[ad_1]
Sure, the new Apple Watches, iPads, medium, small and large iPhones, and HomePods were all nice, but Apple had saved its most interesting novelty for the third of its fall events, the M1 processor. You can read here what exactly this new microchip consists of. Now the question is whether it delivers what the manufacturer promises in practice.
To find out, I tested the new 13-inch MacBook Pro for almost a week, which looks exactly like its predecessor with an Intel processor, but is instead equipped with the new Apple chip. What strikes me is that when I open it, it is immediately ready for use, just like an iPhone is immediately “there” when you press the power button in standby. A 16-inch MacBook Pro tested for comparison, Apple’s best notebook, takes about two seconds. The difference is palpable.
Inside: a late 2016 MacBook Pro on the left, the new model on the right
What you can hear is the proximity of the new Apple notebooks to iPads and iPhones. The M1 chip in my test device is a perforated version of the chips the company has been installing in its iPhones and iPads for a good decade. During the presentation of the M1 and the new MacBooks, Apple did not skimp on superlatives: the processor is up to three and a half times faster, the graphics up to six times faster and the activities based on machine learning, such as facial recognition , they are up to 15 times faster.
What’s in small print only: As a reference for this information, Apple has chosen the smallest model of their respective series, namely the Mac Mini with a poor Core i3 processor, the MacBook Air in the minimal version, and a budget MacBook Pro with a Intel processor.
The M1 is really that fast
You can do it. Especially since the model I’m testing is the cheapest of its series with a price of 1412.45 euros. But the question seems much more exciting to me: if the new models with M1 are much faster than the old ones, how do they compare to a high-end MacBook with an Intel processor? So I pitted my test device against last year’s 16-inch model, which features a 2.4GHz Core i9 processor and 32 gigabytes of RAM. List price around 4000 euros.
I released a number of test programs on both computers: Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, various browser tests, and even the 3DMark Sling Shot benchmark, which was actually developed for the iPhone and iPad. But this is also one of the goodies that the M1 chip brings with it: suddenly, the iPhone and iPad apps can be used on the MacBook. We will talk about it later.
Like all Apple apps, Logic Pro X music software benefits a lot from the M1 because it has already been adapted to the new chip
Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL
The result: In all tests that load only one of the M1’s eight processor cores, the new MacBook Pro is 25 to 45 percent faster than the 16-inch MacBook, which is twice as expensive, and according to Geekbench, too. the fastest Mac ever. The results look slightly different when testing multicore applications that load all of the chip’s processing cores. The new MacBook and the old high-end model are more or less on par here. In terms of graphics performance, the MacBook with the M1 chip achieved four times higher values than the model with the Intel chip.
You won’t get very far without an adapter – the new MacBook Pro only has two Thunderbolt / USB-C sockets on the left and a headphone connection on the right
Also, to test machine learning performance, I got a preliminary version of the Pixelmator Pro 2.0 graphics program. The software, already optimized for Apple’s new hardware, has a feature called “ML Super Resolution” which relies on machine learning when it artificially increases the resolution of photos, for example to greatly enlarge low-resolution images. The result: Pixelmator Pro took 15 seconds on the new MacBook Pro and 24 seconds on the 16-inch MacBook Pro to process a vacation photo with “ML Super Resolution”.
How long does it last?
The M1 chip is clearly more powerful, that’s clear. But what about resistance? To verify this, for the first time I ran a notebook through the same endurance test I use to abuse smartphones and tablets, which is to play a Full HD movie in an infinite loop. Apple promises up to 20 hours of battery life for this scenario. After the first round – my test video has about two hours of playback – I was afraid I would have to wait that long, the battery gauge was still 97 percent.
If you want it easy while on the go, you can also take the small iPhone plug with you to charge your MacBook instead of the large power adapter supplied
Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL
The MacBook didn’t last that long, it shut down on its own after 16 hours. The fact that Apple’s 20-hour target didn’t reach it may at least partially be due to the fact that I played the movie on the VLC player, which is not yet adapted to the M1. The app must then run in Rosetta 2, software that translates software written for Intel processors for the M1 chip, which requires additional computing power and therefore energy.
IPhone app on Mac
The fact that the VLC player works so well on the new computer is basically an achievement in itself. All the non-optimized M1 programs I tried on the new MacBook ran smoothly and without any loss of performance. The “Cities Skylines” game ran even smoother than the big MacBook. However, some professional apps like the Adobe Premiere video program are likely to be faster on Intel Macs until they are adapted to the M1 as well.
It is especially interesting that you can also use iPhone and iPad apps on Mac with an M1 chip, which can be easily downloaded from the App Store on Mac. They don’t even have to be adapted for that. Some apps are missing because developers have the option to exclude their apps from the Mac App Store. A quick tour of the offering shows that some have used it.
Conclusion
The new MacBook Pro is like a VW Beetle with a Porsche engine – you’re surprised when it overtakes you. But that’s exactly what just happened: my $ 1,400 test device randomly showed the taillights of the $ 4,000 2019 MacBook. The leap in performance is huge, especially when using software that has been adapted to the chip. M1, like Logic ProX and Final Cut Pro. And the endurance is impressive too. In the seven days that I have been able to test the new model so far, I have only had to plug it in three times despite intensive use. One of them before and after the battery test.
However, Apple has to put up with two criticisms: just two Thunderbolt ports and a maximum of 16 gigabytes of RAM shouldn’t be enough for professionals dealing with image processing and video editing. I’m curious to know what Apple will propose for these customers. Either way, the M1 chip should be just the beginning.
Background: product testing in the Netzwelt department
We decide for ourselves which products to report on the Internet and which to test or not, and we do not receive money or other consideration from the manufacturer for any of the test reports. For various reasons, it may happen that we do not report products even though we have corresponding test products.
We usually get test devices and review copies of games from the manufacturer for free for a certain period of time, sometimes even before the official release. This way, our test reports can appear in good time or right after the product is released.
We only test preliminary versions or devices from pre-series production in special cases. We usually wait until we can get test devices or game versions identical to the retail versions. In some cases, we also buy products ourselves at our own expense if they are already available in stores or online.
As a rule, test devices are returned to the manufacturer after the test is complete. Exceptions are game review copies and so-called permanent loans: for example, in the editorial office we have game consoles and smartphones that we can use for a longer period of time. For example, we can report on software updates, new accessories and new games or make long-term judgments.
DER SPIEGEL always bears the costs for event travel, regardless of whether they take place in Germany or abroad, even if, for example, a company takes over travel planning due to short-term appointments.
Events we travel to at our expense include Ifa, CES, E3 and Gamescom trade shows, as well as events from companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft or Nintendo. At conferences like the Chaos Communication Congress or the re: publica, like other press representatives, we usually get free press tickets because we report on the conference and are not traditional attendees.
Since December 2016, Amazon announcements containing so-called partner links can be found in some Netzwelt articles. If a user visits Amazon via that link and buys online there, DER SPIEGEL receives a share of the sales in the form of a commission. Ads appear in articles regardless of whether a product test is positive or negative.
Source link
