Recently I posted a video discussing some of the issues I have had with the new M1 MacBooks
and after some more time with them I wanted to share some updates on the issues and a
few other thoughts.
Hey, Im Jerry and there was a lot of feedback on my previous video so lets start with updates
on the issues I saw and address some of the questions. Then I also want to talk about
a few other observations after using the new MacBooks for the last few weeks.
Starting with the Display issues I saw, I found that if I connected to my BenQ 32”
display with HDMI using the Apple AV Adapter or the CalDigit SOHO Dock everything worked
fine. I was able to get the full 4k resolution and 60hz refresh rate. If I connected via
DisplayPort or Thunderbolt using a dock I was only able to get a 30hz refresh rate which
feels laggy and slow when moving things around the screen.
I emailed BenQ support and sent feedback to Apple. BenQ did reply and let me know that
they are seeing the same issue with the M1 MacBooks and they are looking into it. I wanted
to know if I could get DisplayPort working at all because I wanted to use the CalDigit
TS3 dock so I bought a 32” Samsung monitor to try and it does indeed work through DisplayPort
at 60hz………So there is some kind of incompatibility between the M1 Macs and some displays using
either Thunderbolt or DisplayPort, but the M1s can display 60hz and even higher depending
on the display.
There was also an Issue I had where after coming back from the lunch the built in display
would not come back on. I tried to put the computer to sleep and wake it back up but
I had to reboot to get it back.
Some people commented that I was making it up and I just had the screen brightness turned
down…..
Ya…I cant think of a reason to lie about that either….
But just to test that idea against what I did in the video I turned the brightness all
the way down and then pushed the power button to put it to sleep. Once the computer was
asleep I pressed the power button to wake it up and the built in screen came back on.
Proving that the display was not just simply turned off. I havnt seen that issue since
it first happened but others in the comments suggested that this could be a macOS issue
that affects other devices as well.
Next there was the performance issues I had with Final Cut Pro on both the Air M1 and
the Pro M1. I downloaded Final Cut 10.5 to both of them the first day which was updated
for Apple Silicon as you can see in activity monitor. The MacBook Pro M1 had some slight
performance delays while scrubbing and playing over cuts in the tracks……..The Air M1
had disastrous issues where the videos would not play, audio would cut out, and I needed
to quit and reopen Final cut to get it working. But as soon as I dragged another clip in or
did anything it would start acting up again.
I have a couple of theories about why the Air was so bad on that first day. First, it
could be that the computer was still indexing and doing whatever new macOS installations
do, causing slowdowns in Apps. Second, I had installed a lot off apps, copied very large
files to the MacBook Air, deleted large files, and duplicated files. Even though I deleted
all the large files off of the Air its possible that there were APFS snapshots taking up space
causing the very erratic behavior. Since it was late in the night, or early morning, I
moved the project to my iMac to complete. The next morning I rebooted the Air and everything
seemed fine.
My demos of the issues on both machines was using Sony XAVC video from 2 cameras in a
multicam clip which means that both files actually play together when I hit play. This
could cause some of the more simple performance issues on the M1 and may be part of the different
results I have seen compared to some other YouTubers testing single track performance……
Many comments suggested that I use optimized version or proxies and I can confirm that
yes, that does make the performance much better and
the Air can edit no problem. The optimized versions will take up a ton of space and the
proxies very little but it does take a bit of time to create the optimized versions or
proxies.
As for Apps and crashing, there has been very little since my video was posted. Final Cut
and Photoshop are my 2 heaviest apps besides games and I maybe have seen 1 or 2 photoshop
crashes since my last video and no more from Final Cut. Rosetta is surprisingly,….like
stupid fast…. almost unbelievable good at performing the translation on first run and
then just letting intel based apps run. Office Apps, Skype, Zoom, Citrix, Remote Desktop,
Adobe Creatiuve Cloud, LastPass, Minecraft Java edition……All of my apps actually
just work and I do not have to think about compatibility or them running slow…..The
Only other app that has caused issues was when I was trying out Fort night which was
being translated through Rosetta 2. The app completely froze a few times needing a force
quit but other than that I was able to play very well on the MacBook Air. ………..Well,
as well as anyone who barely plays games anymore can play……..well….
I even downloaded CrossOver which is an app like WINE that emulates parts of a Windows
OS to try running some steam games for Windows and I cant believe it, but, it actually runs
these things.
Looking at the speed issues I had with the USB-C ports, I still have those issues. I
am getting much lower read speeds on my Samsung T7 SSD on the M1 MacBooks compared to the
2020 Intel MacBook Air and iMac.
Although I have had a few issues with these new M1 MacBooks, overall my impression after
a few weeks is that they are worth the hype. Yes, there may be a few bugs here and there
but it’s a good bet that they are related more to macOS Big Sur then they are of the
new hardware. Some of the issues I have had with these new M1 MacBooks have not returned
or have also been replicated by other users in the comments from both intel based and
apple silicon based macs on different versions of macOS.
The fact that these machines have worked so well overall with non native code is mind
blowing to say the least. They just feel fast in my every day use of surfing the web, watching
youtube, writing scripts, playing casual games, taking work meetings, and almost anything
I throw at it.
In my experience There is virtually no performance difference between the MacBook Air M1 with
8GB of ram and the 16GB MacBook Pro M1 for normal use. The fan on the Pro is off 99%
of the time and I only hear it in my usage when creating proxies or optimized files for
final cut. Even exporting video I usually do not hear a fan come on. And that means
that these things stay cool on your lap and on your hands when using them.
Battery life claims on these MacBooks are also not exaggerated. Whatever old laptop
you have now has a completely trash battery compared to the MacBooks with M1.
So, Performance wise, these laptops are great for most consumers and users. New products
may have a few growing pains and that should be expected, but I do think that most if not
all can be fixed with software updates. The most concerning in my opinion is the display
compatibility issues for those who want to use an external monitor. You may not be able
to get the full benefit of your existing monitor with the M1 MacBooks right away. Whether you
wait a year to upgrade or you get one now, most of your experience will probably be trouble
free and a huge upgrade in terms of power and battery life from whatever you may be
coming from.
.
People keep asking if they should get an Air or a Pro and I would say If you didn’t need
a $2000 laptop to do what you do on a computer before then you don’t need the MacBook Pro.
The air can do everything that the Pro can do at the same speed except in very limited
use cases. Even When you start wanting to run higher end applications I think that additional
ram in the Air would be more valuable than the fan in the Pro.
The pro does offer a few benefits over the Air like 25% increased screen brightness and
better speakers. Oh, and a slightly larger, and louder trackpad and the touch-bar if you
think that
is an upgrade.
But what do
you think? Have you had issues with the M1 Macs or has there been anything that has surprised
you over the last few weeks? Let us know below. If you want to see how these M1 MacBooks stack
up against the early 2020 MacBook Air or 2020 iMac you should check out this video right
here…..Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it, hit subscribe if you want and Ill see
you next time.