After spending over 3,000+ hours with the M1 MacBook Pro, here is my long-term review. Is it
still as great as everyone says it is a year later and more importantly with the upcoming release of
the new M1X and M2 MacBooks what is the point of an M1 now? And, is it still a worthy purchase?
There's no shortage of great reviews on this laptop filled with technical benchmarks and
analysis so just a heads up that i'll be approaching this long-term review with a
more laid-back perspective so the m1 macbook pro and air were released on november 17 2020 and
since then the macbook pro m1 has been my main workhorse to manage just about everything from
business to content creation and everyday life admin starting with the specs of this specific
setup that i have i've specced the machine with 16 gigabytes of memory and a 512 gigabyte ssd drive
and it came to about a thousand seven hundred dollars at launch if you were to purchase the m1
macbook pro or air today i've seen it discounted to a thousand two hundred ninety nine dollars
usd though with eight gigabytes of memory there's no denying this is a terrific price point but it
still begs the question is it great value for money when stacked up to the upcoming m1x and
m2 macbooks to answer that question without being biased let's first take a look at the heart of the
laptop the coveted m1 chip with apple and intel's conscious uncoupling and not so clean breakup the
m1 represents apple's first system on a chip or soc designed specifically for the mac similar to
those found in iphones and ipads this chip allows macbooks to now run iphone and ipad apps natively
on the m1 mac no problem at all just without the touchscreen experience of course but yes the m1
chip is truly revolutionary though i ran into a number of issues in the first few months of usage
many final cut pro plugins weren't working western digital my cloud didn't boot up and adobe was slow
to update their creative suite personally it was far from a clean transition and quite frustrating
at times as i spent a lot of time troubleshooting this is because many apps weren't yet migrated to
apple's new arm based architecture and relied on rosetta apple's x86 architecture emulation
program and some apps even flat out did not work right unless updated by its developers
so if you had bought the m1 at launch just like i did you were basically an unpaid beta tester the
good news is the vast majority of everyday apps have been optimized for the m1 over the last year
so in a way you're getting an even better product today than on launch and apps that natively run on
the m1 are blazing fast from opening the laptop to launching apps it's the biggest generational
performance boost in a mac update yet and this isn't your standard johnny ive exaggeration either
the new silicon chip has translated to minimal wait times a faster workflow and an overall more
pleasant daily experience i've been able to edit 4k footage on final cut pro no problem
with a crash or two being an exception and large raw file editing on photoshop and lightroom
is seamless all of this in a thin portable design is frankly still mind blowing so it
still remains hands down one of the best premium mobile processors on the market
at an affordable entry point and likely will be the case for some time to come
speaking of the design it hasn't changed much since the introduction of the touch bar back
in october 2016 it can be seen as either classic or outdated depending on who you ask there's no
differentiating design changes in the m1 and intel based macbooks but on a subjective note the design
is a non-issue for me personally i still enjoy the clean minimalistic look that this laptop nails
and it almost has a timeless aura to it i'm of course looking forward to the redesigned max but
that alone won't be a factor in justifying an upgrade to a new model as with its 13-inch size
i had upgraded from a 15-inch macbook pro and was initially concerned about reverting back to
a small display but i've really come to appreciate the smaller form factor and its portability
for the better part of the year though it has been docked and connected up to a 38 inch ultra wide
monitor when i'm not on the go so i love having that choice something to keep in mind if you're
considering the mac minis i'd suggest taking a look at the macbook pro accompanied with a docked
setup a central piece to its portability is the trackpad and i've yet to find a better trackpad
to this day it's so gigantic that the right and left side of the trackpad are in different time
zones jokes aside it's an underrated feature to navigate and track the span of the screen
without running out of room unlike other laptops i've used the magic keyboard has also held up
well over the last year unlike its older rejected brother the butterfly switch keyboard
haven't run into any issues with m1's keyboard it's a great tactile keyboard that's fast
accurate and reliable to type on in fact it's probably the best laptop keyboard i've used
though most laptops i've used have flimsy feeling keyboards in comparison the magic keyboard has
just the right amount of tactile feedback and travel but that said i still prefer using a
standalone mechanical keyboard but when out and about you cannot go wrong with the magic keyboard
as with the display the m1 is extremely bright accurate in color profile and crispy clear with
its 2560x1600 retina display just be wary and i feel this detail is glanced over the m1 macbook
pro features a 500 nit display compared to the air's 400 nit display so that makes the pro
a full 25 brighter this is rather useful for those working in design with images photos and videos
the additional brightness helps particularly when it's a nice day working in direct sunlight overall
it's a beautiful display and holds up perfectly well to this day though the upgrade to a pro
motion 120 hertz display would be very significant so when i do take this thing out and about a big
part of the portable experience is of course its battery life and this is where it goes absolutely
above and beyond after a year of usage it is undoubtedly the leader in laptop battery life
it's like the one friend who sleeps four hours a night and still has more energy than everyone else
that's the m1 macbook pro the first week i started using it i was shook on just how much usage i
got out of it on a single charge i thought someone had charged it for me in between use
i'm talking two to three days of usage on a single charge and that's still the case to this day the
battery hasn't seen any degradation from what i've seen there have been days when i've gotten
over 12 hours of usage and still had 40 to 50 remaining and that's with light to moderate use
of intensive apps like photoshop or adobe xd it's a different game when you can leave your
liability of a power brick at home and go the day without worrying about a power port it's
not all rainbows and flowers though even the best pieces of tech have their shortcomings
the speakers are reliably good but they're just good they're not going to blow you away i've
used the speakers on the m1 air and i'd say the speakers are full of sounding on the pro
particularly the lows but the overall max volume on the pro is surprisingly not that
loud i recommend investing into a good pair of headphones if you're going to be listening
to music watching movies or sound editing on the regular the webcam which has become more
important in this day and age has not received much of an upgrade and frankly it's disappointing
both the m1 pro and air feature a 720p low aperture webcam which yes gets the job done
but by scraping a pass with minimal effort there is one change though the use of the apple neural
engine and image signal processor which honestly are just fancy terms for the use of software to
slightly improve picture quality with the new upcoming macbooks likely receiving an overhauled
webcam it's a legitimate reason to upgrade but a more affordable option here is to of course just
purchase a separate webcam especially when full hd webcams retail at just 50 these days moving on
to the more serious issues i've experienced over the year the biggest of which has been
terrible bluetooth connectivity it's extremely strange and disappointing the connectivity to
my wireless devices like the logitech mx2s was initially so bad stuttering and lagging behind
my input it was frustrating to use taking a look online i found the m1s had a slew of bluetooth
connectivity issues with no rhyme or reason as to why a few software updates and a new mouse later
the connectivity has improved significantly but i can tell for a fact tracking is not as smooth
as my previous macbook used so just be wary if you're using a number of wireless peripherals you
may run into connectivity issues even to this day if you've run into similar issues please do leave
a comment down below and let me know and let's not forget about the ports or should i say the serious
lack thereof it's a definition of minimalism both the pro and air offer two thunderbolt ports on the
left and a single headphone jack on the right seriously underwhelming so if you want to use
a mouse plug in a different keyboard connect your macbook pro or air to a usb c monitor or even just
plug in an sd card you will need to get yourself a usbc adapter like this one here for a laptop
aimed at creatives it's a little disappointing to say the least and something that the new max most
likely will solve the thing is even with all the issues i've just listed the m1 pro is the best
laptop i've used and the most enjoyable piece of tech i own full stop the letdowns are solvable and
are more than made up for with its power to price ratio form factor apple's ecosystem and
that insane battery life like fine wine the m1 macbooks have aged well over the last year
as more apps natively support the m1 architecture which means continually improving battery app
performance and compatibility issues are quashed here's my recommendation if you're in the market
for a new laptop if you're on a tight budget i highly recommend the m1 macbook air if you're
looking for the best performance without needing the latest and greatest you cannot go wrong with
the macbook pro m1 to this day you know in a world where we're all caught up in a never-ending cycle
of annual tech upgrades for me personally the m1 and macbook pro breaks that mould
it's a laptop that represents value avant-garde and a change in the status quo and it's for these
reasons i think i'll be sticking with the m1 pro for now guys drop the code word comment m1
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