The Honest, No “BS” Truth About The MacBook Pro M1

MacBook Pro m1 review

The truth: It’s the best Mac ever made. From a musician perspective, the MacBook Pro M1 is a game-changer, for one simple reason: there’s no need to break the flow.

I completed two music albums with the new MacBook Pro M1 in just a month. I was able to do things that no other portable device ever allowed me to do (such as running 20 tracks of Serum AT THE SAME TIME).

review m1 Logic Pro x

Performance

Many bloggers have mentioned that users should wait until Apple releases the M1X chip to make the jump to the Mac M1 ecosystem. I get that. The next chip will be epic. However, the cost of delaying could be higher than the cost of buying another one in 8-10 months when they become available. That was my case: I wanted to produce music, but both of my older MacBook Pros couldn’t run my ideas.

So I needed to upgrade. Something that would not limit the artist in me. Thus, I bite the bullet and gave Apple my precious Canadian dollars and got the new M1 MacBook Pro (256 GB and 8 GB config).

Even six weeks later, I am still shocked at just how good this MacBook is! It’s the best. It’s so freaking fast – I can have 100 tracks on Logic Pro X with 300 plugins and… it keeps on rocking. I have failed to see the limit of it! And I only have 8 GB of ram!

The battery lasts around 5 hours when used at max brightness and producing on Logic Pro (far from the 20 hours announced by Apple).

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The MacBook gets hot when using Logic Pro for a bit. The fans will kick in and will keep on running for hours. If you are a musician, do yourself a favour, and stay away from the fanless MacBook Air. I think that thermal would be an issue.

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My music setup.

My music setup.

My only regret is having gotten the 8 GB version instead of the 16 GB: it’s not enough for my need. So the ideal config for a musician is definitely a 512 GB SSD + 16 GB.

Should you upgrade from, say, a MacBook Pro 13 Intel to a M1 if you’re a musician? 100%. It’s that much better.

On a final note, here’s a list of pros and cons.

Pros:

  • Fastest laptop on the market for music production

  • Incredible battery life

  • Ridiculously good speakers (sometimes, I start tracks just using them!)

  • Good keyboard

  • Amazing battery life

  • You won’t see the end of its performance: it’s absurdly incredible

Cons:

  • Touch Bar

  • No more magsafe

  • Lack of I/O

Conclusion?

Go get one.

It revolutionized my workflow and inspired me to great better tracks. It’s hard to understand just how good it is, until you try one. Then you’re hooked… and $2000 CAD poorer ;)

Cheers,

JP

Jean Pascal