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Worst of Apple Silicon Macs?
- Thread starter playtech1
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A very odd question/survey.
How would any one person 'know' which one is the worst? In order to know that you would need experience with all the devices listed, and you would then need to substantiate your findings. Same goes for the best one; how would you know? Either way, it's a very subjective thing.
Of all those in the list I have only ever used the M1 Air so I can't vote in this one, except to say it's the best of the 3 laptops I've ever owned, but also the best computer I've ever used, and I have used many, from MS DOS, to various versions of Windows and Macs. Worst one was a Windows 7 Compaq Presario.....
Basically, a computer can be rated either way, as in best or worst, by what you require it to do and what it can actually do. Even this little monster of an M1 Air has its limitations, and I know what they are.
How would any one person 'know' which one is the worst? In order to know that you would need experience with all the devices listed, and you would then need to substantiate your findings. Same goes for the best one; how would you know? Either way, it's a very subjective thing.
Of all those in the list I have only ever used the M1 Air so I can't vote in this one, except to say it's the best of the 3 laptops I've ever owned, but also the best computer I've ever used, and I have used many, from MS DOS, to various versions of Windows and Macs. Worst one was a Windows 7 Compaq Presario.....
Basically, a computer can be rated either way, as in best or worst, by what you require it to do and what it can actually do. Even this little monster of an M1 Air has its limitations, and I know what they are.
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The M2 MacBook Pro is probably the worst. Not only it has an old design, having an 8GB RAM with neutered SSD as the base model of a Pro product is embarrassing.
This exactly. Someone would have to own or at least regularly use all of these machines to make a meaningful comparison. And even then, you're comparing different tools.
Does a top of the line Studio have better specs than the M1 MBA? Yes. Does that make the Air "worse?" Not if you want a Mac that you can slip into a backpack and do some work at the coffee shop or classroom.
First world poll for a first world "problem."
More like creating the perfect decoy product while cutting cost at the same time. The single SSD chip is clearly cost cutting as they didn't do that on the M1 version. The actual product itself is more of a ploy to upsell people to the 14" Macbook Pro.
We have the M1 Studio, M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14, M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16, M1 Air and M1 mini. I consider these all to be great machines. I also have a 5k iMac which I use alongside the Studio because I just love the monitor and the all-in-one aspect; so I chose the M1 iMac as the worst just because it isn't 27 inches, doesn't put out the volume that the 27 incher does, and doesn't have the expandable RAM like the 27 inch and the video options.
Except the plus size model is missing. Sorry the 27 is already too small these days. Where's the 32 imac m2?
Even if you'd have bought the mini from Amazon, with mouse and touchID keyboard, that'd be $1063: leaving just over $400 to get an equivalent monitor and speakers. Then there's the additional desk space, and wires needed.
It's unrealistic to consider the M1 iMac "bad value".
Far too many cry babies these days.
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The voting choices didn't allow for me to select solely the M2 variants of MacBook Air and 13" MacBook Pro that had 256GB SSDs. If that was an option, that's what I'd have picked.
I selected the M2 MacBook Air, but honestly, I'd be torn between it and the MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021).
The M2 Air gets it because Apple decided to put in a chip that has the potential to get warmer faster than its predecessor, while giving it a less substantial thermal spreader. M2 MacBook Air fans will be quick to reply to that with "but mine never gets warm at all!". That's fine. But we're talking about pulling apart what is largely a series of really good computers to pick the worst one(s). If I'm buying a Mac with an M2, I'm buying the one that has the stable design and doesn't have LESS cooling for its hotter running SoC than its predecessor.
The MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) is a mostly different story. Two of the key perks of buying an Apple Silicon Mac are (a) you don't hear the fans and (b) you have insane amounts of battery life. Regarding (b), the 14-inch MacBook Pro has the worst battery life out of any Apple Silicon Mac. Yes, it's still better than you'd get from an Intel Mac. But it trails behind both generations of Apple Silicon MacBook Air, both generations of Apple Silicon 13" MacBook Pro, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Regarding (a), it's very clear that Apple designed and engineered M1 Pro and, especially M1 Max for the 16-inch MacBook Pro first and foremost. It's the same exact SoC in the 14-inch. Given all of that, the 14-inch has less battery and smaller fans and thermal assemblies than the 16-inch, so it's going to throttle sooner and the fans are going to ramp up louder and sooner. Most reviews advise that you not even put an M1 Max in a 14-inch, and that totally makes sense to me. I'm sure the 8-core variant of M1 Pro that is unique to the lower-end of 14-inch MacBook Pro would make such a machine make sense to me. But, for my money, I'd rather step down to a 13-inch M1 or M2 MacBook Pro for the portability or up to the 16-inch M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro if I actually need the power or 32+GB of RAM. Both seem like better Macs overall, despite the lame duck design in the former.
Again, both the M2 Air and the 14-inch MacBook Pro are better than what we had with Intel in the 2020 Intel Air and the 2020 4-port 13-inch MacBook Pro. No question. But relative to the other Apple Silicon Macs, they (and again, I'm also adding any 256GB SSD-equipped M2 Mac into this mix) fall short to me.
I selected the M2 MacBook Air, but honestly, I'd be torn between it and the MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021).
The M2 Air gets it because Apple decided to put in a chip that has the potential to get warmer faster than its predecessor, while giving it a less substantial thermal spreader. M2 MacBook Air fans will be quick to reply to that with "but mine never gets warm at all!". That's fine. But we're talking about pulling apart what is largely a series of really good computers to pick the worst one(s). If I'm buying a Mac with an M2, I'm buying the one that has the stable design and doesn't have LESS cooling for its hotter running SoC than its predecessor.
The MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) is a mostly different story. Two of the key perks of buying an Apple Silicon Mac are (a) you don't hear the fans and (b) you have insane amounts of battery life. Regarding (b), the 14-inch MacBook Pro has the worst battery life out of any Apple Silicon Mac. Yes, it's still better than you'd get from an Intel Mac. But it trails behind both generations of Apple Silicon MacBook Air, both generations of Apple Silicon 13" MacBook Pro, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Regarding (a), it's very clear that Apple designed and engineered M1 Pro and, especially M1 Max for the 16-inch MacBook Pro first and foremost. It's the same exact SoC in the 14-inch. Given all of that, the 14-inch has less battery and smaller fans and thermal assemblies than the 16-inch, so it's going to throttle sooner and the fans are going to ramp up louder and sooner. Most reviews advise that you not even put an M1 Max in a 14-inch, and that totally makes sense to me. I'm sure the 8-core variant of M1 Pro that is unique to the lower-end of 14-inch MacBook Pro would make such a machine make sense to me. But, for my money, I'd rather step down to a 13-inch M1 or M2 MacBook Pro for the portability or up to the 16-inch M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro if I actually need the power or 32+GB of RAM. Both seem like better Macs overall, despite the lame duck design in the former.
Again, both the M2 Air and the 14-inch MacBook Pro are better than what we had with Intel in the 2020 Intel Air and the 2020 4-port 13-inch MacBook Pro. No question. But relative to the other Apple Silicon Macs, they (and again, I'm also adding any 256GB SSD-equipped M2 Mac into this mix) fall short to me.
This is a thoughtful take, It would definitely be interesting if the MBPs had been more like 14.7" and 16.7" - giving the 14" more room/ thermal inertia to handle the Max chip, and pushing the 16" up into (or at least closer to) the much desired 17" size class. I wonder if Apple are banking on future M series chips running even cooler for the 14", much like they were expecting from Intel's chips when designing the Touch Bar generation? That doesn't dovetail nicely with the M2 max getting more CPU cores (if that comes to pass) though.
I nearly selected the M2 Air, but decided it's main sin is really the base specs for the money. Shave $150 off the price or better still give it 16/512 as standard and I think it would have been a worthy successor to the M1 Air. From a technical level I would be very happy to own one (suitably upgraded).
Nice point, the MBA is a great laptop, but you're handcuffing yourself if you opt for the base storage.
I will say if I had to choose a worst ARM based Mac (I still hate the title, lol), it would choose the M2 13 MBP. It really shouldn't exist. The only reason for choosing this laptop is that if you absolutely love the touchbar, OR you absolutely must have an M2 with active cooling. In nearly every other scenario the MBA or the 14"MBP are better buys,
...and most people that need the advantages of the M2 MBP over the M2 Air are probably serious enough users to be better off with a 14" MBP.
The Macs with the base M1 chip were never intended as "flagship" products. The M1 Max MacBook Pro is the flagship notebook. The M1 Ultra Mac Studio is the flagship desktop, a role it shares to a certain degree with the former flagship desktop, the Mac Pro, until that finally gets an ARM chip and can fully take over that role again. That said, the amount of 8GB machines being sold even today is not a good thing for longevity and therefore not very ecological. People that can't afford 16GB now might have to upgrade earlier. Old story, you need money to save money.
To make it clear, I don’t consider the 24 inch iMac M1 or a M2 a possible replacement for my 27” iMac from early 2016. If I already had a separate 5k True Tone 27” monitor or better I wouldn’t have a problem with getting a Studio Max for around $2000. I paid about $2200 for my 2016 with hard drive and memory upgrades. It’s needing to pay $2000 for the Studio Max and then $1600 for a 5k Studio Monitor to keep my monitor roughly on par with my older iMac, monitor performance wise that I don’t like. There aren’t a lot of non Apple 5k monitors, and the few non Apple ones that exist in a 27 to 32 inch evidently have text scaling and brightness problems, as well as no True Tone color matching. Dropping down to 4K also can have scaling and brightness issues from reviews I have read. And I mostly use my iMac for photo editing.
An Apple laptop on par with the Studio Max performance wise is actually a bit MORE expensive than $3600, similarly memory/ hard drive and processor equipped. And those were M1 comparisons that I made, not M2 models. M2 MacBook Pros are (now) supposed to be released around March of next year. And even though running on battery seems to not be a problem I have owned 2 personal laptops my entire life, and wasn’t enthusiastic about either of them. One was a 386 laptop from the early 2000’s and the other a MacBook Pro from 2011. I have WORKED at my job using laptops for decades, because I have to travel a lot and I need a laptop to go to a site and program industrial controls but for myself my personal preference when possible is the bigger, higher resolution screen, more memory, and larger hard drive and equivalent or better processor that you used to naturally get with a desktop, for the same or even less money.
Interesting idea for a poll. I've gone with the M1 iMac - mainly because once specced up with decent specs for a desktop machine, it is £2k GBP or more, which is a lot for an M1 device. I also am still in the "get rid of that chin already!" camp.
The M2 MBP is an old design, but it's still a solid machine at a sensible price, with a more modern M2 CPU.
The M2 MBP is an old design, but it's still a solid machine at a sensible price, with a more modern M2 CPU.
The downvotes for the 24" iMac must come exclusively from people, who don't own one and have no idea what they're missing out on. Basically disgruntled 27" iMac lovers.
I have a 27" iMac at work and a 24" iMac at home. The 24" is better in every way except the limitation of 1 external display. I would love if Apple released a 27" in the same style as the 24" but with an M1 Pro chip (and the ability to drive 2 external displays).
I think people **** too much on the MBP M1 and M2. It's the "enterprise" build, with longer battery life, still (mildly) better screen, full M1 or M2 and I'll bet the build will last longer.
My vote goes to the M2 Air, more expensive given the new design but price and overall capabilities changes too little to the M1 Air. I actually feel its place between the M1 Air and MBP M2 is kinda weird.
The Studio Display is just Apple selling very expensively their veryyy opinionated PPI for screens as lonely as ever.
I would also add the M1/M2 iPads. For me the base 64GB M1 iPad Air is silly as Apple is cutting it short from the virtual swap on iPadOS and the 256GB upsell is directly pointed to another product. You have strictly a tablet with a M1 that provides little advantage for tablet use compared with the previous A14.
My vote goes to the M2 Air, more expensive given the new design but price and overall capabilities changes too little to the M1 Air. I actually feel its place between the M1 Air and MBP M2 is kinda weird.
The Studio Display is just Apple selling very expensively their veryyy opinionated PPI for screens as lonely as ever.
I would also add the M1/M2 iPads. For me the base 64GB M1 iPad Air is silly as Apple is cutting it short from the virtual swap on iPadOS and the 256GB upsell is directly pointed to another product. You have strictly a tablet with a M1 that provides little advantage for tablet use compared with the previous A14.