Apple has been famous for doing things differently and the M1 Chip is no different. I had serious doubts when it launched, but is the M1 Chip Powerful Enough?
To understand if the M1 Chip or the Apple Silicon is Powerful we need to go back the history land and revisit the vision and strategy Apple deploys on its devices.
I remember when Steve Jobs came into the same in January 2007 to launch the new iPhone, a product that revolutionized mobile devices forever.
The iPhone was looked up with heavy skepticism but it was unique in its own way and gained a lot of eyeballs.
It’s price was $499 when mobile devices used for normal communication purposes was sold at the below the 150 dollar mark.
The Nokia Communicator which was a hybrid device with a keyboard and Internet Facilities and a large screen was sold for around $600 if I remember correctly.
Apple is an Industry Disrupter
The Apple iPhone was a disrupter in its category.
Or should I say in multiple categories.
As Steve Jobs mentioned, the iPhone was a Phone, an Internet Communication Device and a Portable Music Device.
But why was it successful?
The iPhone was successful for many reasons and one of the major reasons was the tight Integration between Apple’s Software & Hardware.
Apple could efficiently utilize all it’s Software and Hardware resources through it’s powerful engineering abilities.
Today after 13 years of the iPhone, Apple still does this beautifully while delivering high performing devices.
Just as an example, the new iPhone 12 Pro has only 6GB of RAM while the Note 20 Ultra has 12GB of RAM.
That’s half!
iPhone delivers superior speed and performance with 50% lesser RAM than it’s competing Note 20 Ultra.
The reason is simple, it’s the seamless integration between Apple Chip and it’s iOS Platform which runs the iPhone.
Now the question is, does the M1 Chip follow the same principles?
Based on how Apple works, the M1 Chip should outperform it’s competition from the PC world, but this is still a big assumption until the real world results come in.
There is still a lot of skepticism when it comes to the performance of the ARM technology.
Microsoft had used it in its Surface Pro X after failing to get success with ARM through their initial Surface RT tablets.
What is ARM?
ARM is an abbreviation for Acorn RISC Machines the company responsible for designing and selling the “License to use” for the processor architecture which they develop. The name of the architecture is also ARM. You can find more on the history and details on ARM on Android Central.
Apple seems to have Licensed it’s platform and architecture and is now able to mould it to their requirements.
The architecture is not new for Apple, it has been using the same Technology to power it’s iPods, iPhones, iPads and other similar devices.
It’s entry into the Mac world is new with the M1 Chip.
A recent geekbench score which popped up in the wild showed the new MacBook Air with the M1 Chip outperformed the previous generation 16 inch MacBook Pro.
Whether this is reality and if the performance is consistent, only time will say.
But knowing Apple and the ability with which pulls off the hardware and software marriage, I have high hopes on the new MacBook lineup.
P.S: Some of your favorite apps may not run on the new MacBook.
PPS: Is there a real difference between the new MacBook Air & Pro?
Look out for my blogs on these topics to know more.