A pro photographer tests Apple's M1 MacBook

[Clix Pix]

When I purchased my M1 13" MBP I went with the 1 TB SSD storage and 16 GB RAM and expect to get several years of good service from this machine. For me, 16 GB RAM is minimum, actually, and if they'd had 32 GB RAM available I would've gone with that, as it is what I have in my 15" 2018 intel MBP.

 

[MortyCapp]

When I purchased my M1 13" MBP I went with the 1 TB SSD storage and 16 GB RAM and expect to get several years of good service from this machine. For me, 16 GB RAM is minimum, actually, and if they'd had 32 GB RAM available I would've gone with that, as it is what I have in my 15" 2018 intel MBP.

That’s a well spec’ed MBP.

 

[FredAzinger]

Yeah, I saw that thread. Will see how it pans out as expert review sights chime in. So far it works ok for me.

It's a slow death -- SSD cells are "consumables." Better be fine today.....proof will be in the 2 year old pudding.

 

[rick_reno]

I wish there was a good way to use an iMac as monitor for a Mini.

Jim,

There is a way to use the IMac display with the Mac Mini. Doesn't look too difficult.

https://www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/youtuber-builds-first-diy-m1-imac

 

[tenplanescrashing]

When I purchased my M1 13" MBP I went with the 1 TB SSD storage and 16 GB RAM and expect to get several years of good service from this machine. For me, 16 GB RAM is minimum, actually, and if they'd had 32 GB RAM available I would've gone with that, as it is what I have in my 15" 2018 intel MBP.

You really should look into a NAS if you're specing a portable laptop with 1tb of storage these days. Plus, 16gb vs. 8gb RAM in the new architecture really is mostly moot and I suspect 32 would be about the same. These are just the entry level m1 chips too...i'm curious to see what the M1x or whatever they're going to call it for the 14/15/16" MBP's and iMacs look like from a RAM utilization standpoint because I assume it'll be about the same with efficiency.

 

[Clix Pix]

I am really looking forward to what Apple gives us with the next batch of MacBook Pros! My 15" 2018 MBP has 1 TB SSD and 32 GB RAM and the new M1 machine comes pretty close in speed to that with its 16 GB RAM -- pretty impressive! I really love this little M1 -- definitely an amazing machine with its Apple Silicon chip! (And, yes, although I haven't told her yet -- shhhh! -- my 15" 2018 will more than likely be leaving the household, her place taken by one of the new M1x 16" machines.....). I bought the 13" M1 MBP out of curiosity more than anything else, as I wanted to get an idea of how well these new machines would function in the real world -- my real world. As a second machine, there are some definite functional improvements over the 12" MacBook.

As for a NAS I have thought about that from time to time since at the moment I have three machines -- the two I've mentioned plus my lovely little 12" MacBook that I am still hanging on to as well, in hopeful anticipation of future travel again one day. If I had a NAS I could put my archival files plus my current files, etc., all on there and be able to quickly access any of them quickly on any of my machines, which could come in very handy every now and then. Earlier today I was on another site where we have just started up a new image association game, similar to what we do here at Nikon Cafe, and when looking at the image that was the most recently posted, I remembered that I had an image which would pick up the theme quite nicely.....and had to plug in an external drive and rummage through the archival folders and files until I finally located the image I had in mind. Not a big deal, but it would've been nice if I could have simply checked the files via the NAS and not had to be sure to get the correct external drive that would have the appropriate files on it....

There also have been times when I've been on one machine and something that I wanted was on the other machine and then I had to either wait for it to finish whatever it was doing or fire it up if it were turned off. A NAS would take care of that as well. So, yes, from time to time I do think about looking into that and setting up a system here.

 

[MortyCapp]

This is an update with the latest analysis.
worth watching.
Their opinion seems to be that it depends based on use scenario.
It is a clear logical unbiased analysis:

 

[rick_reno]

^ good report, thanks for sharing that one.

 

[FredAzinger]

Their opinion seems to be that it depends based on use scenario.

OF COURSE IT IS!
If you run programs that use lots of temp storage and lots of ram you'll burn up the SSD.
If you run programs that don't do that, the SSD will live longer.
Has NOTHING to do with the processor -- all about the program load, the OS and how it treats the HW under it.
Hope nobody is surprised.