Why People Hate M1 Macs

We may earn compensation from reviewed products. Learn about our editorial policies.

Maybe ‘hate’ is too strong a word. But that appears to be the underlying feeling whenever I read a comment from someone who clearly has an issue with the new M1 chip.

“Just look at the specs, for godsake,” said one viewer on my YouTube channel recently. “<It’s> incredible how professionals buy the Mac mini and expect them to be their main workstation.”

He went onto suggest that Apple’s M1 Macs were made for “the average user” and that they weren’t built for 4K video editing and “heavy stuff”.

Why, in that case, I asked, was I able to do just that with my Mac mini and essentially run my entire content-based business from it without trouble?

He didn’t respond. They rarely do.

But it got me thinking, because this isn’t the first time I’ve heard someone so vehemently oppose any suggestion that Apple’s own silicon is worth any serious user’s time.

I think their hatred for the platform comes down to one – or several – of the following reasons.

They’re Intel loyalists

Let’s get one thing straight – there is a die-hard Apple fan base out there, and they’re one of the most passionate I’ve ever come across. You only have to look at the comment thread on my recent “death to Apple TV” article to see this in action.

I love this. And, while I’ve never quite understood the lengths to which people will blindly defend a technology brand, the passion is always genuine and heartfelt.

It’s therefore entirely possible that the people who are less than complimentary about the M1 chip are Intel loyalists. Whether they’re concerned, deep down, about Intel’s apparent missteps over recent years or fuelled by the desperate Justin Long adverts is anyone’s guess. But I have no problem with it; they prefer Intel. That’s cool.

They haven’t used one

I honestly think that if you sat anyone who has even a passing interest in technology in front of an M1 Mac and demonstrated what it’s capable of, they’d be amazed.

I was playing around in Logic Pro at the weekend on my M1 Mac mini, adding loads of demanding plug-ins and synths to multiple channels, and it didn’t miss a beat. In fact, it was clearly doing little more than idling while my Logic project continued to process complicated audio algorithm after complicated audio algorithm.

This machine continues to surprise me every day in terms of what it’s capable of.

It’s hard not to be impressed by the M1, and I can guarantee that its detractors haven’t so much as sat in front of a computer containing that chip.

They probably never will, either. It is, after all, far easier to poke fun at something if you’ve never given it half a chance to impress you.

Their understanding of computing is outdated

This is a tricky one. I’m not suggesting that the Apple M1 detractors are oblivious to how an SoC works, but I do question whether they fully understand the implications of this new world of memory management.

We’ve heard reports of excessive SSD wear on M1 Macs running ‘just’ 8GB of RAM, and the perennial question of 8GB vs 16GB is still the most asked on my YouTube channel.

But I’m convinced that this is the usual hot air and subsequent buyer confusion we experience whenever Apple launches a new product.

I’m not dismissing any of these claims, either. For instance, SSDs in 8GB Macs will degrade faster if you absolutely hammer the machine beyond what most people would consider normal usage. But the RAM debate is one on which I now have an entirely different opinion.

I have both 8GB and 16GB M1 Macs in my studio, and they perform nigh-on identically. It’s hard to distinguish any meaningful difference, performance-wise, between them.

Apple certainly isn’t the first to do it, but they have neatly illustrated that the old way of thinking about RAM is pretty outdated in an SoC world.

They’ve done this for years with the iPhone and iPad – let’s not forget that.

We may be a few years away from RAM being abstracted away entirely from the Mac (I honestly think Apple is heading in that direction), but I do wonder if those who laugh so heartily at the presence of an 8GB laptop in Apple’s new lineup fully understand how fundamentally different the M1 platform is.

They just can’t stand Apple

This one’s easy.

Some people hate Apple. They really really hate the company.

That’s cool. But it also means they’re going to poke fun at pretty much anything Apple releases.

Sometimes, it’s justified.

But I don’t think it’s fair to hate on the M1. If anything, Apple should be praised for comprehensively changing the conversation about computing. Shouldn’t it foster greater innovation overall?

They’re right

Wait. What if these people are right? What if Apple’s investment in its own silicon is a huge mistake?

What if development tools, third-party audio plugins and Adobe’s non-M1-native apps fail to take full advantage of the new architecture?

Perhaps Apple has jumped into the world of SoC for the Mac far too early. Maybe Intel has something in the works which is going to crush the M1 into non-existence.

I’m trying my best here, guys.

What do you think?

Are the detractors scared of what the M1 means for computing? Have they hit on something that we Apple users are missing?

Let me know what you think about the anti-M1 brigade in the comments.