From 3f3bb17921b8b6128919168904d2645cb5fa54bb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christine Dodrill Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2021 14:16:45 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] MacBook Air review Signed-off-by: Christine Dodrill --- ...-macbook-air-m1-review-2021-02-15.markdown | 128 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 128 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/apple-macbook-air-m1-review-2021-02-15.markdown diff --git a/blog/apple-macbook-air-m1-review-2021-02-15.markdown b/blog/apple-macbook-air-m1-review-2021-02-15.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98f80dc --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/apple-macbook-air-m1-review-2021-02-15.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +--- +title: "The Worst Experience I've Had With an aarch64 MacBook" +date: 2021-02-15 +tags: + - mac + - aarch64 +--- + +# The Worst Experience I've Had With an aarch64 MacBook + +I've had my hands on this M1 MacBook Air for a few weeks now and I have gotten a +lot of opinions about it. I wanted to go over them and give my thoughts. This is +an amazing laptop. Its battery life is iPad tier. I can run iPad and iPhone apps +seamlessly. + +That being said, aarch64 macOS is still very much in its teething phase. Rosetta +is nothing short of a technical miracle, it's amazing how close it is to the +performance of running amd64 apps natively. As such, it's probably going to end +up being the _worst_ experience that I have using an aarch64 MacBook. + +## Performance + +[This website](https://github.com/Xe/site) is a fairly complicated webapp +written in Rust. As such it makes for a fairly decent compile stress test. I'm +going to do a compile test against my [Ryzen +3600](https://christine.website/blog/nixos-desktop-flow-2020-04-25) with this M1 +MacBook Air. + +My tower is running this version of Rust: + +``` +$ rustc --version +rustc 1.51.0-nightly (a62a76047 2021-01-13) +``` + +My MacBook is running this version of Rust: + +``` +$ rustc --version +rustc 1.50.0 (cb75ad5db 2021-02-10) +``` + +Building a development build my Ryzen gets this: + +``` +Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1m 00s +``` + +Doing the same development build, my M1 MacBook Air gets this: + +``` +Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1m 03s +``` + +And the MacBook didn't even get warm. + +Everything I have thrown at this seems to get about the same results. This 15 +watt laptop chip holds its own with desktop machines. I can only imagine how +this will proceed as Apple advances their processor technology. + +## Apps + +With the exception of virtual machines, the M1 MacBook Air runs nearly +everything I need it to. I have a Go compiler, Rust compiler, Nix, Discord, +Slack, Telegram, text editor, image editors, chat clients and more. Some of that +software is running in Rosetta and I am not able to tell when that is the case. + +The biggest thing that doesn't run properly on here is Emacs. I am able to get a +version of it via Rosetta, however there are weird hangs that will randomly eat +up all my input while I am in flow. This is undesirable to say the least. I've +been using the aarch64 build of VS Code for the meantime, however I am really +missing the native Emacs experience. Maybe a future version of [Emacs for Mac OS +X](https://emacsformacosx.com) will improve this (or even make a fully native +aarch64 build). + +Being able to run iPad and iPhone apps is also really nice. There's some +constraints involved with having to emulate the touchscreen input, however +overall it's enough to get the job done. I had to use +[iMazing](https://imazing.com) to get installable versions of some apps I wanted +to put on my mac (such as Skip The Dishes so I could get its notifications in +the same place and Procreate so I could use Sidecar to draw using the M1's GPU +power and extra ram), however they work well enough in general. + +It would be nice if more companies toggled the "supported on M1 Macs" flag. I'm +willing to use a degraded experience if it means it's easier to access things +that are otherwise exclusive to my phone (such as Facebook and my banking app). +It would be great to use Netflix without having to open Safari. + +Something that really surprised me was how well Dolphin runs when you use a +native build. I'm able to play Gamecube and Wii games at retina resolution and +the MacBook doesn't even get warm to the touch. The amd64 version of Dolphin +uses some Just-In-Time compilation that Rosetta can't emulate at all, however +the aarch64 one runs a lot faster than it has any right to. It must be easier to +translate binaries between RISC processor types or something. You have to build +Dolphin from source when you do this, however it's worth it. + +## The Hardware + +I have written a depressing amount of this blog's content on a butterfly +keyboard mac. The keyboard on the M1 Air is night and day better. It's like +using an older MacBook keyboard without being forced to wear headphones to mask +out the fan noise. I'm typing this in qwerty at the moment (I seem to have +settled on being able to seamlessly switch between qwerty on laptop keyboards +and Colemak Mod-DH on my Moonlander), but goddamn they really made the typing +experience so much better. I wish I had this keyboard years ago. + +My previous MacBook was a 12" early 2018 model. It had 16 GB of ram (though 8 of +it failed and became unusable somehow) and chugged doing basic tasks. It had a +dual core processor and ended up being practically unable to handle more than +basic code compilation. I shudder to think about how long it would take to build +my website code on that machine. It also got hot. Very hot. I didn't even have +to push it very far to get it so hot. The battery also started to go sour by the +end of me using it. Overall I think it was a good purchase and I've gotten a lot +of mileage out of it, but this M1 Air is so much better it's not even funny. + +## The Verdict + +If you are looking for a machine that is silent, room temperature, and capable of +doing anything you can throw at it, look into getting an Apple Silicon Mac. This +first generation is going to have the most teething issues; so if you don't want +to deal with the jank that comes with a first generation product I'd probably +suggest waiting for the M2 or whatever they are going to call it. I know it's +certainly worth it for me, but I am not you and my needs will be different from +your needs. + +This writeup was not sponsored in any way, Apple is not reviewing this post for +content (and probably doesn't know that I made it). I am just a fan of this +device and want to see aarch64 on the desktop succeed.