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M1 Macs Review

sixcolors.com

41–50 of 391 posts

Re: M1 Macs Review

#41
> iOS apps on Mac—sometimes

Says Full Screen Video works on some apps (MLB) but not HBO.

What about other APIs like Filesystem and Notifications?

Responsive apps to resize window?

Any bigger write ups on this? To me, a single App Store across desktop/tablet/mobile has the most potential for developers from this chip change and it seems generally skipped over by almost all reviews.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#42

I received an M1 mini 2 days ago. I noticed the Steam client seems to be a bit laggy in UI responsiveness, but besides that I have no complaints. I got it for use as a server, so I was a bit dismayed to hear that M1 Docker support has hit a roadblock, but hopeful that they figure it out soon.

I have a maxxed out 16” and Steam is still laggy for me.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#43

I got the mbp when on day one but haven't been able to fully test it yet BUT I have been using it (right now) for almost 2 hours reading reddit and whatnot, I went form 100% to 96%. On my current mbp (2019, i9, 16gb) 2 hours would kill 50% of my battery. I don't care if compile time takes 2x. I can take my laptop with me at 8am and come back at 10pm and know I won't need a charger. It is amazing

A battery life of 4 hours doesn't sound okay, my 2013 MBP lasts longer (original battery).

Re: M1 Macs Review

#44
More performant than any other laptop in the same form factor, with less heat and less power draw than any other laptop. And it only runs macOS. Apple is, once again, two steps ahead of the entire rest of the industry. This is the future: custom hardware and custom software working together as a unit.

(Although for the next few years, I expect PC vendors will just use Snapdragons or Rockchips as a base.)

Re: M1 Macs Review

#45
post #6

Although I’m definitely not convinced enough to make the jump yet, those emulation benchmarks are impressive (and seem to also apply somewhat to general use based on another review I read). Running x86 code faster than native equivalents, using an ARM chip, that will probably be consuming significantly less power doing it is something I did not expect to see in gen 1 of this switch.

What caught me off guard was the possibility through Codeweavers to run even 32bit windows software

https://www.codeweavers.com/blog/jwhite/2020/11/18/okay-im-o...

Re: M1 Macs Review

#46

After 6 years away from being "all in" on Apple, yesterday my base spec MacBook Air M1 arrived. Battery life is the key takeaway for me. Performance is fine but I'm used to a powerful desktop so it's not blowing me away but the battery life definitely is blowing me away. To run things under rosetta there's an arch command: e.g. arch -x86_64 brew install xxx - the arch preference is inherited by sub processes. I'm kin…

Do you mind sharing what battery life you are seeing for your real life workloads? And also an idea of what those work loads are?

Re: M1 Macs Review

#47

Here's looking at getting one. But I wonder what's the currently compatibility status of the dev stack: node, git, go, java, nginx, databases (pg, mongo, maria...), editors (macvim, vscode...), iTerm, et al. And the brew family of installs, which was covered as part of yesterday's thread [1]. Macos ships with some interpreters pre-installed as part of BigSur, including Ruby, Python and Perl. And most source distribut…

I think VS Code will get there very quickly given demand and availability on Windows ARM. For nginx etc, many people have moved to Docker or uses Vagrant workflows which may slow them down. Anyone who follows more classic workflows or installs from Brew should be in better shape.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#48
post #6

Although I’m definitely not convinced enough to make the jump yet, those emulation benchmarks are impressive (and seem to also apply somewhat to general use based on another review I read). Running x86 code faster than native equivalents, using an ARM chip, that will probably be consuming significantly less power doing it is something I did not expect to see in gen 1 of this switch.

It's interesting you say "not convinced", curious what you are skeptical of? I'm not upgrading because I just bought a 16" Mbpro 2 months ago, but I'm more than convinced this new architecture is the real deal. Unfortunately for me my 6 year old MacBook just died and I have to have something for work.

Re: M1 Macs Review

#49
post #38

Reviews (including this one) all say webcam sucks pretty bad though. Why Apple chose to release a laptop with a subpar webcam in 2020 is a mystery to me. This isn't even hard or expensive. Spend a couple dollars more on that webcam, Apple, don't be so greedy.

Can't it be because MacBook lids are absurdly thin? How thick are the lids of comparable machines (the XPS etc.)?

Re: M1 Macs Review

#50

After 6 years away from being "all in" on Apple, yesterday my base spec MacBook Air M1 arrived. Battery life is the key takeaway for me. Performance is fine but I'm used to a powerful desktop so it's not blowing me away but the battery life definitely is blowing me away. To run things under rosetta there's an arch command: e.g. arch -x86_64 brew install xxx - the arch preference is inherited by sub processes. I'm kin…

Great to hear that! I got myself the last Intel based mbp 16" fully jacked with R5600 HMB2 memory, as this is the last one that will run Windows, which I need often. I also need larger screen, so I'm waiting for M2 or M3 generation, that will inevitably come with 16" screen factor - looking forward to that amazing machine in a few years!
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