Ah my five years is more an evaluation of my work demands, photography, design and teaching. My camera is digital medium format and the files would push any computer but the iMac handles it with no sweat.
My operating budget is another factor (ahem).
I should emphasize that thereās nothing wrong with your current computer (or my 16" MBP). They will continue to work just fine for years and do what they do today and moreā¦ but like I said, it will only pale in comparison to an Apple Silicon machine, so as long as you stay away from those, you wonāt know any difference. Ignorance is bliss!
My problem is I now have both and when I switch between the two I can see stark differences. What used to be my favorite laptop isnāt my fav any more. When I have a choice, I find myself reaching for the M1. I thought it would just a be a Mac for Apple Silicon testing, but already itās more and more my main machine.
And these are just the first ālow-endā machinesā¦
I bought an Intel Mac mini a few months ago, even though I knew an ARM model was likely to be released, and the reason why has absolutely nothing to do with system performance.
It is version 1.0 hardware shipping with the first version of a new OS (11.0). Stuff this new always has problems of one kind or another. Maybe they will affect me, maybe they wonāt, but I donāt want to take a chance with the computer I depend on for running my household. So my choice was either āget a last-generation Intel boxā or āwait a year or two for Apple to work out all the kinks in the ARM platformā. I chose the former, because the old computer was 9 years old and still on its original hard drives - I didnāt want to be forced into an upgrade an an unpredictable time due to a dead drive.
The Windows users considering a switch have a similar argument. They have a known working installation with apps that they know how to use. Switching will involve a learning curve. Even when the same app is available on both platforms (e.g. Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint), there are differences. And in many cases, an app isnāt available on both platforms (e.g. Visio or Access), meaning a switch will require learning a new app and migrating data.
This reasoning is for a Windows user considering a switch to an Intel Mac. I donāt see any of its points changing for an M1 Mac.
My point here is that in both cases, system performance is irrelevant. As long as the legacy platform/architecture is able to comfortably run the apps it needs to run, all those incredible benchmarks are just footnotes that may or may not be important in the future, depending on the requirements of future apps.
I agree with you completely ā in a way. That was exactly my line of thought before I got the minimum M1 Air. I figured it was a year away from being a usable system, that it would be plagued with tiny bugs and incompatibilities and irritations that would make the small increase in performance irrelevant.
Which is why I have been so blown away by the M1. It shocked me that it outperforms my $3500 MBP and I donāt just mean in raw performance. Everything about it is so fluid it feels instantaneous. That may not seem like much and it is subtle, but itās also so easy to get used to that when I go back to the Intel-based Mac it feels sluggish and unresponsive. Itās like driving semi-trailer versus a sports car.
Take just one example, waking up from sleep. I had never even noticed until I got the M1, but I was used to leaving my MBP awake (blocking it from sleeping) during the day just because it takes an extra few seconds to wake up and I subconsciously found that annoying. Iām a writer and I keep my laptop nearby and when I get an idea I want to write down the gist before I forget it. With the MBP asleep, it takes 2-3 seconds before I can use TouchID or type in my password (sometimes longer).
With the Air M1, if I keep my finger near the TouchID button when I raise the lid I can slide my finger over half an inch and the laptop is not only awake, but Iām logged in and if I left a text file open on the screen (which I usually do) I can start typing immediately. Weāre talking half a second to wake up and me be typing. Thatās including authentication. Thatās just crazy fast.
I know itās a small thing and as a ābenchmarkā or buying decision it seems utterly irrelevant ā but it makes such a huge difference in actual use. Itās delightful. Which is the way I describe the whole system.
On the MBP I leave Mail running all the time. It slowly gobbles extra memory and after a week itās using 1GB or more and I quit and relaunch it and it goes down to 200MB. I leave it running because it takes it several seconds to launch and load my email. On the M1, it launches in less than one Dock bounce and my email is there. Ready to use. No delay. I have no idea how it does that. Messages is similar and even worse as it will take 5 seconds to load on the Intel Mac and itās just ready on the M1.
I realize itās early days and I certainly wouldnāt recommend an M1 machine to everyone. But to me itās clearly the future and as more and more people get use to the kind of instant response these machines have, Intel Macs will seem more and more dated and lame. Itāll be like comparing a Tesla (or BMW or whatever luxury car brand you prefer) to a Yugo. Both work, but one is way more pleasurable to use.
That said, you mention two use cases: yourself wanting a stable machine and Windows switchers.
For the former Iāll say I again that I was in your boat thinking the M1 would take a long time to be ready. I have been amazed at compatibility. Everything just works. Iāve read there are a few odd cases of problems, but I have yet to see any. In my case the M1 is being used for real work more and more. While obviously I would recommend anyone needing a new machine for real work to make sure to check it out thoroughly for compatibility first, I think for most people it would be fine (with a clear exception for people needing Windows emulation).
As for Windows switchers, I think youāre putting too much stock into people being intelligent and planning their move. There are three types of computer users: power, mid-range, and low usage. Power users know what they are doing and can handle any problems. Mid-range users are more professionals in their field, probably like yourself, who want a reliable stable machine and think through a purchase decision carefully.
Most people (70%?) are in the bottom category. They just want a machine to do email, surf the web, maybe some word processing or work. They barely know the difference between Windows and Mac and could care less about compatibility. As long as Office or whatever they want runs, theyāll be fine. Those peopleās needs are so minor that the M1 would work great for them. You might think that means they donāt care about performance, but youād be wrong.
Iāve noticed that beginners/newbies/low power users are often the most impatient. They donāt understand why computers take time to do something. Iāve helped the inept and computer illiterate and when I do something that brings up a beachball or spinning hourglass they ask me if the computer crashed. Iām like, āWell I just told it do download a 5GB file or 1000 emailsā or whatever and in my mind that means āBe patient, this will take a while.ā They just fidget and wonder if the computer is broken.
How many people have you seen tap or click an icon 10+ times because the first click didnāt seem to work? Iām watching the app icon bounce or the system thinking and Iām patient, while the inept person canāt tell and assumes the computer isnāt responding. (Iāve actually seen people unplug or reboot a computer thinking it was crashed when it was just busy.)
Performance matters a lot more than you think. It has less to do with the fact that the M1 can compress a file or output a huge video file faster, for those are rare tasks unless youāre a professional doing them 100 times a day, and just how responsive the system feels. When people can actually get into stores again and play with M1 systems and see how instant they are, you will see Windows users switching without hesitation. Not all of them, but a lot more than now. It will take time, but even they will notice. Things like instant wake from sleep sound silly, but when someone is in a store and they wake up two computers and one is instant and the other takes a few seconds theyāll lean heavily toward the instant one. And non-professional computer people wonāt be worrying about incompatibilities or software ā theyāll just buy based on feeling.
For you an Intel machine now might make sense and thereās nothing wrong with that decision. But most people arenāt in your situation.
The other thing is that although the M1 is first gen for macOSā¦it is really the 15th or so generation of the A series from whence it came and Apple has probably had macOS running on A series for 3 years working out the bugs and figuring out what Mac specific IP goodies needed to be addedā¦it wouldnāt surprise me at all if M1 is the 3rd or 4th generation of the basic M series design.
So farā¦Iāve seen very few indications or discussions of things that just donāt work.
I use an Apple Watch for authentication, and on my M1 MacBook Air, by the time Iāve finished opening the screen, itās awake, logged in, and ready to go. Itās extremely refreshing!
Iāll have to try that. When that feature first came out it was so hit-and-miss I stopped using it. Plus, most of my laptops have TouchID, so typing my password wasnāt a pain point.
Itās much better now, particularly with a recent Apple Watch and a recent Mac.
Are new macOS installs āfatā? Could I take an install made on an AS Mac and use it to boot an Intel Mac? What about the other way around? Iām well aware booting Macs off of volumes installed on another Mac is these days no longer considered a particularly good idea, but I still wonder if in an emergency you could do it at all.
Apparently Apple is now working on future M-series chips with 16 power cores and 4 efficiency cores, with future chips to have as many as 32 performance cores. And on the GPU side, Apple is testing 16-core and 32-core designs, with 64-core and 128-core chips for the highest end Macs.
So yeah, when Apple introduced the M1 in the lowest end Macs, they were just whetting our appetites.
640 cores ought to be enough for anyone.
You can never be too rich or too thin, or have too many cores.