Why I returned a 13” M1 MBP Turd

[Sanpete]

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.

The thread titles don't remotely support your claim that this forum has a positive bias or view that Apple can do no wrong that would cause people in this thread to conclude the machine described above is a lemon. If you have any substantial objection to the reasons people actually give in this thread, you should address them specifically.

Anyone who cares can do a survey of the reviews and fact-based comments here and elsewhere to see whether the views you're pushing here are minority views, as they have been even before you had any evidence.

 

[bill-p]

I have cited reviews and video evidence that you're conveniently ignoring. So beyond that, we're going in circles.

Let's just agree to disagree.

If you'd like to discuss how people act in this place, this is most likely not the place to do so.

 

[Sanpete]

I have cited reviews and video evidence that you're conveniently ignoring. So beyond that, we're going in circles.

I addressed your "evidence," pointing out its poor sourcing and minority status, to put it in context.

Again, if you have any substantive objection to the specific reasons given that the machine described is probably a lemon, please share them. Otherwise, yes, not much to talk about here.

 

[skaro]

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 can imagine how disappointing this was. I jumped in with an 8GB MacBook Pro as a test (usual daily driver is a 16-inch 64GB i9 MacBook Pro) and my experience is the polar opposite of yours. Like someone else posted, I updated to Big Sur 11.1 beta as CodeWeavers had already posted some notes to say their software (which I use for some old Windows games) wouldn't work properly without the Rosetta 2 fixes in the 11.1 beta so maybe that's part of it. I also made sure to switch into the Microsoft Office Insider Beta to get the native Office apps too, so I have very little running in Rosetta.

I've been pretty amazed at the performance of this thing - it's responsive, silent and the only heat I've had has been minor when running games in CrossOver. I've yet to hear the fans and the battery life is exceptional. I've been using Microsoft Teams for a couple of days on it too which doesn't have a native app yet and is a resource hog normally (especially with video calls) and even that doesn't seem to be causing any issues.

Hopefully your second go will be better

 

[IG88]

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.

Sounds like you had a lemon. This base M1 MBA rocks, no beach balls.

 

[MrEcted]

Just echoing everyone else. I got my M1 Mac in today and couldn't be happier. I just have a base model Mini and I experience virtually no beach balls and very few bounces when launching. All of the native stuff launches instantly.

 

[Zazoh]

Before we write it off as a lemon, did you migrate? How much of the 2 TB is utilized? Was there a lot of photos and spotlight indexing going on? There are known problems with Adobe. What I would do, and you may have already planed this.

1. Setup as new
2. Test the hell out of it with only native apps.
3. Start installing apps and see if anything breaks it.

Brand new OS and new architecture I expected a few glitches. But none surfaced for me yet.

I’ve had zero problems with a base MBA, but I’ve only installed two intel apps and Xcode.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Adobe has been particularly cagey about using their apps in Rosetta 2 (as though they're an exception to the overall likelihood that your Intel apps will just work). Though they also have a native beta for Photoshop and your Adobe experiences wouldn't preclude your crappy experience with built-in Apple Silicon native apps. That's odd all around. Hopefully your replacement will be better. If not, then yeah, 16" MacBook Pro ought to not suck.

 

[Sanpete]

Before we write it off as a lemon, did you migrate? How much of the 2 TB is utilized? Was there a lot of photos and spotlight indexing going on? There are known problems with Adobe. What I would do, and you may have already planed this.

1. Setup as new
2. Test the hell out of it with only native apps.
3. Start installing apps and see if anything breaks it.

Brand new OS and new architecture I expected a few glitches. But none surfaced for me yet.

I’ve had zero problems with a base MBA, but I’ve only installed two intel apps and Xcode.

OP already sent it back, but that's good advice for the next one.

 

[acidfast7_redux]

I haven't had a single issue with everything I do with it.

It's good that your returned it, it sounds like it was a defective unit.

 

[Graham King]

I hope your next machine runs better but you can pretty much count on Adobe apps running like crap. I mean… they’re made by Adobe.

 

[ghostlines]

So far so good here on the M1MBA 16GB. Must admit I did see some beachballs wish I didn't see any, but the machine runs great overall! I noticed it wasn't level on a desk after I already plastered it out with stickers so chose not to return it(not that bad of a tilt)

Ran some benchmarks to see if it lined up with other reports and a diagnostic test for good measure - assume Apple Support also ran a diagnostic report on yours to check if it was some hardware related issue perhaps

 

[RigSatMe]

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.

16” best portable Mac machine so far. For owners of this machine, it is a big mistake to move to M1 which, for example, M1 doesn’t support on hardware level HEVC 10-bit codec based exports results in Compressor 4.5, however, MBPro 16” latest version GPU support HEVC 10-bit on hardware level.

 

[ww1971]

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.

have you thought about running the iPad version of abode software on mac m1? I feel sad seeing people returning the Mac m1 system days after buying the system

 

[mangoman]

I hope your next machine runs better but you can pretty much count on Adobe apps running like crap. I mean… they’re made by Adobe.

“We develop apps in silos.” - Adobe engineer, as told directly to me a few years ago. He gave additional detail to help me understand why Adobe’s dev process produces sub-optimal products.

 

[mangoman]

have you thought about running the iPad version of abode software on mac m1? I feel sad seeing people returning the Mac m1 system days after buying the system

Interesting idea, but no. I do hope Adobe is dedicating serious effort to their currently vague timeline for app rewrites.

 

[lxmeta]

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?

Thanks for sharing your experience! As I just wrote in another thread, I use Adobe on my MB10,1 while on the road, and will definitely throw that my M1 MBP arriving in a week or two. I know that Adobe is not officially supported on Rosetta2, but my daily work would not care: If the M1 does not work better than my MB10,1 it will be in the box and flying all the way back again, and my son will have to wait even longer to replace his MBA 11" from 2011

 

[labyrinth153]

Just wanted to let you know there was a temporary issue where apps were not opening quickly due to a server timeout. Mac RumorsMac Apps Not Opening or Slow Due to Apple Server Issues: How to Fix For NowIf you are seeing long delays in launching apps or being unable to open Mac Apps at all, this may be due to Apple having significant problems ...2 weeks ago

Edit: M1 Mac Mini here and everything is instant. I even tested opening a 2gb spreadsheet (using 30gb of virtual memory) and there were no delays.

 

[Sanpete]

16” best portable Mac machine so far. For owners of this machine, it is a big mistake to move to M1 which, for example, M1 doesn’t support on hardware level HEVC 10-bit codec based exports results in Compressor 4.5, however, MBPro 16” latest version GPU support HEVC 10-bit on hardware level.

How sure are you of that? This test seems to work well enough with HEVC 10-bit. Starts around 9:00.

 

[haralds]

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 have had none of this, just silky smoothness. But I no longer use Adobe apps.

 

[hugodrax]

So you buy a defective machine and assume that's how they are supposed to run. Its flawless for me and running LR processing a huge library of 50mp images is fast and its not native. yet.

 

[mangoman]

So you buy a defective machine and assume that's how they are supposed to run. Its flawless for me and running LR processing a huge library of 50mp images is fast and its not native.

 

[jerryk]

How sure are you of that? This test seems to work well enough with HEVC 10-bit. Starts around 9:00.

Did I hear that correctly? The M1 is smoother at playback than is $50,000 MacPro? Also, since I am not a video person is that as impressive as it sounds?

 

[Sanpete]

Did I hear that correctly? The M1 is smoother at playback than is $50,000 MacPro? Also, since I am not a video person is that as impressive as it sounds?

Ha, I think he said $15-thousand, but he might have gotten the optional solid-gold power cord!

Yeah, it's not even close, which makes me think there is hardware acceleration for the codec. But I haven't looked into it further.

 

[Krevnik]

Yeah, it's not even close, which makes me think there is hardware acceleration for the codec. But I haven't looked into it further.

Correct. The A series chips have had HEVC acceleration for a few generations now, and that came along for the ride in the M1. I think it was the A10 that added initial support for it.