[Closed] M1 Mac users - how's it going?

Very happy so far, MBP with M1 processor and I edit video and photos for work everyday. It’s fast, runs smooth and zero issues so far. Much quicker than my old I7 iMac

I just replaced my 2017 top spec Macbook Pro with a 14" M1 Pro and honestly it is blindingly good. Battery life is easily a whole day or longer or constant use, the speed of the thing is blindingly quick compared to my four year old machine, the keyboard is a delight (god I hated the old butterfly keys on the 2017 models), the function keys are back and the beyond stupid touch bar is gone and I've even got an SD card slot (damn and just when I stopped shooting digital and moved to film!) and, bless me, the mag safe.

I've been waiting for a good 18 months for the M1 Pro specs to come out and now they are here I'm super happy. I do a lot of image processing of film scans that come in around 400MB per image (these are medium format high res 16-bit TIFFS) and the speed with which my PP now works is just a delight.

M1 pro since Saturday, the only pain point so far is I used to be able to virtualise some networking kit, and now can’t. Otherwise all the standard work stuff still works just fine.

Went from a 2012 pro. It’s quite an upgrade though all I can really say so far performance wise is the old one was at its limits and the new one barely ticks over.

Also very well here. Fast and seems reliable so far.

M1 24" here. I do corporate video, and it glides through C500ii footage like butter

Another recommend.

Moved from a 2014 13' MBP to a M1 16Gb 13' MBP last year, zero complaints apart from the recent 14' MBP Pro envy.

Exactly what Jude said above. Replaced my 2017 pro with a 14” 10 core 32gb ram and its simp,y stunning.

The M1 Pro actually makes a MacBook very tempting even for someone that until now would never have contemplated one before.

Sorely tempted. Let's see what the Christmas bonus looks like from work 🙂

Moved from a 2011 13" MBP to a 13" M1 and it's great. Battery life unbelievable.
Very compact and light too.
My old one fried its SSD just after I bought the new one, so I whacked in the old HD and sold it on.

Good timing!

My old one fried its SSD just after I bought the new one, so I whacked in the old HD and sold it on.

That you can actually do that makes those older MBPs quite desirable. I have one from, I think, 2009 that I 'retromoded' for my eldest son to use. I stuck in 16gb of RAM, a 1TB SSD and installed the latest OSX (although that took quite some doing as the machine was so old I couldn't just download the OS from Apple and had to get some help hacking the kernel to get the machine to install from an external boot drive).

The machine works a dream now!

M1 Air astonishingly faster than a 2010 MBP ever was. Edit photos an videos with ease. Not compatible with Aperture but no worries. Don't use time machine, just copy files over manually. Makes for a good clear out anyway.

Agree re: migration assistant

Does not play well moving to apple silicon. Better to move files.

I used it thinking 'great this will be easy' - ended up having to do factory reset. It tries to port all of your applications as X86. Bad. Easy enough to just re download creative cloud etc myself again - only change computer every 5 years anyway

Thanks all, particularly for the heads up on migration assistant.

I guess the question will be do my family need food this year or should I get a 14" MBP?

Wasn’t the M1 MBP restricted to just one external monitor? Was that just MBP or any M1 machine? And has it been resolved now?

Ha, that's funny to hear about migration assistant. I used it in 2015 when I moved to my current MBP and it was bollocks then. Interesting to hear that it's still no good 6 years later!

the keyboard is a delight (god I hated the old butterfly keys on the 2017 models), the function keys are back and the beyond stupid touch bar is gone and I’ve even got an SD card slot (damn and just when I stopped shooting digital and moved to film!) and, bless me, the mag safe.

Btw if anyone else fancies spending 2 grand on a MacBook with a proper keyboard, function keys, an SD card slot and magsafe, I've got a lovely 2015 MBP you can have... 😉

2021 bottom of the range MBP. Only issue I've experienced is seemingly poorer wifi performance than my previous 2015 MBP. No idea why but side by side, the old one manages to connect and maintain stronger wifi signal.

And if the esc button stops working do a restart!

M1 14” 32GB + M1 Mac Mini for work. Both awesome. Finally time to upgrade for everyone running the old 2013-2015 vintage MBP.

Only downside is it’s a tad bulkier and looks a tad Dell’ish in comparison to the old models. Not getting any wifi issues with either. Performance, battery, keyboard all where they need to be to justify the upgrade for pro users IMO.

Latest parallels is now good for those that want latest Windows as you can’t dual boot. Only thing they won’t run is Age of Empires 4!

For home users buying themselves that don’t need portability it’s well worth seeking an official refurb M1 Mac Mini. Great value machine!

Were got the mid range iMac to replace a 2012 version. Straight off the shelf, what they had in stock.
I do miss the SD slot, but a Satechi port takes care of that. Bit wobbly though, it's designed for a MacBook.
Biggest issue is photos on an external HDD is a bit sluggish. Probably should get a Thunderbolt SSD.

Well.
I replaced my son’s hand-me-down 2014 15” i7 MBP with an M1Max 10/32 32GB 16”. Apparently works fine on Minecraft with everything turned up (including ‘shaders’) and The Sims with no fan noise yet. Seems OK for more serious pursuits too.

Replaced my 2017 15” i7 MBP with a 14” M1Pro 10/16 16GB. Noticeably faster at basic things and great with lightroom touch ups. Lightroom still gets my goat with its poor thumbnail scrolling but…

Instant on is nice. So far so good.

Ref the multiple monitors, I think with the M1 pro chips you can now connect 2x 4K screens @60Hz

I have recently got an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage. Replacing a 2016 i7 mackbook pro with a similar spec.

I pretty much use it solely for running Logic Pro and NI Maschine for music recording. So far so good, I have not really taxed it much yet, I need to install some of my other software synths on it to load up some of my projects that struggled on the old machine.

I am running two monitors on it one on HDMI and one from a USB C/Thundbolt port.

Happy so far.

Slightly different case to most on here, I was given a half decent windows laptop to use for work so I replaced my old personal MPB 15'' with an M1 Air almost a year ago. Its been fantastic, the battery lasts seemingly forever (although it's no longer used for anything too strenuous, web, light office work and some photo editing).

Anyone running xcode and/or any intellij IDEs - i know there were some issues when the M1 first came out. M1 specific support is in Beta on intellij but I think that's an optimized version and the normal one should be ok - that's what i think but be nice to hear some real-world experience. If OK now I might take the plunge.

I use a Mac but not near the M1. Nearer the M25.

I bought a MBA 16Gb 8/8 last Nov straight after the first official reviews came out. It's my daily driver and still astonishes me with how effortlessly it handles everything thrown at it; video prod in FCP, graphic design, 20-30 Safari tabs, Parallels, Office all running simultaneously.

Also, it's totally quiet, cool and the battery lasts forever, even when using SwitchResX to run my display at 2048x1280. It powers my 4k LG screen effortlessly - no lag whatsoever.

Before the recent refresh event, I thought I might consider upgrading to the newer M1, most likely a 32Gb Pro. But TBH, my M1 MBA does everything I need so there's no point throwing £2500+ at a machine that will only give me a slight real word performance advantage.

EDIT: like a lot of people, I found Chrome to be a battery hog when I ran it back in Dec/Jan. So I removed it and switched permanently to Safari. Not sure if that's been fixed yet. Google Sync (or whatever it's been rebranded as) can be a bit niggly too - you won't lose any files, but you might occasionally have to use Finder to open something instead of going via Recents.

I use a Mac but not near the M1. Nearer the M25.

Not near junction 21 then.

The big problem with the M1 Macbooks is that it's cold now and they don't warm your hands up like the old models did.

No other downsides. My work and personal laptops are both M1 (base MBA for personal, pimped up first gen MBP for work) so they're used pretty heavily.

Only issue I’ve experienced is seemingly poorer wifi performance than my previous 2015 MBP.

I've seen a few of these issues at work, if you're using big sur or above try turning off the private Mac address on the device this seems to cause performance issues.

I've had a M1 since last Christmas use it for Go pro editing and Logic and for that its been excellent. Only problem I had was with Chrome it was causing really bad memory leakage, I must have been one of the first to experience it at the time as there wasn't much on the web about it. It seems it a common issue across an a number of programs.

Anyone running InDesign with big files on an M1 yet?

Chrome and Xcode all good. Also nice to be able to run iPad Apps without the need for simulator. Had to AirPlay / connect iPad over zoom for 3rd party apps previously which was a nightmare.

If you are not doing any video, anything RAM intensive and are fine with a single external monitor the previous version M1 is a bargain as a refurb. 14” and the Mini will run multi monitor fine. To be fair so could my old Dell latitude from back in the day, used to live those laptop docks 😂

Not much more to add to this, other than that work issued me with an M1 Air about six months back and I love it. I’m no power-user, but it’s seriously quick for my needs compared to any Intel equipped model I’ve used and I can do almost a whole day’s work on battery alone. Nice that they got rid of the junk keyboards too.

@sillysilly

For home users buying themselves that don’t need portability it’s well worth seeking an official refurb M1 Mac Mini. Great value machine!

Do you think that's a good alternative to the full 24" Mac?

I was waiting for John Lewis to get the Imac 24" 512mb machines back in stock and I have just had an email saying they are back :-0

But your comment on the mini has got be all of a dither now !!!

I suppose the full machine obviously has the mouse, keyboard and the great monitor, but its another £800 for that lot, which is a lot of dosh 🙁

aarrgghhh

Depends on your preferred setup.

For pure performance per £ the Mini wins.

If you are new to Apple ecosystem and don’t have a monitor, want your monitor on an arm or have any special requirements it may be better to go iMac for simplicity.

If you have a 4k/5k monitor or 2 on an arm/s and already have an Apple keyboard / trackpad then I’d take the Mini.

The iMac display will kill a budget Samsung 4K for everyday viewing pleasure if that is also a consideration.

The 24" display is stunning (as a photographer)

Think - literally - scaled up modern iPhone.

Made much more sense to me to get 24" than a mini + £1000+ monitor

My 2019 16" Intel MBP is great, apart from the fact that the fan goes nuts when I use Zoom or Teams with an external monitor plugged in. I think this was a (shameful) peculiarity of this particular model, but before I hand it on to a colleague and replace it with a 14" M1 pro MBP can I just check that they can cope with this combo without complaining? Because if not I'll get an M1 Air as it doesn't have a fan in the first place...

I run Teams and Zoom all day on my 14" MBP, usually with Firefox/Edge both open and Photoshop, attached to an LG 5k external display over TB3 and to a iPad over wifi. I haven't heard the fan yet...

They are blazingly quick, even in Lightroom, but I think I'd say the same with an Air: side by side it seems marginally, and I mean marginally, slower with the same load than the MBP...

Thanks @iamtheresurrection - that's reassuring to hear!

To a poster above, yes I run large Indesign files on a M1 Mac Mini and it's very fast and stable. I waited until the Adobe compatibility thing had been resolved. And although it replaced an iMac I also had a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc so the Mini was better value. And also looks pretty cool.

@lorax I had the same issue with my 2012 MBP and a 4K monitor attached. Teams calls (especially video ones or worse video and presentation) would make the fan go wild.

Done a bunch on the new MBP with the same monitor attached and not a whisper yet. Running multiple other apps at the same time.

Thanks @bassmandan - sounds good!

Thanks @corroded I'll be under renewed pressure from the colouring in table to upgrade them to m1's now

Oh man. I had a quick look at the 14" MBP in a shop the other day and the screen melted my face off. I guess at least when I'm looking up 'Rice and ketchup' recipes on my new laptop they'll look great.

Look stop it now. I'm trying desperately to avoid upgrading my tired 2012 MBP.

I’ve been thinking about upgrading our 2014 iMac which has hybrid drive thing to a Mac mini. As were both working from home I fancy being able to plug either my laptop (dell with dell usb c dock) or a Mac mini into the dock and use either home pc or work computer at the same desk. The iMac is sitting permanently behind the wife’s laptop on the desk and it would be good to have some more flexibility.

Just a bit worried about screens though as the iMac is retina and the screen is lovely.

Also - does it make sense to have the family photo store on a stand alone ssd instead of piling it on the Mac mini and getting a massive hard drive? They are already backed up on iCloud and a time machine connected hard drive.

I presume the Mac mini will run my 2 x dell 24” screens ok, they’re not 4 k or anything. I’d then get a decent 28” screen for the upstairs desk that I can run the wife’s work laptop through or the Mac mini. Any ideas for a reasonable screen?

Nearly there with the 'buy it now' on the 24" IMac rather than the Mac mini.

Just a bit of help with an External HDD please

I currently run a windows machine (6-7 years old) and its struggling, hence looking for something else.

I also run a NAS drive (Netgear Stora) as a back up and I'm/we are not using it as a NAS at all.

Its only there as a back up. So I was going to take the LAN cable to the NAS and use it for the Apple TV and Zwift in the garage to make that stable as possible

So I still want to back up, so I was thinking external Hard drive permanently connected to the Imac.

Question is HDD or SSD? and does anybody have any recommendations for external back up drives, it would be nice if it was silver to match the IMac BTW 😉

I use a 1TB Samsung T7 SSD drive for a Time Machine backup and a 2TB crucial SSD as additional storage (in fact I have 2 of these) This works really well and the performance is pretty good.

I could probably use a spinning disk for the backup but to be honest I like the fact there are no moving parts and its quiet for when I am recording.

So I still want to back up, so I was thinking external Hard drive permanently connected to the Imac.

Question is HDD or SSD? and does anybody have any recommendations for external back up drives, it would be nice if it was silver to match the IMac BTW 😉

What about a cloud backup like iDrive instead?
There's an offer here for $20 for the first year.
https://www.idrive.com/idrive/deals/pdn/bestbackups/?data1=cloudtimemachine_p.1.summary.bottomcta_l.en_pid.8934

Looks like I may have managed to wangle a 14" MacBook Pro through work. Does anyone have a view on whether 16GB of RAM is good for general use, or with multiple documents, powerpoints, large files etc I should get 32GB? It's not cheap so I won't do it if it's really only needed for people working with large video files etc...

If you have budget, it would be churlish not to get the 32gb version.
Unless you need to write a justification of course.

Thanks @oldtennisshoes. I do need to write a justification, will see what they say 🙂

I think unless you are currently doing, or planning to do any high end graphics or modelling work, then it will be hard to write a justification.
I have a 2020 spec Macbook Air with 8 gb that happily handles all office tasks - even more so with the move to Office 365 on the web and g suite.

I have the 14″ MacBook Pro 16gb / 500 base model. Was loving it until last weekend when it had a hardware failure and wouldn't start up. Just got a brand new replacement, so will see how it goes.

My missus just got an M1 MacBook Air to replace a still perfectly functional 2012 MacBook Pro.

It's the base model, 8gb, but with 512gb SD. It's insanely capable. Like editing 4K video in iMovie whilst live streaming it over TEAMs with no hold ups, whilst also having multiple tabs open in safari and many ppt files. Goodness knows what magic even the basic M1 chip has. It's nuts!

My daily driver is a 2019 souped up MacBook Pro with 16bg, and it the Air is so much faster. Crazy.

To your question - I don't think you'd need 32 gb, 16gb M1 won't be even slightly stretched by what you intended to use it for.

Thanks all. I'm paranoid about it because I'm totally fed up with loudly spinning fans just with a second monitor plugged in, and their screaming objections once I get onto a Teams or Zoom call, but it sounds as if I'l be fine with the new machine.

I did press the button on one imac

8gb of ram and a 512 SDD.

Its my first mac machine (apart form a phone) and its taking some time to get used to, but the screen and sound are fantastic and its fast. Really glad I took the plunge TBH.

New iMac convert here 🙂

Anyone see the presentation last night? Wasn't going to bother, but then watched avidly after the last-minute rumours re. Studio (which is something I've been waiting for a couple of years now, since the first rumblings about M1!)
Perfect to replace my ageing iMac (although, to be fair, it's still absolutely fine as my daily workhorse but can no longer update to the latest OS)
Just uhmming and ahhhing over spec before I hit "buy". Defo Max rather than Ultra though! Won't bother with the Studio Monitor (at least initially) although it looks cool, but just a bit too spendy plus I wouldn't use the video-conferencing features. Maybe get a couple of big LG 4K monitors instead - possibly at least one ultra-wide?

I didn't see that so thanks for sharing. The Studio looks very well specced, just a shame the design is so abysmal. For a company that has built a large part of its fortune on cutting edge industrial design, this is disappointing.

The thing about monitors is that excellence (or perhaps more correctly ‘accuracy') is still not cheap; if you absolutely need to have the most accurate colour rendition possible you’re going to pay considerably more for that than one which is a little wayward or has fewer display options. I use a 32" BenQ SW320, which was around £1200 when I got it five years ago, but it’s required for photography work and rendering colour consistently. It’s colour reproduction that tends to drive price rather than resolution.

If you don’t need that colour accuracy though, then there’s loads of better value choice than the Apple.

M1 iMac replaced 2014 27.5 iMac (Retina). It's a faster machine for sure. I notice especially editing vid. Screen is very very good.

M1 MacBook Air replaced 2011 MacBook Air.  Night and Day!

I had been keeping an eye out for an updated Mac Mini, and the Studio looks great, but at £2K+ it's a bit out of my league! Might go with the standard M1 version after all...

Our IT department has been looking at the next iteration of the workstations for heavy users, and the new Mac Studio appears to be very competitively priced. There's AMD based hardware which is comparable in spec and price, and latest generation Intel kit is basically unobtainable. They're very excited to get one and compare for our workloads.

If you don't need a full-on workstation like the Studio, the standard M1 Mini is still an excellent deal.

Is there a new MacBook Air due?

Been chewing for a few months over getting my wife an Air M1 (the standard model). I notice Currys are selling them a bit cheaper and when i check the Apple website they show pre-orders starting at 1pm today.
Couldn’t see anything online in the recent announcement relating to MacBook Air ?

when i check the Apple website they show pre-orders starting at 1pm today.

The Studio looks very well specced, just a shame the design is so abysmal.

I’m sure they said something about users wanting more modularity… then introduce a new desktop that isn’t modular. I think people would’ve been happy with an M1 Mac Mini with a standard SSD slot under a removable base.

We’ve a very early M1 MBP which is fine, and not noticeably better or worse than the intel Mac Mini that’s the other computer. I liked the Touch Bar but I appreciate I am in a small minority. As with @Alex above it was night and day better than the 2011 MBP it replaced.

you’re right, there was no mention of MacBook (Air) in the presentation though. Guess we’ll find out at 1?

Well I’m non the wiser whether anything has changed 😆

From a month ago (I'm really on top of things me)

To your question – I don’t think you’d need 32 gb, 16gb M1 won’t be even slightly stretched by what you intended to use it for.

Maybe not immediately but it could be the difference between running it in 10 years and having to replace because the lack of RAM is causing excessive swapping (or whatever is the tech at that point).

Just setting up a new M1 mac mini... oh my god, trying to get ionic and capacitor to run smoothly was a pain... could not instal ruby, eventually found an forum post which helped out.

Its only used to build apps in xcode.... so quite a simple process, i just need a mac with a bigger hard drive as my last one ran out of space 🙁

Seems quick - but i've not managed to actually build any old projects yet! so time will tell.

Liking the idea of the new M1 ipad air.