Apple MacBook Pro 13 “M1 Review: Why You Might Want To Pass

I have read the first batch of Apple MacBook Pro 13 ”M1 reviews from Apple’s chosen press and it would be hard to find anything negative about the new laptop. At worst, there were some complaints about the iOS app experience, but overall, the first reviewers, chosen by Apple, described the new MacBook Pro 13 ‘essentially as a godsend to the masses wanting notebooks.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some very positive things about the new laptop. The new M1 processor is impressive, but it is far from perfect – it has a lot of warts that hardly anyone talks about. I think the new MacBook Pro 13 ”M1 will be fine for users who use 100% Apple software, stay mostly in Safari and don’t need to connect it to a bunch of peripherals.

I wanted to provide a balance to those early reviews and discuss who should not consider the new MacBook Pro 13 ”M1. I know it may sound negative, but I call it balance. I have used my unit for almost five days and here is my assessment of who should avoid it.

You want guaranteed software compatibility and performance– The new MacBook M1 will not run native MacOS applications created in the last ten years. This is due to the Apple M1 processor that does not speak the same software language as Intel-based Macs. The new MacBook Pro M1 uses binary translation to convert Intel instructions to Arm instructions through an application called Rosetta 2. If you experienced Rosetta with the transition from PowerPC software to the Intel nightmare, you have an idea of ​​what you are getting into .

So far, I have experienced application crashes in Microsoft Edge, Office 365, and Logitech Camera Control. I got installation errors with a Samsung backup app. I experienced a strange camera interaction with Skype for Business, as my cameras bounced between the Mac camera and my external Logitech C922. While Apple may have promised miraculous levels of compatibility, it is still not here for what I am testing. Please wait for Arm binary compatible applications if you want to ensure compatibility.

If you’re a business and you have MacBooks on your approved customer list, you might want to start testing them as soon as possible to see if the new MacBooks will run your corporate applications and your management and security software.

You want an assured performance Please note that most of the performance claims made by Apple-chosen reviewers are for Apple applications or benchmarks. AnandTech demonstrated that Rosetta2 can increase CPU performance by up to 80% in native code applications other than Apple or Arm. This makes perfect sense to me as it is very difficult to do. My experiences varied from one application to another.

Edge was very, very slow and indicated complex code. Outlook was better, but I experienced some lag. OneNote was extremely slow. I couldn’t see any problems at all with Word or PowerPoint. I experienced lags on Skype for Business, Webex, Zoom, and Teams. Before diving in, make sure your applications work well with the new architecture of the M1.

You want a guaranteed battery life The M1 chip is a derivative of the iPhone and iPad chip and then overclocked, so you would expect good battery life. In Apple apps, Arm’s native apps, and Safari, I think users should have good battery life. My experience was quite different. I got 4.5 hours and 10% battery life with Outlook, OneNote, Chrome WhatsApp Word, a Skype for Biz call, a Zoom call, and a Webex call. That’s about half the battery life that Apple and Apple’s chosen reviewers experienced.

Play AAA games There’s a reason that Apple and Apple’s chosen reviewers are always talking about Tomb Raider. This is probably because it is one of the few games that performs relatively well under emulation and takes advantage of the proprietary Metal API versus an open API. C-Net reported that Steam is barely working and without Steam working fine I think you’re dead for AAA games. However, I am sure that Bejeweled and Flappy Birds work very well. I’ll be testing a lot of AAA games for the next several weeks and even more when I can get the 16GB Pro version. I didn’t think it would be fair for Apple to run AAA games on an 8GB machine.

Connecting more than one USB peripheral The MacBook Pro 13 ”M1 has two USB ports, which means that when you connect your Mac, you will only have one left. That’s one port for an external display or one for charging your iPhone, or one for an external drive. Remember, this is a “Pro”, not a MacBook Air. I think professionals need more than one open port.

Do you want a touch screen? Even the first reviewers chosen by Apple said that the iOS app experience was horrible and disjointed. So I’d say running iOS apps adds zero value until Apple adds a touchscreen. What I never understood is why Apple supports touchscreens on iPhones, Watch and iPad, but not

You want LTE or 5G- Like the touchscreen, what’s good for iPhone, iPad, and Watch is apparently not good for MacBook Pro. So if you want to always stay connected, you’re out of luck. During Covid-19, I meet many people who use their LTE-infused laptops so they don’t have to compete with their children for bandwidth.

Want more than one external display– Unrelated to the lack of USB ports, the MacBook Pro M1 maxes out on an external display. This is an example where the iPad-powered M1 chip shows tension. Not everyone needs more than one screen, but I would say that many professionals do. I am a professional and currently use four external displays.

The fans go

Another observation I saw with the first reviewers chosen by Apple was about the lack of noise from the fans. There was a discussion about the absence of noise from the fans even when running compute intensive applications. I found that hard to believe and false for my review. To Apple’s credit, I hear the fan less with this design than with the previous one. Apple apparently created a new fan design with the new MacBook Pros, as it no longer calls it a fan. Want to enliven your new MacBook Pro M1? I made a Webex, Teams or Zoom call and my system got hot and fans were actively buzzing. I have a FLIR camera coming in to show you.

Why doesn’t it drag Surface Pro X?

You might be wondering why I didn’t drag the Surface Pro X through this. It’s very simple: Microsoft didn’t promise the world to everyone with Surface Pro X like Apple did with MacBook Pro 13 M1. I meticulously reviewed Apple’s Mac and WWDC event transcripts and the company promised all about performance and compatibility for everyone. Microsoft has been very reserved, conservative, measured and focused, without pretending that the Surface Pro X with SQ1 or SQ2 is for everyone.

Ending

I’m impressed with what Apple has done with the M1 chip, but I’m disappointed that the company made promises it can’t deliver, made claims it doesn’t explain during announcements, and that Apple-chosen reviewers didn’t find the things I found. in the first two hours.

Those broken promises became apparent within hours of my use case. Someone has to keep the company honest and give the other side of the story when it comes to the new MacBook Pro. The new MacBook Pro 13 M1 will be fine for users who only use Apple software, but for those who want more, I recommend opting for the Intel version for $ 100 more or looking at the various much more competitive Windows-based options. In the Windows ecosystem, you can get lighter and more diverse layouts, higher resolution displays, touchscreens, LTE and 5G, peripheral and software compatibility, and pay less.

In the future, I will test more AAA games, multimedia and workstation applications, and report right here.

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