Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman has been using Apple’s new MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip since its release last month, and says it’s certainly been worth the wait.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
I’ve been using a new MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip since its release last month, and it has certainly been worth the wait.
Prior to this laptop, I had been using its 16-inch predecessor from 2019. From the beginning, that “Pro” computer really couldn’t handle simple everyday tasks like simultaneously having dozens of web tabs open at once, communicating on Slack and Messages, watching video, and scrolling through Twitter.
The experience on that previous Mac, which had an Intel Corp. chip, was so subpar that I often switched to an iPad. This was the ultimate First World problem, of course, but it was surprising how slow and loud the Intel 16-inch MacBook Pro was during two years of ownership.
MacDailyNews Take: We lived it. A truly trash experience:
Using Geekbench 5 this week, we benchmarked a 16-inch MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel i9, 32GB 2667MHz DDR4 RAM, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB, Turbo Boost Enabled) and, with fans whirring like a 747, got these results:
1114 single-core, 6872 multi-core (afterwards, the Mac’s aluminum case is very warm to the touch with a CPU temp of 196°F, fans running at top speed).
On the road, we have to disable Turbo Boost (using Turbo Boost Switcher Pro) in order to get any reasonable battery life from the machines (even then, the inefficient Intel i9 is a battery vampire). With Turbo Boost disabled, the machines benchmark just 619 single-core, 4565 multi-core.
Beleaguered Intel ought to be embarrassed. — MacDailyNews, October 21, 2021
My experience so far with the new MacBook Pro couldn’t be more different. The new chip powers through everything I need to do daily. The fans also don’t run as loud as a 747 airplane (I haven’t heard them once), and I don’t need to worry about the machine heating up my legs.
So, the hardware is great. But there remains one key Mac problem that I hope the company will address next: its app ecosystem.
Apple has made strides with the Mac App Store in recent years, and it’s no longer the ghost town it once was. But it’s also become a bit of a muddle. Apple and third parties now offer several different ways to make Mac apps, creating confusion in the developer community and sometimes for consumers.
MacDailyNews Take: More about the software issue in the Gurman’s full newsletter here.
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