M1 Mac Speed is the Apple Event of the Season

I’m not the only one who sees the release of the three new M1 Macs to be the major event of Apple’s Fall Season. I have had and been using the M1 Air with 16gb RAM and 1 terabyte SSD since December 7, so have gotten a strong impression of the device. Although I’ve run into a few small bumps in the road between the new M1 Mac and Big Sur, this is my main Mac right now. I have a 2020 MacBook Pro acquired in June, but now it is my backup Mac notebook.

Upgrading to Big Sur

I would not have been upgrading to Big Sur this early, but if you buy a brand new M1 Mac, you don’t have a choice. I have other older Macs running Mojave and a couple running Catalina. The reason I don’t upgrade to a new MacOS first thing is because you are bound to run into a few problems along the way and there is often not quite enough information around to immediately solve them.

Why I wanted to be an M1 early adopter

But the M1 Macs are big news and I wanted firsthand experience. Besides being a FileMaker custom database developer and maker of a FileMaker-based product (Studio Manager), I am a technology consultant to an almost all Mac clientele. This was personal, but I also wanted to be able to see for myself how good these M1 Macs are.

M1 is to be followed up with M2 and beyond

The first batch of M1 Macs are the very bottom of the line Macs. Way faster than their predecessors, but cheap by Mac standards. I think the bottom of the line came out first without frills because Apple is targeting PC users. Apple wants some major marketshare out of the PC User base, and PC users are used to cheap PCs. So, this is as cheap as Apple will go while still keeping their margins in reasonable shape. Apple has been offering lower priced options more often these days with their SE iPhone, SE Watch, iPads and now these basic M1 Macs.

This is the best and the bottom of the Mac line right now

There are two drawbacks. These are extremely fast but no frills Macs. With no new stylings. When I first saw the MacBook Air, I complained “where is Jonny Ive when we need him?”. Because I wanted a new M1 MacBook 12 will all this energy efficiency. Still hoping and would buy an improved MacBook 12 with 2 USB-C ports in a heartbeat.

The Design Community May want to Wait for M2 and more

Apple didn’t want to wait to release M1. But it is a Pandemic, so some things have had to wait. Like the rumored MacBook Pro 14 the size of a 13 with an edge to edge screen. Like the rumored MacBook 13 the size of a MacBook 12 with edge to edge screen.

But then, who wants to wait? If you need a laptop and can do with a 13″ screen for your laptop, these are really nice. If you need to get some work done on a laptop, you’ll get more done and your enthusiasm will have you working better and maybe a bit more. I can attest to that.

Apparently the M2 will have more processors and the current M1s have 7 or 8. The M2 releases may take a while to get here, even 2022. But don’t underestimate Apple!