Apple Silicon Mac Reviews: M1 Chip Delivers Exceptional Performance, Thermals, and Battery Life

[deevey]

Intel is doomed.

Also, 1080p really should be the BASELINE for a webcam. Especially in a WFH pandemic. Not sure why Apple is so resistant... maybe with the rumored 12/14" redesign. Face ID maybe too? Hmm.

Because a 1.5mm 1080p webcam doesn't exist

 

[Frank Philips]

Not that I want to add fuel to the fire (turning into a flame war around here...) it's just that, amidst this interesting Intel vs AMD vs Apple Mexican standoff, I noticed the absence of Nvidia.

I, for one, am very curious about what Nvidia will do/not do with ARM processors.
The Shield TV is a beast and, while it's debatable whether or not they should keep on with Android only, or also care about either Linux or Windows on ARM, I wouldn't be surprised to see them release even more powerful devices sooner or later.

 

[chatin]

"Secure enclave" is glitchy. Had some kind of code reversion problem with Apple TV. Will post screenshots soon.

 

[jezbd1997]

Wait I just saw the tech specs on this. So let me just ask straight up. Are you taking about 1 monitor PER port? OR just TOTAL of ONE external monitor is supported? If the latter is the case that is a huge a deal breaker.

One external monitor, on the MacBook Air or Pro (with M1).
& Mini with M1 supports 1 over TB and 1 over HDMI.
Yeah it’s quite a big deal I’m surprised macrumours hasn’t posted about it...
I think if you check the Intel Macs they support at least 2 or 3 in the previous base models

 

[Naaaaak]

What's with Apple's laptops and cameras?? It's like they've decided to hold on to the crappy decade-old cameras until a year when they have nothing else to add. It really is ridiculous.

Tim Cook ordered 100M 720p webcams for $0.05 each in 2010.

He insists it's his duty to shareholders to use them all.

When they're all used, he'll order 100M 1080i webcams for $0.06 / unit.

 

[arvinsim]

Been zooming all afternoon and this device is barely warm at all. 20% battery life usage for 2 hours of zoom, plus misc web-browsing, note-taking and messaging. Most impressive.

Apple, you have really outdone yourself this time.

Are you using the Macbook Air or Pro?

 

[Abazigal]

Are you using the Macbook Air or Pro?

Entry level MBA.

 

[robinp]

Yes, but they don’t have a PCB or antenna or battery or processors that need to fit into the lid either. Unless noise would be a problem you could mount the lens in its current location and run a cable to a thicker portion of the laptop and put them there.

None of those thing exist behind where the front facing cameras are on a MacBook. They don’t exist where the front facing cameras are on iPhone either.

An iPhone is about 8mm thick. I’ve got a 16” MBP in front of me and the screen is about 3.5mm thick. That’s a huge difference.

Look here:

The iPhone TrueDepth camera system is around 5mm thick on its own. The RGB camera is deeper than the IR camera. By the time the glass and aluminium are allowed for in MacBook screens, I doubt there is much more than 1 or 2mm of space for a camera. Way way less than would be required for the same or similar camera to those on the iPhone.

 

[PickUrPoison]

You can't have three screens with the notebooks. Every other entry level can do it now. And these notebooks don't have entry level performances. Yes, we are holding them wrong.

These entry level notebooks have entry level display support, just like they have entry level RAM capacities. There’s a reason Apple is only offering the $1,300 MBP in the M1, and not the $1,800 MBP.

The next tier of Apple silicon will offer four TB3 and support more external monitors. It’ll go into the $1,800 14” MBP, the 16” MBP, iMac and a higher-end mini.

Apple knows exactly how many of their customers use more than one external display. The Air in particular, I bet 90+% have never plugged a monitor in. Ever. If you include those who only use one external, that probably covers 97-98% of Air customers. The $1,300 MBP is similar, but maybe only 95% of customers’ needs are met with a single external monitor.

Should the minimum support include two or three external monitors? Some will think so, but Apple doesn’t. Remember, 100% of customers have to pay for those higher specs, even if only a few percent actually use them.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Intel is doomed.

Also, 1080p really should be the BASELINE for a webcam. Especially in a WFH pandemic. Not sure why Apple is so resistant... maybe with the rumored 12/14" redesign. Face ID maybe too? Hmm.

1080p is a red herring. 720p is fine. The problem is physics, not “Apple being resistant”.

 

[kazmac]

Very happy with my M1 MBA, looking forward to eventually buying an Apple Silicon desktop too.

It stays cool, is very responsive and is so comfortable to type on.

 

[The Game 161]

If I pull the trigger will certainly be for the M1 air. Will be more than enough for me

 

[PickUrPoison]

From the comments it seems to a lot of people. In offices it's standard to issue two displays, and for a lot of jobs the Air is perfectly fine. They won't buy 2000€ pros for these. And you write about reasonable complaints in a thread full of bashing the webcam because they don't look good on zoom. Come on.

Those people will live with it or buy an external camera. Me/my company won't buy it at all. Apple always ****s up something, like they despise my money. Not implementing displayport daisy chaining, butterfly keyboard, enforcing touchbar on pro machines, now this. I am getting tired of their bull****.

Few need 2 or 3 external monitors, your personal requirement (and MR forum users) notwithstanding. Apple knows exactly how few use it. That’s why the requirement they spec’ed 3-4 years ago for the M1 was 1 external monitor.

The Air and the $1,300 MBP may never support more than one monitor. Or it might come next year, who knows? In other words, it might be a temporary technical limitation, or a permanent market segmentation feature.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Opinion: Is the base MacBook Air M1/8GB powerful enough for you?

"To put the cherry on top of this subjective analysis, I can also note that two other subjective things — heat and noise — when doing all of this stress testing is completely different from the experience of using an i9 16-inch MacBook Pro. Whereas that machine would be spinning a fan at full speed, loud enough to be heard across the room, this one didn’t even get noticeably warm."

Is the base MacBook Air M1/8GB powerful enough for you? - 9to5Mac

So I decided to pick up the base $999 MacBook Air` to see how it would hold up side-by-side with my 16-inch behemoth. The results are incredible.

9to5mac.com

 

[bklement]

These entry level notebooks have entry level display support, just like they have entry level RAM capacities. There’s a reason Apple is only offering the $1,300 MBP in the M1, and not the $1,800 MBP.

These are not entry level notebooks, one of them even called pro. Apple doesn't manufacture entry level notebooks. 800$ for the capability of using a second display would be rather overpriced even by Apple's standards. And let's not forget that every other Pro mac has discrete graphics, which is not a requirement of professional usage if you extend your definition of professionals beyond hobby photographers and youtubers. Hence you can view the M1 Pro as the highest level non graphics intensive professional machine.

Apple knows exactly how many of their customers use more than one external display.

How so? Are you suggesting they collect telemetry despite my explicit opt-out?

The Air in particular, I bet 90+% have never plugged a monitor in. Ever. If you include those who only use one external, that probably covers 97-98% of Air customers. The $1,300 MBP is similar, but maybe only 95% of customers’ needs are met with a single external monitor.

Suppose those numbers are right for people buying a Mac and using it for 7-8 years. But dual display became pretty standard with companies, I saw a lot of managers with 12" Macbooks and later Airs, and a lot of developers with Pros. They are the ones writing it down every two-three years and buying a new one, hence their share in sales is much bigger than in user base. Every single one of my colleagues and ex-colleagues using Macs I've talked to since the event are outraged about this.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Are you saying all their privacy concerns are lies and they are spying on me? All while that would be my first private mac notebook? And they needed 4 years with all that data to realize that the butterfly sucks?

Important, but not that important. I won't pay twice that much for the ability every other notebook on the market has with the added "privilege" of a heavier laptop and that abomination in the place of the function keys.

And certainly my employers won't either. With "running ios apps" already seems to be fairly limited, I'll just simply stay with my intel Mini. And curse them every time I have to use my company issued wintel notebook, because any macbook supporting(?) two displays will be way above of the hardware budget. The entry pro was the go-to machine for software developers in most companies.

What are the privacy concerns for de-identified usage data that some customers provide?

And FYI, the $1,300 MBP is hardly the goto machine for devs in most companies. Some companies, sure.

But usually they go out of business from doing foolish things like providing software engineers with tools that waste hundreds of dollars of a dev’s salary per week, while saving $10 a week by buying a low-end machine for a high-end use.

 

[bklement]

What are the privacy concerns for de-identified usage data that some customers provide?

The finance, aerospace and intelligence sectors doesn't like any information leaking from contractors to any third parties.

And FYI, the $1,300 MBP is hardly the goto machine for devs in most companies. Some companies, sure.

But usually they go out of business from doing foolish things like providing software engineers with tools that waste hundreds of dollars of a dev’s salary per week, while saving $10 a week by buying a low-end machine for a high-e

FYI, I am from a piss poor Eastern European country, and in every company besides a German multinational what's name shouldn't be mentioned ever again offered the choice between a Mac and a Windows notebook. Some of them even gave employees a three-year budget carefully sized to the macbook pro with 16gb ram to choose any device we want. I would be surprised if these conditions were worse in western countries.

 

[PickUrPoison]

These are not entry level notebooks, one of them even called pro. Apple doesn't manufacture entry level notebooks. 800$ for the capability of using a second display would be rather overpriced even by Apple's standards. And let's not forget that every other Pro mac has discrete graphics, which is not a requirement of professional usage if you extend your definition of professionals beyond hobby photographers and youtubers. Hence you can view the M1 Pro as the highest level non graphics intensive professional machine.

How so? Are you suggesting they collect telemetry despite my explicit opt-out?

Suppose those numbers are right for people buying a Mac and using it for 7-8 years. But dual display became pretty standard with companies, I saw a lot of managers with 12" Macbooks and later Airs, and a lot of developers with Pros. They are the ones writing it down every two-three years and buying a new one, hence their share in sales is much bigger than in user base. Every single one of my colleagues and ex-colleagues using Macs I've talked to since the event are outraged about this.

1) No, they are entry level notebooks. The $1,000 Air is literally the bottom of the line. The $1,300 Mac Pro is the entry level, bottom of the line Pro.

2) Do you not understand statistics and sampling? As long as Apple has 5k participants in every cross tab they care about, they can project to the entire customer base with 99+% confidence, and with only a couple points margin of error. Apple doesn’t need to surreptitiously steal your telemetry.

3) The mental picture of you and your colleagues (and ex-colleagues) all being simultaneously and continuously outraged that Apple only supports one external monitor on their entry level M1 notebooks is quite humorous.

It probably shouldn’t be though. I get how frustrating it is when Apple doesn’t make what you want.

 

[deeddawg]

These are not entry level notebooks, one of them even called pro.

These are the entry level within the Apple lineup.

How so? Are you suggesting they collect telemetry despite my explicit opt-out?

It's called basic market research. Focus groups for example are an extremely common tool. Don't go all Orwellian when there's no need for it.

dual display became pretty standard with companies

The companies I've been with don't issue the lowest-tier systems to employees. Our macs are all four-port models. If the two-port models now don't meet your company's needs, then don't issue two-port models.

Come back with this argument again once the four-port models transition to Apple Silicon.

Every single one of my colleagues and ex-colleagues using Macs I've talked to since the event are outraged about this.

Outraged? You do realize this is the first stage of a multistage transition, yes?

 

[deeddawg]

These entry level notebooks have entry level display support, just like they have entry level RAM capacities.

Nevertheless, the fact is that the multi-monitor capability is reduced with the two-port ARM models vs the previous two-port Intel models.

That will catch some few people out who now will need to wait for the (presumably) higher spec four-port models.

 

[deeddawg]

The finance, aerospace and intelligence sectors doesn't like any information leaking from contractors to any third parties.

As mentioned above, there are plenty of ways to perform market research from actively willing participants without necessitating any sort of cloak and dagger data gathering.

FYI, I am from a piss poor Eastern European country, and in every company besides a German multinational what's name shouldn't be mentioned ever again offered the choice between a Mac and a Windows notebook. Some of them even gave employees a three-year budget carefully sized to the macbook pro with 16gb ram to choose any device we want. I would be surprised if these conditions were worse in western countries.

We're at the first stage of a multistage roll out. Presumably the four-port models will possess multimonitor capabilities. Every company I've worked with which provides macs to employees has been issuing four-port models anyway, so (at least in my anecdotal experience) this would be a non-issue. Also - with the advent of ultrawide monitors, in recent times those are an option for employee desks, as well as dual monitor setups. So even with a two-port mac, the ability to drive internal display plus UW external still fits within existing paradigm.

 

[bklement]

1) No, they are entry level notebooks. The $1,000 Air is literally the bottom of the line. The $1,300 Mac Pro is the entry level, bottom of the line Pro.

2) Do you not understand statistics and sampling? As long as Apple has 5k participants in every cross tab they care about, they can project to the entire customer base with 99+% confidence, and with only a couple points margin of error. Apple doesn’t need to surreptitiously steal your telemetry.

Those margin of errors only account for random variance, not for choosing the right grouping, asking the right questions or getting accurate answers. Just look at some political polls in recent years. It's much straightforward when you do product sampling in a factory or conducting experiments in a lab. I am fairly new in the Apple ecosystem, but I am not amused by their track record of getting what people want.

3) The mental picture of you and your colleagues (and ex-colleagues) all being simultaneously and continuously outraged that Apple only supports one external monitor on their entry level M1 notebooks is quite humorous.

It probably shouldn’t be though. I get how frustrating it is when Apple doesn’t make what you want.

Maybe that wasn't the best word, but english is only my third language. I am glad anyway that I brought to you some fun moments at least

 

[bklement]

As mentioned above, there are plenty of ways to perform market research from actively willing participants without necessitating any sort of cloak and dagger data gathering.

Don't spin this, I've answered to a question why we opted out of telemetry, that's all.

We're at the first stage of a multistage roll out. Presumably the four-port models will possess multimonitor capabilities. Every company I've worked with which provides macs to employees has been issuing four-port models anyway, so (at least in my anecdotal experience) this would be a non-issue. Also - with the advent of ultrawide monitors, in recent times those are an option for employee desks, as well as dual monitor setups. So even with a two-port mac, the ability to drive internal display plus UW external still fits within existing paradigm.

Maybe, well see. Still, I think it's a shame to release a 'Pro' model with lacking this capability, but I guess we are running circles for some time now.

Personally I don't like ultrawide monitors. I use one 16:9 vertically and one horizontally. In this case loosing one not only means one less from the same thing, but loosing one capability.

 

[EdT]

None of those thing exist behind where the front facing cameras are on a MacBook. They don’t exist where the front facing cameras are on iPhone either.

An iPhone is about 8mm thick. I’ve got a 16” MBP in front of me and the screen is about 3.5mm thick. That’s a huge difference.

Look here:

View attachment 1673449

The iPhone TrueDepth camera system is around 5mm thick on its own. The RGB camera is deeper than the IR camera. By the time the glass and aluminium are allowed for in MacBook screens, I doubt there is much more than 1 or 2mm of space for a camera. Way way less than would be required for the same or similar camera to those on the iPhone.

I think Apple’s primary goal with these first Gen M1 machines was showing that you could upgrade without a lot of worry about speed or compatibility with current Apple programs whether native AS code or not. And from the sounds of it VM isn’t dead. It’s being worked on and companies expect to release their versions soon.

For me, personally I don’t care what camera resolution my computer has. I’m
not looking at me —side gripe, I wish that Apple had followed through on making FaceTime available for other OS’s— so what I look like is my viewers problem not mine.
I have a Nikon 6Z and I could use that as my webcam if I wanted to.

I don’t know what the output of the current 720 pixel camera looks like on the M1 line. I know that Apple says that with their image processing that it looks much better than current Air and 13” MacBook Pro output looks, but I don’t know if that’s true. For the next iteration of the Air put a camera blister on the lid to get enough depth. And convince Apple it really is that important. That’s going to be the difficult part.

For me webcam output is either last or close to last of what I was concerned about with the new M1 computers. Program compatibility and speed were top of the list, and it seems, with a few glitches, that Mac really has pulled off something unexpected and impressive.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Those margin of errors only account for random variance, not for choosing the right grouping, asking the right questions or getting accurate answers. Just look at some political polls in recent years. It's much straightforward when you do product sampling in a factory or conducting experiments in a lab. I am fairly new in the Apple ecosystem, but I am not amused by their track record of getting what people want.


Maybe that wasn't the best word, but english is only my third language. I am glad anyway that I brought to you some fun moments at least

Sampling with regard to questions of frequency isn’t difficult. If you’ve got a 5,000 (or in Apple’s case, maybe 20 million) sample size that indicates only 10% of MacBook Air are using an external monitor, that’s that. Apple doesn’t need your data. btw your English is excellent.