Who's rocking an M1 still and how's it holding up for you?

[smirking]

Anybody else a clamshell power user?

I sometimes am. I go through phases. Sometimes those phases are influence by back pain or the weather. I'll get in the habit of being at my desk and that habit will stick for a while. Then I'll end up in our spare bedroom because it's the warmest room in the house and that becomes my cave for the next couple of months.

The warmest room in the house sucks as the weather warms up so I end up going clamshell in my office, but then the peak of summer hits and having a 27" monitor blasting extra heat becomes what sucks and I end up in the living room next to the air conditioning.

It's nice to have options.

 

[wonderings]

still rocking an M1? These machines are far from obsolete and still powerful, just not as powerful as the newer stuff. I use an M1 Max as my daily machine for Adobe CC (Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop). There are no significant gains with what I do that would warrant or require a newer computer. We have an MacBook M3 Pro as well and no real world difference in speed. It is going to be a few years still before I think an upgrade would actually make sense in terms of price for performance.

 

[Ifti]

I have a M1 Max MBP. Does everything I need it to do. No issues at all.
However, as it's always used as a desk machine, I'm now considering changing it to a Mac Studio when its updated [hopefully] later this year. Not because I need the extra power - just because I want a desktop rather then a laptop (also have a M3 MBA as my portable machine).

 

[treyjustice]

M1 13 inch with Touch Bar 1 TB 16 GB ram. Thing is still awesome for me, lots of web and occasional Final Cut Pro

 

[Andy_2341]

Sure, nothing elaborate. Mostly parts for repairing things and mounts that I can 3D print.

Nice. Do you run the software through a VM? I would like to do some 3d modeling with my new Mini but haven’t figured it out yet.

 

[ignatius345]

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.

Ehhh, I don't know. My last Intel Mac (i5 2020 MacBook Air) was just constantly blasting its fan and getting hot. No matter what I did I could not get more than maybe 4-5 hours battery life out of it, even with very little stuff running -- and that was more or less right out of the box. I can't imagine it would have kept up very well with five years' worth of macOS and other software updates as well as the M1 has.

 

[tim.rand]

M1 MacBook Air from 2020. Still running strong. Exceedingly reliable.

 

[gwang73]

Nice. Do you run the software through a VM? I would like to do some 3d modeling with my new Mini but haven’t figured it out yet.

No VM, I use Fusion. It runs native and has a free tier that’s good for simple stuff. My only issue with Fusion is that it memory leaks like crazy if you leave it open for days but if you shut it down daily, it’s fine.

 

[timsutcliffe]

Base M1 MacBook Air - coming up to its 4th birthday. For a normal user, this does everything I need to and is showing no signs of slowing down.

 

[Internaut]

I am still perfectly happy with the base 14" M1 Pro MacBook. I thought it would be good for the next 7-8 years, but then local LLMs became a thing. Memory will be the driver to upgrade if I choose to do so in the next two years.

 

[crsh1976]

MBP 16 inch with M1 Max 10/32 reporting… all is going strong after 3 years of service. Probably one of the best computers I have ever used.

 

[smirking]

Ehhh, I don't know. My last Intel Mac (i5 2020 MacBook Air) was just constantly blasting its fan and getting hot.

OK, but that's an i5 MBA we're talking about. I'm actually familiar with the struggles on that machine because my wife had the 2018 base model version. Even still, it should still be able to do the basics today.

I don't mean to imply that older tech is perfectly fine. I just meant that we're often premature in viewing recent tech as obsolete here. Not everyone needs the latest and greatest and some people don't even need anything more than the bare minimum.

 

[Shadar]

Still using a couple of M1 Airs and a M1 Mini. They are as good now as when new. Best machines Apple ever made, and still plenty fast for the work I do (writing, surfing, light-duty Photoshop). Haven't noticed any kind of slow down or problems. Even the batteries in the Airs are still Ok, with one at 90% and the other (more heavily used) at 84% of original, which hasn't been noticeable.

I'll replace them when they break or when something truly compelling comes along. Neither of which has happened to date.

 

[StrollerEd]

As with others posting here, I also think that M1 still rocks

The upgrade from the mid-2015 15" MBP to the 16” MBP M1max 32 GB / 1TB was and continues to be a delight. Battery health 84%.

The combination of fear of loss and weight of lugging that 16"MBP about later prompted me to buy the m1 MBA 16GB s/h during the M2 era. I readily carry that around in a bag without those concerns on short trips away - much preferring a laptop to an iPad. I already had a lot of dongles for presentations etc so the lack of hdmi etc not such a loss.

Having skipped over M2 & M3, I did look at M4. I've only just put a toe in the AI waters as yet. Other than that, I'm unsure when I will be convinced I should upgrade.

 

[scrapesleon]

using mine for another 6 months the upgrading after

 

[lewchenko]

M1 MBP 16” 16GB/1TB. Handles everything I throw at it with ease. No reason whatsoever to upgrade. My work gives me an M3 MBP and can’t tell the difference using it (dev work) to my M1 MBP.
I’d rather buy a new Nvidia 50X0 GPU next for my PC than upgrade my laptop.

 

[chars1ub0w]

16" MacBook Pro with 64GB of RAM and 4TB SSD. Still okay, but have added 4TB external SSD to move stuff off the internal 4TB SSD when storage became uncomfortably tight. I think the RAM is the key to future proofing. I am using also a basic 14" M3 MacBook Pro with much less memory, just 24GB, and that one gets bogged down easily.

 

[zonesey]

M1 MBP 13" 2020 here, still good as new despite daily use for 4+ years but I'm planning to hop on the M4 16" bandwagon soon

 

[Smoovejayy]

I still have my M1 Pro from Nov. 2021. No complaints. Still is as fast as day 1. Battery life is like 85% - I’m feeling the battery drain faster but it’s to be expected. Everything seems normal. I don’t plan to upgrade for another two years or more.

 

[Sace]

M1 Air for personal stuff and MBP 16 with a M1 Pro for work. I haven't even considered upgrading them as they perform flawlessly (the Air is even an 8GB variant).

I do have a M4 Mini that I use for my indoor cycling setup and it's clearly a lot faster when running games etc - But I rarely do that so not really a concern.

 

[Andy_2341]

No VM, I use Fusion. It runs native and has a free tier that’s good for simple stuff. My only issue with Fusion is that it memory leaks like crazy if you leave it open for days but if you shut it down daily, it’s fine.

Nice. Thank you.

 

[navaira]

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?!

Oh! I thought that was my screen or hub, but yes – it would look like refresh rate sort of… *shrugs* well, what you said. I have no clue if it was the MBA, though, I haven’t used my M4 MBP with this screen much yet. Do you connect over DisplayPort?

(Feel free to DM, this is off-topic here.)

 

[Klae17]

I just use my M1 14" as a daily driver. I haven't tried anything else. For me it's internet, multimedia (plex/youtube/netflix) and really that's about it. Have to admit I've been looking for a reason to upgrade and can't. I even have a $600 credit with apple and can't find a reason to get rid of the thing. I can't tell if I'm just old now and not longer always needing the new new or what. How is yours treating you or if you've traded in how's the new unit. Was it worth it or no real reason to upgrade?

M1 Max MBP with 64 gb of ram. I haven't been impressed with the current offerings and will wait until theres a new body. I feel like this thing can last me 10 years.

 

[nexx27]

I was on a 16" 16GB M1 Pro until a month ago. I had no issues at all, but the trade-in price that Apple offered was too good to pass up and the M4 seemed to be a good upgrade cycle to jump into.

After a month on my new M4 I've noticed... mostly nothing. It's faster, but not night and day faster (especially in the things that actually make me more productive).

M1's are going to be really solid workhorses for a good while to come. We're on a site where people constantly talk about having the latest and greatest or about always wanting more. Don't get sucked into upgrade anxiety. I have a 2009 that still works fine for everyday computing.

Do as I say not as I do 😃😄

 

[gusping]

I still have a 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro.

I won't upgrade this machine as I'm more interested in a PC based on the NVIDIA RTX 5000 series that just launched.

Me too, although I’ll admit the M4 mini is tempting. Just upgraded to a 9800X3D and now waiting until 30th Jan!