New apple M1 chips - who's buying?
Discussion
TheJimi said:
Lee Jones Jnr said:
TheJimi said:
I honestly think it's worth upgrading from an Intel machine purely from a heat management perspective, even without considering the performance gains, and battery life.
If the current laptop meets his needs none of that is a gain?Yours may differ
I'd still say (have still said) upgrade, just to have a nicer bit of kit.
SteveKTMer said:
Blown2CV said:
SteveKTMer said:
Blown2CV said:
i have an intel air 2020 with the slightly faster CPU option and 16Gb of RAM. Tend to just use it for normal stuff but i do do photo editing from time to time. The natural replacement if I was to do that at 3 years old would be the M2 Air i guess... I am guessing that a) I would hardly notice any real world difference in performance but also that b) the residual value of my underclass intel will be very low!
If you've got the 1.1 GHz i3 or i5, then the M1 will rip the Intel a new one in every respect. My 2020 M1 Mac Mini I use for general editing of GoPro 4k from the bike and raw photo editing is much, much faster than my Dell XPS 13 i7 from 2018. The difference is like night and day. And the Dell was a quick laptop in 2018 and has a faster SSD than standard.Lee Jones Jnr said:
TheJimi said:
Lee Jones Jnr said:
TheJimi said:
I honestly think it's worth upgrading from an Intel machine purely from a heat management perspective, even without considering the performance gains, and battery life.
If the current laptop meets his needs none of that is a gain?Yours may differ
I'd still say (have still said) upgrade, just to have a nicer bit of kit.
Lee Jones Jnr said:
TheJimi said:
Lee Jones Jnr said:
TheJimi said:
I honestly think it's worth upgrading from an Intel machine purely from a heat management perspective, even without considering the performance gains, and battery life.
If the current laptop meets his needs none of that is a gain?Yours may differ
I'd still say (have still said) upgrade, just to have a nicer bit of kit.
Blown2CV said:
bit like with iPhone i guess. Very few people who upgrade actually need the upgrade in the true sense. You might go for it because you want to. I tend to upgrade phone every 2 years.
I find it vital to upgrade my iPhone every 2 years purely because of battery degradation. After 2 years I'm down to about 80% battery capacity/health, and getting to the point where the phone struggles to last a full day on a charge. At that point I either have to have the battery replaced or buy a new one, and naturally I take to opportunity to upgrade.I find the same happens with Laptops, just not as quickly. I probably get 3-4 years of good performance from a MacBook battery before I notice any reduction in battery life.
One thing that was interesting though, was that a month or so after I sold my 2019 13" Pro, the buyer complained to me that they got a warning message about a 'battery fault' and took it to Apple, who said the battery was completely knackered and needed changing at a cost of about £200, and the buyers was asking me if I would contribute, seen as how they had 'just bought it'. The joys of selling anything secondhand these days, everyone thinks they entitled to some kind of money back guarantee... I told them I wouldn't be giving them a penny.
Before I sold it, I actually checked the battery cycles and it said 185, which is obviously very low. Apple state the battery should be good for 1000 cycles and still have 80% capacity. Upon hearing about the duff battery on my now-sold MBP, I called Apple, pretended I still owned it, and asked them why it would have gone bad after only 185 cycles. They told me it was because I use it docked almost all the time, and the battery is designed to be cycled, not left plugged in.
(and no, it wasn't one of the models where they offered a free replacement battery due to some kind of factory fault)
Lee Jones Jnr said:
TheJimi said:
Having no heat & fan issues IS a gain, in my opinion. As I said, you disagree with that, and that's cool.
(we don't know if he has any heat or fan issues)For clarity, my point was in relation to Intel Airs in general, not just Blown2cv's.
Let's move on, shall we?
I've had the new M2 Mac Mini for 24 hours now, first impressions are rather underwhelming compared to using the older M1 Mac mini.
Both machines are base level (8GB/256GB) and the M2 is noticeably slower, I'm currently using Davinci Resolve and its taking a lot longer to transfer files over (over double the time) and ontop of that it's stuttering on the Resolve editing timeline with just having the browser and a few Microsoft office applications open which never happened with the M1.
Will be returning the M2 to Apple, not sure what they were thinking releasing such a substandard product.
Both machines are base level (8GB/256GB) and the M2 is noticeably slower, I'm currently using Davinci Resolve and its taking a lot longer to transfer files over (over double the time) and ontop of that it's stuttering on the Resolve editing timeline with just having the browser and a few Microsoft office applications open which never happened with the M1.
Will be returning the M2 to Apple, not sure what they were thinking releasing such a substandard product.
bobthemonkey said:
Craikeybaby said:
I think I read something about the 256GB MacMini using a single SSD, rather than 2x 128GB from the old one, which would have better performance...
Any system using the base config of memory is on,y single chip - reported speed drops across all of the new devices.
thebraketester said:
bobthemonkey said:
Craikeybaby said:
I think I read something about the 256GB MacMini using a single SSD, rather than 2x 128GB from the old one, which would have better performance...
Any system using the base config of memory is on,y single chip - reported speed drops across all of the new devices.
Despite my M1 Air being only 12 months old, I was half temped to upgrade to the M2 Air due to the complete redesign which looks rather snazzy, and of course has the nicer 13.6" screen, better camera, better speakers/mic etc, but to be honest, I don't really need any of that as everything works so well on the M1. It would just really be a vanity upgrade to get the newer design.
I expect they will have sorted the slower SSD issue in the next version.
Lord Marylebone said:
thebraketester said:
bobthemonkey said:
Craikeybaby said:
I think I read something about the 256GB MacMini using a single SSD, rather than 2x 128GB from the old one, which would have better performance...
Any system using the base config of memory is on,y single chip - reported speed drops across all of the new devices.
Despite my M1 Air being only 12 months old, I was half temped to upgrade to the M2 Air due to the complete redesign which looks rather snazzy, and of course has the nicer 13.6" screen, better camera, better speakers/mic etc...
TheJimi said:
Lord Marylebone said:
thebraketester said:
bobthemonkey said:
Craikeybaby said:
I think I read something about the 256GB MacMini using a single SSD, rather than 2x 128GB from the old one, which would have better performance...
Any system using the base config of memory is on,y single chip - reported speed drops across all of the new devices.
Despite my M1 Air being only 12 months old, I was half temped to upgrade to the M2 Air due to the complete redesign which looks rather snazzy, and of course has the nicer 13.6" screen, better camera, better speakers/mic etc...
I have no idea why they brought it back!* USB-C charging is absolutely fine! In fact, it is better than fine, it allows charging AND connection to multiple monitors, printers, keyboards.... all in one very convenient connection, AND it's totally universal! Forgot your Mac charger at work? No problem any old one from a Lenovo ThinkPad or whatever will do!
Just because some uncoordinated doofus once pulled their MacBook off a coffee table with the charging cable doesn't mean everyone needs MagSafe again!
(* I understand that part of the reason for MagSafe returning was that the new Pro/Max models need more power for charging than can be supplied by USB-C, but I'm not letting that get in the way of my incoherent rant)
I'm the opposite, I *REALLY* missed MagSafe when they discontinued it. For me, it's one of those products that just makes the overall experience that much more pleasing. That and obvious practical element.
I love my M1 Air, especially in the rose gold colour, but I'd honestly upgrade just to get MagSafe
I love my M1 Air, especially in the rose gold colour, but I'd honestly upgrade just to get MagSafe
TheJimi said:
I'm the opposite, I *REALLY* missed MagSafe when they discontinued it. For me, it's one of those products that just makes the overall experience that much more pleasing. That and obvious practical element.
I love my M1 Air, especially in the rose gold colour, but I'd honestly upgrade just to get MagSafe
Despite my rant, I can see the point in it for some people. I was thinking that for me personally it was pointless, just an excess port, as my laptop is either connected by USB-C at home or the office (for screens + charging), or not connected to anything as I'm sat with it on the train or in my kitchen etc. I can't see where I would personally use it. I never missed it when it disappeared from MacBooks. I love my M1 Air, especially in the rose gold colour, but I'd honestly upgrade just to get MagSafe
But we all have different usage needs!
I would actually much prefer a magnetic USB-C. I know you can get things like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/XtremeMac-Adapter-turns-M...
But apparently they can be potentially damaging to the laptop. Something to do with earth pins.
Craikeybaby said:
You can still use USB-C charging on laptops with MagSafe.
Yep, I know 
thebraketester said:
Are they any links to the information about this memory issue? Does it just effect the MacBooks or is it the Mac mini too?
Many linked from a google for "macbook air m2 slow ssd" . I doubt if anyone has got hold of an M2 Mini to confirm yet.Edited by thebraketester on Wednesday 25th January 15:38
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