Apple starts delivering M1 Mac laptops and Minis tomorrow according to the MacRumors thread on order/shipping status.* This makes it highly likely that benchmarks will be published on Tuesday if not tomorrow evening. There are already "leaked" benchmarks floating around the internet, but it's impossible to know whether these are legitimate.
This launch is a big deal, for the future of both Apple and its computer architecture. I expect to see a lot of coverage, both by the online press and on YouTube. YouTube channels are likely to start covering video, photo and music performance by the end of the week. To take one example, Max Yuryev, who says that he ordered four M1 Macs, plans to compare M1 and Intel performance, and M1 performance by Davinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. A couple of years ago, he made similar videos when Apple beefed up hardware integration and made the final change from 32-bit to 64-bit. I think that Yuryev has a bit of a "good news" bias, but those earlier videos were nevertheless in the ballpark.
Personally, I'm looking more to AnandTech for solid analysis of performance, but it may not publish for a couple of weeks.** Marques Brownlee is likely to be balanced from a non-technical perspective, but I think that he'll take his time, maybe going with a "first impressions" video before a real analysis.
I currently use a 2018 Mac mini, together with a lot of RAM and an external graphics card, to make videos and music. That makes me a hard sell for these first M1 Macs, which cap out at 16GB of RAM and won't communicate with an external graphics card. Nevertheless, I'll be following performance analysis with interest, not just for what these machines can do, but for what they mean as Apple migrates completely to this architecture. Hey, I know better than to purchase a first generation computer. Then again, I did buy the first iPad, the one that was widely ridiculed, which made my life a lot easier when I left a week later for two months of travel. The battery runtime on the M1 laptops is pretty enticing.
Linus, who has already dismissed the M1 Macs as glorified iPads, can be counted on for criticism. He's now doubled down on his glorified iPad salvo, and it will be interesting to see what he says when he has the real thing instead of a bunch of specs. This launch also presents an amusing quandary for forum participants who think that Grant Petty is God and that Tim Cook is Satan, seeing as how God is wasting no time making sure that his NLE works on Satan's new computers.
* This is the MacRumors subform for the M1 computers. The first sticky thread is on order status. There is also a thread, not sticky, specific to U.K. order status. If you're mildly interested in how Apple gets its computers from China to the rest of the world, these threads show how it's done: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/app ... -macs.227/
** Coincident with the Apple launch event, AnandTech published an interesting article on what to expect: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16226/ap ... -deep-dive
This launch is a big deal, for the future of both Apple and its computer architecture. I expect to see a lot of coverage, both by the online press and on YouTube. YouTube channels are likely to start covering video, photo and music performance by the end of the week. To take one example, Max Yuryev, who says that he ordered four M1 Macs, plans to compare M1 and Intel performance, and M1 performance by Davinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. A couple of years ago, he made similar videos when Apple beefed up hardware integration and made the final change from 32-bit to 64-bit. I think that Yuryev has a bit of a "good news" bias, but those earlier videos were nevertheless in the ballpark.
Personally, I'm looking more to AnandTech for solid analysis of performance, but it may not publish for a couple of weeks.** Marques Brownlee is likely to be balanced from a non-technical perspective, but I think that he'll take his time, maybe going with a "first impressions" video before a real analysis.
I currently use a 2018 Mac mini, together with a lot of RAM and an external graphics card, to make videos and music. That makes me a hard sell for these first M1 Macs, which cap out at 16GB of RAM and won't communicate with an external graphics card. Nevertheless, I'll be following performance analysis with interest, not just for what these machines can do, but for what they mean as Apple migrates completely to this architecture. Hey, I know better than to purchase a first generation computer. Then again, I did buy the first iPad, the one that was widely ridiculed, which made my life a lot easier when I left a week later for two months of travel. The battery runtime on the M1 laptops is pretty enticing.
Linus, who has already dismissed the M1 Macs as glorified iPads, can be counted on for criticism. He's now doubled down on his glorified iPad salvo, and it will be interesting to see what he says when he has the real thing instead of a bunch of specs. This launch also presents an amusing quandary for forum participants who think that Grant Petty is God and that Tim Cook is Satan, seeing as how God is wasting no time making sure that his NLE works on Satan's new computers.
* This is the MacRumors subform for the M1 computers. The first sticky thread is on order status. There is also a thread, not sticky, specific to U.K. order status. If you're mildly interested in how Apple gets its computers from China to the rest of the world, these threads show how it's done: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/app ... -macs.227/
** Coincident with the Apple launch event, AnandTech published an interesting article on what to expect: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16226/ap ... -deep-dive
Video Cameras: iPhone, Pocket 4K
Microphones: Schoeps, DPA
Audio Recorder: Sound Devices
Monitor: Eizo | Computers: Mac Studio, iPad Pro
Microphones: Schoeps, DPA
Audio Recorder: Sound Devices
Monitor: Eizo | Computers: Mac Studio, iPad Pro