burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Good choice of configuration! I have a MacBook Air M1 with 16GB memory and 1TB SSD. It is plenty fast for LrC, Ps, and editing 4K 24P or 30P in Final Cut Pro. I can keep 8-10 applications open all the time with no slow downs unless I'm doing extremely heavy lifting. But my old habits of closing other apps when exporting stills and videos are hard to break.

Office tasks happen instantly. With a fast Internet connection, everything "pops" onto the screen when I click a link. Exporting a single full size JPEG from a raw 16-24 MP file in Lightroom Classic is done before the progress bar can show up on screen.

Using a dozen audio processing plugins on a four track mix in GarageBand is effortless. I recently filmed scenes and recorded sound for a high school film actors' club. I needed compressors, limiters, notch filters, high pass filters, and other equalizers, plus exciters, reverb, delay, phasing, flanging, and noise gates on various channels. Exporting the mix to the full 4K resolution video tracks was effortless. (I'm still amazed at what it can do, and how good it sounds... I worked in 1970s-era audio production studios with a room full of less capable hardware that cost dozens of times more, back then, than my MacBook Air setup does now!) The speed at which it all goes together is remarkable.

There are still a few annoying OS glitches. This morning, when I opened the computer, the screen was very dim, and the brightness buttons didn't seem to work. I could see enough to shut it down, and after a cold reboot, all is well again. I have seen this once before, and both times I'd been watching YouTube videos the night before. It will be interesting to see whether MacOS 12 fixes that. I've had exactly two applications quit unexpectedly — once each — since I've owned this. But when I restarted them, the files I was working with were completely intact. That is a refreshing change from prior experiences on Intel Macs.

The "creature comforts" of these new MacBook Pros are very attractive! The 1080P camera, the six speakers, the three microphones, the larger screen, the ProMotion variable refresh rates up to 120Hz, the return of MagSafe charging, the expansion of ports, and the unapologetic replacement of the "Touch Bar" with real function keys all answer real-world complaints about the previous few generations of MacBook Pros. No, we didn't get USB-A ports, or a stereo analog audio in port, but I doubt those are coming back to any pro-oriented computers anytime soon.

andesbill

I bought the M1 max, 32gb memory, 2tb ssd drive. My 7 yr old iMac with fusion drive died, and I was waiting for this since March. It’s interesting to note that the expert prognosticators were right on about everything except the names of the chips.
I’ve been with Apple since 1983, and I’ve been as happy with them as I am with my Tesla. My first Apple II 64k (2 128k disk drives, epson dot matrix printer) cost the same as this latest laptop. In fact every time I’ve upgraded, the cost has always been the same. As a teacher I took a tax deduction. Every little bit helps.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I suggest YouTube channels for reviews by at least these folks:

MaxTech (Max Yuryev and his brother Vadim)
Rene Ritchie
Luke Miani
Everyday Dad
iJustine
iCaveDave
Mark Ellis
Zone of Tech
Sara Dietschy
Linus Tech Tips
Travis MCP
Brian Tong

I've generally found their work to be reliable. At any rate, I like to watch enough reviews to get an aggregated consensus.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I, too, started with an Apple IIe at work (We added a 1MB memory card and a 3.5 MHz "Trans Warp" accelerator from Applied Engineering). I used it for Clear Light multi-image slide show programming, script writing, and show budgets.

That M1 Max should last you for a LONG time.

Bob Smith Loc: Banjarmasin

You don't work for Apple do you?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

No. I will do this about any brand I use that I find remarkably reliable and useful... Toyota, Panasonic, Sony, Nikon, Canon...

I used Macs and PCs in my office from 1986 to 2012. I had one of each on my desk until 2008, when I could run Windows reliably on my MacBook Pro. I used my Mac for my creative training content development work, and Windows for business applications. Windows Client Access 400 connected me to our IBM AS/400 as a terminal for that, and we had some corporate database apps (both Oracle and Access/VB home brew stuff). I wrote FileMaker Pro solutions for Mac and Windows using the Mac, but deployed primarily on Windows.

I still tell people that I use the Mac because I like the platform. I use Windows when I have to.

rwoodvira

[quote=burkphoto]I bought essentially that same exact configuration, but in the M1 MacBook Air. I paired it with a 27" LG monitor that doubles as a two-port USB-A hub and a power supply.
Hi Bill: Thank you for your comments - I have the prior iPad pro for moving about - I'm leaning towards the M1 mini with a Benq monitor.

docerz

If an Apple M1 Pro or Max is too pricey for you...that's OK...stick with Intel.
Obviously- to each his own.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

[quote=rwoodvira]

The M1 Mini can run two monitors when needed. It’s also the fastest of the original M1 designs, for sustained rendering.

KelloggKid

About 10 years ago I was working 1200 miles from home and getting calls almost daily from my wife who was having some kind of issue with her Windows machine. I would have to try and resolve it long distance. Finally out of desperation I bought her an iMac thinking that when she called me with a problem I could simply tell her I didn't know anything about MacOS and to call Apple. She never called again.

Since then she has had a Macbook Air and a newer iMac. That made a convert out of me so I went through two Macbook Air's and loved them.

Then in 2016, just like now, Apple brought out a New, Improved, Whiz Bang Macbook Pro. I had to have it so grabbed one as soon as it was available. Turns out it has the much talked about keyboard from hell, the ribbon cable going to the screen that crapps out, and instead of function keys it has an LCD strip that is pretty much worthless.

I still prefer working with AppleOS rather than Windows but learned my lesson about buying a newly upgraded Apple product when it first comes out. I'll give this new Macbook Pro a year or two before I part with my hard earned money,

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I feel your pain. I felt comfortable buying this M1 MacBook Air because very little changed in it from the Intel model other than the motherboard and the removal of the fan. Still, I had waited for nine months before buying, to be sure I didn't get one from "the first revision production run." This model has the old style scissor keyboard instead of that awful butterfly keyboard experiment. So far, all is well with the hardware.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BTW, further investigation shows that Apple is using DDR5 memory, the same memory used in the latest PCs. The 200/400 GB/sec advertised memory BW is arrived at by specing 256 and 512 bit transfers (even though the CPU is 64 bit). Mystery solved.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

We should have all the usual benchmarks and software "real world" tests coming in over the next few weeks. Many review sites have bought multiple configurations of these machines to test the various core counts, memory, and storage effects of both processors and both size laptops.

There are questions about thermal throttling on the 14" model. There are questions about power supply needs for the 16" with M1 Max and full spec. There are also many questions about "how much is enough" memory, storage, core count, etc. and even whether the SDXC slot is UHS I or II compliant.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I will look forward to seeing them. At this moment, it’s difficult to assess comparative performance between platforms, but the fact is that they’re likely (like I-7/I-9 and AMD Ryzen based machines) to be plenty fast enough for anything a photographer is likely to do (unless you’re mining bitcoin), so it really comes down to OS and (sometimes) application preference and features as to which platform you choose.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

For those professionals using Apple's pro video and audio production tools, or DaVinci Resolve, it is a no-brainer to get one of these machines.

For those using Premiere Pro, or the AVID suite, I'd recommend a wait-and-see approach... At any rate, I wouldn't switch unless my current computer were struggling with something I could run much better on the new MacBook Pros.

Max Yuryev bought eight different configurations of the new machines. Luke Miani bought five. iJustine bought a fully spec'ed out 16" Pro Max with 64GB and 8TB. Linus Tech Tips bought a bunch of them, too. I don't want to see their credit card bills!

I guess having a YouTube channel with a zillion subscribers and lots of daily hits lets them afford that... It's good several sites do this, because we will probably see a pretty good consensus of performance form from it.