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Who's rocking an M1 still and how's it holding up for you?
- Thread starter FlyingTexan
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My wife is using a M1 desktop. She uses it for email/correspondence paying bills and for board games. No need for anything more powerful.
Actually, a Chromebook would work well enough for your use case. The M1 is totally overkill.
If a computer is a media player, speed is no advantage. What would a faster computer do? Let you watch that 5 minute cat video in 4 minutes?
Sure, nothing elaborate. Mostly parts for repairing things and mounts that I can 3D print.
M2 base Macbook Air. It's feeling old in some respects, but that's because I push it to do "Pro" things.
Would like to use 2 displays with it, which I can't do.
Would like to use 2 displays with it, which I can't do.
I use a iMac M1 at home and same at work office for pro graphics design and it runs smooth like first day. Why upgrade 🙂
I would imagine many are. Think of all the advertising and speeches given when the M1 was released about its exceptional performance etc. it hasn’t magically changed, it’s still exceptional.
I use my (secondhand) M1 14” pro for work and it still is light and day compared to all the actual work computers.
I’m also FAR less likely to upgrade anytime soon as I would infuriatingly loose the amazing touchbar.
I use my (secondhand) M1 14” pro for work and it still is light and day compared to all the actual work computers.
I’m also FAR less likely to upgrade anytime soon as I would infuriatingly loose the amazing touchbar.
There’s nothing my M1 14” MBP can’t do. Love to have an M4 but it would make a single noticeable spot of difference to my workflow on FCPX and xCode.
My 8GB M1 Air is still my main computer and still runs like a dream on the latest OS. No need to even think about an upgrade!
For your use case makes no sense to upgrade to a newer machine. Maybe when it no longer receives security updates. Just enjoy the extended lifespan of your machine.
I use my mini M1 for photography, occasional video editing and very, very occasional gaming. Also parallels for work. It still meets my needs, so it’s not going anywhere in the near future.
This!
Why are we talking about M1 as if its some ageing obsolete chip?
When it was introduced a few short years ago it was a revelation which blew everything else out the water.
If you have an M1 machine - I have an M1 iMac - it runs as fast and great today as it did when I bought it 3 short years ago.
It is compatible with Apple Intelligence.
Sure, things progress at a mind boggling rate with chips doubling performance etc etc... who knows how and where it will end...
But a chip that runs a machine which was more than powerful enough 3 years ago is still just as capable now as it was then - the fact there are faster now is mostly irrelevant.
I don't have the need to ask any more of my M1 iMac today than I did 3 years ago and it still runs like a dream. There is no point whatsoever where I perceive its slow.
I run my creative agency on an OG Macbook Pro 13" M1.
I use Figma heavily - plus the Adobe Suite.
I struggle to identify any workflows that frustrate me.
I don't edit video often - although just got into podcasting so this might change.
In short, the M1 is great!
I use Figma heavily - plus the Adobe Suite.
I struggle to identify any workflows that frustrate me.
I don't edit video often - although just got into podcasting so this might change.
In short, the M1 is great!
I was rocking M1 air 8gb for whole 2024 and bought in december 2024. 14" M4 PRO, and omg what a performance jump 
like that scene from avengers when Thor struck Iron Man with bolt of lightning 400% exporting 200 raw photos went from 7-8min to less than a 1min 8gb was not enough
like that scene from avengers when Thor struck Iron Man with bolt of lightning 400% exporting 200 raw photos went from 7-8min to less than a 1min 8gb was not enough
Since a few people mentioned minor issues - on my 2020 M1 MacBook Air (which is otherwise going very strong, as posted above), I do have one issue: when using the laptop screen plus an external monitor running at 4K/UHD/3840x2160, occasionally the monitor picture goes a little bit 'wavy'; still usable, but looks like some lock on some pixel clock is slightly off or something. No such issue with the same monitor driven by other hardware. Happens for something like a few minutes, every week or two. Has anyone else ever seen the same problem?!
Base M1 Air, can’t think of any reason to upgrade. Best computer I’ve ever owned.
Bought my wife an M1 air 16/256 that has given us no problems at all. She used it for school and now work nearly every day. She plugs it in at night sometimes.. I have a My Book Duo that I attach about every two weeks to make a backup of her system.
She has no desire to upgrade her laptop and I don’t blame her.
She has no desire to upgrade her laptop and I don’t blame her.
Still extensively using an M1 iPad Pro 12.9”, and it is absolutely fine.
The only reason to upgrade in the future would be the battery: mine is at 84% and I can tell the difference. Unfortunately Apple made out expensive devices disposable regarding battery servicing
The only reason to upgrade in the future would be the battery: mine is at 84% and I can tell the difference. Unfortunately Apple made out expensive devices disposable regarding battery servicing
Yeah, just because someone's needs are modest doesn't mean they want some horrible little Chromebook
Well to be fair, Intel Macs were often struggling to keep up. The usable longevity of the M-series chips is really quite impressive. As we're seeing anecdotally in this thread, even base model M1 Macs are still thriving five years down the road. That wasn't always the case in the Intel days!
Yeowch! OK, I always tell people that their Macs are pretty good at running on low resources, but I don't envision them having videos playing in so many windows in the background. I often have a severe number of browser tabs open too, but most of those tabs aren't doing anything resource intensive like video streaming.
There are ways you can get your browsers to freeze videos so they're not killing your system if they're not in focus. If it's not in settings, there's stuff you can install to help you manage that better. I don't know enough about that to recommend specific options though.
I get your drift about not liking to upgrade your computer if you can help it. I hate doing that too. No matter how smooth they make the process, it's work and there's always pain involved.
I think this is somewhat unfair too. Indeed the Intel laptops were less resilient, but also I think some of the upgrade anxiety is left over from HDD days. The drag from having slow storage created and amplified performance bottlenecks.
If I get my hands on an old laptop, the first thing I do is swap in a cheap SSD and it becomes perfectly serviceable for my friends and relatives who are not going to be doing much more than some video calls, email, and social media.
My wife is rocking my old 2018 15" MBP still with no issues. We're probably going to be forced to make a decision about it in the next couple of years only because it'll get dropped from receiving Apple security updates.