Apple’s M1 chip is pretty interesting, Plus MacOS Big Sur is here…
Apple has done it good with their M1 chip…
During Apple’s event on November 10, 2020, they announced quite a bit of information. This includes the new Apple M1 chip in the brand new MacBook air, MacBook Pro and Mac minis releasing on November 17. In their new M1 chip, Apple has decided to go with a 16-core all in one SOC (System-on-a-chip), containing a 8-core hybrid CPU (Central-Processing Unit) with 4 High-Performance Cores and 4 High Efficiency cores. Also with that comes the 8-Core integrated GPU (Graphics-Processing-Unit). So let’s talk about the CPU.
As mentioned previously, Apple has gone with a hybrid approach, containing 4 High-Performance Cores and 4 High-Efficiency cores in a 5 nanometer chip that only uses 10 watts of power. And while Apple wasn’t really specific with what “Latest PC Laptop Chip” is, they compared their M1 chip to this mysterious chip, promising up to 2 times the CPU performance and using 25% of the power. This means compared to a Zen 2 8 core AMD or Intel equivalent chip using 40+ watts, the M1 chip dominates in both performance and power consumption.
Now for the GPU. In this chip, the 8-core GPU is described by Apple as the “most advanced graphics we’ve ever built”, containing up to 25 thousand concurrent threads. Apple promises 2 times faster GPU performance than a good amount of the integrated graphics chips from AMD and Intel as well as using only 33% of the power. All this and more on the all in one M1 SOC, including things like PCIe Generation 4, Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 support, with the downside of the maximum memory (ram) capacity of 16GB. However, For most mild to moderate tasks on Apple hardware, you don’t really need more than 8GB of ram, let alone 16GB anyway.
First devices of Silicon and the cost of going All-Apple…
At the end of the Apple event, they announced multiple Mac devices releasing very soon (soon after this article’s release), on November 17, 2020. This includes the 2021 MacBook Air, 2021 13 inch MacBook Pro, and 2021 Mac Mini, all using this M1 chip. The MacBook Air comes in to different packages, the one with the M1 with 7-core GPU and 256GB of storage for $999, and the full M1 with the 8-core GPU and 512GB storage for $1249. Both of these prices are common for new flagship MacBooks. The MacBook Pros will have two different models as well, one with 256GB of storage and one with 512GB storage, costing $1299 an $1499 respectively. And the Mac mini will also have to different storage variants, one with 256GB costing $699 and one with 512GB of storage costing $899. Overall, pretty decent pricing considering the price of newer iPhones always going up, while the Mac Products, despite going All-Apple, are still in a pretty consistent spot in terms of pricing. On top of that, battery life is very good, due to the chip’s efficiency versus the Intel chips found in the previous Mac models.
MacOS Big Sur is here and I am impressed…
Yes it’s true. MacOS version 11, also known as “Big Sur” has finally arrived. The first impressions are very good. But what’s changed with OS11? First of all, the User Interface (UI) has been redesigned. As seen below in the picture, the dock now floats up above the desktop, the Menu Bar tries to go for a more simplified approach. You can also have hot-switch access to Wifi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, Brightness and Sound adjustment Dials, and Do Not Disturb in one convenient place known as the Control Center. Of course you can still display the Battery, Wifi and Bluetooth icons on the Menu Bar separately if you wish.
But that’s not the only change, as there are plenty of them. More changes include updates to the Privacy Report on Apple’s Safari Web Browser, expanded features on Apple Maps from the iOS app such as Indoor Maps and 360 degree street view in select places, and Widgets which were a key addition to the iOS 14 update for iPad and iPhone users. Speaking of the Widgets, you can adjust these however you like. In most of them, you can choose between Small, Medium and Large widgets and can position them however you like. The first party widgets are inlcuded but not limited to Calendar, Reminders, Weather and Screen Time.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing added to this update. On MacOS Big Sur, you can now monitor your Screen Time such as App usage, Notifications, Downtime, App Limits (If you set them), and Content. However, you have to turn on Screen Monitoring as it does not turn on automatically post-update. As mentioned, these are not the only new things that came in this update, these are just the bigger more important ones, as there are plenty of smaller tweaks and changes as well.
Is MacOS Big Sur worth the Upgrade or not?
The big question on everyone’s mind is “Is MacOS Big Sur worth the upgrade from previous MacOS versions? In my opinion, the answer is yes, as usabillity, ease of access and productivity and it’s performance have all improved since MacOS Catalina (10.15) and Mojave (10.14). In general though, it really depends on who you ask and what software you use. If you are still running lighter 32-bit applications, the answer is no unless you are ready to sacrifice and/or update these applications. If you want to develop or port iOS applications into your MacOS environment, you absolutely should, as their Project Catalyst will be more optimized for Big Sur over Catalina. If you are still confused on the changes, visit Apple’s YouTube channel as they recorded their November 10, 2020 event and watch the event, and they should clear up any confusion you may have.
