we’ve tested comparative analysis And we compared the MacBook Pro to the previous generation and the MacBook Air, but the interesting thing is how it stacks up against an older Mac.
Chances are, most MacBook Pro M1 buyers currently own an older MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, maybe even a 15 “MacBook Pro, and are wondering if the MacBook Pro M1 will be a good replacement or should- Would it be? wait for the MacBook 14 “The Pro is rumored to come with the M1X chip.
In this one meet again, we will compare the MacBook Pro M1 to the 15 “MacBook Pro (2016) with a quad-core Intel chip, not its immediate predecessor. Can the MacBook Pro M1 replace the 15” MacBook Pro?
First impressions
Apple continues to bet on rare packaging (the company has long attached great importance to the conservation of natural resources), but unlike the Apple Watch and the iPhone, a power supply is included in the box because she wouldn’t have much of a feeling that she wasn’t like that.
The AC adapter generates 61 watts and the USB-C charging cable is 2 meters long. A little booklet with quick instructions and stickers is also included, and that’s it.
As head of Software Apple’s Craig Federighi demonstrated this in his MacBook with M1 preview video, and as we recreated in this image, the MacBook Pro starts up when you open the lid. You’ll hear the typical little startup noise that Apple brought back with Big Sur, and the white Apple logo appears on a black background.
The setup wizard guides you through the necessary steps: first we create an administrator account, then a second for day-to-day work. The battery is at 70% the first time it starts.
How are you
With our previous work tool, the MacBook Pro 15 “from 2016, we never had a problem with the keyboard. Although after four years of use some buttons are a bit worn, no keys are stuck while this is one of the problematic butterfly mechanism keyboards that Apple has already replaced.
The keys on our 2016 Mac are loud, but it never bothered us. The keyboard of the MacBook Pro with M1 already seems a bit thinner.
Obviously, the MacBook Pro 13 “has a smaller screen than the MacBook 15”, but the smaller dimensions of the MacBook Pro 13 “are quite sufficient for most uses.
If we feel like we need more space, we can just connect the MacBook Pro to our 32 “display. If we use it on our knees, it doesn’t overheat too much, and the fans aren’t very audible.
As for the battery indicator, it barely budged. The comparison is perhaps a little unfair: the battery in our MacBook Pro 15 “is four years old and not performing as well as before.
It’s a warning not to leave the new MacBook Pro plugged in all the time (although changes to the power manager should help alleviate these issues).
Not that we need to connect MacBook Pro with M1 often. In theory, the MacBook Pro with M1 should only connect every other day because its battery life is so good.
Now there is a downside in the 13 “model. It only has two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports. In one of them we have the HDMI adapter to connect it to the monitor; in the other we have we have the Time Machine volume. 15 “as of 2016 has four Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C ports.
For everyday
Now we will discuss how the MacBook Pro works with M1 for everyday work. In our case, that means having multiple browsers open, Microsoft’s office suite, and some Creative Cloud programs (including Photoshop and InDesign).
We encountered some issues even though Apple included Rosetta 2 to translate Intel X86 code so that it could work on an ARM based system.
The first buyers will have had more complicated, but there are now several applications that run natively on the M1 chip, such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook, and Firefox, already compatible with the M1 processor. .
You will be interested in our list of programs compatible with the Mac with M1.
For other apps, Apple’s Rosetta translation layer should work so you can run Software old on newer Macs. The first time you start a program for Mac Intel, you will need to install Rosetta 2, but it is quick and does not delay its startup much.
After using the MacBook Air with M1 with 7-core GPU, we were interested to know the difference another graphics chip makes. It is essentially the equivalent of the Media Software department.
We asked the old and new MacBook Pro to export a project that is longer than five minutes and with 14 tracks (five of which are silent) as an uncompressed AIFF file.
The MacBook Pro with M1, 8-core CPU, and 8-core GPU did it in 50 seconds, while the 2016 15 ”MacBook Pro with six cores took just over 2 minutes.
The processor
Although we wouldn’t expect much different changes from landmarks artificial like Geekbench, Cinebench or Blackmagic Speed Disk compared to the MacBook Air with M1, we redid the calculations.
We were particularly interested in seeing how it compares to the 2016 MacBook Pro, but we also compared it to the 2019 16 ”MacBook Pro, which has a Core i7 processor with six processor cores and 16 GB of RAM (the MacBook Pro with M1 has 8 GB).
Well the results speak for themselves. But a classification is necessary. Granted, we compare pears to apples in a way: a new device to one from four years ago. But it clearly shows how Apple Silicon makes the Mac really fast and gives us a very bright future.
With APSI Benchmark, we can see how much the Intel Core i7 reduces the performance of the 2016 MacBook Pro, but we can also hear fans of the MacBook Pro 16 “. Also, the battery lost 30% of its battery in the process. .
| Reference | MacBook Pro 15 “with i5 (2016) | MacBook Pro 16 “with i7 (2019) | 13 “MacBook Pro with M1 (2020) |
| APSI bench standard | 52.8 | 101.9 | 79.1 |
| APSI Long Term Bench | 80.82 | 57.69 | 83.33 |
With the APSI standard, the MacBook Pro with M1 far outperforms the device it is supposed to replace, but lags behind the 9th gen Core i7.
The Geekbench processor test results are destroying the 2019 16 ”MacBook Pro, so much so that there is no need to talk about the device from four years ago.
In the Geekbench GPU benchmarks, the 16 “MacBook Pro’s discrete graphics are still ahead of the M1’s integrated cores, but no big difference.
In Cinebench, the results are even more revealing. In this case, the 2016 MacBook Pro is queda atrás y el M1 consigue superar al MacBook Pro de 16 “. Además, queda demostrado que no es un MacBook Air con M1, pues se pueden escuchar los ventiladores, aunque no por mucho tiempo ni very strong.
The 2019 MacBook Pro 16 “SSD is slightly faster than the MacBook Pro with M1, but that shouldn’t matter too much. You will only notice the difference if SoC RAM is scarce and the system needs to work. ” press the SSD.
Camera and software
MacBooks with M1 still include the obsolete 720p iSight cameras of incredibly low quality. It is no coincidence that people opt for a webcam or use their iPhone’s external camera to be more successful in video conferencing.
Apple could have installed a better camera module in the MacBook Air with M1 and MacBook Pro with M1 (as it did in the 24 “iMac), but it doesn’t.
So if you want a webcam decent on your Mac, you’ll either have to buy one separately or wait until the 2021 MacBook Pro, which is due to arrive this fall.
MacBooks with M1 of the future can include a 1080p webcam and even support Face ID and Apple’s True Depth camera system.
Verdict
For our goal of being able to work remotely, the MacBook Pro with M1 is a good replacement for our 15 “MacBook Pro, offering unprecedented speed and battery life (we were able to use it two days in a row to work without having to. load).
Its small size does not bother us as much as we thought, but quite the contrary: it fits better in our backpack. The screen is brilliant.
We will have to give up the good sound (and we have other devices for that) and the 720p camera. The camera is one of the reasons we want the MacBook Pro 14 “to arrive now, possibly by the end of 2021, which could include Face ID.
Original article published in Macwelt.
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