Why I returned a 13” M1 MBP Turd

[mangoman]

I truly hope "round 2" works better for you. I don't blame you about being frustrated with your first experience with the M1. I know I would be, or could be as I have one on order. I won't hesitate to ship mine back should it be too rocky of a start with the AS. I wish my local Apple Store was open for business. As I'd return it there if I could.

Please let us know how the second one works out and how you feel about a working M1.

Thanks, and hope to sing Apple’s praises with this next M1 attempt. ?

 

[MK500]

I think setting up as new is a fine call to make. Why not, right? New architecture, new setup. I’m sure some crusty troll will weigh in to say how stupid we both are for thinking this way.

I did the same thing, and I ALWAYS use migration assistant since it became available. But this is a new architecture, so I figured it was worth the setup time. It is such a monumental change under the hood. Also I have built up a lot of crud over the years, and have found it kind of fun to look at the apps I use and see if there are some newer options.

Not to say there is anything wrong with migrating for those that did. Apple usually does a great job with migration; so it will probably work fine.

 

[delsoul]

Best to exchange it for a new one and then go from there. If it happened once, it's a problematic unit. If it happens twice, then you know for a fact that something's not right. I returned my first unit due to some issues. One thing I thought was weird with the first unit is that it says it's last charge date was 11-01-2020 and it was already on cycle 2! The new unit last charge was 11-17-2020 and still cycle 1. I don't know why that early build laptop would already be ran a full cycle on a battery, etc.

 

[mangoman]

Best to exchange it for a new one and then go from there. If it happened once, it's a problematic unit. If it happens twice, then you know for a fact that something's not right. I returned my first unit due to some issues. One thing I thought was weird with the first unit is that it says it's last charge date was 11-01-2020 and it was already on cycle 2! The new unit last charge was 11-17-2020 and still cycle 1. I don't know why that early build laptop would already be ran a full cycle on a battery, etc.

That is weird. Thanks for sharing that, and your experience about a returned unit. Good to know that I’m not insane (completely).

 

[michelg1970]

Easy, tiger. I acknowledged the non-native fact in my post. The more pressing issue was the native Apple apps not working. Maybe the PEBKAC is yours, too?

LOL, had to Google for the meaning of bekpac. ?

I concur with the others though, my M1 has been working flawlessly. Good luck with your second try! ?

 

[mangoman]

LOL, had to Google for the meaning of bekpac. ?

I concur with the others though, my M1 has been working flawlessly. Good luck with your second try! ?

I had to look it up, too. The Language of Troll is not something I speak. Thanks for the good wishes. Love hearing the flawless reports like yours.

 

[vigilant]

It’s been YEARS since I started a thread on this forum. So for what it’s worth, I’m rarely so fired up. Here’s why:

I rarely ‘early adopt’ but decided to break my rule and buy a 13” MPB, M1 laptop (16GB RAM, 2TB drive).

In the last three days, it’s been a Beach Ball Hell. I thought it was just Adobe apps (as usual, Adobe’s apps appear to be developed in silos and currently not written for the M1 architecture), so I deleted ‘em, reinstalled ‘em. Still lots of lag and beach balls. Especially Illustrator (and the files were simple/small).

What was more troubling was the general lag, beach balls and “Application not responding” issues with Apple native apps: Mail, Safari, Notes, etc.—even the Finder kept hanging. After three Apple Support calls, reinstalling Big Sur, more troubleshooting, I boxed this turd and sent it back.

I wish Apple would spend less on glitzy marketing presentations and more on real world testing before shipping product. I hope your experience has been better than mine. But at this point, I’m buying the latest 16” MBP, spending nearly twice as much, and hoping it’s not another beach ball-inducing, overhyped handwarmer.

EDIT: To confirm, the turd shipped, but I’m willing to try the M1 again. Cancelled the 16” order and opted for Round 2 of a 13” M1 MBP.

I'd have to say that you almost definitely got a lemon. Let me give you some context.

Back in April I bought a midrange MacBook Pro 16. The machine is fast, but the fan is almost always on, and kicks on even when there's nothing going on in the background. Can I slow it down? Easily, there's a handful of things that I can do to make it happen. After seeing the reviews for the M1 MacBook Pro, I ordered a MacBook Pro M1 with 16GB and 1TB. For my wife, I'm typing this on her MacBook Air M1.

This MacBook Air beats the snot out of my $2,500 MacBook Pro 16, and doesn't even break a sweat.

Even my very limited testing with x86 apps run better on here than my MacBook Pro 16.

The one thing I don't think I fully appreciate till I started messing with this is the consistent performance. Intel Macs for various reasons go through weird patches where everything is running well, and then it's like a car running out of gas. This sustained performance curve is substantially better than my about to be retired MacBook Pro 16.

I need to spend some time with this but it appears the high efficiency cores are doing the bulk of the work at any given time on this thing. If that is indeed the case, I can't wait to get my new Pro, and see how much I can abuse it, because right now I have no words for this Air.

Hope your next one works out better for you. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions I can answer

 

[mangoman]

I'd have to say that you almost definitely got a lemon. Let me give you some context.

Back in April I bought a midrange MacBook Pro 16. The machine is fast, but the fan is almost always on, and kicks on even when there's nothing going on in the background. Can I slow it down? Easily, there's a handful of things that I can do to make it happen. After seeing the reviews for the M1 MacBook Pro, I ordered a MacBook Pro M1 with 16GB and 1TB. For my wife, I'm typing this on her MacBook Air M1.

This MacBook Air beats the snot out of my $2,500 MacBook Pro 16, and doesn't even break a sweat.

Even my very limited testing with x86 apps run better on here than my MacBook Pro 16.

The one thing I don't think I fully appreciate till I started messing with this is the consistent performance. Intel Macs for various reasons go through weird patches where everything is running well, and then it's like a car running out of gas. This sustained performance curve is substantially better than my about to be retired MacBook Pro 16.

I need to spend some time with this but it appears the high efficiency cores are doing the bulk of the work at any given time on this thing. If that is indeed the case, I can't wait to get my new Pro, and see how much I can abuse it, because right now I have no words for this Air.

Hope your next one works out better for you. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions I can answer

Thanks, vigilant, for the extended, thoughtful response. Much appreciated, believe me. Very helpful to confirm my cancellation of the angry and spontaneous purchase of the 16” (now cancelled). Sounds like I dodged another bullet. Thanks again!

 

[vigilant]

Thanks, vigilant, for the extended, thoughtful response. Much appreciated, believe me. Very helpful to confirm my cancellation of the angry and spontaneous purchase of the 16” (now cancelled). Sounds like I dodged another bullet. Thanks again!

No problem at all man. I’ve felt that way too so I thought it was worth sharing.

Seeing what I’m seeing now, I feel like I have a Ferrari coming in, and I want to find the best curvy roads and just see what I can do.

Looking forward to your next post.

 

[honestone33]

Yeah, it does sound like you got a lemon. Of course, there is also the issue of Big Sur still not being stable enough. I don't use any Apple apps at all, so third party compatibility is critical.

Myself, I am considering the base model of the M1 MacBook Air. But first some events need to happen before I make that purchase.

 

[bill-p]

It seems not too many people have seen this, but I have personally experienced the same thing as you.

The OS that my M1 MacBook Pro shipped with (11.0.0) was atrocious. It encountered a kernel panic the moment it got past the usual welcome dialogs. Yes, it's that bad.

11.0.1 was marginally better, but any non-native Rosetta 2 app caused the system to crash a lot.

I'm on 11.1 beta now and it's much better. Some apps still freeze up from time to time, but they don't cause the whole system to restart anymore.

Guys, just because you have not seen it does not mean this is not regular occurrence. It is known that 11.0.1 has issues with Rosetta 2, and if the OP is using Adobe suite, there's a chance Rosetta 2 is messing up his computer.

Not everything is rosy.

 

[mangoman]

It seems not too many people have seen this, but I have personally experienced the same thing as you.

The OS that my M1 MacBook Pro shipped with (11.0.0) was atrocious. It encountered a kernel panic the moment it got past the usual welcome dialogs. Yes, it's that bad.

11.0.1 was marginally better, but any non-native Rosetta 2 app caused the system to crash a lot.

I'm on 11.1 beta now and it's much better. Some apps still freeze up from time to time, but they don't cause the whole system to restart anymore.

Guys, just because you have not seen it does not mean this is not regular occurrence. It is known that 11.0.1 has issues with Rosetta 2, and if the OP is using Adobe suite, there's a chance Rosetta 2 is messing up his computer.

Not everything is rosy.

Thanks for sharing this, Bill.

 

[bill-p]

Yeah, it's a Pro Apple forums, but the attitude of some of the members here seems to be that Apple can do absolutely nothing wrong, and that anything that's broken is just a "lemon".

I'd disagree. There are hints throughout the internet that some of the early M1 MacBook Pro weren't performing up to par. For instance, there's this:

Apple MacBook Pro 13” M1 Review- Why You Might Want To Pass

#1-ranked tech analyst Patrick Moorhead reviews the new Apple MacBook Pro 13" M1 processor.

www.forbes.com

And then there's this:

My Shortish M1-based MacBook Pro 13-inch review

After a long chat with Apple’s executive troika, I asked my media contact at the company if I could try the 13-inch MacBook Pro model version. The executives’ comments about the M1 had convin…

om.co

Everything points to Rosetta 2 stability being questionable in 11.0.1.

I think Apple should have waited until 11.1 exited beta before announcing and selling the first M1 Macs, but they rushed in order to meet the "end of 2020" deadline. The hardware may already be "there" but I don't think we have that level of stability for the software yet.

 

[kazmac]

It seems not too many people have seen this, but I have personally experienced the same thing as you.

The OS that my M1 MacBook Pro shipped with (11.0.0) was atrocious. It encountered a kernel panic the moment it got past the usual welcome dialogs. Yes, it's that bad.

11.0.1 was marginally better, but any non-native Rosetta 2 app caused the system to crash a lot.

I'm on 11.1 beta now and it's much better. Some apps still freeze up from time to time, but they don't cause the whole system to restart anymore.

Guys, just because you have not seen it does not mean this is not regular occurrence. It is known that 11.0.1 has issues with Rosetta 2, and if the OP is using Adobe suite, there's a chance Rosetta 2 is messing up his computer.

Not everything is rosy.

I had similar issues with the 16gb / 1TB MBA I returned. Battery drains too.

As I borked my iMac, I need something now. Not sure what to buy...

 

[bill-p]

I had similar issues with the 16gb / 1TB MBA I returned. Battery drains too.

If I didn’t Bork my iMac, I would wait for the next round, but need something now. Not sure what to do...

Get a 16" MacBook? It's proven to work and is rock solid despite the fact that it runs hot and bothered.

Or get an iMac 2020.

The M1 may be nice, but if you can't wait (i.e.: if it's your main computer), the you should try to get something that works. I still have my 16" and I'm in no hurry to pawn it off. It's still a perfectly good machine.

 

[kazmac]

Thanks @bill-p

 

[honestone33]

It seems not too many people have seen this, but I have personally experienced the same thing as you.

The OS that my M1 MacBook Pro shipped with (11.0.0) was atrocious. It encountered a kernel panic the moment it got past the usual welcome dialogs. Yes, it's that bad.

11.0.1 was marginally better, but any non-native Rosetta 2 app caused the system to crash a lot.

I'm on 11.1 beta now and it's much better. Some apps still freeze up from time to time, but they don't cause the whole system to restart anymore.

Guys, just because you have not seen it does not mean this is not regular occurrence. It is known that 11.0.1 has issues with Rosetta 2, and if the OP is using Adobe suite, there's a chance Rosetta 2 is messing up his computer.

Not everything is rosy.

This set of circumstances is even more problematic than in years past. First, it is common knowledge that for every new Mac OS, the first few releases contain bugs/ issues, and it's typically not until the third release, the one designated as ".3", that things start to settle down. Big Sur is certainly exhibiting that (along with other issues, mentioned below).

Secondly, things did not look good for Big Sur at all. Very shortly after the initial non-beta release, ie, V11.0.1, a beta version of the next release (V11.1) was introduced. While V11.1 should be released soon, that's still problematic, at least to me.

Third, with the M1 Macs "forced" to have Big Sur, along with Rosetta and third party software compatibility, that was, and still is, a recipe for serious issues. Even with a M1 Mac that is not a lemon (that just makes things even worse), the situation is definitely troublesome.

As I've mentioned previously, I am waiting until 1) Big Sur settles down, and 2) the remainder of my third party applications to be compatible with Big Sur. Meanwhile, I'll continue to happily use Catalina. It's stable, rock solid, and problem free.

 

[James_C]

@mangoman , Yep you got a lemon. Annoying but it happens. I have been using a M1 MacBook Air for a week now and it is twice as fast as the 15" Late 2016 MBP it replaced. I have had no problems at all. Most of my Apps are native Apple Silicon including Microsoft 365 (Beta), Affinity Photo, Final Cut Pro x, OmniFocus and World of Warcraft. I have a couple of Intel Apps and they run fine. Loving my Air, Hope your next one is perfect.

 

[mangoman]

@mangoman , Yep you got a lemon. Annoying but it happens. I have been using a M1 MacBook Air for a week now and it is twice as fast as the 15" Late 2016 MBP it replaced. I have had no problems at all. Most of my Apps are native Apple Silicon including Microsoft 365 (Beta), Affinity Photo, Final Cut Pro x, OmniFocus and World of Warcraft. I have a couple of Intel Apps and they run fine. Loving my Air, Hope your next one is perfect.

Oooooh. WoW is native? Nice. Looking forward to that! Thanks for the feedback, James.

 

[Sanpete]

Yeah, it's a Pro Apple forums, but the attitude of some of the members here seems to be that Apple can do absolutely nothing wrong, and that anything that's broken is just a "lemon".

Not remotely descriptive of this thread (or the forum in general). People are giving reasons based on facts for saying it's probably a lemon. You're citing sources like Forbes. (Forgive me if you intended your post as satire.)

 

[Apple_Robert]

OP,
If I had been in your situation, I would have returned it and bought a new one.

 

[bill-p]

Not remotely descriptive of this thread (or the forum in general). People are giving reasons based on facts for saying it's probably a lemon. You're citing sources like Forbes. (Forgive me if you intended your post as satire.)

You're ignoring Om Malik. And maybe this guy:

Look, if you have a great M1 experience, then that's great. But that doesn't mean there aren't issues. This forum in general is overly positive, so there's no surprise there.

Om Malik, myself, and that youtube video are also giving facts.

 

[Sanpete]

This forum in general is overly positive, so there's no surprise there.

Again, that's not actually true. It's well known that forums like this attract far more complaints than are representative, so you have it backwards from how it usually is. You're citing minority views when it comes to the performance of these machines, as you have ever since they were announced, even before you had any facts about their performance.

 

[richard371]

Good news I have until jan 8 to return. So far so good. It will only get better with updates.

 

[bill-p]

Again, that's not actually true. It's well known that forums like this attract far more complaints than are representative, so you have it backwards from how it usually is. You're citing minority views when it comes to the performance of these machines, as you have ever since they were announced, even before you had any facts about their performance.

I just have to screenshot the first page of this exact forum (Apple Silicon Mac) to prove my point. What are you trying to say?

I also have an M1 MacBook Pro with me so I have factual experience, not just off-hands accounts from other people. I have praised the M1 as well, but that doesn't mean I have to always sing praises about it while ignoring the shortcomings (Rosetta 2 compatibility).

This is not about performance. This is about stability and compatibility. Please get your facts straight. Feel free to dig up my post history. You'll see I actually did go back on my own words based on performance, but on compatibility and stability? I'm not the only one.

Try this guy. See what he has to say?

Minority? I think not.