Second Opinion

Second Opinion is a reviews show about anything and everything under the sun. If we can experience it, we can review it.

MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 Review

Episode #109

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

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Second Opinion is released under a Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International license. Feel free to use any or all of it as long as you link back to http://thenexus.tv/so109.