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.
When the M1 Macs came out I definitely scoffed at the idea that the keynote would compare the M1 to an i3. I saw the video editing YouTube comparison videos and thought, when it came to other work (programming, etc) that there really wouldn’t be that much of a difference. Well, I traded in my 2020 MBP 13′ i7 for a MBP M1 and… I’m blown away by how fast this thing is. I’m blown away by the battery life. Everything is instant – I’ve never had a faster OS experience ever. I was critical at first but it took me getting one to be a believer. What gets me is that I’m in a warm room and the metal case of the MBP is cold to the touch as I type this. My 2020 MBP 13′ i7 would be causing my hands to sweat and melting my legs off.
Nice reviews!
[…] people continue to scoff at Apple silicon. To them, it’s a toy, far too new to be reliable and incompatible with all but the most […]
There are some things about the M1 that I really dislike (this doesn’t mean they don’t occur on some x86 devices):
– Upgradability: you’re stuck with the RAM and SSD you bought the device with. Let’s say I don’t need more RAM, but in a year I do need more storage space, the device practically obsolete.
– Repairability: This is getting more common on new devices, you practically can’t repair any hardware related malfunction by yourself. If it fails, you’re pretty much getting a new computer, but also, you lose all you data.
Price: This is a hard one for me, Can’t afford the price of these knowing that I can’t upgrade them later. Yes, they work for now or a couple of year, but ¿will it be enough for me after in three years? For now, I can’t justify the price for these right now.
Lastly: Software.
For my use case, there’s still software compatibility issues with the M1 chip so, it’s not for me.
(Anyway, my complaints are more on the Apple way of doing things rather that on the M1 chip. I believe these kind of chips is the future for computing. I’ve been looking at the M1 iMac but, come on, why can’t you use the device as a display for any input? Why will I need a second screen if I want to connect my non-MacOS device? What if the computer fails, why can’t I use the screen as a display?)
I totally hate my Mac! Totally, totally. I bought it because I thought it would be less vulnerable to viruses. And probably it is. However, they have made it nearly impossible to use with Non-Apple devises. This new port system is terrible, making it impossible to use the older USB cords without an adapter (which they sell) and it doesn’t work well. Also the keyboard is very difficult to use. My fingers are not big, yet it takes special skill to hit these keys properly when typing. I never write reviews of products, but this time I wanted to spread the news as much as possible. Beware, these people are selling a product that sucks!
Please God, give me strength and wisdom the next time that I buy a PC. I find myself cursing this damn thing every time that am using it.
Couple of corrections for some on the developer side of the fence.
– I don’t prefer “Intel” I prefer x86
– I don’t dislike mac, I dislike darwin
I am a go developer who targets a production x86 Linux environment. You cant write a good chunk of go in Darwin regardless of the processor architecture being arm or x86. You couldn’t run go prior to 1.16 on apple silicon, as well as numerous other developer tools.
If you are a company looking to purchase one of these laptops, just prepare to float tens of thousands of dollars worth of developer productivity as they spend more time fighting the compatibility issues rather than writing code for you.
Thanks for lending your side of the story, Alexander!