Apple M1 MacBook – 1 Year Later, What's The Point?
After spending over 3,000+ hours with the M1
MacBook Pro, here is my long-term review. Is it still as great as everyone says it is a year later
and more importantly with the upcoming release of the new M1X and M2 MacBooks what is the point of
an M1 now? And, is it still a worthy purchase? There's no shortage of great reviews on this
laptop filled with technical benchmarks and analysis so just a heads up that i'll be
approaching this long-term review with a more laid-back perspective so the m1 macbook pro
and air were released on november 17 2020 and since then the macbook pro m1 has been my main
workhorse to manage just about everything from business to content creation and everyday life
admin starting with the specs of this specific setup that i have i've specced the machine with 16
gigabytes of memory and a 512 gigabyte ssd drive and it came to about a thousand seven hundred
dollars at launch if you were to purchase the m1 macbook pro or air today i've seen it discounted
to a thousand two hundred ninety nine dollars usd though with eight gigabytes of memory there's
no denying this is a terrific price point but it still begs the question is it great value for
money when stacked up to the upcoming m1x and m2 macbooks to answer that question without being
biased let's first take a look at the heart of the laptop the coveted m1 chip with apple and intel's
conscious uncoupling and not so clean breakup the m1 represents apple's first system on a chip or
soc designed specifically for the mac similar to those found in iphones and ipads this chip allows
macbooks to now run iphone and ipad apps natively on the m1 mac no problem at all just without the
touchscreen experience of course but yes the m1 chip is truly revolutionary though i ran into a
number of issues in the first few months of usage many final cut pro plugins weren't working western
digital my cloud didn't boot up and adobe was slow to update their creative suite personally it was
far from a clean transition and quite frustrating at times as i spent a lot of time troubleshooting
this is because many apps weren't yet migrated to apple's new arm based architecture and relied
on rosetta apple's x86 architecture emulation program and some apps even flat out did not
work right unless updated by its developers so if you had bought the m1 at launch just like i
did you were basically an unpaid beta tester the good news is the vast majority of everyday apps
have been optimized for the m1 over the last year so in a way you're getting an even better product
today than on launch and apps that natively run on the m1 are blazing fast from opening the laptop
to launching apps it's the biggest generational performance boost in a mac update yet and this
isn't your standard johnny ive exaggeration either the new silicon chip has translated to minimal
wait times a faster workflow and an overall more pleasant daily experience i've been able to
edit 4k footage on final cut pro no problem with a crash or two being an exception and large
raw file editing on photoshop and lightroom is seamless all of this in a thin portable
design is frankly still mind blowing so it still remains hands down one of the best
premium mobile processors on the market at an affordable entry point and likely
will be the case for some time to come speaking of the design it hasn't changed much
since the introduction of the touch bar back in october 2016 it can be seen as either classic
or outdated depending on who you ask there's no differentiating design changes in the m1 and intel
based macbooks but on a subjective note the design is a non-issue for me personally i still enjoy
the clean minimalistic look that this laptop nails and it almost has a timeless aura to it i'm of
course looking forward to the redesigned max but that alone won't be a factor in justifying an
upgrade to a new model as with its 13-inch size i had upgraded from a 15-inch macbook pro and
was initially concerned about reverting back to a small display but i've really come to appreciate
the smaller form factor and its portability for the better part of the year though it has been
docked and connected up to a 38 inch ultra wide monitor when i'm not on the go so i love having
that choice something to keep in mind if you're considering the mac minis i'd suggest taking a
look at the macbook pro accompanied with a docked setup a central piece to its portability is the
trackpad and i've yet to find a better trackpad to this day it's so gigantic that the right and
left side of the trackpad are in different time zones jokes aside it's an underrated feature
to navigate and track the span of the screen without running out of room unlike other laptops
i've used the magic keyboard has also held up well over the last year unlike its older
rejected brother the butterfly switch keyboard haven't run into any issues with m1's keyboard
it's a great tactile keyboard that's fast accurate and reliable to type on in fact it's
probably the best laptop keyboard i've used though most laptops i've used have flimsy feeling
keyboards in comparison the magic keyboard has just the right amount of tactile feedback and
travel but that said i still prefer using a standalone mechanical keyboard but when out and
about you cannot go wrong with the magic keyboard as with the display the m1 is extremely bright
accurate in color profile and crispy clear with its 2560×1600 retina display just be wary and i
feel this detail is glanced over the m1 macbook pro features a 500 nit display compared to the
air's 400 nit display so that makes the pro a full 25 brighter this is rather useful for those
working in design with images photos and videos the additional brightness helps particularly when
it's a nice day working in direct sunlight overall it's a beautiful display and holds up perfectly
well to this day though the upgrade to a pro motion 120 hertz display would be very significant
so when i do take this thing out and about a big part of the portable experience is of course its
battery life and this is where it goes absolutely above and beyond after a year of usage it is
undoubtedly the leader in laptop battery life it's like the one friend who sleeps four hours a
night and still has more energy than everyone else that's the m1 macbook pro the first week i started
using it i was shook on just how much usage i got out of it on a single charge i thought
someone had charged it for me in between use i'm talking two to three days of usage on a single
charge and that's still the case to this day the battery hasn't seen any degradation from what
i've seen there have been days when i've gotten over 12 hours of usage and still had 40 to 50
remaining and that's with light to moderate use of intensive apps like photoshop or adobe xd
it's a different game when you can leave your liability of a power brick at home and go the
day without worrying about a power port it's not all rainbows and flowers though even the
best pieces of tech have their shortcomings the speakers are reliably good but they're just
good they're not going to blow you away i've used the speakers on the m1 air and i'd say
the speakers are full of sounding on the pro particularly the lows but the overall max
volume on the pro is surprisingly not that loud i recommend investing into a good pair
of headphones if you're going to be listening to music watching movies or sound editing on
the regular the webcam which has become more important in this day and age has not received
much of an upgrade and frankly it's disappointing both the m1 pro and air feature a 720p low
aperture webcam which yes gets the job done but by scraping a pass with minimal effort there
is one change though the use of the apple neural engine and image signal processor which honestly
are just fancy terms for the use of software to slightly improve picture quality with the new
upcoming macbooks likely receiving an overhauled webcam it's a legitimate reason to upgrade but a
more affordable option here is to of course just purchase a separate webcam especially when full
hd webcams retail at just 50 these days moving on to the more serious issues i've experienced
over the year the biggest of which has been terrible bluetooth connectivity it's extremely
strange and disappointing the connectivity to my wireless devices like the logitech mx2s was
initially so bad stuttering and lagging behind my input it was frustrating to use taking a look
online i found the m1s had a slew of bluetooth connectivity issues with no rhyme or reason as to
why a few software updates and a new mouse later the connectivity has improved significantly but
i can tell for a fact tracking is not as smooth as my previous macbook used so just be wary if
you're using a number of wireless peripherals you may run into connectivity issues even to this day
if you've run into similar issues please do leave a comment down below and let me know and let's not
forget about the ports or should i say the serious lack thereof it's a definition of minimalism both
the pro and air offer two thunderbolt ports on the left and a single headphone jack on the right
seriously underwhelming so if you want to use a mouse plug in a different keyboard connect your
macbook pro or air to a usb c monitor or even just plug in an sd card you will need to get yourself
a usbc adapter like this one here for a laptop aimed at creatives it's a little disappointing to
say the least and something that the new max most likely will solve the thing is even with all the
issues i've just listed the m1 pro is the best laptop i've used and the most enjoyable piece of
tech i own full stop the letdowns are solvable and are more than made up for with its power to
price ratio form factor apple's ecosystem and that insane battery life like fine wine the
m1 macbooks have aged well over the last year as more apps natively support the m1 architecture
which means continually improving battery app performance and compatibility issues are quashed
here's my recommendation if you're in the market for a new laptop if you're on a tight budget i
highly recommend the m1 macbook air if you're looking for the best performance without needing
the latest and greatest you cannot go wrong with the macbook pro m1 to this day you know in a world
where we're all caught up in a never-ending cycle of annual tech upgrades for me personally
the m1 and macbook pro breaks that mould it's a laptop that represents value avant-garde
and a change in the status quo and it's for these reasons i think i'll be sticking with the m1
pro for now guys drop the code word comment m1 in today's video if you made it this far into
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