Calling 14" MBP M1 Max owners! Are you happy with your choice? Any regrets?

[Fomalhaut]

I've still got 2-3 weeks to wait for my 14" M1 Max (32GB, 24-core, 1TB) to arrive, and was wondering whether other 14" M1 Max owners who've had the machine for a few weeks are still happy with their choice. After the initial enthusiasm (and usual criticism), the number of posts on Macrumors on the new MBPs has dropped off considerably, which I either take as meaning that owners are generally happy, or that there is nothing to report, good or bad.

Has the M1 Max lived up to your expectations and do you still feel it was worth the extra money?

Have thermals, noise and battery life been OK?

Have you discovered any negative aspects that you weren't previously aware of?


Thanks for your feedback!

 

[lclev]

I have a 14" M1 Max 10 core CPU, 32 core GPU, 64GB, 1TB. And yes, I maxed out everything but the storage. I do a lot of video and photoshop work so I was looking for future proofing. I LOVE THIS COMPUTER!

With Covid I have found I am working from home more so the M1 has been an amazing blessing. It can put out work at the same speed or even faster than my AMD Ripper/W10/64GB/2TB SSD/1080GPU desktop at work.

Speed - I had a project come in that involve creating a video out of 175 photos of various formats and sizes. I imported the photos into photoshop by selecting all 175 and hitting enter. I sat back to wait only to realize they were all loaded. I mean I didn't even have time to blink. I could fix, make any adjustments, and save them with no hesitations at all.

Thermals & noise- When encoding videos it will crank up the temps and the fans will ramp up to 6,000 rpm but you have to really listen closely to barely hear the fans. And the body will get a little warm but nothing like my former 13" MBP i7 - you couldn't place it on your lap for fear of burns. This thing get slightly warm and cools fast when finished.

Battery life - For everything except exporting videos it is great. I can easily go all day - 10-12 hours. Now if I encode videos I found out I have maybe 3-4 hours of encoding times but I am also really stressing the computer. I usually leave her plugged in for video work.

So far I have not had any surprises or unexpected problems/issues. Honestly, this has been the best laptop I have evert owned - and I have owned many.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I have a 14" M1 Max 10 core CPU, 32 core GPU, 64GB, 1TB. And yes, I maxed out everything but the storage. I do a lot of video and photoshop work so I was looking for future proofing. I LOVE THIS COMPUTER!

With Covid I have found I am working from home more so the M1 has been an amazing blessing. It can put out work at the same speed or even faster than my AMD Ripper/W10/64GB/2TB SSD/1080GPU desktop at work.

Speed - I had a project come in that involve creating a video out of 175 photos of various formats and sizes. I imported the photos into photoshop by selecting all 175 and hitting enter. I sat back to wait only to realize they were all loaded. I mean I didn't even have time to blink. I could fix, make any adjustments, and save them with no hesitations at all.

Thermals & noise- When encoding videos it will crank up the temps and the fans will ramp up to 6,000 rpm but you have to really listen closely to barely hear the fans. And the body will get a little warm but nothing like my former 13" MBP i7 - you couldn't place it on your lap for fear of burns. This thing get slightly warm and cools fast when finished.

Battery life - For everything except exporting videos it is great. I can easily go all day - 10-12 hours. Now if I encode videos I found out I have maybe 3-4 hours of encoding times but I am also really stressing the computer. I usually leave her plugged in for video work.

So far I have not had any surprises or unexpected problems/issues. Honestly, this has been the best laptop I have evert owned - and I have owned many.

Great summary! Sounds like you are a happy owner

I'm being a bit more cautious with this purchase because I got "burnt" (both metaphorically, and almost literally) by the 2019 MBP 16 i9. That turned out to be quite disappointing in terms of "bang for buck" and I did have a number of software issues with it for the first 6-9 months (although it was quite stable after Catalina 10.15.5).

Apart from some potential concerns about the reliability of the SD card reader, and a few initial concerns over the battery life of the 14" with M1 Max, I haven't seen any reports of series defects or issues with this machine, so hopefully my experience this time will be better.

I'm hoping for a a cooler, quieter working experience with the ability to work for most of a day on battery if necessary.

Whilst the MBP16 with AMD 5500M is OK for my 4K video editing needs, it can be a bit stuttery sometimes, and I'm hoping to avoid the need for proxies with the new machine in order to get smooth scrubbing and playback.

 

[teotuf]

I got the 14 inch 32 core GPU M1 Max with 32gb of RAM. It is certainly my favorite laptop by far. My previous Mac was a Late 2013 Retina MBP 13", which I thought was great for its time. Subsequently I had a Alienware 13 R3 with the OLED display and was quite spoiled by it. I also have a desktop with 3700x and 3070 RTX but I seem to dock the MBP 14 and use that as a desktop more often than not and just have the desktop mine cryto in the background for the most part.

I got the 32 core mostly for portable gaming, if it wasn't for my gaming itch I'd have gotten the 16 core M1 Pro. It had mostly been satisfactory for that regard mostly because I had some realistic expectations. The GPU is powerful enough when things work. I play bunch of random stuff, but most recently Guild Wars 2 (Crossover), Hades, and Shadows of the Tomb Raider, and GTA V (Crossover). All of them run as expected.

What I was frustrated by was some of the little things - lack of an Xpadder equivalent for remapping controller buttons to keyboard/mouse. I tried things like Enjoy2 and Enjoyable but they do not offer alternate buttons while holding certain buttons (e.g. Holding left trigger for a new set of mapping for all other buttons), or things like the dock or menubar popping up in full screen games in Crossover when reaching edge of screen with mouse.

As a general creative/productivity machine I absolutely love it. It is so portable that I can reach for it and take it with me on the couch or in the kitchen - something that I didn't do nearly as much even with something as portable as my Alienware 13. The form factor just opens up so many other ways to use the machine that I just don't think a 16 inch is able to. The ~20% GPU performance hit compared to the 16 inch is to me a pretty reasonable tradeoff, and certainly WAY less than any of the past models. The only laptops I can think of that even remotely compares to this would be Razer Blade 14 and Asus x13 Flow, both of which has numerous other tradeoffs and are also obviously Windows machines.

Battery life is certainly not comparable to the M1 Macbook Air but compared to everything else on the market is pretty phenomenal. In fact it's so good that on a daily basis I use AlDente and set the max charge at 75% while I'm home, and only increase it to 100% when I'm traveling or know I'll be needing it away from a charger for a long time.

Fan noise is quite amazing for everything except for gaming or exporting videos. Even then it's quite a bit quieter than an equivalent gaming laptop. I think if you have realistic expectations about what a laptop can do, you would be very happy with the purchase.

 

[lclev]

I'm being a bit more cautious with this purchase because I got "burnt" (both metaphorically, and almost literally) by the 2019 MBP 16 i9. That turned out to be quite disappointing in terms of "bang for buck" and I did have a number of software issues with it for the first 6-9 months (although it was quite stable after Catalina 10.15.5).

Apart from some potential concerns about the reliability of the SD card reader, and a few initial concerns over the battery life of the 14" with M1 Max, I haven't seen any reports of series defects or issues with this machine, so hopefully my experience this time will be better.

I'm hoping for a a cooler, quieter working experience with the ability to work for most of a day on battery if necessary.

Whilst the MBP16 with AMD 5500M is OK for my 4K video editing needs, it can be a bit stuttery sometimes, and I'm hoping to avoid the need for proxies with the new machine in order to get smooth scrubbing and playback.

I owned a 2020 i7 13" MBP and I get the whole too hot to handle issue because it was when I encoded. I also have a friend who does a ton of videos and graphics for a TV station. They gave her a 2019 i9 MBP16 32gb to use with a large Apple monitor. She sits the MBP on an aluminum stand - not in clamshell mode and uses an apple keyboard and mouse because it gets blazing hot. You can not hold it when she is working on a large project. I am amazed it has never shut down on her.

As for keeping cool - my 14" MBP M1 stays very cool. It feels slightly warm when I am encoding but as I said, it is much much better than my 13" i7 ever was speed wise and keeping cool.

I am not sure what you are using for video editing. As far a smooth scrubbing of timelines Premier Pro is okay with 4K. Not as smooth as Final Cut Pro - which is scary smooth and fast! I just finished a short video in 4K in FCP which is optimized for the M1 and it is incredibly smoother than Premiere Pro. But Premiere Pro runs through Rosetta2 (I believe??) It is obvious Adobe has not made a strong effort to make it compatible with the M1's - yet. Still it actually works better on my M1 than it did on my i7.

 

[coolguy4747]

I have a 14" M1 Max 24c, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD. I love it. While I mostly have it at my desk plugged into a dock and two monitors, I have used it unplugged to edit photos in Lightroom without having to worry about battery (or noise!). I haven't done any actual testing of anything, just real life use, and it's definitely the quietest, fastest, and longest battery life (all 3 at the same time!) of any laptop I've used before. I haven't done any video editing yet, someday I'll get to that...but I have no doubt I will be pleased. Would absolutely buy it again.

 

[bollman]

Well, it's a nice computer. Did not like the black "backdrop" to the keyboard though, and the notch _is_ ugly and strange, although you get used to it. Too much money though, returned my 14" and went for a used 2018 13", it does what I need (actually more since I need x86 VMs) for a fraction of the cost.
I think 2018 MBPs with butterfly keyboard are really good value at the moment. The keyboards are hated (and not very good, but a lot better than 2016-2017) which makes the price low, but if you like me mostly use it in clamshell mode, it will hold up for a very long time and is not an issue.
I might revisit AS (well, I guess I'll have to eventually unless leaving the platform), but for now I'm quite happy with saving a lot of money, and patiently watching how the VM-scene on AS pans out. I would _not_ buy a 14" right now though since M2 is probably not very far off and I would want to see what M2 has to offer first.

 

[Fomalhaut]

Well, it's a nice computer. Did not like the black "backdrop" to the keyboard though, and the notch _is_ ugly and strange, although you get used to it. Too much money though, returned my 14" and went for a used 2018 13", it does what I need (actually more since I need x86 VMs) for a fraction of the cost.
I think 2018 MBPs with butterfly keyboard are really good value at the moment. The keyboards are hated (and not very good, but a lot better than 2016-2017) which makes the price low, but if you like me mostly use it in clamshell mode, it will hold up for a very long time and is not an issue.
I might revisit AS (well, I guess I'll have to eventually unless leaving the platform), but for now I'm quite happy with saving a lot of money, and patiently watching how the VM-scene on AS pans out. I would _not_ buy a 14" right now though since M2 is probably not very far off and I would want to see what M2 has to offer first.

Thanks for your feedback, and nice to see a counter view if the new MBP 14 wasn't for you. I agree, you can certainly get some good deals on the "less desirable" Macs if you shop around.

I'm not sure that an M2 variant of the Pro and Max is "not very far off" though. We will see an M2 replacement for the M1 at some point this year - could be anywhere from April-October - but I wouldn't expect to see an M2 Pro/Max for at least 15-18 months, maybe longer (e.g. Oct 23). Quite a few observers are suggesting an 18-24 month upgrade cycle for the Pro/Max. For me, that would be a long time to put up with an older machine, knowing that there was something much better available. I'm happy to jump on the "upgrade train" at the beginning of the cycle, providing the 1st generation tech is solid....which of course it sometimes isn't!

 

[TSE]

14" M1 Max 32-Core w/ 64 GBs of RAM.

No regrets. Can't say I tested other configurations and those wouldn't work for me, I just know that my time working professionally which I use this laptop for is worth about $125/hr and if I spent a couple hours swapping configurations, that would take away any money I would have saved going to a cheaper configuration.

Besides that, I'm pretty confident that I picked the right config - the program I work in (Figma) is basically 100% GPU based and it does indeed tax this version. And the 16" was just too big for me to use comfortably.

Battery life, amazing. Heat, amazing. No regrets!

 

[Fomalhaut]

Update to my own post now that I've just received my 14" M1 Max (24-core), after a 7-week wait.

Here are my initial impressions:

1) It felt a lot smaller than my current 2019 MBP16!

1. It's a lot less physically imposing in terms of the desk space it occupies
2. The smaller screen real-estate was quite noticeable and I've set it to "more space" which is a lot closer (within 10%) of the resolution of the MBP16 default, but it is *slightly* on the small side for reading without adjusting font sizes.
3. Track pad size difference is noticeable, but keyboard feels somewhat better.
4. The touch-id button is larger and easier to use than the MBP16 and the wake-up is near instantaneous compared to about 6-10 seconds on the MBP16.
5. Overall, it looks more like a portable device for moving around with, rather than sitting in one place. I like the look of it, and expect I will adopt my muscle memory to handle the smaller wrist rests and trackpad.

2) The screen size would be more of an issue if I end up using this for many hours without a monitor. I almost always use at least one external monitor at home or in office, so don't expect to use the internal screen alone most of the time. This choice largely informed my choice to go with the 14" along with the benefits of better portability.

I am a little concerned that the 14" screen might not be great if I had to spend all day working with it; I recently spent 3 months away from home with my MBP16 and it was fine as a stand-alone machine. If I were going to do this with the MBP14, I would consider either simply buying a cheap used monitor at my destination (if staying somewhere for several weeks), or buying a portable 16-20" monitor. I'll experiment using my 11" iPad Pro as an additional screen to see if this is sufficient which would be a lot less hassle and expense.


3) In terms of performance, what can I say? It feels very fast, but then so does my much cheaper M1 Mac Mini.

• The only real "test" I've put it through is reviewing a large quantity of 4K 10-bit 422 camera footage from a Panasonic Lumix GH5. You need 3rd party software to view these files (Quicktime doesn't display 10-bit 422 H.264), or to use Final Cut Pro. For previews I've used "mpv" or a better derivative called IINA. On my MBP16 this will almost immediately ramp-up the fans and cause a lot of heat, and deplete the battery within 45-60 minutes. On the MBP14 it is *much better*. CPU temps get to about 75 degrees (from TG Pro) and the fans spin up to about 2600-2900 rpm which is only just audible in my office with other computers running, so this is a huge improvement. The first time I ran this test, the fans did ramp up and I thought I'd found a weak point...but I wasn't able to repeat this, and there may have been some other high CPU process running that I wasn't aware of; unfortunately, I didn't check so I don't know for certain. I'll see if it re-occurs.
• There were no stutters or hesitation with non-proxied 4K camera footage which I often had with the MBP16 (with 8GB AMD 5500M). I think I can probably get away with not using proxies with this computer which will be a big time and disk space saver
• External USB disk speeds (Samsung T7/T5) are slightly better than the M1 Mini, but not as fast as with Intel Macs, as expected and explained on the "Constant Geekery" YT channel. It's OK and was expected but not ideal.
• I had no issues with the SD card slot with my Sandisk and Toshiba cards, but speeds were lower than expected (c. 165MB/s read/write compared to about 260/240MBps with my SanDisk dongle. Not great; not terrible....
• Memory usage on my 32GB model seems well behaved and maybe slightly better in Monterey than on Big Sur? I won't be able to tell until I start using it for my usual workflow (I'm still transitioning software etc from my MBP16 and M1 Mini)

4) Thermals seem to be quite well behaved and the case only get moderately warm, not unpleasantly hot like the MBP16 when under load. The underside gets warm when pushing the CPU moderately hard with video decoding, but not uncomfortably so, and I would think I'd be OK using this on my lap if I had to.

5) Downsides? Apart from the pretty steep price, not much so far. I haven't tested battery life so can't comment on whether this will be good or bad, but it's definitely looking better than my MBP16.

Unfortunately, it doesn't quite fit in my LowePro camera backpack which has a laptop compartment. I expect a 13" M1 MBP or Air would fit, but the MBP14 is just a few millimetres too wide in its back-to-front dimension for me to close the zip without risking scratching the computer. If it were thinner the bag might have enough space to stretch sideways a bit; pity...

So far, so good.

 

[DHagan4755]

Excellent review! Your experience is mirrored by a bunch of other users.

A real question is arising though. Would it be better to aim for the brawny powerful desktop — since that's seemingly where the majority of work is done these days — and getting a MacBook Air for the portability (and less expensive). The MacBook Air is pretty good in a pinch.

It'll be interesting to see if attitudes shift in the back half of 2022 as the transition to Apple silicon is completed & the next generation Apple silicon rolls out with the new design MacBook Air. I think we're going to be in for a shock (and a treat).

 

[Fomalhaut]

Excellent review! Your experience is mirrored by a bunch of other users.

A real question is arising though. Would it be better to aim for the brawny powerful desktop — since that's seemingly where the majority of work is done these days — and getting a MacBook Air for the portability (and less expensive). The MacBook Air is pretty good in a pinch.

It'll be interesting to see if attitudes shift in the back half of 2022 as the transition to Apple silicon is completed & the next generation Apple silicon rolls out with the new design MacBook Air. I think we're going to be in for a shock (and a treat).

I'm mostly using this machine in "desktop mode" connected to external screens, keyboard and trackpad, so yes, there is an argument to just using a desktop. That said, I do like to have a high-spec machine for those occasions when I do need to work in an office or travel. If I had a crystal ball and knew that I would be working from home for 80+% of the time from now on, then getting a cheaper and less powerful laptop like the MBA, and a desktop computer (e.g. an M1 Pro/Max Mac mini) would possibly work out only a bit more expensive than the high spec MBP14/16, and you get two computers instead of one.

The M2 MacBook Air may well be good enough for the vast majority of professional work where there is a requirement for a mobile device.

 

[Fomalhaut]

A couple more data points on temperatures and battery life under load.

I was reviewing some 4K 10-bit 422 H.264 video yesterday on battery power at near maximum brightness on a warm day - this was near constant playback in full screen, so pushing the machine quite hard. Temperatures were up to about 70-75C as yesterday and the fans not audible in an outside setting. Battery life went from 100% to about 25% in around 3 hours, so I would expect it to last about 4 hours. This is CPU intensive (c. 350-400%), and I imagine if I used codecs that could make use of the GPU or hardware acceleration might fare better. This is pretty much what I expected, and much better than my MBP16 which would only last about an hour in similar conditions.

I'll try a similar test with Final Cut Pro playback / scrubbing etc. to see if it is better optimised than my review application (IINA)

For my normal work with Teams meetings, lots of browser tabs open, Spotify etc., temperatures are about 55-60C and fans at an inaudible 2400rpm - but bear in mind my room temperature is at 28-32C (82-90F) so it's dealing with high ambient temperatures.

 

[ctjack]

It'll be interesting to see if attitudes shift in the back half of 2022 as the transition to Apple silicon is completed & the next generation Apple silicon rolls out with the new design MacBook Air. I think we're going to be in for a shock (and a treat).

We are talking about Apple. M2 will roll out and probably get 2000 at single core geekbench and 9000 in multicore with a GPU core equal to 10.

Which means that they might copy/paste an Ipad trajectory to the Macs: remember new Air rolling out on a new A14? Well A14 was better at single core but lacked in multi-core to the dinosaur Ipad Pro 11/12.9 at the moment with an old chips, until they eventually got updated to M1.

What i am trying to say, that M2 will be faster in single core, but it will be limited to be an underdog of a current 14/16 inch until they put that M2 and scale it towards M2 Pro and Max in the next 14/16 update.

 

[Fomalhaut]

We are talking about Apple. M2 will roll out and probably get 2000 at single core geekbench and 9000 in multicore with a GPU core equal to 10.

Which means that they might copy/paste an Ipad trajectory to the Macs: remember new Air rolling out on a new A14? Well A14 was better at single core but lacked in multi-core to the dinosaur Ipad Pro 11/12.9 at the moment with an old chips, until they eventually got updated to M1.

What i am trying to say, that M2 will be faster in single core, but it will be limited to be an underdog of a current 14/16 inch until they put that M2 and scale it towards M2 Pro and Max in the next 14/16 update.

Yes, this is what we expect. Apple will probably maintain its 3 tiers of M<x>, M<x> Pro and M<x> Max, plus whatever "Ultra", "Duo" or "Quad" options we see in the larger machines.

They may well stagger the releases over 2 years so we see M1-> M1 Pro/Max -> M2 -> M2 Pro/Max.

As you say, we would expect M2 to have better single core performance than M1, M1 Pro or M1 Max, but worse multi-core & GPU scores than M1 Pro/Max

It's still likely to be pretty good though, and for a lot of people the M2 will be a better deal than an entry level M1 Pro in terms of pure processor power per dollar. The differentiators will be in other features such as RAM capacity, screen, ports etc.

 

[ctjack]

It's still likely to be pretty good though, and for a lot of people the M2 will be a better deal than an entry level M1 Pro in terms of pure processor power per dollar. The differentiators will be in other features such as RAM capacity, screen, ports etc.

Going by the ipads again, I would choose the "old non M1" Pro 11/12.9 over the new ipad Air. I guess they can make it compelling enough to jump for "outdated single core" MBP 14, because the M2 air will likely not get more ports (worth $300 of TB dock) and hdr mini-led screen.
Overall it will be a nice update for those who wanted to buy 2020 old m1 Air, but MBP 14 will have its' reasons as ports, screen, speakers, gpu, multi-core.

 

[DHagan4755]

Why buy an expensive 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Pro/Max if you have a more powerful 27-inch iMac Pro M1 Max sitting on your desk? Not only is the iMac faster, it has a much larger display too. If you spend 75% of your time working in one spot getting the best desktop you can afford makes more sense.

Leaving the office? Grab your MacBook Air. It will be more than enough to handle moderate projects on the go thanks to the M2 chip. When you return to your desk, Universal Control activates automatically. Those project files on your MacBook Air seamlessly drag & drop to the iMac Pro without a thought to the magic of it all.

For the true road warriors who need performance on the go, the 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro will still be available. The MacBook Pros will be the "trucks" & the MacBook Air will be the "cars." The 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 chip will be the SUV model.

Lots of people will be perfectly content with the performance of a car — at 1/2 the price of the truck. The power in the M2 will give way to Apple selling more hardware. There will be new Apple stand-alone displays that not only match for color accuracy but aesthetics. Hook up that 2nd or 3rd Apple display your iMac Pro or your MacBook Air.

 

[vreedom]

I think its a good machine. But be aware of the tap to click issue. I am wondering nobody was telling you about it. I think all the MPB 14“ have this issue.

Details over here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-14-trackpad-issues-hardware-or-software.2323110/

 

[Fomalhaut]

Why buy an expensive 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Pro/Max if you have a more powerful 27-inch iMac Pro M1 Max sitting on your desk? Not only is the iMac faster, it has a much larger display too. If you spend 75% of your time working in one spot getting the best desktop you can afford makes more sense.

Leaving the office? Grab your MacBook Air. It will be more than enough to handle moderate projects on the go thanks to the M2 chip. When you return to your desk, Universal Control activates automatically. Those project files on your MacBook Air seamlessly drag & drop to the iMac Pro without a thought to the magic of it all.

For the true road warriors who need performance on the go, the 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro will still be available. The MacBook Pros will be the "trucks" & the MacBook Air will be the "cars." The 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 chip will be the SUV model.

Lots of people will be perfectly content with the performance of a car — at 1/2 the price of the truck. The power in the M2 will give way to Apple selling more hardware. There will be new Apple stand-alone displays that not only match for color accuracy but aesthetics. Hook up that 2nd or 3rd Apple display your iMac Pro or your MacBook Air.

Well, the 27" iMac Pro M1 Max doesn't exist yet, and the M1 Pro/Max laptops are currently the highest performing Macs barring the high-end specs of the Mac Pro (which are $$$).

As you say, the MBA is (or will be in its next release) good enough for the majority of people.

However, it you need the power, and only have budget for one computer and sometimes need a laptop, then the MBP14/16 are currently the only choice.

In the future I may well transition to a "big desktop & portable medium-power laptop", but this option is probably at least half a year away (with M2 MBA launch rumoured to be in Q3/Q4)

 

[AmazingTechGeek]

I regret spending my imaginary money on a MacBook Pro 14in. My imaginary notebook was too small, so I returned it and bought the 16in with real cash.

It’s such an improvement!!