So are you happy with your new M1 Mac?

[matrix07]

Yes, I agree. Safari is awful. Some say it is down to Big Sur problem, rather than the M1 Macs. I won't use Safari because of the scrolling. Firefox isn't much better. The best native browser for smooth scrolling is Microsoft Edge. The Canary build has a version for Apple Silicon. If on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is super smooth scrolling, I'd say Safari is 3, but Edge is 8.5. Give it a try. Google Chrome is a 7.

I install Edge Canary to test and no, it isn't any smoother than Safari (test on this forum). Just about the same. (This is with Edge browser runs in window and safari runs in full screen)
And I had used Chrome (before uninstalling it) and it wasn't smoother than Safari as well.

If you care for battery life Safari is still a clear winner on M1.

 

[trailmonkey]

Safari working a treat here. Never really rated it previously as I've relied on Chrome and loads of extensions for 10 years or so.

Dumped Chrome about 10 days ago to see if I could make it work for me while getting away from the alleged resource hog that people think Chrome is. Wish there were more extensions, especially Notion as I use that a lot for research. Aside from that I'm finding Safari bloody quick but not quite the all rounder that Chrome was/is.

 

[trailmonkey]

Have had this MBA 8/8 16Gb 256Gb for over 2 weeks now and it impresses me every day. Had a weird battery drain issue a few days ago but that may have been caused by Emulsion (similar to Lightroom for managing image libraries). Uninstalled it and battery performance is back to epic. I reckon it's getting better too, which I guess is due to indexing and OneDrive syncing going on at the start?

The snappiness seems to remain constant regardless of how many apps are open, eg Word, PPT, Outlook, Excel, Teams, Squash, Notion, Adobe Bridge, Safari (20+ tabs), ClickUp, Asana, Capto, CameraBag Pro, OneDrive etc. And that's often using SwitchResX at 2048 x 1280.

The only time I experience a drop in performance is when I'm hooked up to LG 28" at 4k. Apps and tabs are still snappy but the cursor is a touch laggy - a bit like a drop in refresh rate only for the cursor.

 

[R3k]

Ordered a M1 13” MBP to test. Wasn’t that much of an upgrade to my 2016 15” MBP for my usage case so returned it after testing. Even though my 2016 is having screen issues. Will wait for the 14” redesign and then I’m all in.

 

[trailmonkey]

Wasn’t that much of an upgrade to my 2016 15” MBP for my usage case so returned it after testing.

I assume your work use is pretty light and not stretching the 15"?

 

[ondert]

I‘ve got an unopened 2020 5k base model imac and I’m on the edge of selling it and buying an M1 Mac Mini. I use VS Code, Matlab, DaVinci Resolve, Android Studio mostly. För games, I generally play blizzard games and world of warcraft. Do you suggest me getting it? Selling the imac and buying an M1 Mac Mini will let me save some money too.

 

[TrueBlou]

Nearly there, bud.

Nearly there .

One more sleep to go. Didn’t even get it a day early as a “surprise” birthday present, shocking Now I’m just waiting on them banning Christmas travel completely, which wouldn’t surprise me

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

One more sleep to go. Didn’t even get it a day early as a “surprise” birthday present, shocking Now I’m just waiting on them banning Christmas travel completely, which wouldn’t surprise me

Is it your birthday today, buddy?

If it is, then haaaaaappy birthday!

Is it not under your tree? Is it with your mum & dad?

I’m sure they couldn’t ban travelling.

This time tomorrow, you’ll be in the M1 Club.

Bonafide!

 

[R3k]

I assume your work use is pretty light and not stretching the 15"?

Correct. I have a 2019 Mac Pro for all my heavy lifting and the notebook for a daily driver. I dont really burn the clock cycles on the MBP often as my work is either light or way too intense to even try running it.

That all said, I want my daily driver to be as snappy and buttery as possible. I dont want lagging data entry on Quicken or slushy map zooming while looking for restaurants on the TripAdvisor map for instance.

Out of interest, I noticed that zooming on on the web version of Google maps is much smoother on the M1. The reddit "re-design" is uncomfortably laggy and choppy on either system though

 

[ohsnap]

I'm extremely happy with my base model M1 Air but I do not get ANYWHERE NEAR the battery life most others say they do. I've not let it run down, but I get about 4 hrs of continuous moderate load usage. If on standby from 100%, I'm not sure how it would fare, but I've let it sit for 2 days without a charge, and when I came back, it was down to 80%-ish? Other than that, I'm thrilled with it.

 

[Quackington]

Is it your birthday today, buddy?

If it is, then haaaaaappy birthday!

Is it not under your tree? Is it with your mum & dad?

I’m sure they couldn’t ban travelling.

This time tomorrow, you’ll be in the M1 Club.

Bonafide!

M1 club, eh?

I used to be part of the M25 club for work a few years back...so glad I don’t drive for work anymore ;-)

 

[abhi182]

I'm extremely happy with my base model M1 Air but I do not get ANYWHERE NEAR the battery life most others say they do. I've not let it run down, but I get about 4 hrs of continuous moderate load usage. If on standby from 100%, I'm not sure how it would fare, but I've let it sit for 2 days without a charge, and when I came back, it was down to 80%-ish? Other than that, I'm thrilled with it.

The standby drain is a bit high - but It could be because of the initial indexing etc
It seems that like the iPad, the M1 MBs don't really deep sleep like the Intel ones - which is not necessarily a bad thing

The Moderate load usage story is odd though
Mine was fully charged late Wednesday night - It's been more than 24 hours (1:30 AM Friday here) with at least 6 hours of active usage and the battery is at 64% - which is way better than I was expecting in a real life scenario

Since this is a new architecture, I am being a little cautious and have consciously avoided using any odd software to begin with
So far , I Have stuck to Apple apps like safari/Photos or must-use apps like office 365 / Zoom (which are both M1 optimised)
I haven't installed any of the standard tools I am used to like istat or coconut battery yet

Once I have gone through a couple of discharge cycles and have a discharge curve baseline in mind - is when I will start adding non optimised apps to the mix - That way it will be clear if any of them end up causing a major battery drain issue

 

[rui no onna]

Mine's at 3% overnight drain, I believe.

I'm normally at 10-25% brightness and so far, battery life on my MBA has been on track to exceed Apple's estimates with predominantly text web browsing using Safari and a couple hours RDP. I was using it Tuesday and got 9 hours intermittent onscreen time and it was still at 57% remaining afterwards.

I don't really have any apps installed apart from work VPN and Microsoft RDP, though. I haven't even installed Office 365 since I have Office via RDP/work PC.

P.S. I actually do have another app installed - an ad blocker. It's difficult browsing the web these days without one.

 

[Krevnik]

I‘ve got an unopened 2020 5k base model imac and I’m on the edge of selling it and buying an M1 Mac Mini. I use VS Code, Matlab, DaVinci Resolve, Android Studio mostly. För games, I generally play blizzard games and world of warcraft. Do you suggest me getting it? Selling the imac and buying an M1 Mac Mini will let me save some money too.

So, this is a case where it depends. At least with my Xcode tests, the M1 would be noticeably faster. Things get a little more complicated with stuff like Matlab and Android Studio, since those are likely to be Intel for a bit.

GPU-wise, the base iMac has a noticeably faster GPU still. It will depend on the display you pair with the Mini. You'll still be able to use higher settings on the iMac than the M1 Mini.

 

[sky87]

The standby drain is a bit high - but It could be because of the initial indexing etc
It seems that like the iPad, the M1 MBs don't really deep sleep like the Intel ones - which is not necessarily a bad thing

This seems to be the case for me - I use istat menus to check on historical RAM/battery/etc usage and I get a data point whenever my macbook wakes up. The M1 MBA has multiple data points when it's sleeping which suggests it periodically wakes up, but so far this doesn't appear to have affected the battery. (Unlike with my previous intel macbooks where doing this would result in crazy overnight battery drain that I had to turn off the "wake up during sleep" power option, and then change some things in terminal, to stop the battery drain.)

 

[Quackers]

Maybe @TrueBlou is happy today 👍

 

[Jouls]

GPU-wise, the base iMac has a noticeably faster GPU still.

Are you sure? An Intel Iris Plus 640 is faster than the M1 GPU?

 

[TrueBlou]

Is it your birthday today, buddy?

If it is, then haaaaaappy birthday!

Is it not under your tree? Is it with your mum & dad?

I’m sure they couldn’t ban travelling.

This time tomorrow, you’ll be in the M1 Club.

Bonafide!

Cheers mate, yeah yesterday was my birthday, Christmas Eve baby... now just a Christmas Eve big baby 🤣

 

[TrueBlou]

Maybe @TrueBlou is happy today 👍

Oh, I’m always happy, it’s the drugs 😂😂

 

[Quackers]

Oh, I’m always happy, it’s the drugs ??

Are you typing on your new toy

 

[Captain Trips]

so glad I don’t drive for work anymore ;-)

Same here, been working from home since mid-March. I have been able to use the time I spend driving home (minimum 40 minutes) to go out and run 6 miles. I am at 1332 miles for the year and have lost about 3-4 inches from my waist.

I do hope when things calm down that my work situation will be a rotation - 1 week in office, 1 or 2 weeks from home. I do miss seeing my co-workers face to face, and some things are better or easier when you are face to face instead of video calls. However, video calls (Zoom in my case) work out very well for most meetings.

 

[TrueBlou]

Are you typing on your new toy

Annoyingly not she was doing an update. I’ll get a wee shot just shortly, not much, I have to start cooking soon. Tomorrow will be my big day of fun and experimenting, assuming the wife doesn’t come up with some nonsense she wants me to do

 

[Captain Trips]

Annoyingly not she was doing an update. I’ll get a wee shot just shortly, not much, I have to start cooking soon. Tomorrow will be my big day of fun and experimenting, assuming the wife doesn’t come up with some nonsense she wants me to do

Saw this in a Psychology Today article (bold emphasis mine):

"Studies show that delayed gratification is one of the most effective personal traits of successful people. People who learn how to manage their need to be satisfied in the moment thrive more in their careers, relationships, health, and finances than people who give in to it."

So you are successful and thriving since you can put off diving in and using your new M1. Keep repeating that to yourself until you can use it...

 

[Quackington]

Same here, been working from home since mid-March. I have been able to use the time I spend driving home (minimum 40 minutes) to go out and run 6 miles. I am at 1332 miles for the year and have lost about 3-4 inches from my waist.

I do hope when things calm down that my work situation will be a rotation - 1 week in office, 1 or 2 weeks from home. I do miss seeing my co-workers face to face, and some things are better or easier when you are face to face instead of video calls. However, video calls (Zoom in my case) work out very well for most meetings.

Heh, I’m sick and tired of working from home. Pre-pandemic, I was commuting by train, which I really don’t mind at all. It’s much nicer than driving - I can read, watch something, nap etc. No need to worry about feeling tired on the road. I used to have my air con on cold and radio on full blast to stay awake on the drive back. Mornings were fine, as I’m a morning person, but driving back was no fun.

Looking forward to going back...hopefully around spring time but probably more realistically H2 next year.

 

[TrueBlou]

Saw this in a Psychology Today article (bold emphasis mine):

"Studies show that delayed gratification is one of the most effective personal traits of successful people. People who learn how to manage their need to be satisfied in the moment thrive more in their careers, relationships, health, and finances than people who give in to it."

So you are successful and thriving since you can put off diving in and using your new M1. Keep repeating that to yourself until you can use it...

Huh, go figure, and here I put my successes down to autism letting me remember everything you learn something new every day ?