Thoughts on the M1 Pro 16” MacBook Pro after a Week
So far, this has been my favorite MacBook Pro since the 2013 MacBook Pro. Work ordered me one and I’ve been using it for the last week now and I’m in love.
Chunky boy: The laptop is thicker and heavier than the older 2016 MacBook Pro that I’m used to having with me. Work provided an iMac when I got there, but since that’s obviously not portable I’ve almost always had my personal 15” MacBook Pro in my backpack. I’m actually kinda excited about this because there have been many times over the years that my fan has been flaring when virtualizing test operating systems or on a Zoom call, which really sucks when you’re trying to record audio for a screen capture or podcast. The weight is definitely notable, but I’m fine with it. I rather a laptop be able to breathe. I’ve always had a 15 or 16” laptop so the weight and thickness doesn’t bother me.
Ports! I love the return of ports on the MacBook Pro and I love every one of them. I use SD card for my new Nikon Z50 camera a lot lately and HDMI is really useful for work and hopefully travel when we start to do that more often. I’m most thankful for MagSafe, but to be perfectly honest I haven’t used it yet. My work monitor and my home monitor are both Dell USB-C monitors that charge the laptop while I work at my desk. I’m sure that when I start spending more time in coffee shops and in airports again this will be a God-send. I’m really excited about the ports being back. I’m definitely in that prosumer market that plugs a LOT of things in my laptops.
Screen: OMG, this screen is just *Chef’s kiss* excellent. Yeah, the notch is there, but I’ve gotten used to it. I downloaded a utility that hides it and I honestly go back and forth about whether I even keep it turned on. Its really an non-issue, but the app that I do use makes a cool blacked-out menu bar, which I kinda dig from a style perspective. The colors are brilliant and I really like true-tone on my laptop for the first time. The Promotion screen is just buttery smooth and now I want all of my screens to have that. I can’t wait for my next iPhone upgrade to get it and I hope that Apple releases a monitor that’s not $6,000 because I would buy it in a heartbeat to have that screen in 27”
Speed: The MacBook Pro is FAST. In my day-to-day use its as fast as my M1 iPad Pro with everything if not faster. I haven’t been able to really push this machine with stuff like Lightroom or Virtualization yet, but I’m hoping to do that in the next week or two. When I tested a M1 Mac Mini and ran Windows 11 on it, it was running Windows faster than a lot of our Windows machines. WIth 32GB of RAM I’m really looking forward to keeping this machine for years. I’m expecting to take classes in the spring and the extra RAM will be nice to have for programming.
Keyboard: The keyboard is excellent. I do not miss the TouchBar. I was one of the people who did enjoy the TouchBar and do miss the emoji suggestions a tiny bit, but its greatly outweighed by having physical volume and mute keys on my computer. I’ve completely readjusted to having them and I love just being able to mute my speakers or microphone with a quick tap without having to glance down at the keyboard. The travel on the 2021 16” Macbook Keyboard is the best I’ve used on a Mac. Its the great middle point between the 2013 and 2016 keyboard. There is enough travel to feel good, but the keys push down more uniformly than the loosy goosy keys on the 2013. I was hesitant about the completely blacked out keyboard, but after the last week the new style (Or retro style I guess really? The PowerBook was really before my time) to be nice.
Battery life: Battery life has been…really good? Is this what MacBook Air users have been bragging about for years? I used my MacBook Pro at home one even for a couple of hours for research, email, Teams, and lightweight scripting and I think my machine maybe dropped from 100% to 93%? For somebody who is used to only getting 2–4 hours of battery life on an Intel machine this has been a wonderful development.
14” Model: I got to play with the 14” MacBook Pro on Friday and I was impressed. I still prefer the 16” as the machine that I’m going to use for 8+ hours a day, but I think after I pay off my personal camera that I’m going to get the 14” for my personal computer. The fact that the 14” and 16” effectively have the same performance and ports is really nice to me. When I’m at home portability is more appreciated and I can always plug into my 27” monitor if I need a big screen. I’m really impressed with Apple and how they let you really just pick the size you prefer and unless you’re doing high end 3D or video work you’re just not going to hit that thermal limits as quickly as you on an Intel Machine.
Conclusion: So far, I’m really loving this laptop. Its an excellent work horse and walks back all the stuff I did not like about the 2016 model while keeping the good stuff. Apple Silicon has had me more excited about the Mac than I have been since college and I cannot wait to see the next version of the MacBook Air, Mac Mini Pro, iMac Pro, and Mac Pro. We’re only halfway through this transition, but so far its turning out to be a new golden age for the Macintosh.
