New Apple Silicon Macs: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini

[nicksoph]

Been playing with MBP and think I will be sending it back. I had stretched my budget to go for 16GB and further stretched it to go for the Pro over the Air and had hoped that Id be ok with 256GB drive but 2 days in Im looking at a half full drive and re-thinking my decision. It is very nice to use, responsive and well behaved (except touch bar has an issue when writing here on TM, where pressing the backspace key can make the touch bar flick between two states and back again) but it is over powered for everything I do and I just cant bring myself to give over another £200 for an extra 256GB of ssd and dont really want to have an external drive permanently plugged in. I will return and wait for the SE edition for something to play with and in the meantime buy a slightly better version of my Lenovo 110S which although ridiculously underpowered actually meets my practical needs better and at a tenth of the cost. Any advice on a cheap windows laptop that's good for a hack appreciated.

 

[xplo]

Sandy Bridge was released in 2011. How many people are still using those today?

I'm on Ivy Bridge.

Some people will argue that Big Sur (and older) is working great and will continue to indefinitely. I remember seeing the same argument from people claiming Mountain Lion or High Sierra were the best versions of macOS and they would stay on it. There were also people who decided that it was more important to have Nvidia cards and stay on High Sierra. How many of those people do you think are still on those old versions of macOS?

I'm still on High Sierra.

Do what's best for you, but just because you want to be on the cutting edge doesn't mean everyone needs to be there.

 

[pastrychef]

I'm on Ivy Bridge.



I'm still on High Sierra.

Do what's best for you, but just because you want to be on the cutting edge doesn't mean everyone needs to be there.

How many people do you thing are still on High Sierra vs how many have upgraded to Big Sur?

The update to Big Sur was enough to DDoS Apple servers.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Interesting discussion.

A lot of Pros will stick with older macOS versions because their business-critical software runs on it. A lot of amateurs just do the Hackintosh thing for fun or because, like me, they love macOS and enjoy tinkering.

The problem with High Sierra now - and earlier versions - is that the App Store does not allow new purchases, only access to what you already own. Try it and see what I mean. If you are happy not to upgrade anything or buy anything new, I actually agree High Sierra is a great OS.

 

[tabarus]

So all new Apple Silicon Mac use the same type of M1 Chip, RAM and SSD , correct ?
But why do we see different Benchmark results ?
I am considering to either get a MBA or a Mini , but the mini seams to be more powerful, no ?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

So all new Apple Silicon Mac use the same type of M1 Chip, RAM and SSD , correct ?
But why do we see different Benchmark results ?
I am considering to either get a MBA or a Mini , but the mini seams to be more powerful, no ?

Yes, the Air has fewer cores and no cooling fan. The Pro and Mini have the same cores and fans.

I think the Mini is more powerful because it can draw more power, but don't quote me on that

 

[trs96]

Yes, the Air has fewer cores and no cooling fan

I believe that Apple binned the 8 core GPUs. They disable the 1 core that doesn't meet specs and sell that in the lowest end MBA. If you're not doing anything intensive like video editing the fan isn't needed. So for internet surfing and social media the entry level MBA is fine. The extra benefit is that you can also do basic video and photo editing as well, without a fan spinning up at maximum RPMs and making a lot of noise.

 

[nicksoph]

Nearly all my work is text based (VS Code, Word, Excel) and even though some of the Excel sheets I work on are huge I've yet to get the fan on the Pro to come on in use, stress testing the CPU will get it to come on but even at full speed it seems quieter than the old MBP (even though they have exactly the same fan). Impressed with the battery life and responsiveness but I need more storage and dont need that much compute power. My hope is that they will create a lower spec laptop because as it is, I feel like Im driving a Ferrari at 40 mph in a straight line.

 

[trs96]

I feel like Im driving a Ferrari at 40 mph in a straight line.

I like how one tech writer compared everyday Windows laptops to the MacBook Pro unibody.

"It's like the difference between the family station wagon with wooden side panels and bumper stickers pasted all over it and a new Porsche 944.

I believe the quote is from back in the Windows XP days of the mid to latter 2000s.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I like how one tech writer compared everyday Windows laptops to the MacBook Pro unibody.

"It's like the difference between the family station wagon with bumper stickers and a new Porsche.

View attachment 500162 View attachment 500163

I believe the quote is from back in the Windows XP days of the mid to latter 2000s.

Really, the new M1 machines are as good as advertised in real use. Benchmarks can be confusing. Rosetta 2 is flawless. Just try one ...