What imperfections does your new 14 or 16 inch have, that you are willing to live with?

[Chevysales]

I ordered on launch day so I've had mine for quite a while and zero issues after three months. My only issues are Monterey.

ordered mine 12.14.21 got it Monday 2 days short of 8 weeks.
16" 2 tb ssd and 64gb ram space grey. I sold my similar 2019 16" and so far very happy

I looked for just about every issue I saw those here post about and so far so good

Edit... spoke too soon as after 2 days under different lighting I can see that wavy plastic trim by hinges/vents but mine is just very very slight.

 

[satcomer]

When I covered Mac book Air M1 from the refund store! Then 2 months lately display messed up upon waking from sleep! Apple repaired it and repair paper said it wasn't the display, it was display cable connection! It wasn't soldered into its base and was coming loose! So they replaced the cable soldering it into the board! Luckily it was still under the three month warranty!

 

[MrGunny94]

You shouldn't have to get more RAM because of memory leaks or poorly ported software but here we are. It is exacerbated by the delays for BTO models. It would be possible to buy a new one and sell the old one with likely minimal loss but having to wait six weeks for it would be a pain. I have seen only one of the new PRO/MAX models for sale on my local Craigslist and it's a 16 GB 14 model (selling to get the MAX as I guess the PRO isn't enough for their workflow). I don't expect it to last long given the time it takes to get BTOs.

I had to reboot this morning because of the Monterey network bug. This is where it indicates that you have WiFi but you can't do anything on the network. Rebooting it fixes it though. I suspect that it's related to the memory leak problems. It was worse when I was using it with external monitors and 12.0 - as I had to reboot it every two days. Now I only have to reboot it once a week. I really hope that they get these fixed. Unfortunately Big Sur isn't an option.

I have a lot of these issues. And I agree if it wasn't for Teams / What's App / FB Messenger I wouldn't need the 32GB because these apps are just utter crap.

 

[solouki]

Hi all,

I haven't read through the earlier posts in this thread, but if this thread is asking for my personal opinion, then to me the annoying issues that I have decided to live with are:

(1) auto-boot for "breathing" on the M1 laptops (opening lid, jostling in backpack, touching any key, plugging in to charge) and the elimination of the ability to disable auto-boot

(2) lack of the TouchBar (okay, I know, roast me now ... but I actually appreciated the touchbar, especially for things like changing the brightness on my laptop as well as an attached monitor without having to open System Preferences --> Displays --> Brightness or some other method; as well as the easy scrubbing through videos and redefinitions in apps). Personally, the best of all worlds would be a separate ESC key, a TouchBar, and a separate Fingerprint/Power key.

(3) 4 Thunderbolt ports (once again, roast me now ... but I already owned the dongles necessary for presentations on older projectors including my own WiFi to HMDI dongle as well as dongles from TB to every other known port protocol. On the other hand, and again, the caveat is that this is my own experience -- I actually appreciated the 4 TB ports and had organized my desk to utilize all 4 TB ports. While I do like the new, fast charging, MagSafe2 port, I miss the fourth TB port that was converted to HDMI 2.0 but not 2.1, SDXC, and MagSafe2). I would have rather liked the 4 general use TB4/USB4 ports or, even better, 4 TB4/USB4 ports plus a MagSafe2 charging port.

Just my personal opinions, of course. And I do understand that professionals may wish to have HDMI and SDXC ports, but wouldn't they rather have wanted HDMI 2.1 and CF ports instead (or even the faster V90 UHS-II SDXC ports -- I don't own one of these cards, so I'm not sure what speed they can be read/written on an M1 MBP -- I understand from darngooddesign's post #134 below that it is UHS-2, yeah!)? If professionals did, then wouldn't they be back in the same boat of having to get dongles for these latest protocols/ports while at the same time having only 3 general use TB4/USB4 ports instead of 4 TB4/USB4 ports?

Regards,
Solouki

Edit: Corrected SDXC port speed.

 

[jace88]

(2) lack of the TouchBar (okay, I know, roast me now ... but I actually appreciated the touchbar, especially for things like changing the brightness on my laptop as well as an attached monitor without having to open System Preferences --> Displays --> Brightness or some other method; as well as the easy scrubbing through videos and redefinitions in apps). Personally, the best of all worlds would be a separate ESC key, a TouchBar, and a separate Fingerprint/Power key.

Don't worry, I miss it too. Would've been nice if Apple had actually invested in building out a decent ecosystem around the Touchbar (eg Widgets) and encouraging active use of it, rather than having to rely on third parties to do this...

 

[jace88]

I currently have both the 14 and 16 inch Models in my possession during the return window. I am debating the merits of both. I absolutely love the larger screen on the 16 but love the form factor and portability of the 14. I can certainly get away with doing all of my day-to-day tasks on the 14 inch but I would think for those times when I do creative work on rare occasions such as video editing and photo editing as well as with content viewing the bigger screen might be the better option, especially since I do not have a monitor to plug into.

Assuming you predominantly do your work in one or two places, wouldn't it be easier to just get an external monitor (and maybe even a dock + KB/M too?). I have become really hooked on TB4 (or even before this, USB-C) docks which allow me a single cable to plug in to a Macbook (or my work laptops) and get keyboard, mouse, superwide monitor/high refresh support (this was an issue on USB-C docks hence the upgrade to a newer TB4 dock) and gigabit ethernet. This way I can also use the Macbook (and other laptops) in closed clamshell mode with a vertical stand.

 

[88Keys]

Mine came with a small scuff/ding on the lid of the display. Unfortunately I have a BTO model and its a 6-8 week wait for a replacement. Since I have AppleCare+ and I'm sure it'll accrue some scuffs over the coming years, so I'm learning to just live with it. Everything else is flawless, no display issues, keyboard backlight is uniform, not even the dreaded ripple bezel that's at the bottom of the display. So other than the small cosmetic imperfection the unit is absolutely sound and flawless.

 

[Chevysales]

the wavy trim by hinge. No issue with me as I never see it unless looking for it on my 16" Max 64gb/2tb.
went to 2 Apple stores and all 4 displays had it at both stores. Some a lot worse than mine. I would never send it back for that. Especially when this hits higher benchmarks than those listed on GeekBench 5 Mac list. Not worth a gamble and 8 week wait. Life under Covid screws up our Apple stuff too.

 

[darngooddesign]

Hi all,

...(or even the faster V90 UHS-II SDXC ports

The SD slot is UHS-2.

 

[solouki]

Thank you darngooddesign, I stand corrected.

The SD slot is UHS-2.

Solouki

 

[darngooddesign]

Thank you darngooddesign, I stand corrected.

No problem. Its slightly slower than a USB-C reader, but I've used the one in my new 16" multiple times so I'm thrilled it's there.

 

[Mitchdoc]

Assuming you predominantly do your work in one or two places, wouldn't it be easier to just get an external monitor (and maybe even a dock + KB/M too?). I have become really hooked on TB4 (or even before this, USB-C) docks which allow me a single cable to plug in to a Macbook (or my work laptops) and get keyboard, mouse, superwide monitor/high refresh support (this was an issue on USB-C docks hence the upgrade to a newer TB4 dock) and gigabit ethernet. This way I can also use the Macbook (and other laptops) in closed clamshell mode with a vertical stand.

Not really. My current home setup doesn't have room for a monitor until I sell off some furniture and get new desk setup. Also I don't love working at one desk all the time.
I work in the kitchen the bedroom den.....
Don't travel more than 3 or 4 times a year on a plane and have IPP 11 inch for tray table. Wife's family has a cottage in the country we goto about 10 times per year and the laptop becomes main media consumption device there.

I love having this amazing screen so the bigger the better. The added weight is really not significant to me. Yes the footprint at times I wish was smaller and that is the trade off for better battery better sound and better screen for everything.

I plan to get back into some editing of video and photos that I have put off since I left for windows 4 and a half years ago. Much prefer to do it all from same device and not have to be tethered to a desk monitor and keyboard otherwise I could have gotten an air and a mini for less than a 14 inch.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

I'm just hoping we get a wide array of TB4 docks in the market.. I'm currently not using one and just using my Huawei Mateview usb-c cable connections to the Mac. Everything USB-A is connected to those monitors for now...

What worries me a bit is the memory usage right now when running apps like FB Messenger, What's App and the worst of all of them.. Microsoft Teams.

Really hoping Microsoft ends up delivering on the M1 client sooner rather than late, because Teams is the main tool I use every single day from meetings to apps loaded into Teams themselves, to spending all days on call and so on...

It really is a frustrating experience of having to center my work around teams which performs really badly on every single device out there besides iOS.