Consumer Technology Apple October Event - New Macbook Pros w/ M1 Pro/Max

[TwinIon]

Apple's October Event is happening now. They announced some new Airpods, but the interesting part is almost certainly going to be the new Macbook Pros.

 

Historically, the Pros have had discrete GPUs, but today we get to see what Apple is going to do to compete with nVidia and AMD. From the first look, it seems Apple is continuing with the integrated CPU/GPU design.

 

There are two new chips: the M1 Pro and the M1 Max. The Pro is a 10 core CPU with 70% better CPU performance and twice the GPU performance of the M1, while supporting up to 32GB of unified memory.

 

The M1 Max supports 64GB of memory, uses the same CPU as the Pro, but doubles the GPU to 32 cores.

 

They're promising performance equal or better than even high end discrete GPU laptops.

 

One of my questions going in to this was how big the chip would be if they just throw in a bunch of GPU cores. It seems that wasn't a problem, because that's exactly what they did.

[Jason]

This looks like a joke rendering.

 

[TwinIon]

I don't use Macs, so I care less about the actual computers than I do about their chip design, but I do recognize that where Apple goes, others follow. So it's nice to see that they added ports back to the Pros. Magsafe, SD card reader, HDMI, and even a headphone jack.

 

The fact that they added a notch but didn't include Face ID is just weird to me. I know Apple has decided that the notch is some kind of design statement, but at least add something useful in there. Giving your pro computer a notch just for a slightly better webcam feels bad. At least the screen is taller than 16:9 so it shouldn't affect most video.

[ort]

I give these a thumbs up.

 

No Touch Bar = great

Overall design = eh, more of the same, it remains a good iconic look, but I was kinda hoping we'd see something new

notch = meh

Magsafe = sure why not

Performance = while amazing... not a big deal for me anymore (great for others)

more ports = great (but SD cards and HDMI are not a big deal for me, I would have liked more thunderbolt/USB-C ports)

 

I'm glad the pricing is pretty sane by Apple standards. I was worried they would make the big one start at $3,000 or something. That said,  I think the regular M1 MacBooks are probably already completely sufficient for 99.99% of their users honestly.

 

 

My current personal M1 MacBook continues to be 100% great for everything I need it to do.... but I feel kinda sad that I'm probably stuck with my work Intel 16" MacBook for a few more years. It was a tough time to need a new laptop... wish I could have held out, but it really wasn't feasible... because most of the software I used daily at that point didn't work on Mac Silicon yet.

[ort]

The new AirPods are too expensive.

 

They need $99 AirPods.

[Kal-El814]

As someone who’s been staring at a notch since the iPhone X launch, it’s just not an issue. You stop seeing it at some point. I don’t think it looks great in static images but I you don’t see it while you’re using the screen. This is one of the things that internet uses seem to care about a great for some reason but I don’t think the majority of users notice or care. 

[Ghost_MH]

50 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

I don't use Macs, so I care less about the actual computers than I do about their chip design, but I do recognize that where Apple goes, others follow. So it's nice to see that they added ports back to the Pros. Magsafe, SD card reader, HDMI, and even a headphone jack.

 

The fact that they added a notch but didn't include Face ID is just weird to me. I know Apple has decided that the notch is some kind of design statement, but at least add something useful in there. Giving your pro computer a notch just for a slightly better webcam feels bad. At least the screen is taller than 16:9 so it shouldn't affect most video.

 

I don't understand why Apple isn't putting Face ID on their laptops. Face ID makes WAY more sense on a laptop than it does on a phone. Being able to unlock a laptop by our seeing your face while in the process of opening it would be so good. It works pretty damn well with Windows Hello and I can't help but feel Apple's Face ID is likely better fleshed out than Hello.

 

19 minutes ago, ort said:

I give these a thumbs up.

 

No Touch Bar = great

Overall design = eh, more of the same, it remains a good iconic look, but I was kinda hoping we'd see something new

notch = meh

Magsafe = sure why not

Performance = while amazing... not a big deal for me anymore (great for others)

more ports = great (but SD cards and HDMI are not a big deal for me, I would have liked more thunderbolt/USB-C ports)

 

I'm glad the pricing is pretty sane by Apple standards. I was worried they would make the big one start at $3,000 or something. That said,  I think the regular M1 MacBooks are probably already completely sufficient for 99.99% of their users honestly.

 

 

My current personal M1 MacBook continues to be 100% great for everything I need it to do.... but I feel kinda sad that I'm probably stuck with my work Intel 16" MacBook for a few more years. It was a tough time to need a new laptop... wish I could have held out, but it really wasn't feasible... because most of the software I used daily at that point didn't work on Mac Silicon yet.

 

Am I the only one that's really unhappy with Magsafe coming back? I was so happy we were getting to the point where everything was charging with one cable.

[ort]

You can still charge with one of the USB-C ports. I'm pretty neutral on it, but if I could choose on my personal device... I would replace it with another thunderbolt port.

[Ghost_MH]

2 minutes ago, ort said:

You can still charge with one of the USB-C ports. I'm pretty neutral on it, but if I could choose on my personal device... I would replace it with another thunderbolt port.

 

That's exactly the thing, though. I'd rather the space there used for another Thunderbolt. So much for Apple showing everyone how green they are by introducing a new charging standard.

[TwinIon]

19 minutes ago, ort said:

I'm glad the pricing is pretty sane by Apple standards. I was worried they would make the big one start at $3,000 or something. That said,  I think the regular M1 MacBooks are probably already completely sufficient for 99.99% of their users honestly.

I guess it depends on the GPU performance and what people actually need or will use it for. I didn't realize until just now that you can't get a M1 Max in a 14", and the M1 Max 16" starts at $3500. A Razer blade with a 3070 starts at $2300 and you can get one with a 3080 for ~$3000.

 

However, a Razer with a 30 series RTX chip has an obvious purpose (games), but it the extra graphical horsepower in the MacBooks is more workflow oriented, so fewer people really need it.

 

I don't think the prices are crazy high, but they're certainly not cheap. I feel like you'd need a very specific workflow requirement before shelling out for a Max powered laptop.

[ort]

4 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

That's exactly the thing, though. I'd rather the space there used for another Thunderbolt. So much for Apple showing everyone how green they are by introducing a new charging standard.

 

 

Yeah, and if you use one of the USB-Cs for charging, you're suddenly down to just having 2 ports.

[ort]

2 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

I guess it depends on the GPU performance and what people actually need or will use it for. I didn't realize until just now that you can't get a M1 Max in a 14", and the M1 Max 16" starts at $3500. A Razer blade with a 3070 starts at $2300 and you can get one with a 3080 for ~$3000.

 

However, a Razer with a 30 series RTX chip has an obvious purpose (games), but it the extra graphical horsepower in the MacBooks is more workflow oriented, so fewer people really need it.

 

I don't think the prices are crazy high, but they're certainly not cheap. I feel like you'd need a very specific workflow requirement before shelling out for a Max powered laptop.

 

You can get the 14" with the M1 Max. They just don't have a pre-configured model with it.

 

It's a $500 upgrade.

[Jason]

9 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

As someone who’s been staring at a notch since the iPhone X launch, it’s just not an issue. You stop seeing it at some point. I don’t think it looks great in static images but I you don’t see it while you’re using the screen. This is one of the things that internet uses seem to care about a great for some reason but I don’t think the majority of users notice or care. 

 

I mean it does look like a joke rendering. But apparently the screen below the notch is 16:10, instead of it being 16:10 including the notch, so I guess it's fine. Hopefully that means it's also 14" without the bit where the notch starts.

[Jason]

1 minute ago, ort said:

Yeah, and if you use one of the USB-Cs for charging, you're suddenly down to just having 2 ports.

 

When traveling I'd probably go for a C-to-C cable so I can charge all my devices with one cable/charger, and stick to the C-to-MagSafe cable for home. And if I'm traveling I'm presumably not maxing out my ports anyhow. It will also be nice to not need to carry a dongle just to hook up to a monitor, e.g. if I'm visiting my parents.

[TwinIon]

2 minutes ago, ort said:

You can get the 14" with the M1 Max. They just don't have a pre-configured model with it.

 

It's a $500 upgrade.

Obviously I didn't play with the configurations. After playing with it a bit the pricing is surprisingly good. I would still imagine you'd need a specific use case to justify that jump, but it's nice you can get a 14" with a Max and 32GB of memory for less than $3k.

[Jason]

Does Apple get the new laptops in store the day they announce them? I pass by an Apple Store on my way home from work so wondering if I can check out the new ones today.

 

5 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

Obviously I didn't play with the configurations. After playing with it a bit the pricing is surprisingly good. I would still imagine you'd need a specific use case to justify that jump, but it's nice you can get a 14" with a Max and 32GB of memory for less than $3k.

 

The main thing I'm looking at here is whether 16 GB is going to be enough in a few years. I know everything else about these laptops so obliterates Intel and AMD that base is probably fine even for longevity, but not sure about RAM.

[TwinIon]

I won't argue for Magsafe over a thunderbolt port, but if I'm on the go and working for an extended period, there's an extremely solid chance that I will use a port for power, so it doesn't bother me having a dedicated one.

 

I've had a couple Dell laptops that can charge via USB-C but also have a charging port, and I almost always use the charging port instead of USB-C. Of course, those laptops have fewer USB-C ports than these Macs, but they also had other ports.

 

While at my desk, those laptops always charged via USB-C, because they were plugged into docking stations. Since these can do that as well, I'd be pretty happy with the port selection overall.

[TwinIon]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

The main thing I'm looking at here is whether 16 GB is going to be enough in a few years. I know everything else about these laptops so obliterates Intel and AMD that base is probably fine even for longevity, but not sure about RAM.

That's a very good question that we'll have to wait and see. They talked a lot about how they could get up to 64GB of memory available to the GPUs, but it's shared memory, and in my experience processes that require a lot of graphics memory typically also want a lot of system memory. However, I don't think that it's been a big deal for the existing M1 devices, but these new machines are obviously designed for a whole different set of use cases.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

As someone who’s been staring at a notch since the iPhone X launch, it’s just not an issue. You stop seeing it at some point. I don’t think it looks great in static images but I you don’t see it while you’re using the screen. This is one of the things that internet uses seem to care about a great for some reason but I don’t think the majority of users notice or care. 

I don't even know what you guys are talking about and I have several macs 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I don't even know what you guys are talking about and I have several macs 

These new MBPs have a “camera notch” at the top of the screen like the iPhone has had for the last few years and for some reason is greatly despised by the internet but normal people never talk about.

[Brian]

This reminds me of the food threads on D1P

 

[Kal-El814]

6 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I don't even know what you guys are talking about and I have several macs 

 

Well it’s only on Macs not yet released, but it’s this:

 

2 hours ago, Jason said:

 

It’s the “notch” in the middle top of the bezel, like the iPhones with FaceID have had since the IPhone X.

 

A better pic:

 

[skillzdadirecta]

Ah okay... I don't have an Iphone so I had no idea what you guys were talking about. It's a little distracting but not a deal breaker at all. I just bought a 17' Dell this Summer and my 13" macbook is only three years old. I'm good on laptops for at least another year I think but this is tempting. I'm due for an new Desktop. My macpro trashcan is like 8 years old.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Ah okay... I don't have an Iphone so I had no idea what you guys were talking about. It's a little distracting but not a deal breaker at all. I just bought a 17' Dell this Summer and my 13" macbook is only three years old. I'm good on laptops for at least another year I think but this is tempting. I'm due for an new Desktop. My macpro trashcan is like 8 years old.

Lots of rumors of a Mac Mini Pro version of these new MBPs before the end of the year

[skillzdadirecta]

4 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Lots of rumors of a Mac Mini Pro version of these new MBPs before the end of the year

Mac Mini? I'm not a fan of those althought I have a few buddies who use them.

[Ghost_MH]

These laptops are so expensive. Also these dies are huge. I can't imagine the yields being that great and if that's the case, that'll likely explain the price. I'm wondering how much stuffing everything on the die is affecting price here. An extra 16GB of RAM is a $400 option.

 

Everything with Quadro graphics is impossible to get, so I am curious to know how well these stack up. Not for gaming, but for other GPU-heavy workloads. The M1 was a pretty capable VM running machine. I may get well buy an Mac Mini with the new M1 when they're available.

[ort]

Polishing Cloth - Apple

WWW.APPLE.COM

---

Made with soft, non-abrasive material, the Polishing Cloth cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture glass, safely and effectively. Buy now.

 

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, ort said:

Polishing Cloth - Apple

WWW.APPLE.COM

---

Made with soft, non-abrasive material, the Polishing Cloth cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture glass, safely and effectively. Buy now.

 

 

Absolutely the funniest thing to come out of the day. Makes the MacRumors forms a true sight to behold, between this and the notch apparently going out for cigarettes and abandoning their mothers 30 years ago, based on how strongly people are reacting to it.

[Jason]

19 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Absolutely the funniest thing to come out of the day. Makes the MacRumors forms a true sight to behold, between this and the notch apparently going out for cigarettes and abandoning their mothers 30 years ago, based on how strongly people are reacting to it.

Shipping times for Apple’s $19 Polishing Cloth slip to late November

ARSTECHNICA.COM

---

Delays may drive people to buy inferior third-party polishing products.

 

[Jason]

So ho much did @Emblazon put on his Apple Card yesterday?

[Emblazon]

17 minutes ago, Jason said:

So ho much did @Emblazon put on his Apple Card yesterday?

Nothing—my work pays for my Apple laptops. 

 

I’m good on the desktop front—I have an iPad Pro with the magic keyboard, which essentially makes it a laptop, I have my work 2018 MBP, which is a little long in the tooth, and I have my personal Windows PC (i9-9900 & 2080Ti), so I’m pretty covered. 
 

But why the fuck put a notch on a laptop? I’d rather have more bezel. 

[Jason]

18 minutes ago, Emblazon said:

But why the fuck put a notch on a laptop? I’d rather have more bezel. 

 

Read up the thread boo-boo. The notch is in addition to the regular 16:10 screen area. I initially thought it was dumb too, and I still think it looks like a joke render, but I came around once I understood that it's purely extra pixels. So it'll push the menu bar up into the area with the notch and free up screen real estate. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if it let you keep the menu bar active while using something full screen, plus you'll probably be able to just turn it off, at which point the mini LED backlighting being fully off should make it basically invisible.

[Jason]

What's goofier is that they have the big notch for the better camera but don't have FaceID on the new MBPs.

[Ghost_MH]

30 minutes ago, Jason said:

What's goofier is that they have the big notch for the better camera but don't have FaceID on the new MBPs.

 

I don't understand the notch without the extra Face ID tech. Just do a pinhole camera or tear drop notch if you want less bezel. This is very much a common design decision on Apple's part, but that's silly. It's pure form over function.

[Jason]

2 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

I don't understand the notch without the extra Face ID tech. Just do a pinhole camera or tear drop notch if you want less bezel. This is very much a common design decision on Apple's part, but that's silly. It's pure form over function.

 

I've seen some people speculate they'll do FaceID on the Mac next year and went for the notch now just to have design consistency once it's introduced.