ARM- Apple’s Righteous Macs
By: Doctor Marvel
Tags: Apple, Computers, Mac, Tech, Technology

Battery Life

We can all truly agree that although the rated “10-hour” battery life for the Intel Macbook Pro 13" for example is just utter crap. I’m currently on this device, I can honestly say that the advertised rated battery life is just an advertisement and not the truth. From my non-Pro work usage on my brand new Mac, the average battery health I’ve gotten is 5.5 to 6.75 hours of battery life with mixed usage. That was a major disappointment. At the November event, they claimed that they basically double the battery life without actually changing the battery size. Many companies do claim things to make the product “awesome” and “worth it” but it's just pure lies. However, these claims Apple made about battery life as drastic as this sounds… is true!

Marques Brownless specifically says in his review of the M1 MacBook Pro,

“I didn't plug it in for four days, totalling a little over ten hours of mixed usage, with 17% left”

Memory

The A14 chip for the iOS devices has accelerators for memory compression. M1 chip will also have memory compression accelerators since they are based on the same architecture. This means that M1 Macs may have better memory performance compared to Intel-based Macs. As a result, you may not need as much RAM. 8GB of ram may be sufficient?

Because all of the components of the SoC are so-to-speak, Unified Memory is proving to be more “better” in tests. Max Tech did a wonderful video detailing this department. But in layman's terms, memory is more useful on the M1 Macs.

Performance

This article isn’t being written by someone that is intelligent as Linus Sebastian in tech. In layman’s words, Apple Silicon performs better compared to Intel Macs. The M1 Macbook Air is able to perform a score of 1700 in single-core GeekBench 5. That is the highest single-core of ANY Intel Mac. Including the new iMacs.

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Software Compatibility.

According to Apple, the M1 MacBook Air is 3.5x faster at CPU-based workloads; 5x faster at GPU-based workloads; and 9x faster at ML-based workloads. It is also more power-efficient allowing you to use the Mac for longer between charges. Benefits aside, there is an elephant in the room that we shouldn’t ignore, software compatibility.

The M1 chip is based on the ARM ISA. This means older apps will run on an x86 compatibility layer called Rosetta 2 until reworked for ARM. Problem? Many apps will run “properly” on Rosetta 2 at this point in time and many won’t.

A wonderful channel called Max Tech went into detail and showed off some apps that worked perfectly great. Hooray. Then Marques Brownlee gave the name of an app that he uses, Pixel Maker Pro. That my friend didn't run great at all.

In addition, CPU bound apps may run slower on Rosetta 2 compared to running natively on Intel-based systems.

My father uses a MacBook Pro 16" for his work. He uses Creative Cloud apps as well. Now, Creative Cloud apps will be updated by 2021 for Apple Silicon. Many more apps will take a while. There are Rosseta 2 versions but they will have “hiccups. ”This goes for everyone that uses their Mac for their work that the answer getting an M1 Mac is no.

The other underrated benefit of using Apple’s own mobile chips is that it makes all Apple products more appealing. There are harmony and union between all platforms/products. These Macs are getting access to the biggest app store in the world because Apple is bringing together two different user bases. A popular game called “Among Us” is available from the App Store. But that doesn’t mean that it’s sunshine and rainbows. Many developers might as well pasting their coding and whatnot into macOS and BAM — the app is made. That's not the problem. The problem is that there are just a tad adjustments needed. What’s happening is that the Mac apps are just the exact iOS apps. That just won’t work. This is a bitter-sweet situation at the moment.

Pricing

The new Macs come with 8GB of RAM and at least 256GB of storage. You can upgrade the RAM to 16GB for $200. The storage can also be upgraded to a maximum of 2TB because these are technically base-line computers. Take note that you cannot upgrade the RAM or storage later on so get what you need when you order. This is again a bittersweet moment because having all the components “talk to each other” inside the chips makes ARM better also means no more self upgrading. Apple now officially has all the power.

The shocking drop in price was the M1 Mac Mini of $300.

Their ARM chips are cheaper to produce compared to Intel but Apple is well…Apple. I think you get the gist.

Let’s just hope Apple doesn’t become a tyrant. Or more…