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16‑inch MacBook Pro M1 Max – what's the verdict?

sparkie7

sparkie7

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 17, 2008
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Ok,its been a few weeks now that people have had them in their hands and put them through their paces –– what's the verdict?

Any issues, grips, pros / cons..

Contemplating buying a fully loaded one (except for the storage)...

  • 16‑inch MacBook Pro — Space Grey
  • Apple M1 Max chip with 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine
  • 64GB unified memory
  • 1TB of SSD storage
Would love to hear your review / honest opinions...
 
I have had the exact same configuration for more than a week. It is by far the best laptop I've ever had. Everything seems to run just great with no lags or any other issues. It remains cool, no fans, and the battery is just amazing. Yes, it's a little bit bigger and heavier than my previous 2016 15/16-inch laptop, but the entire experience with the M1 Max has been very good so far. I had the issue with the MagSafe charging cycling on and off constantly. Thankfully, that has been resolved with Monterey 12.1.
 
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jshcy said:
I have had the exact same configuration for more than a week. It is by far the best laptop I've ever had. Everything seems to run just great with no lags or any other issues. It remains cool, no fans, and the battery is just amazing. Yes, it's a little bit bigger and heavier than my previous 2016 15/16-inch laptop, but the entire experience with the M1 Max has been very good so far. I had the issue with the MagSafe charging cycling on and off constantly. Thankfully, that has been resolved with Monterey 12.1.
Click to expand...

Thanks, the weight and size is not an issue coming from classic MacBook Pro 17"s. What was the issue with MagSafe charging, not charging properly?

Do you connect it to a larger display(s)?
 
The charging would cycle on/off constantly after attaching the MagSafe charger. This would only happen when the MBP was completely off. As I said above, it has now been fixed with Monterey 12.1. Yes, it is connected to an external 4k LG 32-inch monitor and it has been working flawlessly.
 
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I have the exact same configuration and so far it's been amazing, I'm a game dev and I run multiple instances of Unity some times I start running the engine (hit play) then go do something else (I use multiple desktops) then run other Unity instances and forgot I was previously playing other Unity instances and this machine runs it like nothing is happening which is amazing.
I remember doing the same with my prev 2019 MBP 16 and I wasn't able to do that without noticing performance issues.

The only thing I've noticed is audio dropping when doing CPU intense stuff but I had the same issue with my prev intel Mac so maybe its a MacOS problem. It doesn't happen all the time so it doesn't bother me that much anyways.

I don't have an external monitor yet but after searching like crazy I ended up buying a Display Pro XDR which I hope to get next week.
 
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I've had my 16 M1 Max 32gb/1tb for about a month (used as my primary computer 100% of the time), came from a 2017 15" MBP. I do graphic design and have found it difficult to justify ever going to a smaller screen than the 15" after I had it for a while so it made the decision to go 16" pretty easy. It is a tad chunkier than the 15" like everyone has agreed but Apple makes up for this with impeccable engineering and design, it is a beautiful laptop.

I've put it through the paces of my workflow which is many apps open all day, adobe illustrator, photoshop, parallels/windows (this is in beta/buggy, I knew this ahead of time), Spotify, safari with 4 different tab groups and 6-7 active tabs at a time, switching between everything often and performing many different types of tasks. I've not heard the fan turn on even one time in a month so it's either really quiet or it hasn't been needed. The 2017 MBP fan would take flight at least once or twice a day in this same use case.

Because I kept my previous MBP in clamshell most of the time (like I do with the new MBP), it seems my battery took a hit rather early and after 1-2 years I would barely get 3-4 hours out of it when not plugged in. The new MBP battery life is absolutely amazing, in contrast. And Monterey is now managing my charging better to help get more life out of my battery, keeping it at 80% most of the time and charging based on my daily usage. Of course I have only been using it for a month, but I think that even in my most demanding applications that I would still be able to get a solid 10 hours of use out of it (likely more) before needing to be plugged in. The battery percentage/time usage is on usually consistent with much more time than this - depends on the tasks I am performing. Even when brand new, the previous MPB 16 would last MAYBE 5-6 hours in the same scenario. It is a BIG step up in overall performance and I can literally work an entire work day without charging if I needed to. To me, that is amazing.

I realize that there are others with more demanding work that will benefit far more than I have in this upgrade, but I am pretty thrilled with the machine thus far and look forward to many years of use out of it.
 
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What is everyone getting for battery life with video editing? I have the 32gb base max, as I couldn't wait for the 64gb config that I had just cancelled from Adorama. I'm hearing many are getting 5-6 hrs with final cut and premiere, but I'm getting 4hrs of editing a project with air 2s 5k files(4k timeline) and two luts. This is impressive, but seems a little low. Has anyone seen a difference between the 32gb and 64gb max config?
 
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eye4ni said:
I've had my 16 M1 Max 32gb/1tb for about a month (used as my primary computer 100% of the time), came from a 2017 15" MBP. I do graphic design and have found it difficult to justify ever going to a smaller screen than the 15" after I had it for a while so it made the decision to go 16" pretty easy. It is a tad chunkier than the 15" like everyone has agreed but Apple makes up for this with impeccable engineering and design, it is a beautiful laptop.

I've put it through the paces of my workflow which is many apps open all day, adobe illustrator, photoshop, parallels/windows (this is in beta/buggy, I knew this ahead of time), Spotify, safari with 4 different tab groups and 6-7 active tabs at a time, switching between everything often and performing many different types of tasks. I've not heard the fan turn on even one time in a month so it's either really quiet or it hasn't been needed. The 2017 MBP fan would take flight at least once or twice a day in this same use case.

Because I kept my previous MBP in clamshell most of the time (like I do with the new MBP), it seems my battery took a hit rather early and after 1-2 years I would barely get 3-4 hours out of it when not plugged in. The new MBP battery life is absolutely amazing, in contrast. And Monterey is now managing my charging better to help get more life out of my battery, keeping it at 80% most of the time and charging based on my daily usage. Of course I have only been using it for a month, but I think that even in my most demanding applications that I would still be able to get a solid 10 hours of use out of it (likely more) before needing to be plugged in. The battery percentage/time usage is on usually consistent with much more time than this - depends on the tasks I am performing. Even when brand new, the previous MPB 16 would last MAYBE 5-6 hours in the same scenario. It is a BIG step up in overall performance and I can literally work an entire work day without charging if I needed to. To me, that is amazing.

I realize that there are others with more demanding work that will benefit far more than I have in this upgrade, but I am pretty thrilled with the machine thus far and look forward to many years of use out of it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great summary ?
 
sparkie7 said:
Ok,its been a few weeks now that people have had them in their hands and put them through their paces –– what's the verdict?

Any issues, grips, pros / cons..

Contemplating buying a fully loaded one (except for the storage)...

  • 16‑inch MacBook Pro — Space Grey
  • Apple M1 Max chip with 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine
  • 64GB unified memory
  • 1TB of SSD storage
Would love to hear your review / honest opinions...
Click to expand...

Verdict: Great for those who need it, unsatisfying for those who do not.
 
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Had mine almost two months now, got it just 6 days after the announcement on launch day.

I've not had any issues with mine. Feels fast, battery life is great. The display and speakers are incredible as expected.

I think my only gripe has been with the menubar losing icons under the notch which I remedied with Bartender. And initially Discord wasn't native and ran very poorly but they've since released an Apple Silicon supporting Alpha build which runs flawlessly.

So for me this has been great. I love how silent it is, the performance is beyond my expectations and the screen is just so stunning.

I really hope the rumours of a 27" Pro Display XDR are true because I want that to pair with my notebook at my desk.
 
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Quu said:
Had mine almost two months now, got it just 6 days after the announcement on launch day.

I've not had any issues with mine. Feels fast, battery life is great. The display and speakers are incredible as expected.

I think my only gripe has been with the menubar losing icons under the notch which I remedied with Bartender. And initially Discord wasn't native and ran very poorly but they've since released an Apple Silicon supporting Alpha build which runs flawlessly.

So for me this has been great. I love how silent it is, the performance is beyond my expectations and the screen is just so stunning.

I really hope the rumours of a 27" Pro Display XDR are true because I want that to pair with my notebook at my desk.
Click to expand...

Did you use Bartender 4? Do you have a link to Discord..

Great to hear from so many it's silent and the fans kick in only on most extreme uses
 
sparkie7 said:
Did you use Bartender 4? Do you have a link to Discord..

Great to hear from so many it's silent and the fans kick in only on most extreme uses
Click to expand...

I am indeed using the latest Bartender 4. Here is the link for Discord Canary: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/360035675191-Discord-Testing-Clients

And yep it's silent. For my usage it stays with fans completely off for 98% of the time. Only brief moments a few times a week do they spin up. I'm monitoring this using iStat Menus which received an update to show all this data (you have to get it from their website though, the built in updater doesn't show it for some reason).

I really can't say enough about how incredible these computers are, by far the best notebook in the market in my opinion.
 
Verdict is still ongoing for me. I just received my 16" with Max and 32 Core GPU and 1 TB (standard "high" configuration). I am coming from a 2019 16" MacBook Pro with 8 GB RADEON 5500 and 16 GB of DDR4. Full disclaimer, I normally have my system plugged in, and I do not use an external monitor.

I will admit that my expectations are fairly high, based on all the positive press and comments in this forum, and other sources. At this point, I am not at all impressed with speed. The only place I noticed any difference in performance coming from an i9 is in generally scrolling on desktop and Safari. This can be chalked up to the weak built-in GPU of the Core i9. In Safari nothing (other than scrolling) is any faster, which is what I expected as this *should* be a function of your connection rather than the performance of your system. I spent most of yesterday in a BlackBoard (kind of like Skype) session as I was working from home. No difference from my old Mac in this app.

I installed Parallels 17 (was using it on my old Mac) and was pleased to see how easy it was to get a Windows 11 ARM VM up and running. It only took about 25 minutes before I was at the Windows 11 desktop (including download and install and initial Windows config). Windows 11 on this system is fast! It boots up (from VM power off state) in less than 5 seconds, it seems to come up much faster than MacOS itself does. The one program I still use that requires me to use Parallels is Quicken 2013, which is a 32-bit x86 program, that runs just fine in the Windows 11 VM.

The other test case I have is Diablo 3 by Blizzard (game). This is a Mac application, but it has not been updated to a Universal Binary, and uses OpenGL vices Metal. I do not thank that Blizzard is ever going to update this game, which is too bad. However, it ran OK on the Intel Mac, but had some severe graphical artifacting due to the terrible OpenGL drivers provided by Apple. Under Rosetta 2, it actually seems to run with the same performance, and the graphical artifacts are gone! This was improved from my older Mac. I haven't spent much time with it yet, so my opinion may change.

Final test case (so far) is with Unreal Engine. Again this is an Intel application which needs Rosetta 2 to run, and is pretty hard on the GPU. I got it installed yesterday, but haven't yet got to testing it out yet.

I still have to get Adobe Creative Cloud on here, and am about to test out iMovie to edit my son's Christmas recital. I plan to post a thorough impression of the new Mac in a week or so.

Thanks!

Rich S.
 
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LinkRS said:
Verdict is still ongoing for me. I just received my 16" with Max and 32 Core GPU and 1 TB (standard "high" configuration). I am coming from a 2019 16" MacBook Pro with 8 GB RADEON 5500 and 16 GB of DDR4. Full disclaimer, I normally have my system plugged in, and I do not use an external monitor.

I will admit that my expectations are fairly high, based on all the positive press and comments in this forum, and other sources. At this point, I am not at all impressed with speed. The only place I noticed any difference in performance coming from an i9 is in generally scrolling on desktop and Safari. This can be chalked up to the weak built-in GPU of the Core i9. In Safari nothing (other than scrolling) is any faster, which is what I expected as this *should* be a function of your connection rather than the performance of your system. I spent most of yesterday in a BlackBoard (kind of like Skype) session as I was working from home. No difference from my old Mac in this app.

I installed Parallels 17 (was using it on my old Mac) and was pleased to see how easy it was to get a Windows 11 ARM VM up and running. It only took about 25 minutes before I was at the Windows 11 desktop (including download and install and initial Windows config). Windows 11 on this system is fast! It boots up (from VM power off state) in less than 5 seconds, it seems to come up much faster than MacOS itself does. The one program I still use that requires me to use Parallels is Quicken 2013, which is a 32-bit x86 program, that runs just fine in the Windows 11 VM.

The other test case I have is Diablo 3 by Blizzard (game). This is a Mac application, but it has not been updated to a Universal Binary, and uses OpenGL vices Metal. I do not thank that Blizzard is ever going to update this game, which is too bad. However, it ran OK on the Intel Mac, but had some severe graphical artifacting due to the terrible OpenGL drivers provided by Apple. Under Rosetta 2, it actually seems to run with the same performance, and the graphical artifacts are gone! This was improved from my older Mac. I haven't spent much time with it yet, so my opinion may change.

Final test case (so far) is with Unreal Engine. Again this is an Intel application which needs Rosetta 2 to run, and is pretty hard on the GPU. I got it installed yesterday, but haven't yet got to testing it out yet.

I still have to get Adobe Creative Cloud on here, and am about to test out iMovie to edit my son's Christmas recital. I plan to post a thorough impression of the new Mac in a week or so.

Thanks!

Rich S.
Click to expand...

I do believe the Intel Mac is what will work best for you right now.
 
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LinkRS said:
Verdict is still ongoing for me. I just received my 16" with Max and 32 Core GPU and 1 TB (standard "high" configuration). I am coming from a 2019 16" MacBook Pro with 8 GB RADEON 5500 and 16 GB of DDR4. Full disclaimer, I normally have my system plugged in, and I do not use an external monitor.

I will admit that my expectations are fairly high, based on all the positive press and comments in this forum, and other sources. At this point, I am not at all impressed with speed. The only place I noticed any difference in performance coming from an i9 is in generally scrolling on desktop and Safari. This can be chalked up to the weak built-in GPU of the Core i9. In Safari nothing (other than scrolling) is any faster, which is what I expected as this *should* be a function of your connection rather than the performance of your system. I spent most of yesterday in a BlackBoard (kind of like Skype) session as I was working from home. No difference from my old Mac in this app.
Click to expand...
I made the same switch as you, exact same i9 16" spec to the same M1 Max 16" with standard high config.

And I echo what you're saying here regarding CPU performance. I feel both machines had similar high CPU performance. However I will say and perhaps you'll notice this after a while that the M1 Max is more consistent.

If the i9 was peaks and valleys, fan spin and throttling then the M1 Max is a calm ocean which can maintain its high performance consistently. Additionally I found those pauses and hiccups that happen every now and then on my i9 just don't occur on the M1 Max for whatever reason.

Also the high level of performance you can maintain before the machine becomes audible is much longer than on the i9. And especially if you leverage the hardware acceleration like the video encoders. I couldn't even use iMovie on my 16" i9 without the fans running so high it was distracting let alone Final Cut. Where as on the M1 Max I'm able to edit in Final Cut under way heavier conditions and not have it be audible at all.

Similarly although you're not using an external monitor the i9 Intel would often enter a medium power state when hooked up to a 4K or higher display that made the overall system power draw increase from 9 Watts to 20-23 Watts. So the fans were always audible from about two feet when hooked up to a high resolution monitor.

This isn't the case on the M1 Max, its GPU is more efficient with external display use able to remain in a low power mode. And of course the GPU being faster in general really lends itself to a better experience with graphically intensive software. Scrolling in browsers and resizing windows with lots of assets on an external display is much better on these machines but when not using an external display it's a very similar experience between the old i9/5500m and the new M1 Max.
 
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eye4ni said:
I've had my 16 M1 Max 32gb/1tb for about a month (used as my primary computer 100% of the time), came from a 2017 15" MBP. I do graphic design and have found it difficult to justify ever going to a smaller screen than the 15" after I had it for a while so it made the decision to go 16" pretty easy. It is a tad chunkier than the 15" like everyone has agreed but Apple makes up for this with impeccable engineering and design, it is a beautiful laptop.

I've put it through the paces of my workflow which is many apps open all day, adobe illustrator, photoshop, parallels/windows (this is in beta/buggy, I knew this ahead of time), Spotify, safari with 4 different tab groups and 6-7 active tabs at a time, switching between everything often and performing many different types of tasks. I've not heard the fan turn on even one time in a month so it's either really quiet or it hasn't been needed. The 2017 MBP fan would take flight at least once or twice a day in this same use case.

Because I kept my previous MBP in clamshell most of the time (like I do with the new MBP), it seems my battery took a hit rather early and after 1-2 years I would barely get 3-4 hours out of it when not plugged in. The new MBP battery life is absolutely amazing, in contrast. And Monterey is now managing my charging better to help get more life out of my battery, keeping it at 80% most of the time and charging based on my daily usage. Of course I have only been using it for a month, but I think that even in my most demanding applications that I would still be able to get a solid 10 hours of use out of it (likely more) before needing to be plugged in. The battery percentage/time usage is on usually consistent with much more time than this - depends on the tasks I am performing. Even when brand new, the previous MPB 16 would last MAYBE 5-6 hours in the same scenario. It is a BIG step up in overall performance and I can literally work an entire work day without charging if I needed to. To me, that is amazing.

I realize that there are others with more demanding work that will benefit far more than I have in this upgrade, but I am pretty thrilled with the machine thus far and look forward to many years of use out of it.
Click to expand...

Do you find you are maxing out or near maxing out the 32gb RAM in your daily usage of Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign, safari, Mail etc?

Many seem to say that the M1 Max is only if you do a lot of 3D and video rendering. How are you finding it for graphic design, over kill or well-suited?

I'm thinking if you do multi-layered photoshop files, large photo file edits, multipage Indesign, and complex Illustrator files, you will have all these files open simultaneously and switching between them whilst running Mail app, Google chrome and safari, gmail, facebook, messenger, that the RAM will get eaten up fast, and the CPU in the M1 Max will be utilised, maybe not to the point of pushing the fans on, but still making good use the power, efficiency and battery life..

I'm still considering on buying a fully loaded 16 M1 Max / 64 RAM / 1 or 2 TB SSD, or should I wait till June / July for potential M2 Max release...

My 2017 MBP 15" Touch Bar is starting to show it's age..
 
I have M1 Max with 32 cores, 32gig and 1Tb higher end basic configuration. 32 ram is perfect size for me although the storage is something I want more of. 2TB probably would have been perfect, but then, I'd want more. I'm always that guy that tries to avoid 1st get, but going from intel to M1 max was worth it. No heat and no fan noise.
 
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I have had my M1 Max (16"/32-core GPU/32GB RAM/1TB) for just over a month now and I love it. I use mine as a desktop 80% of the time (hooked up to a 34" ultra-wide). So far, I have had no issues.
 
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sparkie7 said:
I'm still considering on buying a fully loaded 16 M1 Max / 64 RAM / 1 or 2 TB SSD, or should I wait till June / July for potential M2 Max release...
Click to expand...
There will be no new M2 Max this year I think. I think it will come next year.

This year we will see something like M2 systems - but not that fast as M1 Max/Pro this year. Maybe more energy efficient and better to built smaller systems (MBA)...
 
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