and already have an Apple keyboard / trackpad then I’d take the Mini.
The iMac display will kill a budget Samsung 4K for everyday viewing pleasure if that is also a consideration.
The 24" display is stunning (as a photographer)
Think - literally - scaled up modern iPhone.
Made much more sense to me to get 24" than a mini + £1000+ monitor
My 2019 16" Intel MBP is great, apart from the fact that the fan goes nuts when I use Zoom or Teams with an external monitor plugged in. I think this was a (shameful) peculiarity of this particular model, but before I hand it on to a colleague and replace it with a 14" M1 pro MBP can I just check that they can cope with this combo without complaining? Because if not I'll get an M1 Air as it doesn't have a fan in the first place...
I run Teams and Zoom all day on my 14" MBP, usually with Firefox/Edge both open and Photoshop, attached to an LG 5k external display over TB3 and to a iPad over wifi. I haven't heard the fan yet...
They are blazingly quick, even in Lightroom, but I think I'd say the same with an Air: side by side it seems marginally, and I mean marginally, slower with the same load than the MBP...
To a poster above, yes I run large Indesign files on a M1 Mac Mini and it's very fast and stable. I waited until the Adobe compatibility thing had been resolved. And although it replaced an iMac I also had a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc so the Mini was better value. And also looks pretty cool.
@lorax I had the same issue with my 2012 MBP and a 4K monitor attached. Teams calls (especially video ones or worse video and presentation) would make the fan go wild.
Done a bunch on the new MBP with the same monitor attached and not a whisper yet. Running multiple other apps at the same time.
Thanks @corroded I'll be under renewed pressure from the colouring in table to upgrade them to m1's now
Oh man. I had a quick look at the 14" MBP in a shop the other day and the screen melted my face off. I guess at least when I'm looking up 'Rice and ketchup' recipes on my new laptop they'll look great.
