The MacBooks with M1 are all the rage these days. You can watch unlimited hours of benchmarks,
speed tests, and comparisons which show how much better the M1 MacBooks are compared to other intel
macs and PCs. But, is the MacBook Pro M1 a better desktop than the 2020 iMac?
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Hey, Im Jerry and My 2020 iMac that I bought this past summer is amazing.
It has that bright 5K display, and sleek all in one design, and
I can leave a bunch of things plugged into it all the time.
This iMac had become my go to computer when I wasn’t using my iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard.
It has a fast 10th gen 6-core i5 processor, 40GB of ram, and I can stack as many hard
drives off the back as I need to. When the new M1 MacBooks came out I was under the hype
spell as much as anyone and wanted to make the new MacBook pro my everything computer.
The M1 MacBooks Air and Pro with are amazing devices. You really do get some great advantages
over similar laptops for general computing needs. Advantages like big performance gains
and power efficiency. With my day to day computing needs, apps feel fast to open,
run smooth, and¬¬¬ everything is cool and quiet. In many cases the M1 MacBook Pro
runs as good or better than my 27” imac which costs twice as much.
The iMac is obviously a desktop computer that functions just like a desktop needs
to but The MacBook Pro M1 can absolutely become a desktop computer, as well. Performance wise,
the M1 is right up there with the i5 iMac and even beats it on some tests. If you look at CPU
tests with Geekbench, the M1 Pro beat the 2020 iMac in both single and multi-core cpu tests.
The new SSDs in the M1 Laptops are really fast too. The iMac does see an advantage over the
M1 Pro with multi-core Cinebench ….and with the Geekbench Metal test the base iMac Radeon 5300
nearly doubles the GPU Graphics performance in the M1 Pro. This actually makes my Final Cut Pro
exports slightly faster with the 2020 iMac than with my M1 MacBook Pro. Though, In my regular
daily use of browsing, checking email, scrolling twitter, logging into work servers with Citrix,
there is no real perceptible performance difference when using these 2 machines.
With performance being nearly the same, The main thing you need to make a laptop a desktop
is a display. And if you want an external display for a MacBook, that in my opinion looks as good as
the imac display, that is the BenQ PD3220U with has HDR10 support and P3 wide color,
just like the iMac. There are of course many other displays to choose
based on features or price, like this Samsung UR55 28” display… but the design,
color, and solid aluminum base of that BenQ make it a worthy contender.
The 5K imac display on the other hand is in a class of its own.
There are a couple of 5k displays on the market that you can buy but
none of them come close to the full quality and color or the built-in imac display. Where many
external displays max out at between 300 and 400 nits of brightness, the iMac can push out 500 nits
making HDR content really pop and the wide p3 colors really stand out.
Now, whether you connect a display to a MacBook Pro via a USBC or thunderbolt connection or some
other kind of adapter, that only leaves you with 1 available port on the 13” MacBook Pro M1. I
frequently need to connect external SSDs or sd card readers when working on videos and sometimes
I need both at the same time so thats where you may need a dock or hub of some kind. Just like
displays there are plenty of good options to choose from like the CalDigit TS3+ or the SOHO.
These will give you additional USB-A and USB-C ports and depending on the dock,
additional display connections and ethernet. ….. The iMac has More ports on the back including 4
USB-A ports, 2 USB-C Thunderbolt ports, Ethernet, SD Card and headphone out. The Ports on the iMac
aren’t in the best location tucked behind the display but they are there allowing
for multiple connected peripherals and hard drives without the need for additional docks,
but you can also relocate some of the ports to the front with something like the Satechi
Clamp hub pro with gives you front access to SD card readers, 3 usb-a ports and a usb-C port.
The last main thing I think you need for a good desktop configuration is a decent pair
of speakers. The iMac, of course, has a pair of built in speakers that sound
really good. Especially with the 2020 iMac which added the T2 chip for variable EQ
and enhanced bass response. They are loud and clear, what more could you want.
As decent as the built in speakers are on the 13” MacBook pro, they are not great for desktop
use where you generally want a louder, more clear sound. Or, At least I do. And when trying to edit
audio or watch a video, sometimes I just want to pump up the jam, pump it up…….. SO grabbing an
external pair of speakers is a must for me to be able to use the MacBook Pro as a desktop…..Again,
wide ranging price and features but I like the Kanto YU2 speakers. They have an Audio
dac for digital processing and I can get them in a macbook matching space gray color.
Once you have the Computer, display, and speakers we can look at a few differences between
the MacBook Desktop and iMac. With the MacBook Pro you get a few bonus features compared to an iMac.
First you get to use touch-id which is not available on any desktop macs.
I love waking the computer and unlocking with Touch-ID. Its really fast and reliable,
it almost never fails. Second, it’s a laptop so right away it is like a 2 in one device that can
be disconnected, and you can walk away continuing to work somewhere else. Third, because the MacBook
Pro runs apple silicon there are a number of ios and iPad apps you can now run on the laptop.
I have also found a few downsides Since I have moved to this setup with the MacBook Pro M1.
First, the MacBooks and Big Sur seem to have a lot of issues with external displays.
I have tried multiple displays and multiple configurations and ran into issues with most
of them. Either the external screen doesn’t turn on or it comes up distorted from sleep, or other
random things with refresh rate or resolution. There have also been a few other oddities like
speakers getting turned all the way up after reconnecting the MacBook to the display or
dock. …I don’t want to get into all of that and I have a few videos on the issues you can check
out if interested, but the short story is that using external displays with the MacBooks with M1
have not been a flawless, stress free experience. …
And Second, Beyond technical issues, this is just not as clean of a setup compared to something
like the iMac. There is a lot more complexity of the desk setup with running video cables, docks,
speakers and then you need to power it all and figure out some kind of cable management
if you want it to look nice. I wouldn’t say I am a clean freak,
but constant disorganization can make be a bit anxious and
no matter what you do there will always be more clutter with a laptop desktop than with an iMac.
The iMac does have an advantage of being a pure desktop. Having the additional ports on the back
of the iMac and having a stationary computer means I can leave hard drives always running and
connected to the iMac as needed without worrying about which drives have the files I need or trying
to disconnect the drives to go mobile. This also means you could use the iMac for something like
a Plex media server, File Server or TimeMachine server for other computers, and not worry about
the server going offline if you want to take your laptop to the couch or on a trip.
The are only 2 downsides to a 2020 iMac over a MacBook Pro for Desktop Use. First, The iMac is
a desktop computer which means that it sits on a desk and does not move…obviously. Second, There
are no biometrics like with the Macbook Pro’s touch-id or even face-id. You can setup to unlock
with an Apple Watch but it’s a bit clumsy and sometimes either doesn’t work or is slow. It would
be nice if Apple could add touchID to an external magic keyboard and maybe add a T2 chip that pairs
with the t2 in the iMac for security. One can only Hope for something like that. Speaking of hope…..
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SO, back to the original question…..Is the MacBook Pro M1 a better desktop than the 2020 iMac?
I don’t think so. The M1 MacBook Pro can be a desktop computer with
compromises. You need extra stuff like a monitor and speakers which adds complexity and,
in the case of the M1 MacBooks and macOS Big Sur, some frustrations. You have plenty of Accessory
options to choose from but it can be difficult and expensive to configure options that are
as good as what the iMac can offer. With the lack of ports on the MacBook pro comes the
need for additional docks or hubs but you also get the option to pick it up and go mobile.
The iMac is the perfect desktop computer, in my opinion. It has everything you need built right
into a neat, compact enclosure. The built-in display cant be beat by any comparable external
option at a reasonable price, it has enough ports to do everything I need it to do, and can serve
different roles like an always available backup server or media server. I think I will be moving
back to my iMac for my desktop use and using the MacBook Pro M1 for my couch and mobile device.
What do you think? Have you turned your laptop into a desktop or do you prefer
separate devcices? This will be the first time that I have 2 primary devices so if you have
any suggestions about how to make workflows better between 2 computers or how to keep stuff in sync,
let me know below. If you want to hear more about the many display issues I have had
using an M1 MacBooks, you should check out this video over here……hit
the thumbs up button if you liked it, hit subscribe if you want and ill see you next time.