So ... 6 months on are you Happy with your M1 Mac ?

[hungryghosty]

How's everyone getting on with their M1 Mac's? I was thinking of buying a Mac mini to replace my old desktop as don't really use it much for gaming anymore.

I've heard some conflicting reports about the performance. Most reviews say it's great but some have complained about slow performance in some apps. Not sure if that's a compatibility/emulation issue with Rosetta though. Likewise I've heard reports of Bluetooth problems.

What are folks thoughts about specs? 8Gb ram sounds a bit low but is it as workable for most uses and apps as reviews imply? The costs begin to spiral as soon as you start upgrading beyond the base 8gb/256gb Mac mini so would rather avoid expensive upgrades if the base model is fine.

I've seen a couple of nifty looking docks for the Mac mini to sit on which allow you to add a 2.5" SSD storage drive. That seems like a better option than paying Apple £200 for another 256Gb of SSD! That or I'll just connect a 2.5" drive over USB or thunderbolt.

How well does the iPad app support work? Seems pretty cool but at the same time I'm not sure how useful it would be to run iPad apps on a Mac?

Sorry for all the questions! I've read and watched loads of reviews but so many online seem to "contain paid promotion" that I can't help but feel most are very far from impartial. That's why I wanted to ask people who'd actually bought them with their own money

 

[Jimbonatius]

How's everyone getting on with their M1 Mac's? I was thinking of buying a Mac mini to replace my old desktop as don't really use it much for gaming anymore.

I've heard some conflicting reports about the performance. Most reviews say it's great but some have complained about slow performance in some apps. Not sure if that's a compatibility/emulation issue with Rosetta though. Likewise I've heard reports of Bluetooth problems.

What are folks thoughts about specs? 8Gb ram sounds a bit low but is it as workable for most uses and apps as reviews imply? The costs begin to spiral as soon as you start upgrading beyond the base 8gb/256gb Mac mini so would rather avoid expensive upgrades if the base model is fine.

I've seen a couple of nifty looking docks for the Mac mini to sit on which allow you to add a 2.5" SSD storage drive. That seems like a better option than paying Apple £200 for another 256Gb of SSD! That or I'll just connect a 2.5" drive over USB or thunderbolt.

How well does the iPad app support work? Seems pretty cool but at the same time I'm not sure how useful it would be to run iPad apps on a Mac?

Sorry for all the questions! I've read and watched loads of reviews but so many online seem to "contain paid promotion" that I can't help but feel most are very far from impartial. That's why I wanted to ask people who'd actually bought them with their own money

I've only had mine for about a month or so, but I think it's absolutely amazing compared to my previous experiences. I originally only ever used windows computers, so I'm still learning, but this has been such a fun experience. This machine is so snappy and the battery life is just absolutely amazing.

 

[Gnattu]

I've heard some conflicting reports about the performance.

Different people have different expectation. Besides the iMac, technically all Intel Mac models replaced by M1 models are much slower. For my usage, Xcode compiling is as fast as an 10-core Intel iMac Pro.

Likewise I've heard reports of Bluetooth problems.

It is real, but much better now The software issue is likely fixed for most, but Mac Minis have their antennas at the bottom of the case, so your desk surface might be blocking Bluetooth.

8Gb ram sounds a bit low but is it as workable for most uses and apps as reviews imply?

Not for me. I returned my 8GB Mac Mini after 2 weeks usage due to extremely frequent swapping.

How well does the iPad app support work

It used to very bad, but also much better now. In the very first version of Big Sur we cannot even resize the iPad App window size and that window is horribly small to use, now we can do that. The thing you have to take care is that lots of developers opted out their iOS app's availability on Macs.

 

[consumeritis]

I'm a developer and I've ended up using my M1 Air very lightly since I got it, so my use case probably isn't that typical. I upgraded to 16GiB/1TiB. I bought it as a replacement for my 2015 MacBook Pro, but to be honest I've been a bit precious with it and have preferred to continue to use my old machine for the most part.

My main pro points from the machine:

• For compiling code, it's super fast. Compiles are literally 3x faster than my old machine.
• The battery life is amazing, at least it has been so far.
• Aarch64 is a very clean instruction set and it's interesting to play with as a developer.
• App compatibility is better than I was expecting. Affinity Designer was updated very quickly, and many coding tools like homebrew are all native already. There's recently been a preview build of Blender.
• I'm no audiophile but the speakers sound really good, much better than my older laptops.

The cons so far:

• The screen looks very slightly more washed out than my MacBook Pro (though it's a great screen).
• Some apps I might want still aren't compatible - e.g. Android Studio.
• The webcam is not great. Even beyond it only being 720p there's something weird with the color balance or sharpness or something, and I haven't dug into whether I can improve it in software. Other 720p webcams look better IMO.
• Dialogue boxes on Big Sur still look weird to me.
• Still too nice to take out the house lol.

And the so/so:

• The Air feels super tiny. Same size screen as my old machine but the lightness and compactness is really noticeable - much more like an iPad than my old MacBook.
• The keyboard is good, but low travel and a bit clicky. I like it - it's not like the butterfly ones - but keyboards are a very personal preference kind of thing.

Don't know if that helps anyone! I am very happy with my purchase - it is definitely a great machine. I do wonder whether I should have waited for the 14", but maybe I've saved myself some cash by giving in and getting the Air.

There have been so many threads about the RAM. The M1 or ARM doesn't make more efficient use of memory. Apps use how much they use and - if anything - ARM apps may use slightly more RAM. I think the thing about these machines is that the SSD is very fast, which allows macOS to swap very quickly, which may help keep the system responsive even when under memory pressure.

As a developer I upgraded. I know how much memory VMs can demand. And I didn't want to step down from my old machine spec-wise. I'm pretty happy with my decision to spend the extra money, but it really depends on your budget and your usage. IMO 256GiB can quickly end up being pretty cramped these days.

 

[cjhmr]

I'm super happy with my M1 MBP. I do a lot of video editing on Premiere and it runs great. 16GB RAM has been fine. My only regret is that I should have picked up the MBA with the same specs. They run mostly the same, I would have saved $200, and I really love the gold color that's not available on the MBP.

The iPad app support is disappointing, as the one I really wanted (COD Mobile) opted out, and if you try to sideload it, they ban you from the game.

 

[bobcomer]

I've had my MBA since November. It's great for very light work, but that's it. I move to a machine, either my Intel Mac Mini, or my Windows machines, if I want to do any more than just light browsing/email. There's no decent x86 emulation, and the iPhone/iPad apps are disappointingly absent. It was a mistake to get the MBA, I needed more active cooling and should have went with the MBP. So basically, I'm not that happy.

Great machine -- that doesn't fit my usage pattern.

 

[leons]

I couldn't be happier with mine. I rely on a laptop heavily and my M1 MBA is my daily (and nightly) driver.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have been happy with my M1 MBA (purchased 12.24).

 

[antipodean]

I've had my M1 mini (16GB/1TB) almost 6 months and an M1 MBA (8GB/512GB) for 4 months. They are quiet and snappy. A couple of bluetooth issues with the mini seem to have been resolved with OS updates (e.g. AW unlocking).

The ability to run iPadOS apps has proven to be of little or no practical use.

After an initial flurry of AS native mac apps, I have found the pace slightly disappointing recently. As an example some FCP plug-ins that are incompatitble with M1 are still "expected real soon now" for M1 compatibility. M1 native games are largely MIA. Here I think Apple is a victim of their own success with Rosetta 2. Games written for Intel and Metal run just fine on M1 giving devs little incentive to produce universal binaries.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I've only had my M1 MBA (8GB/512GB) for about 6 weeks, but totally love it. Fast, quiet, runs cool and was able to dump that obnoxious TouchBar from my previous MBP. Absolutely ZERO issues with the M1 processor... quite happy with this purchase.

 

[4sallypat]

6 months (launch day) and love my M1 Mini (base).

I thought 8GB might be an issue but nope - not even close to my previous Intel Macs with 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB Mini Servers!

My base M1 runs circles around all the Intel Minis and stays ice cold.

Can't say that for the Intels where I had cooling fans underneath to keep the Mini from throttling...

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I have the 16gb/1TB version. My only minor complaint is, I wish the display was at least 100-200 nits brighter. Other than that, it's been a flawless and smooth experience for me.

The only time I felt any heat was when FCP was transcoding/rendering 8K video for export.

 

[Significant1]

Only had mine for about a month. 16GB/1TB MBA and happy with it, no complaints, it meets my expectations. Just wished I could have waited for a redesign, since I like the size and weight of my old 11" MBA better.

 

[KeithJenner]

I got 8gb as my intention was to only keep it until the 14" is released, but to be honest it does everything I want so well that I doubt I will bother upgrading.

My only bluetooth usage is connecting to AirPods, and I have never had a problem with them. In fact the range is better than any other device I have.

Very happy, and I am getting a M1 iMac (with 16gb) to replace my 2015 intel.

 

[jdb8167]

Launch day M1 MacBook Air here. I traded in my 2018 i7 13” MacBook Pro that I rarely used. I’m using the MBA almost constantly now. The improvement over the Intel MacBook is remarkable. I was using my iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard instead of the Mac where possible but I’m finding my use of the iPad has gone way down too.

The M1 MacBook Air is my favorite Mac of recent years. It’s fast, cool, and quiet. I’m finding all the software that I need especially in the last few months as more and more open source software is ported to Apple Silicon. Having Brew working has been a huge benefit to getting open source software running. By the end of the year I suspect that most of the software transition will be complete.

 

[stix666]

Very happy with the OS upgraded to 11.3 (Mac mini 8Gb). It's used as an audio listening machine with some specialist DSP and Roon core for the house. The one bug previously was audio glitches and application memory problems on running the machine continuously for >24h that required a reboot. This is no longer a problem.

 

[mi7chy]

Even with the recent Big Sur 11.3 update it still feels like a beta product. Get a loaner to try before you buy since there's a lot of fake hype spread about the product. For example, people were claiming that 8GB RAM on M1 was equivalent to 16GB on other architectures but reality is 16GB on M1 with memory management issues causing unnecessary swap file wear on SSD with a single browser tab is more like <4GB on Linux.

 

[Loyola]

This topic is very helpful as I continue to go back and forth on what I want to do - get the iMac, get a refurbished mini or keep my 2010 iMac for a little bit longer. Normally I am very decisive....the other half is tired of listening to me talk about it.

 

[fwilers]

MBA, It's ok, but would not call amazing. I like the keyboard and trackpad, but screen is just ok. Seems like dynamic range is extremely low.

OS X memory management has got to be the biggest joke in the world. I don't know why more people don't complain about this, or why Apple ignores it.
Even with 16GB it's very frequently using swap when just web browsing, listening to music, etc.
Quit a program? No it does not release the all the memory. So what happens when you open and quit a bunch of programs? Memory used just keeps adding up.
I have 3.3GB left out of 16 with just this website open. All other apps quit.
This just shows how poorly OS X handles programs.

Want Bridge and Photoshop open? All 16GB used even just browsing and opening 1 image at a time.

It may be fast in some benchmarks, but it is not fast at loading anything or in general usage. Even my 3 year old Surface laptop feels snappier than this thing.
7 seconds to load Outlook? WTF?
6 seconds to load Word?
4 seconds to load Chrome?
5 seconds to load Spotify?
Sure I can instantly load Safari, but there is no good blocker available like ublock origin for chromium web browsers.
And if you ever look at activity monitor, Safari just keeps caching, and caching, and eventually running out of memory again and relying on swap.

Maybe this is faster for Mac users, but coming from a Windows laptop, this thing feels dog slow.

I see why the red button doesn't quit a program. Apple wants you to think that when you bring the program back up it's launching really fast, when in all actuality it was just sitting there in background using up precious memory and relying on your hard drive for swapping.

Very bad compatibility with external monitors. 11.3 update helped, but come on. Billion dollar company doesn't test their product against most popular monitors on market?

Frequent kernel panics with TB 3 and 4 docks.

Mouse input is another joke. I can't believe Mac users put up with how Apple controls this. I see why so many 3rd party apps are available.

Windows management is horrendous. Again, why so many 3rd party apps available.

Does OS X know how to uninstall a program. Nope. You again have to rely on 3rd party programs.

 

[haralds]

We've had both a MacBook Air 16GB/1TB for my wife and Pro 16GB/2TB for me. We both love them. The Pro is slowly replacing my Mac Pro 5,1 with 12 core 3.0Ghz Xepons, 48GB RAM, 2TB NVME System disk and much additional SSD and spinning drives. The M1 experience is actually smoother in a lot of area like scrolling on Safari with complex sites like facebook and long lists in Music. I will likely upgrade next year to whatever is available then expecting the usual refinement. But the current generation is clearly the best Mac yet.
Too bad I got an Intel mini for a media and Zoom pc for my Family room TV set. It does ok, but M1s are so much smoother and cheaper!

 

[KeithJenner]

OS X memory management has got to be the biggest joke in the world. I don't know why more people don't complain about this, or why Apple ignores it.
Even with 16GB it's very frequently using swap when just web browsing, listening to music, etc.
Quit a program? No it does not release the all the memory.
I have 3.3GB left out of 16 with just this website open. All other apps quit.
This just shows how poorly OS X handles programs.

People really do seem to have massively differing experiences with this.

I currently have three web pages open, am playing music and have a couple of pdfs (70 pages each) open, with a few other apps still open in the background. and I have 2.5gb free of my 8gb. I am seeing very little swap being used, and memory pressure has rarely gone over 25% in the past 30 days (according to iStats). iStats is also showing that I have very rarely gone over 75% memory used (my current position).

After 6 months my SSD is showing that it has 99% lifetime left. On that basis it should last for 50 years.

When I close apps I would agree that they don't instantly release the memory, but if I then open something else up then mine reliably frees up memory from elsewhere.

I agree about the speeds opening Outlook and Word though. They do seem quite slow. Other apps are very quick though, and those are the exception for me.

For some reason we are getting very different experiences.

 

[Significant1]

OS X memory management has got to be the biggest joke in the world. I don't know why more people don't complain about this, or why Apple ignores it.
Even with 16GB it's very frequently using swap when just web browsing, listening to music, etc.
Quit a program? No it does not release the all the memory.
I have 3.3GB left out of 16 with just this website open. All other apps quit.
This just shows how poorly OS X handles programs.

Want Bridge and Photoshop open? All 16GB used even just browsing and opening 1 image at a time.

I think you don't understand caching and good utilization of memory. If you restart that program you just quit or reload that document you just closed, it is already in memory and time+energi to reload it is saved. Cached memory is available memory, if needed, but no need to clear to it before it is needed. Lazy==good and empty memory is wasted memory. So focus on memory pressure and swap to determine if you are low on memory.

 

[kundanno]

I love my MBA thoroughly. I have had mine since November. For me the performance and usability on the macOS side has been incremental (I have a 2018 MBP), the real thing for me is how seamlessly Parallels Desktop (and Windows Arm and Ubuntu as VMs) run in it. It did not take long for me to make the MBA my primary computer - which I had never imagined when I bought it. I was like yeah, I'll use it as my travel laptop being lightweight, fanless and all. Five months in, my 2018 MBP feels old and dated, and while I keep it current I cannot imagine going back to it as my primary computer.

I remember getting into a twitter spat with a Windows fanboy who had written an article saying how "buggy" the M1 MBA was, and that he would not recommend it. It turned out much of his initial disdain had to do with the 11.0 beta of macOS and the numerous reviews since then than make him look like an idiot for proclaiming Apple's direction as a failure prematurely.

 

[kundanno]

I think you don't understand caching and good utilization of memory. If you restart that program you just quit or reload that document you just closed, it is already in memory and time+energi to reload it is saved. Cached memory is available memory, if needed, but no need to clear to it before it is needed. Lazy==good and empty memory is wasted memory. So focus on memory pressure and swap to determine if you are low on memory.

I remember reading somewhere that Apple has consciously optimized MacOS to make use of the unified memory, and it shows in the way in which it uses memory and swap. To your point, it makes use of memory+swap to deliver an "always on" experience whereas it could not do that before because of Intel's approach to different memory pools for the processor and GPU.

 

[Ted Lasso]

Had my MBA since November and it hasn’t put a foot wrong for me. Absolutely handled everything smoothly and flawlessly. Best laptop I’ve ever had.