New apple M1 chips - who's buying?

[SpudLink]

Watching the comparison between the 2020 Intel MacBook Air and the M1 Mac Book Air.
https://youtu.be/UxSI45eeAts

The difference is ridiculous. And the fan-less M1 runs cooler.

[S13_Alan]

Air ordered today to replace my now 7 year old i7 Air

Wouldn't often bother with the first generation of tech in this way, although I also moved to Mac at the same time they first switched to Intel, and this equally seems a good idea.

[pip t]

K12beano said:

Regarding the cameras - it's a weird one this, clearly Apple are well aware of the widespread criticism, but just don't seem to do anything.

Cannot believe the extra cost in improving these would add much to the store price.

The current answer is to plug in your iPhone camera in substitution (which I do using Camo) - but that's far from ideal....

...and if that WAS the solution, surely Apple would have provided the app/software to make that an easy job themselves?

Mystified Mac Muggle

From what I've read and heard, the problem is not the costs of a better camera, it's fitting the components in while keeping the thinnest lid possible. There are Windows 'thin and light' laptops that also have potato quality webcams for this reason.

On the machines in general, I'm whoppingly impressed - and these are just the low end models. What are the replacements for the higher end models going to be capable of?! My i7, 32gb 16 inch MacBook Pro is quietly sobbing in the corner....

[TheJimi]

I do slightly worry that I should have bought the pro for the brighter screen, but I suppose I'll see when the Air arrives.

[Murph7355]

SpudLink said:

Watching the comparison between the 2020 Intel MacBook Air and the M1 Mac Book Air.
https://youtu.be/UxSI45eeAts

The difference is ridiculous. And the fan-less M1 runs cooler.

Impressive.

If the keyboards are any good, I may well be switching back in a few years' time.

[ThisInJapanese]

If the Air is as good as they say, what's the point of the pro if it's running the same hardware?

[loudlashadjuster]

ThisInJapanese said:

If the Air is as good as they say, what's the point of the pro if it's running the same hardware?

With a fan it can sustain full performance without thermal throttling, pretty much indefinitely by all accounts.

It also has a slightly better screen, the camera is meant to be superior, and it has...a touch bar whooooooo!

Edit to correct the camera statement. I was probably thinking of the speakers

Edited by loudlashadjuster on Friday 20th November 10:46

[anonymous-user]

loudlashadjuster said:

ThisInJapanese said:

If the Air is as good as they say, what's the point of the pro if it's running the same hardware?

With a fan it can sustain full performance without thermal throttling, pretty much indefinitely by all accounts.

It also has a slightly better screen, the camera is meant to be superior, and it has...a touch bar whooooooo!

I was asking myself the same question, thankyou for answering.

Following on from that then, how do people imagine the larger machines due out next year will benefit from the M1? Whilst I'm a bit of a Luddite I'm struggling to see how they can sell a range of machines with the same chip in, will performance change to that degree across different machines with different heat dissipation?

[JonChalk]

sebdangerfield said:

loudlashadjuster said:

ThisInJapanese said:

If the Air is as good as they say, what's the point of the pro if it's running the same hardware?

With a fan it can sustain full performance without thermal throttling, pretty much indefinitely by all accounts.

It also has a slightly better screen, the camera is meant to be superior, and it has...a touch bar whooooooo!

I was asking myself the same question, thankyou for answering.

Following on from that then, how do people imagine the larger machines due out next year will benefit from the M1? Whilst I'm a bit of a Luddite I'm struggling to see how they can sell a range of machines with the same chip in, will performance change to that degree across different machines with different heat dissipation?

I would imagine those whose day-jobs, or preferred hobbies, requires hours of continuous processing without slowing down (video editing, rendering, etc.). Especially if on a rate job, rather than fixed price.

[loudlashadjuster]

sebdangerfield said:

Following on from that then, how do people imagine the larger machines due out next year will benefit from the M1? Whilst I'm a bit of a Luddite I'm struggling to see how they can sell a range of machines with the same chip in, will performance change to that degree across different machines with different heat dissipation?

The expectation is that the desktop-class machines will have an 'M1X' or 'M2' or something with some mix of more cores, beefier GPU, bigger cache, higher speeds, more RAM, better connectivity etc.

[SpudLink]

sebdangerfield said:

I was asking myself the same question, thankyou for answering.

Following on from that then, how do people imagine the larger machines due out next year will benefit from the M1? Whilst I'm a bit of a Luddite I'm struggling to see how they can sell a range of machines with the same chip in, will performance change to that degree across different machines with different heat dissipation?

This is the first version of the chip. There will probably be improvements for the next wave of machines.
Development doesn’t need to be coordinated with the requirements of external customers. So Apple can release version 2 in the spring, V3 in the autumn. Whatever suits their own release schedule.

[anonymous-user]

Understood, thanks all. It'll be interesting to see what comes out over the next wave then, particularly as the iMac Pro is so powerful already.

[TheJimi]

loudlashadjuster said:

ThisInJapanese said:

If the Air is as good as they say, what's the point of the pro if it's running the same hardware?

With a fan it can sustain full performance without thermal throttling, pretty much indefinitely by all accounts.

It also has a slightly better screen, the camera is meant to be superior, and it has...a touch bar whooooooo!

Same camera.

The differences are:

Screen (400 nits Vs 500)

Speakers

Fan

Bigger battery

Touch bar

As I say, for my uses, the screen is the biggest question mark but encouragingly, I haven't seen anyone say anything negative about it.

Edited by TheJimi on Friday 20th November 09:33

[JonChalk]

TheJimi said:

As I say, for my uses, the screen is the biggest question mark but encouragingly, I haven't seen anyone say anything negative about it.

Edited by TheJimi on Friday 20th November 09:33

If you mean on the MBA? it's definitely better than a 2013 retina MBP, if that helps?

Greater range of brightness, looks stunning running 4K HDR, and generally looks "sharper" / "cleaner" (subjective, I know.) For example, the new PH fonts look much better and more natural on my new MBA compared to 2013 MBP. No idea why that should be....

[TheJimi]

Aye, i've got an Air on order.

Hopefully cat won't kill this one

[jhoneyball]

JonChalk said:

TheJimi said:

As I say, for my uses, the screen is the biggest question mark but encouragingly, I haven't seen anyone say anything negative about it.

Edited by TheJimi on Friday 20th November 09:33

If you mean on the MBA? it's definitely better than a 2013 retina MBP, if that helps?

Greater range of brightness, looks stunning running 4K HDR, and generally looks "sharper" / "cleaner" (subjective, I know.) For example, the new PH fonts look much better and more natural on my new MBA compared to 2013 MBP. No idea why that should be....

The sweetspot is the macbookair with 16gb ram and 1tb disc -- thats what i bought, it is excellent

air screen is superb -- 400nits is enough, and it is p3 colour (and yes, I measured it)

[bimjim]

I bought an M1 Mac Mini to have a play with.

All seems good so far, but I can't install Acrobat DC (as part of Adobe's Creative Suite), which seems odd. Shouldn't Rosetta 2 do its job and allow me to install and run it?

[TheJimi]

jhoneyball said:

JonChalk said:

TheJimi said:

As I say, for my uses, the screen is the biggest question mark but encouragingly, I haven't seen anyone say anything negative about it.

Edited by TheJimi on Friday 20th November 09:33

If you mean on the MBA? it's definitely better than a 2013 retina MBP, if that helps?

Greater range of brightness, looks stunning running 4K HDR, and generally looks "sharper" / "cleaner" (subjective, I know.) For example, the new PH fonts look much better and more natural on my new MBA compared to 2013 MBP. No idea why that should be....

The sweetspot is the macbookair with 16gb ram and 1tb disc -- thats what i bought, it is excellent

air screen is superb -- 400nits is enough, and it is p3 colour (and yes, I measured it)

Thanks for the feedback Jon & jhoney, appreciate it.

On the question of RAM, I'd normally have upgraded the RAM, but after watching the reviews, I didn't see the point, plus as I was getting a discount, I got the Air for £898 so I'm less focused on future-proofing at that money.

[JonChalk]

TheJimi said:

Thanks for the feedback Jon & jhoney, appreciate it.

On the question of RAM, I'd normally have upgraded the RAM, but after watching the reviews, I didn't see the point, plus as I was getting a discount, I got the Air for £898 so I'm less focused on future-proofing at that money.

Same here - managed on 8GB RAM for the past 7 years, figured the new chip would mean I would need it even less.

[bitchstewie]

Not sure if it's a Black Friday thing but Amazon are already discounting the Air by £50.

From some reviews it looks like this architecture change may be such a game-changer that 8GB is enough for most people?