Second Opinion #109: MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 Review

Second Opinion Reviews

Ryan reviews the wonderful MacBook Pro with M1 chip! It's an incredible machine, but you might be satisfied with a MacBook Air - find out more!

• Pricing
  • $1299 base model with 256gb storage + 8gb ram
  • $1499 with 512gb storage + 8gbram
  • My model is BTO
    • $1850
    • Includes $200 to bump to 16gb ram
    • Includes tax
  • I hope future models of the 13’’ or 14’’ (if that happens) comes with 16GB standard
    • I think $1500 should be getting you 16GB
    • I hope the 16’’ model comes with 16GB standard
• Display
  • Size
    • 13’’ screen
      • I notice the difference between this and the 15’’ MBP I use for work – what a difference
      • It’s mostly a screen space / resolution difference – just can’t fit as much on here at once
  • Special features
    • No remarkable features
    • I still appreciate the white balance calibration that these modern macs do
• Physicals
  • Look and feel, build quality
    • Footprint
      • It’s adorable
      • It’s not even a MacBook Air
      • I was surprised, this does not have intakes along the sides like my 15’’ MBP for work does
    • Weight
      • Noticeably lighter than my 15’’ model for work
  • Battery
    • I charged up to 100% and then used the computer normally until it ticked down to 99%
      • 1 hour 40 minutes
    • Out of the box, it was at 87%
    • Through setup and a bunch of installs and compiling Node and more
      • Down to ~40%
    • Easily getting through two days of usage
      • It’s telling me at 98% I might get 17 hours on this charge
        • Hahahahahahahaha
  • Ports
    • Two Type C / Thunderbolt ports
    • 1 headphone jack (it could be a combo jack, but I’m not sure)
  • Charging
    • It’s a bummer that the charging ports (type c shape / thunderbolt inside) are only on the left side
    • At least there’s two ports!
  • Speakers
    • They are fine
    • Get real speakers
  • Buttons
    • This is a MacBook Pro so it has a TouchBar!
    • This model has an escape key
      • Such novelty
      • Much depression
      • The fingerprint sensor for TouchID is in its own separate button, making it easier to press in properly
    • The TouchBar
      • It’s mostly OK
      • I would not pay any extra for it if it were a BTO option
  • Keyboard
    • The keyboard is weird relative to what I am used to now
    • I use a Magic Keyboard (space gray)
      • The keyboard on this MacBook feels similar, though still different than that, maybe even more firm
      • It doesn’t have the bottom-out harshness that the 15’’ MBP I use for work has, I’m still getting used to it
    • I like it overall!
    • The layout is smaller, which is what I notice most
      • This means I need to reposition my hands, so I have some hand/arm pain
      • My left hand is getting the brunt of this right now, it’s slightly more turned in than I’d like
        • If someone tells me I’m crazy and there’s no difference between the keyboard positions between the sizes…
• Performance
  • Work machine
    • I think I saturate Disk IO and that bottlenecks everything
    • RAM saturation might be a part of it too
    • It’s going to take a while to replicate that issue on this machine
    • OK, so I push the machine to its limits and I need it to work functionally, reliably
  • M1 MBP
    • I have Chrome with a dozen tabs, Slack, iTerm, and VSC open running at 25% RAM
    • This has not turned its fan on yet for regular usage
      • It did when I was compiling Node (more on that later)
    • Instant on is appreciated, we’ll see if it keeps up
    • Fingerprinter TouchID sensor is fast!
  • WarGame Benchmarks
    • Recap on what the WarGame is
      • It is a silly benchmark I started in highschool and worked on iteratively through college up until I started working full time
      • The headlining version is the rust version which is as native as it gets
      • The “score” is games per millisecond of the “war card game”
    • M1 MBP: 403 score
    • AMD Phenom 2 945 (Q2 2009): 48
• Software
  • OS
    • Big Sur is pretty looking!
      • I’ve enjoyed using the new Finder skin
      • The System Preferences is a bit strange
      • Everything else seems fine, it’s some aesthetics changes but nothing notice or nitpick if it doesn’t bother me
  • Development
    • Work and hobby time is different but also the same
    • Macos still initializes git on its first usage
    • VSC has a exploration build for M1
    • Brew does not work natively yet, but the Intel process was smooth enough
      • Brew can be installed though, in M1 native mode, but most packages require local side compilation
      • This machine is fast but not fast enough to compile Node in less than 10 minutes (with fans running even!)
    • Docker has working previews, you might need rosetta for some things
      https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/apple-m1/
• Final thoughts
  • It’s good
  • Can you work on it?
    • Invest ~2-3 hours beforehand
      • Go to your tools’ repos and search for Apple Silicon issues or M1 problems
      • Search for software you use on “does it arm”
      • Read on the various subreddits and forums
    • The 16’’ MacBook Pro could utterly decimate this in performance / battery capabilities
    • The 14’’ MacBook Pro is rumored and could add more ports, new baseline spec, who knows
    • Development tooling will slowly fill in gaps, and every week away from release, the ecosystem will get better
  • Other working types?
    • Do the same due diligence before buying
  • MacBook Air or MacBook Pro?
    • I wanted the Pro in case I needed the fan
    • If you’re on a budget, go for the MacBook Air
    • If you were going to buy a MacBook Pro earlier in 2020, then MacBook Pro
  • What happens when the 16’’ comes out at WWDC?
    • It will be madness
    • See you then

Attributions

• Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor – Organic (electric edit)

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