Poll: *** The official 2020 MacBook Air/13" MacBook Pro thread (it has the M1 chip and everything!) ***

What 2020 Apple Silicon notebook have you ordered?

  • MacBook Air

    Votes: 72 70.6%

  • 13" MacBook Pro

    Votes: 30 29.4%
  • Total voters
    102
squerble said:
Not a specific input but it has a "USB C PD 3.0 Charging Port". I guess the idea is the hub is plugged directly to mains power, then plug the laptop into the hub via that port? Not sure if this would only do power and not data as it also has a USB-C data port. It's a Zmuipng ZM1822 :p with the expected smattering of Engrish in the little booklet with it.
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Yeah I guessed right. You need to plug in the USB PD Charging port into the wall (using an appropriately rated PD charger, not your 30w Apple charger), then the other ports will output power as expected. USB-C PD spec is a confusing mess.
 
It feels like my MBA has slowed in recent months but I'm not sure if it's just because I'm using it for my 'things' other than just browsing and watching YouTube. One example over the past week has been with the use of Lightroom and Photoshop. I'm editing in Lightroom and then opening up Photoshop and on most occasions there is a notable delay when saving any edits in Photoshop or even exiting Photoshop. It just doesn't feel as snappy as it used to.

Could it be a limitation of 8gb of RAM?
 
ChrisD. said:
Is there an easy way to see education store pricing?
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Not sure, but all macs and displays are 10% off.

muttclugg said:
It feels like my MBA has slowed in recent months but I'm not sure if it's just because I'm using it for my 'things' other than just browsing and watching YouTube. One example over the past week has been with the use of Lightroom and Photoshop. I'm editing in Lightroom and then opening up Photoshop and on most occasions there is a notable delay when saving any edits in Photoshop or even exiting Photoshop. It just doesn't feel as snappy as it used to.

Could it be a limitation of 8gb of RAM?
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Could be ram, or SSD being closer to full. Check your ram usage as you use these apps to see if you're close to using it all or that you have extensive swap usage during exporting. Stats is a good free & open source app for that.

https://github.com/exelban/stats
 
HACO said:
Not sure, but all macs and displays are 10% off.
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Thanks, I'll wait for Very to have the 20% off offer again. Littlewoods have it but the spec they have on there is more expensive than it is on Very for some reason.

https://www.very.co.uk/apple-macboo...ook pro m1 pro 2021 custom built 14 inch with

https://www.littlewoods.com/apple-m...56-family-12-months-space-grey/1600710856.prd

Unless I'm being stupid it's the same machine but the price is significantly more on Littlewoods.
 
ChrisD. said:
Thanks, I'll wait for Very to have the 20% off offer again. Littlewoods have it but the spec they have on there is more expensive than it is on Very for some reason.

https://www.very.co.uk/apple-macbook-pro-m1-pro-2021-custom-built-14-inch-with-8-core-cpu-and-14-core-gpu-16-core-neural-engine-32gb-unified-memory-1tb-ssd-with-optional-microsoft-356-family-12-months-space-grey/1600710856.prd?Ntt=macbook pro m1 pro 2021 custom built 14 inch with

https://www.littlewoods.com/apple-m...56-family-12-months-space-grey/1600710856.prd

Unless I'm being stupid it's the same machine but the price is significantly more on Littlewoods.
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Likely a pricing error on Littlewoods. They're usually full of errors (and they don't respect the order if the error is in your favour, they cancel it :mad:).

I do recommend paying a bit more and getting the 10c version of M1 Pro though. The 8-core version is 6P2E, which is somewhat underpowered and performs closer to the normal M1 (4P4E) than the 10c M1 Pro (8P2E).
 
HACO said:
I do recommend paying a bit more and getting the 10c version of M1 Pro though. The 8-core version is 6P2E, which is somewhat underpowered and performs closer to the normal M1 (4P4E) than the 10c M1 Pro (8P2E).
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Stop being abusive to my wallet. :cry:

I can't find that spec in stock at Very though and I'm keen on the 20% when they run it again.
 
HACO said:
Not sure, but all macs and displays are 10% off.



Could be ram, or SSD being closer to full. Check your ram usage as you use these apps to see if you're close to using it all or that you have extensive swap usage during exporting. Stats is a good free & open source app for that.

https://github.com/exelban/stats
Click to expand...

Thanks for that app. My SSD is only 24% full but I'm touching 85-90% RAM usage when I have Photoshop and Lightroom in use. Could be a good excuse for another upgrade :D.
 
I bought myself a macbook air on Sunday - my first apple computer since my trusty old ibook g4 from... 2004? (I think, I can't even remember).

I have to say it's comfortably the best laptop I've ever used, especially for the price. What would really make it perfect is if I could connect it to my Samsung 49" g9 - anyone had experience doing this?
 
[HB]Rugrat said:
I bought myself a macbook air on Sunday - my first apple computer since my trusty old ibook g4 from... 2004? (I think, I can't even remember).

I have to say it's comfortably the best laptop I've ever used, especially for the price. What would really make it perfect is if I could connect it to my Samsung 49" g9 - anyone had experience doing this?
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Just use a HDMI cable. You’ll need an adaptor.
 
Decent usb-c to HDMI cable will do the job. You might find that you're after more ports rather quickly, so something like a usb dock with an appropriate selection of ports (thunderbolt ones are expensive, but worth it if you'd need all the functionality) and might be a good initial investment. :)
 
ChrisD. said:
Just use a HDMI cable. You’ll need an adaptor.
Click to expand...

Ryan-3 said:
Decent usb-c to HDMI cable will do the job. You might find that you're after more ports rather quickly, so something like a usb dock with an appropriate selection of ports (thunderbolt ones are expensive, but worth it if you'd need all the functionality) and might be a good initial investment. :)
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I thought I could use a USB type C to HDMI cable that I already had - but it doesn't work. The macbook detects it and appears to think it's using it as an extended display but the monitor doesn't respond. I suspect it's a samsung g9 thing rather than a macbook thing so I'll do some more research! I might just need a better cable rather than the cheapest one amazon sell :)

edit: oh wait, there we go - just needed a reboot... it doesn't support the full horizontal resolution but you can split the screen in half with the monitor's PiP and use it as two screens with 2 cables.

whiskycycle said:
I run an Anker USB-C dock from mine that supports 4K60 from HDMI and has ethernet and a couple of USB-A ports too. USB-PD adaptor connected to that and it's a pretty decent way to get what you're after, with a bit more flexibility.

Something like this!
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Thanks for the tips - to be honest I thought the lack of ports would be a problem but over the last 2 years though I've gotten used to using a mixture of desktop, tablet, phone and laptop for work so almost everything that would have previously needed a port is now available wirelessly (storage, printers etc).
 
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[HB]Rugrat said:
I thought I could use a USB type C to HDMI cable that I already had - but it doesn't work. The macbook detects it and appears to think it's using it as an extended display but the monitor doesn't respond. I suspect it's a samsung g9 thing rather than a macbook thing so I'll do some more research! I might just need a better cable rather than the cheapest one amazon sell :)

edit: oh wait, there we go - just needed a reboot... it doesn't support the full horizontal resolution but you can split the screen in half with the monitor's PiP and use it as two screens with 2 cables.



Thanks for the tips - to be honest I thought the lack of ports would be a problem but over the last 2 years though I've gotten used to using a mixture of desktop, tablet, phone and laptop for work so almost everything that would have previously needed a port is now available wirelessly (storage, printers etc).
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Only additional port I’ve needed is for a Logitech Bolt receiver, and creating the odd bootable USB drive. Both USB A. Response time with the Bolt receiver on the Mac is visibly better than Logitech Bluetooth on an MX Master 3.
 
I've found myself using my MacBook Pro over my iPad Pro these days even when watching content. Absolutely adore the screen and the machine itself is a joy to use.
 
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