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New Apple M1 range

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Didn't see a thread on the new releases from apple yet... 

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/introducing-the-next-generation-of-mac/

I will be in the market for a new mini next year most likely, so this was interesting. Was aware of the switch away from Intel, but was surprised to see a mini announced so quickly.

What are the thoughts - will this live up to apple's hype machine?
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Comments

  • I'm definitely interested in a new MBP in the next year or so - probably a 13, or new 14 if & when that arrives. But I'm not sure I want to be first in line for such a big change. 
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    edited November 2020
    I’m minded to get one as a test machine, that I run alongside my existing MBP.
    Another one of the Production Expert writers has one incoming, so I am waiting to see how they fare.

    There is no way In the world I would run this as my only portable.
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  • RiftAmpsRiftAmps Frets: 3113
    tFB Trader
    I’ve just ordered the M1 Mac Mini. 

    Hoping they’ll do a 16” MBP too
    *I no longer offer replacement speaker baffles*
    Rift Amplification
    Handwired Guitar Amplifiers
    Brackley, Northamptonshire
    www.riftamps.co.uk

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  • sweepysweepy Frets: 4159
    The new Mac Mini does look very interesting indeed
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    I’ve just ordered the mini too.  See how it goes.  
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  • I’ve very tempted to get one of the laptops , but will wait for someone to review first. From what I can see, the air and the MacBook Pro are almost the same except that the MacBook has better battery life.
    If it runs logic well, I’ll get an air.
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  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11811
    edited November 2020
    I’ve very tempted to get one of the laptops , but will wait for someone to review first. From what I can see, the air and the MacBook Pro are almost the same except that the MacBook has better battery life.
    If it runs logic well, I’ll get an air.
    MBP generally have a better screen, they used to have better graphic and of course the touch bar.  The speakers too are better on the MBP and also more ports, 4 vs 2.

    But this releases closes the gap significantly, however the MBP has a fan and the MBA is silent, which suggests the MBA would be locked at a lower clockspeed or the throttle ceiling would be lower than the MBP.  Which then is the same as you compare it to the Mac Mini.

    I would like a Mac Mini to replace my 9 year old iMac, but I also don't want to be a Beta Tester so will definitely wait until reviews and tear down before buying.  For one thing I like to know how easy it is to upgrade the RAM in the Mac Mini.
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  • Seems to be mostly the fan on the MBP meaning it can run faster for longer, which won't matter for most people and most tasks. It's also got longer battery life (yay) and touchbar (meh)

    https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=Macbook-Air-M1,MacBookPro-13-M1,Macbook-Air-2017#footnote-4
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • I’ve very tempted to get one of the laptops , but will wait for someone to review first. From what I can see, the air and the MacBook Pro are almost the same except that the MacBook has better battery life.
    If it runs logic well, I’ll get an air.
    MBP generally have a better screen, they used to have better graphic and of course the touch bar.  The speakers too are better on the MBP and also more ports, 4 vs 2.

    But this releases closes the gap significantly, however the MBP has a fan and the MBA is silent, which suggests the MBA would be locked at a lower clockspeed or the throttle ceiling would be lower than the MBP.  Which then is the same as you compare it to the Mac Mini.

    I would like a Mac Mini to replace my 9 year old iMac, but I also don't want to be a Beta Tester so will definitely wait until reviews and tear down before buying.  For one thing I like to know how easy it is to upgrade the RAM in the Mac Mini.
    Yes , normally. If you do a comparison on the Apple site, they’re basically the same. Same ports, screen , camera . I don’t really care about the speakers. All three , mini, air and MacBook max out at 16gb ram .
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  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11811
    I’ve very tempted to get one of the laptops , but will wait for someone to review first. From what I can see, the air and the MacBook Pro are almost the same except that the MacBook has better battery life.
    If it runs logic well, I’ll get an air.
    MBP generally have a better screen, they used to have better graphic and of course the touch bar.  The speakers too are better on the MBP and also more ports, 4 vs 2.

    But this releases closes the gap significantly, however the MBP has a fan and the MBA is silent, which suggests the MBA would be locked at a lower clockspeed or the throttle ceiling would be lower than the MBP.  Which then is the same as you compare it to the Mac Mini.

    I would like a Mac Mini to replace my 9 year old iMac, but I also don't want to be a Beta Tester so will definitely wait until reviews and tear down before buying.  For one thing I like to know how easy it is to upgrade the RAM in the Mac Mini.
    Yes , normally. If you do a comparison on the Apple site, they’re basically the same. Same ports, screen , camera . I don’t really care about the speakers. All three , mini, air and MacBook max out at 16gb ram .
    16G is partly why I am holding back, I have had 32G in my iMac forever and I like the ceiling it gives me in Photoshop and Lightroom, so to "cramp" back into 16G, I would rather avoid, even though I know it will be a faster machine over all than my iMac.
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  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11811
    edited November 2020
    Seems to be mostly the fan on the MBP meaning it can run faster for longer, which won't matter for most people and most tasks. It's also got longer battery life (yay) and touchbar (meh)

    https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=Macbook-Air-M1,MacBookPro-13-M1,Macbook-Air-2017#footnote-4
    I specced out the same MBP vs mine in 2018 with i7, 16G Ram and 512SSD.

    Mine was £2300, this one is £1700.  Somehow Apple got cheaper?!
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  • stonevibestonevibe Frets: 7082
    edited November 2020
    Think I'll avoid first gens, as Apple have a solid history of knocking out lemons on the first batches. Having worked for them for nearly 16 years, I can attest to the amount of times I saw first gen machines returned and at the Genius Bar they are referred to as 'loopers'.

    Win a Cort G250 SE Guitar in our Guitar Bomb Free UK Giveaway 


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  • Seems to be mostly the fan on the MBP meaning it can run faster for longer, which won't matter for most people and most tasks. It's also got longer battery life (yay) and touchbar (meh)

    https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=Macbook-Air-M1,MacBookPro-13-M1,Macbook-Air-2017#footnote-4
    I specced out the same MBP vs mine in 2018 with i7, 16G Ram and 512SSD.

    Mine was £2300, this one is £1700.  Somehow Apple got cheaper?!
    Sure, because tech gets cheaper every year as new tech gets released. Fairly normal.
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    I think they will probably be a really great step forward, but I'd probably leave it until the second gen comes out as usually the first iteration of anything by Apple is a bit shonky and they get it right the second time around.
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    I’ve very tempted to get one of the laptops , but will wait for someone to review first. From what I can see, the air and the MacBook Pro are almost the same except that the MacBook has better battery life.
    If it runs logic well, I’ll get an air.
    MBP generally have a better screen, they used to have better graphic and of course the touch bar.  The speakers too are better on the MBP and also more ports, 4 vs 2.

    But this releases closes the gap significantly, however the MBP has a fan and the MBA is silent, which suggests the MBA would be locked at a lower clockspeed or the throttle ceiling would be lower than the MBP.  Which then is the same as you compare it to the Mac Mini.

    I would like a Mac Mini to replace my 9 year old iMac, but I also don't want to be a Beta Tester so will definitely wait until reviews and tear down before buying.  For one thing I like to know how easy it is to upgrade the RAM in the Mac Mini.
    My understanding is you won’t be able to.  It’s integrated into the M1 chip, unless I misunderstood.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11811
    Seems to be mostly the fan on the MBP meaning it can run faster for longer, which won't matter for most people and most tasks. It's also got longer battery life (yay) and touchbar (meh)

    https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=Macbook-Air-M1,MacBookPro-13-M1,Macbook-Air-2017#footnote-4
    I specced out the same MBP vs mine in 2018 with i7, 16G Ram and 512SSD.

    Mine was £2300, this one is £1700.  Somehow Apple got cheaper?!
    Sure, because tech gets cheaper every year as new tech gets released. Fairly normal.
    I don't think it's that, old MBP had an option for i5, i7 and i9 and this is just M1.  But the difference here is still a few hundred lower.  I am glad it is, don't get me wrong as it was rather difficult to swallow £2300 for a laptop. (I won't go into reasons why I didn't go to windows, that's for another thread)
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    Seems to be mostly the fan on the MBP meaning it can run faster for longer, which won't matter for most people and most tasks. It's also got longer battery life (yay) and touchbar (meh)

    https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=Macbook-Air-M1,MacBookPro-13-M1,Macbook-Air-2017#footnote-4
    I specced out the same MBP vs mine in 2018 with i7, 16G Ram and 512SSD.

    Mine was £2300, this one is £1700.  Somehow Apple got cheaper?!
    Sure, because tech gets cheaper every year as new tech gets released. Fairly normal.
    I don't think it's that, old MBP had an option for i5, i7 and i9 and this is just M1.  But the difference here is still a few hundred lower.  I am glad it is, don't get me wrong as it was rather difficult to swallow £2300 for a laptop. (I won't go into reasons why I didn't go to windows, that's for another thread)

    It might be partly the switch away from Intel Chips.  Intel are very expensive when you get up to the higher end chips, with not very good performance.

    It's hard to buy laptop chips retail, but if I compare their desktop chips with AMD, they are woeful. An Intel i7 10700 is £309 on Scan, and has a passmark benchmark score of 17,475 on cpubenchmark.net.  You can buy an AMD Ryzen 5 with a slightly better passmark score of 17,888 for £189 (and it was cheaper than that a few months ago). Depending on what you are doing, real world performance will vary, but Intel are way behind at the moment.

    Things aren't likely to get better for Intel in the near future either.  They aren't due to bring out chips with a 7nm manufacturing process until 2022.  I think AMD are on their third generation of chips on 7nm.

    Apple are almost certainly getting better performance at a lower price by switching away from Intel chips.  That will be a factor in the lower prices.  Intel's problems probably contributed to Apple's decision to switch - although there are other reasons as well. Given the way they work, having the same CPUs in their Macs as their iPads will make their life a lot easier for them.
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  • WhitecatWhitecat Frets: 5378
    edited November 2020
    I'm a power Mac mini user, have a maxed-out 2018 here, so the new M1 version is a bit too hobbled for me with the low RAM ceiling and the fact that they cut the number of Thunderbolt ports in half. I see they are still selling the Intel models as the'high-end' versions. Hoping for a "pro" version next year with the Apple chips.

    I think the MacBook Air is the best value in the new lineup. Those were great general-purpose admin/web/ultra light duty whatever you need laptops. Will be eyeing up reviews and benchmarks on those against older ones.
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  • maraudermarauder Frets: 133
    Memories of 15 years ago and IBM's heat issues with the G5 which led to Apple jumping ship.

    I did buy an original MacBook a few months after it was launched, just to check it out. It was cheap enough around £600 and very competitively priced against similar PCs at the time.  

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  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11811
    crunchman said:


    It might be partly the switch away from Intel Chips.  Intel are very expensive when you get up to the higher end chips, with not very good performance.

    It's hard to buy laptop chips retail, but if I compare their desktop chips with AMD, they are woeful. An Intel i7 10700 is £309 on Scan, and has a passmark benchmark score of 17,475 on cpubenchmark.net.  You can buy an AMD Ryzen 5 with a slightly better passmark score of 17,888 for £189 (and it was cheaper than that a few months ago). Depending on what you are doing, real world performance will vary, but Intel are way behind at the moment.

    Things aren't likely to get better for Intel in the near future either.  They aren't due to bring out chips with a 7nm manufacturing process until 2022.  I think AMD are on their third generation of chips on 7nm.

    Apple are almost certainly getting better performance at a lower price by switching away from Intel chips.  That will be a factor in the lower prices.  Intel's problems probably contributed to Apple's decision to switch - although there are other reasons as well. Given the way they work, having the same CPUs in their Macs as their iPads will make their life a lot easier for them.
    It's very likely that in the next couple of years I will just have Apple Silicon computers or AMD rig, Intel is not value for money at the moment.
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