6 months hands-on with M1 13” MacBook Pro
Sometime in the autumn of 2020, my beloved 2017 MacBook Pro started doing something horrible. As soon as the machine went into any form of sleep mode, even just launching the screen saver, a white light started flashing at the right end of the Touch Bar. It would stop as soon as I started using the computer, but immediately it started to idle, the flashing resumed. Initially, the intensity and frequency of the flashes weren’t too bad, but over time the problem worsened.
Searching for potential solutions brought only bad news. It wasn’t an uncommon problem, although it was rare, and it looked like the only fix was to take it to a service centre because it potentially required a new motherboard. This was seriously bad news. Not only would it cost a load of cash, but we were in the second phase of lockdowns in Prague and getting the fix could take a serious amount of time. And without the computer, I was helpless. So, I did the only sensible thing — I put a cloth over the end of the Touch Bar and buried my head in the sand.
I managed to get back to the UK for Christmas in 2020, and the problem vanished for a short while but started up again just before I was due to return to Prague. My trip was too short to get the machine into a service centre in the UK, and besides, I was in quarantine for all but one day! But to add to the misery, the battery was also now showing signs of failing…
In July, I decided to bite the bullet and take decisive action. So I bought an M1 Mac mini. I’ve never used a Mac mini before, and to be honest, I’ve been a bit sceptical about them in the past. I didn’t need/want another laptop. I wanted a cheap replacement that would be able to help me continue to operate while I finally took the MBP in for repair (by this time, the service centres were operating again and I decided that the fix had to be done whatever the cost…). This little box of tricks (16Gb/512Gb) beat all expectations.
Fast forward to Spring 2022.
I managed to get the old Intel MBP fixed for a very reasonable price (about £240, including the new battery) but the damage was already done. I was hooked on Apple Silicon, and I now wanted to take the Mac mini back and repaired MBP to the UK and get a new M1 laptop. I had a fairly simple set of requirements:
- I was potentially leaving Prague for good this year, so I wanted to move the Mac mini and 2017 MBP back to the UK and get a single M1x laptop
- The laptop would normally be used as a desktop, and there are already Thunderbolt 3 and other hubs in place, so no need for lots of extra ports, and there is a Dell 24” monitor in place to act as the primary display
- When the laptop does get used as a laptop, I wanted it to be small, light and usable on aeroplane or train tables. I already had a variety of multi-port dongles
- The specification only needs to be as good as the M1 Mac mini since the work I’m doing will be the same — although a larger SSD might not be a bad thing as my photos library continues to grow, and I’d prefer it not to live on an external drive
- I still liked the Touch Bar, because I do use it and will continue to use it and maybe will use it even more than I currently do
- The delivery date needed to be before 12th March at the very latest to align with my travel plans
I had three choices back then — an M1 MBA, an M1 MBP 13” or a 14”/16” MBP M1 Pro. I knew I didn’t need the power or ports on the 14”/16” although they did have better (but bigger) displays, and besides, these were never going to be available to meet my timeline. The MBA didn’t have the ToolBar, so by default, I opted for the 13” MBP, but I decided to go for the 16Gb memory / 1Tb SSD option.
Fate has a habit of disrupting plans, however. I finally decided while in the airport waiting for my flight back to the UK. But no one could deliver the 1Tb option before the 12th of March — my drop-dead deadline. Eventually, I found a supplier who could deliver by the 8th of March but only the 2TB option, so I decided to go with this rather than face having to take the Mac mini back to Prague. It’s more than I intended to spend, but sometimes you have to take what’s on offer.
There’s a myth that does the rounds regularly that you should always wait for the 2nd generation of any tech, regardless of whether it’s a laptop, OS, or anything else. In addition, the nature of the computer/tech business is such that every piece of kit is liable to be superseded within days of us purchasing it. We just need to accept that inevitability and teach ourselves that buyer’s remorse is equally futile.
In the case of the M1 13” MBP, neither of these dubious issues caused me any lack of sleep. It is, without doubt, the best computer I’ve ever owned — and after 40 years in the business, I’ve owned a lot of them. I love the facts that:
- my setup allows me to unplug two cables and the laptop is released from its harness and can be slipped into a sleeve and taken out and about, and then plugged back in on return as if it had been there all along
- I can go out and work in a different place and come back after two or three hours, and there’s barely any dent in the battery life
- I barely ever hear the fans kicking in (OK, once or twice recently when the mercury went a bit mad and went above 30°C for days at a time)
- I only see a spinning beach ball when I’m using Apple Music!
- I have 2Tb of space on the internal drive (I’m never going to be able to go back to anything less)
Since the 14/16 inch M1 (and more recently the M2) Apple laptops were announced, I’ve seen countless questions from people asking complete strangers for advice on what to buy. For every question, I’ve seen dozens of useless answers and incorrect comments. I’ve concluded that no one does any real work anymore. Everyone who uses a MacBook seems to be doing professional video editing for a living and therefore needs to buy the highest specification laptop regardless of how sensible that may be. Despite the numerous vloggers, bloggers and decent tech reviewers reporting how even the basic M1 MBA, Mac mini and 13” MBP make video editing a relative breeze, the recommendations still come in to buy a 16” M1 Max MBP with 32Gb of RAM and 2Tb SSDs regardless of how “over the top” this is for many people.
I suspect that anyone recommending a minimum of 32Gb of memory still doesn’t understand that unified memory works differently from memory in an Intel architecture. I also suspect that most people who claim to be doing professional video editing perhaps make a few adjustments to their 30-second iPhone videos taken in the pub on a Saturday night and push them out on TikTok when they’ve sobered up sometime on Sunday afternoon. But mostly I suspect that many of the people recommending these high-level machines to everyone and his dog, don’t actually possess one, but make people think they do, by posing as an ‘authority’ on the subject. Basically, amongst the Facebook and amateur YouTube classes, buying a Mac has become something of a pissing contest! It reminds me of my slightly eccentric late uncle who used to buy top-range HiFi equipment and then buy crappy 99p cover compilation albums from Woolworths!
I’m a very normal user; I write, I manage two businesses, I build websites and I do photo editing as my main tasks and, occasionally, I’ll do limited video editing and music making. Nothing I throw at the M1 fazes it. For a first-generation machine and one that has largely been ridiculed on the internet, this will be my favourite Mac for a long time to come. Buyer’s remorse? Bah humbug!