(unknown object banging)
(distant indistinct chatter)
This chair feels a bit warm. It's a bit weird.
(groans) Anyway, do you guys know what I realized
the other day?
I've made all of these M1 Mac videos on my channel
but I've never done a review of the M1 MacBook Pro.
So in this video I wanted to touch on a few key points
that I've realized after nine months of ownership,
and also compare this machine quite extensively
to the M1 MacBook Air.
And that's because for all intents and purposes,
the M1 MacBook Pro is just a slightly upgraded model
of the M1 MacBook Air.
Seriously, it's almost the exact same laptop
which I'll touch on in a second,
and this makes the purchase decision between the two,
very very difficult.
But, do you know which purchase decision is not difficult?
And, that is getting Parallels for your Mac.
Parallels allows you to use Windows on your Mac
without Boot Camp, or having to restart your Mac.
It's great for using Windows-only programs,
or even a little bit of gaming.
Check out the link in the description for more.
Now, to preface this video,
if you already own a M1 MacBook Air, or a M1 MacBook Pro
you're already winning, you've made a great decision,
they're both very, very powerful machines,
but I wanted this review to focus
on the difference between the two,
and if that's worth an extra $300.
Now, this decision is much harder
with the introduction of Apple silicon
compared to the old generation of Airs and Pros
with the Intel chips,
and that is because with the old generation
there is a very clear distinction
between the Air and the Pro.
The Air had a not-very-nice screen,
the keyboard wasn't that great,
the actual power and performance sucked compared to the Pro.
So it was a much easier decision.
So, first things first,
let's just touch on some main differences
between the Pro and the Air.
The most obvious one is probably the price.
So, $999 versus 12.99.
That's in US dollars, by the way.
So, there's a $300 difference right off the bat.
In terms of battery life,
they're basically the exact same, guys.
You'll get a tiny bit more on the Pro,
but the battery life on the M1 systems
are just so long to begin with,
you're probably not even going to notice a difference.
Now, you do get the extra GPU core in the Pro,
depending of course on which model of the Air you buy.
The screen is also slightly brighter on the Pros.
This is going to be noticeable
for people who do a lot of work outside,
or with a lot of sun glare on the screen for example.
And lastly we have the fan,
which is basically the focus point of this review.
So, out of all of those relatively minor differences,
it boils down to a $300 price increase and a fan.
So, let's talk about those two things.
So, in terms of everyday basic usage,
you are not going to notice a difference between the two.
They have literally the exact same internals,
and the chassis is of course almost identical.
Personally I kind of like the chassis on the Air
a little bit better.
It's a little bit more ergonomic when you're typing,
but that's up to personal preference.
Now, although the M1 MacBook Pro does have a fan,
honestly, it very rarely actually kicks on,
and when it does turn on the noise level is much quieter
than the previous Intel versions.
(gentle fan whirring) (button clicks)
(button clicks)
This is because it only needs to spin at a lower rpm
in order to keep the internals sufficiently cooled.
So why is the fan such a big differentiator
between the Air and the Pro?
Well, once we get into the performance you will see why.
Well, for short bursts of tasks, for example,
rendering a short video
or exporting a couple of Lightroom photos,
it makes almost no difference.
That being said, when those short tasks
get a little bit longer,
for example you're rendering a 10-minute video
instead of a two or three-minute one,
this is where the Pro really starts to pull away
from the Air because of the fan.
And this is because, obviously,
you have a fan directly on the M1 chip,
and that's able to more efficiently cool it down,
reduce thermal throttling and increase overall performance.
So, how much more performance on average do you get
with the M1 MacBook Pro base model,
over the M1 MacBook Air base model?
Well, it depends on the task,
but in my testing it's been around 10 to 20%
depending on the task, and that might seem a lot on paper,
but in reality it really isn't that much at all,
especially if you only do
these intensive tasks infrequently.
So, for example, on a 10-minute video render,
a 10 to 15% increase is only about an extra 60 seconds
you have to wait until the video finishes rendering.
Or likewise, if you're doing a Lightroom export
of say 50 to 100 photos,
it's maybe an extra 30 or 40 seconds that you have to wait.
And honestly guys,
you're really not going to notice that difference
in my opinion, because most people when they render a video
or they're exporting Lightroom photos,
they walk away for five to 10 minutes,
go get a drink or something,
and then come back once it's finished.
And in terms of gaming, there's really no difference either.
I can play pretty much every single game
that this Mac can play on the M1 MacBook Air
without any issues, whether it's on Parallels
or it's native through Steam on macOS.
The actual heat stays the same.
Performance is basically identical,
and I was really struggling to see any differences at all.
Now, one quick sidenote as well guys,
you may have seen on my channel a couple of videos
on actually modding the M1 MacBook Air.
It's a fairly simple mod,
and essentially that allowed me to boost the performance
of the M1 MacBook Air
to essentially match the M1 MacBook Pro.
That mod cost about $20.
If you want to check that out I will link it up
in the top-right corner right now.
So, before we move on to price,
let's quickly chat about some negatives.
Now, again, honestly guys, there really are not much.
You can actually check out my M1 MacBook Air review
after eight months, that I did about a week ago
to essentially give you a rundown of some of the issues
that I have with Apple silicon.
Spoiler alert, it's not much.
But in terms of some cons specific to the M1 MacBook Pro,
although I've actually mentioned the fan previously
as being a pro, it is also a con as well,
for two different reasons.
So, number one, noise, obviously.
Now, like I said previously,
you're not going to hear much noise from the fan
on this machine at all,
but some people prefer the 100% fanless design of the Air,
which means you will never ever have a fan kick on
for any reason in the middle of gaming, or a Skype call,
or watching YouTube videos, you will never have that issue.
Whereas, although the Pro is very, very good
like I've mentioned with fan noise,
yes sometimes it will kick on,
and that might be something that annoys you.
And, the second part to the fan being a potential con,
is that it is a moving part.
So, with the M1 MacBook Air,
obviously it doesn't have any moving parts,
it's essentially one big iPad or an iPhone.
This particular machine has the fan,
spins around thousands of rpms a minute,
and it has the potential to break
because it is a moving part.
Now, to clarify on this point,
I'm not saying the fan is going to fail.
All I'm saying, is that because it is a moving part,
there is a small percentage of something going wrong.
Much more so than a fanless design like the M1 MacBook Air.
So, now that we've talked about these factors
of the M1 MacBook Pro, and also how it compares
to the M1 MacBook Air, let's talk about pricing,
and also the impact of all of this
on your purchase decision.
Now, in my opinion, I actually really struggle
to recommend the M1 MacBook Pro to people
over the M1 MacBook Air,
and that's because the Air is already such a good deal,
you get so much value, the performance is there,
it's light, it's $300 cheaper.
So, for 90% of people, they simply do not need a Pro,
and they should just get an Air.
Even if you do some light casual gaming here and there,
or even some infrequent editing or 3D modeling for example,
the Air has pretty much got you covered.
And this is especially relevant
because of the price difference.
So, $300 is a lot of money, and you can spend that money
on upgrading the Air to 16 gigabytes of ram,
or even a 512 gigabyte SSD.
So, choose one of those upgrades,
and then you have some money left over
so you can go out and buy yourself a nice case,
or some software, or some extras for your Mac
before you even come close to reaching the cost
of a base model MacBook Pro.
Now, all of that being said,
there are definitely some people, and some use cases,
where I definitely do recommend getting the Pro
instead of the Air.
This is mainly for people who do those intensive workloads
like really long gaming sessions, 4K video editing,
or massive Lightroom exports regularly,
where the CPU and the GPU are going to be getting very hot.
For those types of people, if you do that work frequently,
definitely shell out a bit of extra money and get the Pro,
because over time that relatively small performance increase
will add up.
Also, there's another situation
in where I recommend getting the Pro over the Air,
and that is if you live or work in a country or area
with a relatively high ambient temperature.
So, places like India, or Saudi Arabia,
or even Australia for example, it can get very easily
up to 30 to 40 degrees Celsius in Australia,
sometimes even inside as well.
So if you're living in a really hot, ambient environment
like a desert country or something like that,
definitely do consider the Pro with the fan
because it will keep your laptop a little bit cooler
than the Air's passive cooling ability.
And, that is it.
After nine months of using this thing,
and also the M1 MacBook Air daily,
that is my tips and advice for you guys,
and also I guess a little kind of review
for you to potentially make a purchase decision,
if you haven't already bought this.
But apart from that guys,
if you have any questions or issues,
leave a comment down below,
and I'll catch you in the next video.