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If you have been passively reading about M1 and haven’t had the chance to upgrade your Air or MBP, just know it’s the real deal. I have never been happier with

If you have been passively reading about M1 and haven’t had the chance to upgrade your Air or MBP, just know it’s the real deal. I have never been happier with a laptop than this first generation M1 MBP. A little wild to think in — poof! — a single year we have gone to the Air, Mac Book Pro, iPad, and iMac sharing the SAME chip! Amazing, can’t wait for the new iPhone...

ttul 5y ago
This was indeed one of Apple's best moves ever. I've been happily using the M1 MacBook Air. So long as you steer clear of heavy apps that aren't M1-optimized, the battery life is insane and the device seems to make use of the high performance cores, which really scream. I am confident that the iMac will take advantage of that huge wedge of metal to dissipate heat even better than the laptops do. That will allow it to run all the cores all the time. My impression is people will be extremely happy with this hardware. I'm a total fanatic. I'll be dumping all my money into this new gear on April 30th.
- rvz 5y ago
  From the grandparent comment: > I have never been happier with a laptop than this first generation M1 MBP. I always skip the first generation of any Apple product. The M1 adoption cycle was infested with hype and was somewhat a hacky process, especially for the developer software ecosystem, and it is still immature, un-optimised and still not ready. You still can't even use two monitors on the M1 Macbook Air simultaneously which I can already do on my older Macbook. The M2 / M3 enabled Mac would be a more worthy upgrade, depending whether or not if they have addressed these issues rather than getting last years model. From the parent comment: > I'm a total fanatic. I'll be dumping all my money into this new gear on April 30th. I hope this is a joke right? Since I would rather dump that money on some cryptocurrency on April 30th, than dump it all on another beautiful expensive downgrade. At least wait until WWDC. To Downvoters: Given one already has a Macbook, I am in no rush to purchase either last years model or to purchase another shiny new one; especially if it is a first gen M1. The fanatics will say the same thing in WWDC and in September when they realise their 1st gen transition technology is already replaced. By then the software ecosystem for M1 is hopefully optimised and somewhat stabilised. Plenty of time to wait.
  - dijit 5y ago
    The hype so far is very well justified, though. There are issues, for sure, the "2 displays, max" limitation, the memory limitation, these are real problems- but they're not hidden away, they're well known and understood and if you can live with that then these are genuinely generational leaps in terms of performance/watt which _really matters_. Your negativity is misplaced, the machines limitations are well understood and the performance advantages known too. We don't know what M2/M1X will bring, but if you want huge performance wins _today_ and not hypothetically then the M1 is delivering that.
    - ttul 5y ago
      I'm a little surprised that they didn't do an M2 chip for the iMac. However, perhaps they'll roll that out later this year with a 27" iMac refresh. In any case, the M1 is insanely fast and will be more than fantastic for most people.
    - rvz 5y ago
      > We don't know what M2/M1X will bring, but if you want huge performance wins _today_ and not hypothetically then the M1 is delivering that. Given what Apple has done for their A10+ series processors, in their iPhones and iPads, I am long term Apple Silicon and not long term M1 which is why I skipping it and ignoring the 'huge performance wins _today_' crowd which means get in the M1 hype now, until the M1X, M2 hype starts, which is pointless and short term. What I'm saying is either stay on Intel until the Apple Silicon ecosystem is stable, then jump on at least M1X or M2 Macs and higher. Or go all in on M2 later. It is not even a secret that Apple is 3 years ahead of product releases. Thus it is better to wait. Patience comes to those who wait.
      - dijit 5y ago
        But, I’m sorry, that makes little sense to me. If I’m in the market for a laptop I would not buy an Intel Mac. Like you said, 3 generations ahead, it would be foolish. If we take what you said at face value then going from the latest Intel Mac to the M1 Mac is enough for most people to upgrade regardless (usual upgrade cycle is 3-5 generations). But I wasn’t making the argument that everyone should throw away their Intel Mac’s- only that if you can live with the limitations (as in, they don’t harm your productivity at all, many non-devs do use only one external screen if they use one at all) then it’s a no brainer and deserves the hype it gets.
treespace88 5y ago
Thanks I’m thinking about it. But is it good for ios development? It’s the only thing holding me back right now. Currently on 2012 16 inch MBP.
- ancount 5y ago
  M1 macs can run iOS apps natively, so I am guessing that the emulation for iOS development is a whole lot better. Sorry I can't really give you anything more concrete than that. I would wait until the fall, though, it is likely that there will be a 15+ inch MBP with a new apple chip.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
The M1 feels like magic in this power/thermal envelope. It’s almost as fast as a top of the line desktop CPU in many tasks, but it accomplishes this in the envelope of a power efficient laptop. I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do with the larger MacBook Pro models.
deergomoo 5y ago
I sold my nearly maxed out 16" MacBook Pro for an M1 Air. I hated the 16" with a passion, but the Air is my favourite computer I've ever owned. It sounds like a criticism, but the best thing about it is that it gives me absolutely no cause to ever think about it. I don't get irritated by it being burning hot and loud as hell because it's always cool and silent. I don't have to worry about battery life because it just lasts all day. I don't constantly bump stuff on the Touch Bar because it has actual function keys. It just gets the hell out of the way and lets me do my job. That would be enough, but it's also drastically faster than the 16" at literally everything I do day-to-day, which is nice.
- gordon_freeman 5y ago
  care to share hardware specs of your M1 Air?
  - lucasverra 5y ago
    16gb ram, base SSD. You cannot go wrong with that. Great machine I'm typing on this message
    - ianai 5y ago
      16 gig and 512g ssd. It gets like 10% better ssd performance and the drive usage is less than reported for the 8 gig models.
  - deergomoo 5y ago
    Sure: 16” was 6-core i7, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 5500M 4GB GPU Air is M1 with the 8-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
    - wil421 5y ago
      Went from a late 2017 15” MBP i7 4core 16GB, RAM 512GB, Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB of GDDR5 to the same Air config. Unbelievable change.
    - 5y ago
lofi_lory 5y ago
Have the USB-C PD issues been resolved? Like hubs frying the motherboard for some bad PD implementation?

ttul 5y ago

This was indeed one of Apple's best moves ever. I've been happily using the M1 MacBook Air. So long as you steer clear of heavy apps that aren't M1-optimized, the battery life is insane and the device seems to make use of the high performance cores, which really scream. I am confident that the iMac will take advantage of that huge wedge of metal to dissipate heat even better than the laptops do. That will allow it to run all the cores all the time. My impression is people will be extremely happy with this hardware. I'm a total fanatic. I'll be dumping all my money into this new gear on April 30th.

rvz 5y ago
From the grandparent comment: > I have never been happier with a laptop than this first generation M1 MBP. I always skip the first generation of any Apple product. The M1 adoption cycle was infested with hype and was somewhat a hacky process, especially for the developer software ecosystem, and it is still immature, un-optimised and still not ready. You still can't even use two monitors on the M1 Macbook Air simultaneously which I can already do on my older Macbook. The M2 / M3 enabled Mac would be a more worthy upgrade, depending whether or not if they have addressed these issues rather than getting last years model. From the parent comment: > I'm a total fanatic. I'll be dumping all my money into this new gear on April 30th. I hope this is a joke right? Since I would rather dump that money on some cryptocurrency on April 30th, than dump it all on another beautiful expensive downgrade. At least wait until WWDC. To Downvoters: Given one already has a Macbook, I am in no rush to purchase either last years model or to purchase another shiny new one; especially if it is a first gen M1. The fanatics will say the same thing in WWDC and in September when they realise their 1st gen transition technology is already replaced. By then the software ecosystem for M1 is hopefully optimised and somewhat stabilised. Plenty of time to wait.
- dijit 5y ago
  The hype so far is very well justified, though. There are issues, for sure, the "2 displays, max" limitation, the memory limitation, these are real problems- but they're not hidden away, they're well known and understood and if you can live with that then these are genuinely generational leaps in terms of performance/watt which _really matters_. Your negativity is misplaced, the machines limitations are well understood and the performance advantages known too. We don't know what M2/M1X will bring, but if you want huge performance wins _today_ and not hypothetically then the M1 is delivering that.
  - ttul 5y ago
    I'm a little surprised that they didn't do an M2 chip for the iMac. However, perhaps they'll roll that out later this year with a 27" iMac refresh. In any case, the M1 is insanely fast and will be more than fantastic for most people.
  - rvz 5y ago
    > We don't know what M2/M1X will bring, but if you want huge performance wins _today_ and not hypothetically then the M1 is delivering that. Given what Apple has done for their A10+ series processors, in their iPhones and iPads, I am long term Apple Silicon and not long term M1 which is why I skipping it and ignoring the 'huge performance wins _today_' crowd which means get in the M1 hype now, until the M1X, M2 hype starts, which is pointless and short term. What I'm saying is either stay on Intel until the Apple Silicon ecosystem is stable, then jump on at least M1X or M2 Macs and higher. Or go all in on M2 later. It is not even a secret that Apple is 3 years ahead of product releases. Thus it is better to wait. Patience comes to those who wait.
    - dijit 5y ago
      But, I’m sorry, that makes little sense to me. If I’m in the market for a laptop I would not buy an Intel Mac. Like you said, 3 generations ahead, it would be foolish. If we take what you said at face value then going from the latest Intel Mac to the M1 Mac is enough for most people to upgrade regardless (usual upgrade cycle is 3-5 generations). But I wasn’t making the argument that everyone should throw away their Intel Mac’s- only that if you can live with the limitations (as in, they don’t harm your productivity at all, many non-devs do use only one external screen if they use one at all) then it’s a no brainer and deserves the hype it gets.

treespace88 5y ago

Thanks I’m thinking about it. But is it good for ios development? It’s the only thing holding me back right now. Currently on 2012 16 inch MBP.

ancount 5y ago
M1 macs can run iOS apps natively, so I am guessing that the emulation for iOS development is a whole lot better. Sorry I can't really give you anything more concrete than that. I would wait until the fall, though, it is likely that there will be a 15+ inch MBP with a new apple chip.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

The M1 feels like magic in this power/thermal envelope. It’s almost as fast as a top of the line desktop CPU in many tasks, but it accomplishes this in the envelope of a power efficient laptop. I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do with the larger MacBook Pro models.

deergomoo 5y ago

I sold my nearly maxed out 16" MacBook Pro for an M1 Air. I hated the 16" with a passion, but the Air is my favourite computer I've ever owned. It sounds like a criticism, but the best thing about it is that it gives me absolutely no cause to ever think about it. I don't get irritated by it being burning hot and loud as hell because it's always cool and silent. I don't have to worry about battery life because it just lasts all day. I don't constantly bump stuff on the Touch Bar because it has actual function keys. It just gets the hell out of the way and lets me do my job. That would be enough, but it's also drastically faster than the 16" at literally everything I do day-to-day, which is nice.

gordon_freeman 5y ago
care to share hardware specs of your M1 Air?
- lucasverra 5y ago
  16gb ram, base SSD. You cannot go wrong with that. Great machine I'm typing on this message
  - ianai 5y ago
    16 gig and 512g ssd. It gets like 10% better ssd performance and the drive usage is less than reported for the 8 gig models.
- deergomoo 5y ago
  Sure: 16” was 6-core i7, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 5500M 4GB GPU Air is M1 with the 8-core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
  - wil421 5y ago
    Went from a late 2017 15” MBP i7 4core 16GB, RAM 512GB, Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB of GDDR5 to the same Air config. Unbelievable change.
  - 5y ago

lofi_lory 5y ago

Have the USB-C PD issues been resolved? Like hubs frying the motherboard for some bad PD implementation?