There are already several Macs with Apple Silicon that we have already on the market for four months. Although on an aesthetic level it does not seem that we are finding anything new, at the power and efficiency level there are several changes that we have already noticed and that could surely convince you to make them your next purchase. Of course, there are also some not so positive aspects of these Mac with M1 chip that you should know. We will tell you all this in this post, based not only on technical data but also on our own experience.
What’s the best thing about these Macs?
The following aspects are probably the most important purchase reasons when making a decision. Even if you have already bought one of the Macs with Apple Silicon, you should know this information to get more out of your device.Autonomy has improved a lot
Although in the case of the Mac mini this is not relevant because it is not a laptop, it is prominent in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The M1 chip that it incorporates makes them much more energy efficient and that they can withstand an intense day. of work. Yes, we have said intense because even with heavy actions such as video editing these computers behave perfectly and do not drain their battery completely.
They barely heat up and you will hardly hear the fan
One of the most reported problems in recent years with Macs was their mismanagement of temperatures. Now we know that the chip was fundamental in this, since the M1s are able to balance resources perfectly and offer very optimal temperature management. This part is so positive that the fan has even been dispensed with in the MacBook Air, while in the Mac mini and MacBook Pro the fan is barely heard on rare occasions and always when the requirement is great.
In power they double to some Intel processors
Probably the Apple Silicon, at least to this day, are still far from the most powerful Intel chips, but they are still capable of putting them in serious trouble. If we compare the M1 with basic and intermediate versions of previous MacBooks, we do find a big difference in terms of power and performance, even performing some actions twice as fast. Even at startup it seems that these Macs are faster.
They don’t need as many RAM resources
That Apple continues to offer 8 GB of RAM may seem crazy in the middle of 2021, but it is as true that these Macs could be used only with it. In our performance tests to the MacBook Air we even managed to edit video in a professional way with the most basic model in this regard and we did not notice slowness, or crashes or any other impediment that made working with the Mac more tedious.
The negatives you should keep in mind
The strengths of the M1 chips are very remarkable in our opinion, but it would be foolish to deny that it has a series of disadvantages that could affect you. Although luckily all of them could stop being so in a while, since they respond to the so-called transition process that Apple established.
You will not be able to install Windows on a partition
It is possible to install Windows on a Mac with Boot Camp, but as long as it does not have an Apple Silicon chip. In these, due to their ARM architecture, they cannot run the Microsoft operating system. Of course, there are already some other applications to virtualize that are in beta version for these teams and that could do the trick soon. Whether Windows can be fully supported on a partition is something that will ultimately depend on Microsoft’s rush to develop it.
Maybe your applications are not in this architecture
While all native Apple apps work perfectly, not so much with third-party apps. Today there are many applications that have yet to be made compatible with the ARM architecture of the M1. However, the best known ones are already beginning to be compatible, while the Rosetta 2 code translator will help many of the ones that are not compatible to run as if they already were.
The design has not changed with respect to the previous ones
This is a very subjective point at the end, but it may be important to you if you were expecting an aesthetic change in any of the three Macs that currently have Apple Silicon. In visual effects they are identical to their predecessors, although it will not be a problem if you already liked them. In any case, it is expected that the MacBook Pro arrive this year to change its exterior design.
RAM cannot be expanded to more than 16GB
Is it possible that the RAM is a plus and minus point at the same time? Well, far from seeming contradictory, yes. In general terms it is a positive point, since something similar happens to the iPhone and iPad, which with lower capacities than their competition are capable of performing even better. However, the 16GB limit, even though it doesn’t act like traditional 16GB, may seem slim to many users.