Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

9to5mac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

691–700 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#692

Post by hajile »

rewtraw wrote: post #246
kevindong wrote: post #186

Completely unconfirmed speculation incoming: There's a solid chance that the logic board is exactly the same on all of the Macs announced today and the only difference is the cooling solution. If you play around with the Apple Store configurator, the specs are all suspiciously similar between every new Mac. https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch https://w…

If you compare the M1 Air and Pro, the only difference seems to be the addition of the Touchbar, 10% better battery life, and a "studio" speaker/mic on the Pro. https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/ I assume the addition of a fan on the Pro gives it better performance under load, but there doesn't seem to be a hugely compelling reason to not just get the Air.

My Y-series Pixelbook with passive cooling performs as well as a U-series laptop from the same generation -- until I start a sustained load. At that point, the U series systems pull ahead. Actively cooled Y-series systems get pretty close in lots of applications only falling short due to half the cache.

If you are doing lightweight stuff where the cores don't really need to spin up, then they'll probably be about the same. Otherwise, you'll be stuck at a much lower base clock.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#693

Post by joshgachnang »

lukifer wrote: post #681
noncoml wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they got it wrong. I would pay money to NOT have the touchbar.

I intentionally took a performance hit by moving from a Pro to an Air almost entirely for this reason (although the low power and light weight are pleasant benefits). I'm glad that the new Air still has F-keys with Touch ID; but I'm flabbergasted that they're still not making the Touchbar optional for the Pro series, given how polarizing it's been, and the underwhelming adoption of new Touchbar functionality by third…

Honestly, I think it's only polarizing here and among some developers.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#694

Post by ogre_codes »

zerkten wrote: post #579
ogre_codes wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes sense. Most likely this is why the CPUs are all limited to 16GB. It's likely when they unwrap the 16 inch MacBook Pro, it will open up more configurations (more RAM in particular!) for the 13" MacBook Pro and hopefully the mini.

Going into the event, my thinking was that they'd have two aims: 1. "Wow" the audience given the anticipation without a full overhaul of the range. 2. Deliver some solid products that enable the transition while being effective for non-enthusiasts. From my viewing they hit both. I expect they'll fill in the range next fall with bigger upgrades to the form factor.

I agree, It almost feels like they are going to have 3 main M Series CPUs. This one. One for the iMac and higher end MBPs. And perhaps a third for the high end iMac/ Mac Pro.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#695

Post by chaos_a »

gburdell3 wrote: post #688
JAlexoid wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The literally benchmarked the slowest 10th Gen i7 CPU on the market. And I got so excited about it...

Which means that, according to Apple, it's better than the CPUs in the other laptops it's competing against. That slow i7 is typical for thin+light 13" machines. I fail to see how this is a bad thing or even sneaky marketing.

Intels marketing is more at fault here. i7 cpus range from slower 4 core 1.8ghz thin and light cpus to high end desktop 8 core 3.5ghz ones.

When the name i7 is mentioned people are more likely to think it's one of the high end desktop processors rather than the mobile processors.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#696

Post by lumberingjack »

acchow wrote: post #498
bla3 wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they could outperform AMD/Intel today, they would've offered 16" MBPs / iMacs / Mac Pros. Today, they have power-efficient chips, so they converted their low-end machines, and Mini so that companies porting their software can start migrating their build farms.

They probably beat AMD/Intel on perf/power efficiency, which is why it makes sense for MBA and 13" MBP. The smaller machines are also likely held back by cooling solutions, so if you have Intel beat on power efficiency in a tiny form factor, you can boost your clock speed too.

We don't even have new Zen 3 mobile chips yet if they are anything like the New Desktop parts we just got last week then everything Apple just put out is FUBAR.

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#697

Post by k0stas »

greggman3 wrote: post #544
ksec wrote: post #195

The M1 is basically what would Apple would call A14X / A14Z if it was on iPad Pro. So they decided to reuse the A14X / M1 across all three products. And the only differentiation are their TDP cooling. The MacBook Air is 10W TDP, and both Mac Mini and MacBook Pro are likely ~35W range. The did mention MacBook Air's SSD performances is now twice as fast, so this isn't exactly an iPad Pro with Keyboard. That is great ex…

I was hopeful they'd weigh less. An iPad Pro 12.9 inches weighs 1.4lbs. The 13.3 inch MacBook Air M1 is 2.8lbs. I'm sure there are reasons but there are companies, LG for instance, that make 2 lbs 13.3 inch notebooks and 3 lbs 16 inch notebooks. No I don't want an LG but I was hopeful for a 16" Arm Macbook Pro that weight 3 lbs. Now I'm pretty confident it will be the same as an Intel Macbook Pro 16" at 4.4lbs (heavy…

> LG for instance, that make 2 lbs 13.3 inch notebooks and 3 lbs 16 inch notebooks

Those are the Gram series, right? They use a magnesium alloy chassis that feels like flimsy plastic. They are light, but they feel like a something that's going to imminently break compared to Apple's aluminum unibody.

In my view, the Gram trades off too much stiffness and chassis robustness for weight to be palatable to a non-niche audience.

I thought I was in the niche of users that prized weight over all else but I had concerns that a light on-the-go laptop that was so flimsy would last. I returned my Gram due to the fact that I just couldn't get used to Windows (after using Linux and Mac for >10 years) so the build robustness and weight ended up being a moot point

Re: Apple unveils M1, its first system-on-a-chip for portable Mac computers

#698

Post by harha »

kingnothing wrote: post #689
Aperocky wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure a good amount of things won't work on ARM the first time around. But I also think they'll be fixed quickly. RIP my dependency packages...

There's a translation layer, so I'm hopeful everything will just work.

At what speed? As far as I understood, all the presented performance increases are for optimized apps. I guess this is also where Apple sees the primary customer base.

For developers, scientists, etc., it would be interesting if it improves any of their typical use-cases – memory is one big limitation (I don't necessarily need 32GB on the laptop, that's what I use a workstation for, but after using my current Macbook for 7 years, I don't want a new laptop that feels limited after a few years)

Post reply on HN