Considering moving to an M1 Macbook pro. Implications?

[Gad-Westy]

Been putting off upgrading our 9 year old imac for so long now and keep eeking more life out of it but we really do need to do something about it soon. I'm reluctant to shell out a fortune for an intel based mac but it's not clear how long we'd need to wait for an ARM based imac. But since my other half uses this for work, I feel we need to stop pissing about and get a replacement.

I'm a bit unclear on the interchangeability between M1 MacBook pro and our existing intel based 2011 iMac. I was hoping we would be able to do a time machine job on the new macbook and carry on where we left off but maybe there will be more frigging around needed. Currently, the imac is used for MS office, some teamviewer stuff, Adobe lightroom and photoshop, the rest is mainly regular apple software.

[sjg]

You can restore an Intel Time Machine backup to a M1 Mac.

Only issue might be the M1s come with Big Sur (and can't run anything older), while your iMac will be a few versions behind that so if you have any old apps knocking about you might have a problem. If you bought your Adobe stuff years ago and haven't upgraded or gone CC then they may not work: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/download-install/kb/mac...

[Gad-Westy]

sjg said:

You can restore an Intel Time Machine backup to a M1 Mac.

Only issue might be the M1s come with Big Sur (and can't run anything older), while your iMac will be a few versions behind that so if you have any old apps knocking about you might have a problem. If you bought your Adobe stuff years ago and haven't upgraded or gone CC then they may not work: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/download-install/kb/mac...

Thanks. I wonder if she should hold off for a few weeks and let some bug fixes and software updates trickle.

We're adobe CC but use Lightroom classic and Lightroom CC. It seems CC stuff works a dream on M1 chip but Lightroom Classic must be run through Rosetta and it sounds like it's pretty ponderous. Tempted to keep our powder dry for a little longer.

[sjg]

If it's just unoptimised (rather than incompatible) apps, the performance with Rosetta seems really good. It's likely to be a big improvement on a 9 year old iMac today, and with potential to be way quicker once it is optimised.

[Troubleatmill]

The M1 is embarrassingly fast. Intel have been called out.

[Gad-Westy]

sjg said:

If it's just unoptimised (rather than incompatible) apps, the performance with Rosetta seems really good. It's likely to be a big improvement on a 9 year old iMac today, and with potential to be way quicker once it is optimised.

Cheers. For whatever reason there seems to be a particular issue with Lightroom Classic. I'm going to keep an eye on it over next couple of weeks and see if it gets resolved.

[vaud]

Troubleatmill said:

The M1 is embarrassingly fast. Intel have been called out.

There are rumours that they have 32 core, 64 core and 128 core versions in development / test.

[megaphone]

OP how old is your Office software? Mine is 2011 and 32bit, will need update it.

[steveatesh]

If you must replace it now how about a new Mac Mini with a decent monitor? Spec it out or add external drives...... last a few years until the M6 comes out with a zillion cores and faster than HAL?

[vaud]

steveatesh said:

If you must replace it now how about a new Mac Mini with a decent monitor? Spec it out or add external drives...... last a few years until the M6 comes out with a zillion cores and faster than HAL?

I bought the LG UltraFine 4K under lockdown for my Mac laptop and it is awesome. Not cheap but I stare at the thing for 8+hours a day so like a good mattress it is worth it.

[bernieburger]

Upgraded to M1 MacBook Pro from my 2012 MacBook Pro (With a few upgrades- more RAM, SSD etc). New machine is sooo fast! 8gb RAM but you wouldn't know it ! (vs 16gb previously). Only downsides vs old machine are lack of ports, and v annoyingly it doesn't currently work with google drive stream (Which we use for work).
Using O-drive as a workaround.

[Gad-Westy]

Thanks all. Think we'll go for a macbook air having seen a few of the comparisons.

[Dibble]

Have a look at The Everyday Dad on YouTube. He’s done a load of reviews recently on the new MacBooks.

[Gad-Westy]

Dibble said:

Have a look at The Everyday Dad on YouTube. He’s done a load of reviews recently on the new MacBooks.

Will do, thank you.