Background
I have owned a 2013 MacBook Pro 13" and mainly used it for personal use (surfing, GarageBand, light photo editing etc). For work I have been using Windows PC's for the last 10 years (Drilling Engineer and IT development). The old MacBook Pro was getting old and and the company I work for was getting me a new computer when the M1 was released I decided to get a M1 MacBook Pro 256/8 and use this for both work and personal use. I also own an iPad Pro 11" and an iPhone 11 Pro.
Monitor
Coming from a dual monitor setup (2 x 24") I bought a new Dell U3419W (3440 x 1440) and connected it through USB-C. This works nicely with the M1 and eliminated the need for a separate dock. The Dell charges the MacBook, provides audio through the built in speakers and USB connection on my desk so I can keep the MacBook stowed away for a clean desk. Also use my iPad Pro with sidecar.
Mouse/keyboard
Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3 via bluetooth works flawlessly
Software
I have so far not run into any software issues and the performance is great. I mainly use the following;
- Office 365
- Axure RP 9
- Visual Studio Code
- Unity
- Citrix Workspace for some cloud based simulation software
- Lots of web based software
- Garageband (will upgrade to Logic)
- Photos (will upgrade to Lightroom)
One thing that disappoints me using Big Sur is the lackluster built in window management - a snap feature should be included as a minimum. I use Magnet now and it works great, however this functionality should be included in Mac OS.
Audio interface
I have not yet tried my larger interface, however the Apogee Jam+ works without any issues.
Gaming
I don't do much gaming on my MacBook but I downloaded World of Warcraft Classic to see what the MacBook could do. It runs a perfectly stable 60 fps at 3440 x 1440 using graphics settings 5. AFAIK the Classic version of WoW is not yet optimized for Apple Silicon so these are impressive numbers for a portable 13" laptop.
Conclusion
So far I'm really happy with the M1 and my setup in general. I have not encountered any real issues yet. A lot (most actually) of the software I use runs under Rosetta. For the light software I use that I don't notice it and the M1 is blazingly fast even with heavy multitasking.
I have owned a 2013 MacBook Pro 13" and mainly used it for personal use (surfing, GarageBand, light photo editing etc). For work I have been using Windows PC's for the last 10 years (Drilling Engineer and IT development). The old MacBook Pro was getting old and and the company I work for was getting me a new computer when the M1 was released I decided to get a M1 MacBook Pro 256/8 and use this for both work and personal use. I also own an iPad Pro 11" and an iPhone 11 Pro.
Monitor
Coming from a dual monitor setup (2 x 24") I bought a new Dell U3419W (3440 x 1440) and connected it through USB-C. This works nicely with the M1 and eliminated the need for a separate dock. The Dell charges the MacBook, provides audio through the built in speakers and USB connection on my desk so I can keep the MacBook stowed away for a clean desk. Also use my iPad Pro with sidecar.
Mouse/keyboard
Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3 via bluetooth works flawlessly
Software
I have so far not run into any software issues and the performance is great. I mainly use the following;
- Office 365
- Axure RP 9
- Visual Studio Code
- Unity
- Citrix Workspace for some cloud based simulation software
- Lots of web based software
- Garageband (will upgrade to Logic)
- Photos (will upgrade to Lightroom)
One thing that disappoints me using Big Sur is the lackluster built in window management - a snap feature should be included as a minimum. I use Magnet now and it works great, however this functionality should be included in Mac OS.
Audio interface
I have not yet tried my larger interface, however the Apogee Jam+ works without any issues.
Gaming
I don't do much gaming on my MacBook but I downloaded World of Warcraft Classic to see what the MacBook could do. It runs a perfectly stable 60 fps at 3440 x 1440 using graphics settings 5. AFAIK the Classic version of WoW is not yet optimized for Apple Silicon so these are impressive numbers for a portable 13" laptop.
Conclusion
So far I'm really happy with the M1 and my setup in general. I have not encountered any real issues yet. A lot (most actually) of the software I use runs under Rosetta. For the light software I use that I don't notice it and the M1 is blazingly fast even with heavy multitasking.
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