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Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

forbes.com

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Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#21

Post by themgt »

This review is hilariously bad and biased ("no touchscreen or 5G!"), but the app compatibility is an expected chicken-or-egg issue with early adopters. The point I would make is you have to weigh the app experience in Nov 2020 against your expected experience for the rest of the life of the machine. I know people who've kept Macs running for nearly a decade (e.g. 2011 Macbook Air) and I'd strongly suspect 5 years from now a 2020 M1 Mac will be a lot more futureproof and app-compatible than a 2020 Intel Mac.

If your main concern is running Zoom and OneNote for the next 6 months, maybe sit out M1 for now.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#22

Post by CalChris »

A few Pro features Apple could add to the MacBook Pro:

  ECC, ZFS, function keys
Yeah, function keys like on the Air. I don't know anyone who likes the Touch Bar.

I'd like to get a Pro but the Air is very very good and I don't find anything that I really value on the Pro. Yes, the Pro is faster than the Air but the Air is fast and faster apparently requires a fan.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#24

Post by daviddever23box »

bstar77 wrote: post #7

"Apple-chosen press" is referenced in almost every paragraph of this article if you are wondering what the author's intent is here. I'll sum up his unique complaints... Lots of old Microsoft specific software still doesn't work well at the moment. If you are an enthusiastic Edge browser user, this laptop probably isn't for you.

Chrome works better on M1 / Big Sur than it ever did on Intel / Catalina; Edge will catch up in due time.

Firefox is extremely buggy right now, even if it claims to be Universal (where art thou Rust tooling?), so perhaps the wait-and-see approach is right.

On the MacBook Air I have here (8 GB RAM / 512 GB SSD), it’s quite clear that Apple is onto something here.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#25

Post by dan1234 »

pookieinc wrote: post #16

| Want assured software compatibility and performance How has the experience been for software developers across the board? Would love to hear personal accounts since all I'm finding is very generic articles like this one (talking about fan speed, performance charts, etc. but nothing specific targeting specialist areas)

Docker and Android emulators aren’t currently working, which is probably the biggest thing keeping me from buying. I don’t expect them to be broken for too long.

x86 windows virtualisation is probably going to be the biggest issue for most people, and I don’t see working (maybe wine + qemu, but not full os).

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#26

Post by bstar77 »

grey-area wrote: post #23

This is a review from someone who uses Microsoft Edge, Outlook, and Adobe Reader on a Mac. Those are very unusual choices nowadays for Mac software, so I don't think this applies to most Mac users considering upgrading.

I think I finally convinced my wife to stop using Acrobat Reader for Mac, which performs and looks like a java swing app. I don't know why she refused to use Preview for viewing PDFs, but I think some people just get set in their ways. That said, these people should not be writing technical reviews for major news organizations.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#27

Post by ianai »

S_A_P wrote: post #20
xiwenc wrote: post #11

Two highlights for me that were useful: 1) keep expectations low in terms of compatibility. Most non apple apps will take time before they are ported to run natively on M1 2) related to point 1, the great battery life being marketed is not applicable if your apps arsenal is not native yet. These two might sound trivial to some but i did not think of them initially. I was ready to get the M1 if there’s a good deal nex…

To point 1- some native Mac apps are not Big Sur compatible yet. It could be 2 separate issues. I held off from upgrading to Big Sur on my audio/daw iMac Pro for this reason. 2- claim seems slightly dubious as it depends on the app. Some translated software is more cpu intensive than others. So maybe? Just like the native stuff will be.

I’ve used some non optimized stuff and it didn’t seem to hit the battery. I’d be curious if people are tracking this somewhere.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#28

Post by ianai »

themgt wrote: post #21

This review is hilariously bad and biased ("no touchscreen or 5G!"), but the app compatibility is an expected chicken-or-egg issue with early adopters. The point I would make is you have to weigh the app experience in Nov 2020 against your expected experience for the rest of the life of the machine. I know people who've kept Macs running for nearly a decade (e.g. 2011 Macbook Air) and I'd strongly suspect 5 years fro…

Apple shows no signs towards being interested in selling a touch screen laptop. They steer people to their iPads for that and have indicated otherwise for their laptops. Rightly or wrongly.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#29

Post by crb »

This device, and the non-Touch Bar "MacBook Escape" before it, succeed or fail based on what you think "Pro" means. John Gruber thinks when Apple says "Pro" they mean "deluxe" or "nicer". (See https://daringfireball.net/2015/11/the_ipad_pro for example.)

You can argue that this could have been avoided by calling this particular device the MacBook. But that might have made people think it was the default choice, where Apple probably expects you to start with the Air.

Naming is hard.

Re: Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want to Pass

#30

Post by bstar77 »

CalChris wrote: post #22

A few Pro features Apple could add to the MacBook Pro: ECC, ZFS, function keys Yeah, function keys like on the Air. I don't know anyone who likes the Touch Bar. I'd like to get a Pro but the Air is very very good and I don't find anything that I really value on the Pro. Yes, the Pro is faster than the Air but the Air is fast and faster apparently requires a fan.

The pro is not any faster, it just has a fan that kicks in that prevents the machine from throttling as quickly. Someone who buys a PC with a water cooler isn't buying a machine that's faster than someone buying one with an air cooler. I realize there's a nuance here.
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