It’s a good time to be a Mac user. The MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro have a pretty damn new stellar processor with native ARM apps at the same price as their incoming Intel predecessors. I do all my work and play on the computer, but Apple’s M1 processor makes me wonder if I really need a Windows PC for the next laptop. This is the first time in all my computer years — since my dad sat me down in front of a keyboard when I was a little kid — that I’ve considered getting a Mac.
There are a few things about macOS that I’ll have to get used to again, and native app compatibility has many ways to go before I officially decide to partially part with Windows, but at least I shouldn’t buy the whole thing. Apple’s ecosystem, as many of the apps I use on my PC, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Office, and Adobe Creative Suite, are also on Macs. I can even play on a Mac now and enjoy it thanks to cloud gaming platforms like GeForce Now and Stadia. It seems like the first time in a long time that Apple is starting to compete against PC makers when it comes to the price and specifications of their latest Macs.
Priced at $ 1,300, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro base model comes with 8GB of DRAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 13.3-inch, 500-night ISP display. The M1 itself is an 8-core CPU, with four cores dedicated to performance and the other four to energy efficiency. There’s also an 8-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, all on the same chip as the CPU. The price goes up from here, depending on whether you want to add more RAM or get a bigger SSD, but even increasing the memory and storage capacity on the MacBook Pro M1 is a slightly better deal than getting your cousins Intel for $ 1,800 or $ 2,000.
A 13-inch MacBook Pro M1 with 16GB of memory and 512GB SSD storage, just steps away from the base model, will cost you $ 100 less than the identical version of Apple with a 10a Intel Core i5 processor generation. Want 16GB and a 1TB SSD? The M1 model will cost you $ 1,900, where the Intel model will cost you $ 2,000. The M1 will also feature the 10th generation Intel Core i5.
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We compared the hells of the M1 in one deeper diving here, and found that Apple’s new processor had much more dirty and practical performance than Intel’s 11th-generation Core i5-1135G7. And where it fell behind, it fell behind because the software ran through Rosetta 2, Apple’s program that translates Intel programs to run on the M1, rather than being native. Needless to say, the new Mac M1s are a step further than the Intel versions. But it’s easy to compare apples to apples. (It’s a pun.) When the latest MacBook Pro falls short not only in current software compatibility, but in price and number of ports compared to what is typically offered on many computers Windows based laptops.
Take the MSI Creator 15, for example. It is a content creator-focused laptop, similar to the MacBook Pro, which can also function as a gaming laptop. What we reviewed recently came with a 10th generation Intel Core i7-10875H, an RTX 2060 GPU, 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4-2666 MHz DRAM, 1TB NVMe SSD and a 15.6-inch touchscreen 1080p 60 Hz, all for $ 1,900. Not only will you get better specs for the price compared to Apple’s 13-inch Intel MacBook Pro, but it’s priced the same as the MacBook Pro M1 with 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD.
This unobtrusive RTX 2060 GPU also removes the pants from Apple’s integrated GPU. Looking only at gaming performance, the RTX 2060 can shoot 70 frames per second at 1080p with the highest graphics setting of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. To get to the same frame rate as Apple’s M1, you’ll have to play the game at a 720p resolution, and even the graphics will still have to be low. This GPU from Creator 15 makes it more attractive for the price compared to the MacBook Pro, if gaming is important to you.
MSI’s Creator 15 also includes many more ports: Ethernet, SD, HDMI, one USB-A and two USB-C. One of these USB-C ports is also a Thunderbolt 3 with PD charge. The MacBook Pro only has two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports. Of course, those that support charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 Gen 2. But the Creator 15 has enough ports where you don’t have to buy a USB hub as you would with the MacBook Pro. It’s pretty annoying to have to use a USB-C to USB adapter every time I want to plug in a flash drive or use an external mouse. At least USB hubs are cheap these days, unless they are Exclusive Apple USB-C Multiport Pro adapter from Satechi. Then, instead of paying about $ 20, you’ll get $ 65.
While very few PC laptops have screens as good as the MacBook Pro, and those that typically cost between $ 2,500 and $ 3,000, more so if you opt for the completely cheated version of HP’s ZBook Create G7. But most people don’t decide between a Mac and a PC to do creative work. It’s usually a more sophisticated screen that adds a lot more to the cost of a creativity-focused PC laptop, more than what an upgraded MacBook Pro costs. Sure, the Windows machine may have faster hardware and a better GPU, but when a program can run natively or quickly on the M1, none of that matters.
Apple has also suffered from its thermal design for years. Where Intel’s 10th-generation mobile CPUs can sometimes reach temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) and make the chassis uncomfortably warm, Apple’s MacBook Pro M1 feels like it’s not even on when it’s on. been buzzing for hours. It’s so nice not to hear fans swirl like a plane getting ready for takeoff when all I want to do is convert a video file.
Battery life is the best I’ve seen on any laptop. The MacBook Pro lasted about 30 minutes longer than the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7, From 18 to 17.5 hours. It is much longer than Apple’s latest generation Intel MacBook Pro which debuted earlier this year, lasting only 8.5 hours. You never have to worry about finding a point of sale near your seat at Economics 101 or your local coffee shop.
In the past, the MacBook Pro seemed too expensive for specs. But from a performance perspective for dollars, Apple’s M1 would absolutely justify the price of the new Macs, if they weren’t hampered by the current lack of software compatibility. Developers who have released beta versions of their programs, such as Adobe with its Premiere Pro, have not yet ported all their features from Intel to ARM. This will happen slowly but surely, and Rosetta 2 is bridging the gap, but if the software you rely on for your creative workflow still can’t harness the power of the M1, the question of whether to upgrade becomes more complicated.
For Mac devotees or PC enthusiasts, tossing money with a new MacBook Pro M1 is a difficult choice. The software will get there, but how long will it take? There’s also the question of how Apple processors will improve over time. As a hard PC user, it might take another generation to sell me completely on the MacBook Pro package, but even if I won now, I would still pay more for a Mac than a PC for the same price could get. me.
But if you’ve been a MacBook Pro user for years and have been waiting to upgrade, getting the M1 is a no-brainer, especially if you don’t have to wait for some programs to run natively on Apple Silicon.
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- Awesome battery life
- Competitively priced compared to Apple’s Intel-based MacBooks, but not as much compared to some PC laptops
- It works cool, it runs quiet
- A bit unpredictable of how some applications will work through Rosetta 2