6 ms·

I'm still running a late 2013 Macbook, now on Big Sur. The battery life is now about 3-4 hours even if I'm doing dev work, but otherwise it's still pretty goo

I'm still running a late 2013 Macbook, now on Big Sur. The battery life is now about 3-4 hours even if I'm doing dev work, but otherwise it's still pretty good otherwise, for a 7 year old laptop. I had a Sony Vaio back in the early 00s, and it started with running XP 'ok', and then... Vista, which made it dog slow. My point being that I'm surprised that a 7 year old laptop is still "good". A new laptop isn't critical to my work at the moment, so I'm happy to wait for an M2, if that's what it will be called. Looking at Apple timelines a new chip tends to be 1-2 years apart, and I'm fine with that. I'm also reluctant to give up Magsafe, or at least have to buy a magnetic USB C connector.

Tagbert 6y ago
With Apple moving forward rapidly on this architecture change, I expect them to upgrade the processors at a faster pace than normal. They are 6 months into a 2 year plan to migrate all of their systems. I would expect the next version of M chips in 6 to 12 months with higher RAM limits and faster GPU. That would be targeted at their other laptops and the iMac. It will likely take longer for them to get to something that can be used in the Mac Pro and maybe an iMac Pro where RAM and GPU needs are even greater.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  I wonder if they will simply provide a motherboard with more cpu slots for M1 v2 for higher end machines like iMac/iMac Pro/Mac Pro.
  - potemkinhr 6y ago
    The ages old AMD philosophy, shovel more cores at it? With such low TDP it might work
  - glangdale 6y ago
    It seems unlikely. There's a lot of extra complexity with multi-socket and there's no actual reason for them to do this. I'm not a CPU designer but they might do the equivalent of what you said with a chiplet design like AMD (Intel also has announced plans to eventually get to chiplets).
ldrndll 6y ago
If it’s any consolation the battery life on my 6 month old 16” MBP is also 3-4 hours when I’m doing work. The CPU is an absolute dog, and the fans kick in under the faintest of loads.
- desiarnezjr 6y ago
  Same battery life here. :( Love the actual machine but the battery life is a disappointment. Just got a 16MB 500GB M1 Air and so far everything is at least as snappy as the 16" Pro, and battery looks like a full 8 hour day + so far... it's a keeper I think. I also find the keyboard a bit nicer to type on personally than on the 16", so accuracy is up.
- square_usual 6y ago
  Moving from a 2015 Air to a 2018 Pro felt like a downgrade since the battery life was much, much worse. I have to keep the power plug around if I want to work on the couch for any amount of time.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    Isn't the Pro line optimized for power, while the Air line is optimized for mobile utility (incl. battery life)?
samcheng 6y ago
I love Magsafe as well. However, if the new laptop battery truly lasts all day, then it won't be nearly as important. I'll just charge the laptop overnight, and treat it like my phone. Maybe they will integrate wireless charging into the laptops soon?
- billti 6y ago
  I would agree, with the exception that I’ve noticed really CPU heavy things like builds that take > 1 min still complete a lot faster when plugged in, even on a full battery. I assume they still need to throttle somewhat when only running on battery.
  - macintux 6y ago
    Air? Or do you have a fan?
    - trynewideas 6y ago
      It's not throttling, per se; the M1 prioritizes its efficiency cores when off mains power, and the performance cores when on mains power. When unplugged, it engages the performance cores as little as possible. You should be able to run `powermetrics` on an interval while running a high-intensity task to confirm; the performance cores pin first when on mains, then ramp up the efficiency cores, and the opposite happens on battery. It's a big difference because the efficiency cores max out at about 2W draw, and the performance cores max out at around 18W. There's a big incentive in battery life to rely on that behavior. I'm not sure yet if it's tunable, macOS doesn't make that a transparent behavior where you can just tweak it at will. The Air will throttle if under full load long enough, but it's still mostly just ramping down the performance cores to stay cool.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 6y ago
Magsafe seems less an issue now. With a true 'all day' battery, you'll probably only plug it in at a desk where tripping or knocking things over isn't an issue. While travelling, you just charge it at night or when you aren't using it. Much more like smartphone usage. How many people are aching for a magsafe phone charger?
Rillen 6y ago
Thats crazy; Are you using it as your daily primarly work horse? I can't imagine how you got used to the performance you have right now. Either you are not doing anything with your device or you would hugely benefit of upgrading at least every 3 years or so.

Tagbert 6y ago

With Apple moving forward rapidly on this architecture change, I expect them to upgrade the processors at a faster pace than normal. They are 6 months into a 2 year plan to migrate all of their systems. I would expect the next version of M chips in 6 to 12 months with higher RAM limits and faster GPU. That would be targeted at their other laptops and the iMac. It will likely take longer for them to get to something that can be used in the Mac Pro and maybe an iMac Pro where RAM and GPU needs are even greater.

michaelmrose 6y ago
I wonder if they will simply provide a motherboard with more cpu slots for M1 v2 for higher end machines like iMac/iMac Pro/Mac Pro.
- potemkinhr 6y ago
  The ages old AMD philosophy, shovel more cores at it? With such low TDP it might work
- glangdale 6y ago
  It seems unlikely. There's a lot of extra complexity with multi-socket and there's no actual reason for them to do this. I'm not a CPU designer but they might do the equivalent of what you said with a chiplet design like AMD (Intel also has announced plans to eventually get to chiplets).

ldrndll 6y ago

If it’s any consolation the battery life on my 6 month old 16” MBP is also 3-4 hours when I’m doing work. The CPU is an absolute dog, and the fans kick in under the faintest of loads.

desiarnezjr 6y ago
Same battery life here. :( Love the actual machine but the battery life is a disappointment. Just got a 16MB 500GB M1 Air and so far everything is at least as snappy as the 16" Pro, and battery looks like a full 8 hour day + so far... it's a keeper I think. I also find the keyboard a bit nicer to type on personally than on the 16", so accuracy is up.
square_usual 6y ago
Moving from a 2015 Air to a 2018 Pro felt like a downgrade since the battery life was much, much worse. I have to keep the power plug around if I want to work on the couch for any amount of time.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  Isn't the Pro line optimized for power, while the Air line is optimized for mobile utility (incl. battery life)?

samcheng 6y ago

I love Magsafe as well. However, if the new laptop battery truly lasts all day, then it won't be nearly as important. I'll just charge the laptop overnight, and treat it like my phone. Maybe they will integrate wireless charging into the laptops soon?

billti 6y ago
I would agree, with the exception that I’ve noticed really CPU heavy things like builds that take > 1 min still complete a lot faster when plugged in, even on a full battery. I assume they still need to throttle somewhat when only running on battery.
- macintux 6y ago
  Air? Or do you have a fan?
  - trynewideas 6y ago
    It's not throttling, per se; the M1 prioritizes its efficiency cores when off mains power, and the performance cores when on mains power. When unplugged, it engages the performance cores as little as possible. You should be able to run `powermetrics` on an interval while running a high-intensity task to confirm; the performance cores pin first when on mains, then ramp up the efficiency cores, and the opposite happens on battery. It's a big difference because the efficiency cores max out at about 2W draw, and the performance cores max out at around 18W. There's a big incentive in battery life to rely on that behavior. I'm not sure yet if it's tunable, macOS doesn't make that a transparent behavior where you can just tweak it at will. The Air will throttle if under full load long enough, but it's still mostly just ramping down the performance cores to stay cool.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi 6y ago

Magsafe seems less an issue now. With a true 'all day' battery, you'll probably only plug it in at a desk where tripping or knocking things over isn't an issue. While travelling, you just charge it at night or when you aren't using it. Much more like smartphone usage. How many people are aching for a magsafe phone charger?

Rillen 6y ago

Thats crazy; Are you using it as your daily primarly work horse? I can't imagine how you got used to the performance you have right now. Either you are not doing anything with your device or you would hugely benefit of upgrading at least every 3 years or so.