I have been using Windows devices for more than 15 years, since the days of XP. Windows is always a preferred system whenever I need new computer. But a few days ago, my Windows laptop dies. Though this laptop can still be repaired through mainboard replacement, but the price is nearly the half of it.
After all these years, I think, "why not Apple?" The M chip is indeed tantalizing with its great battery life and great performance as well. But is it really that amazing? Does it really Mac system is way better than Windows? Will my Photoshop run faster in a Macbook Pro than those in Windows machine? Time to prove it myself.
What Macbook Pro I bought?
After careful consideration, with $1200 budget, I pick used Macbook Pro M1 Pro with 32GB RAM and 512GB storage. Sure there's a brand new Macbook M4 base model around the budget, but 32GB of RAM is a clear choice for multimedia works. M1 Pro is still really fast chip, and somehow in some cases, still better than the base model of M4 chip.
First 7 days with Macbook Pro M1 Pro: Shock Culture
There are some muscular-memory shock due to some fundamental differences of MacOS and Windows.
Mouse scroll is inverted. keyboard layout is swapped, different UI, etc. Keyboard backlight control is non existent on the Fn key. Heck, even right click is non-existent by default. I thought, as people says, it just works. Nope. I had to fiddle some settings to get comfortable first. Sure I am still in a transition, needs to get used to some new habits.
There is a weird UI decision as well. App window for menu stay on the top edge of the screen, while the content may move anywhere. Even if I open other app, the top menu of previous app still stays on the top!
The split screen is also pretty poor compared to Windows 11's. It has so much limited window snapping and less intuitive. In MacOS, I had to hover to the similar Windows' "full screen" to gain access for the split screen option, and that even the option are so limited. As someone who use widescreen monitor and regularly use split screen, this is a clear backward.
Another thing, I cannot disable the laptop's display while I am using external monitor. In Windows, the laptop screen will automatically turned off when I only use the extended monitor. Here with my Macbook Pro, you can't! Even I searched online for this, and found out that I need a third-party app (I use Lunar) to do just that. What's worse, I need to pay for that, lol.
After A Month using Macbook Pro M1 Pro: Acceptance with Little Discomfort
I went deep to find any good tips of using Macbook in various forums, mostly Reddit. I am starting to get a good grip of using it.
But how good the first impression?
Even though I had this secondhand condition, there are some impresive thing I immediately noticed.
Speaker is the first thing comes to mind. As though the Macbook is pretty tiny, the sound of its speaker produce is amazing. I can feel some nice bass in it. Never hear thaat in my Windows laptop. But of course, my Windows laptop never priced that $1400. Perhaps Windows laptop around that price may catch up the quality of the speaker of the Macbook Pro I had.
Display screen is amazing indeed. The text display is clean, perhaps thanks to their high pixel density. The color production is great, even though I still miss my OLED screen on my Asus Vivobook Pro.
The battery is also great. Even though it was the secondhand Macbook Pro M1 Pro with just 82% battery capacity, it outlasts my Windows laptop battery. When working with Photoshop and Illustrator, it usually take 5-6 hours to go 20%. While in my Windows laptop, that would be 4 hours maximum. The other great thing about the battery, my Macbook Pro performs the same whether it's charged or in battery mode. While on my Windows laptop, there's a strong difference of performance. Though actually you can set it up in the settings. You can set "Performance Mode" while in battery, though you will see a much quicker battery drains.
Snappy? As expected, as this is well specced and pricey computer anyway. My $900 Asus Vivobook Pro with Ryzen 9 and RTX3050 is so smooth as well, so for a much more expensive laptop, that should be it.
What I missed from my Windows?
There are many comfortable things I missed. Some are ridiculously simple but in Macbook, you need to splash a bit more money to get it. Here are some examples.
- Split screen app. I am using a 34 inch widescreen Xiaomi monitor. During my Windows times, splitting the screen into several parts for apps to fill it automatically is a breeze. It works on all apps. But in my Macbook, I cannot do that. A few select app can like browser and finder and perhaps other generic apps. But for Adobe apps, this is not possible. Or may works if I use external settings.
- Windows' Alt key with letters combination shortcut (it's called Access Key or Keyboard Accelerator) is also greatly missed when using Macbook. I had memorized some key combination to call some menu in Adobe apps, which is by default does not have the Ctrl/Shift shortcut, that makes the job so much faster. Though Mac has its own way of doing this (Ctrl+F2), it is not as slick and efficient as the Windows'.
- External monitor on, internal built in monitor cannot be disabled natively. I find it quite surprising that Apple cannot implement this. I do not want to burn-in my internal display whenever I work with my bigger external monitor. Of course there are always some workaround, but nothing comes from native setting. Even worse, you need to pay for that feature!
- USB Type A. I know, the world is moving into USB-C today, but simple peripherals like mouse and keyboard still works so well with USB Type A. My Macbook Pro M1 Pro does not have space for that.
- Copying folder/file path is so handy in Windows. Is just like copy-pasting website to other browser tab. This is super useful when you do save or open a file. When you want to open a file in a folder, copying-pasting the file path will shorten the journey of clicking folders just to get there.
Conclusion
Macbook Pro M1 Pro is an amazing laptop for graphic design of course. I am not denying the quality of the speaker, screen, the battery, and the raw computing performance for my graphic design work. Build quality also better to Windows'. But then to say that Windows laptop are far away and not recommended for the job is a full ignorance. My Asus Vivobook 15 M3500Q has been a workhorse for running any Adobe apps as well. The OLED screen is fantastic as well. Battery will never compete with Apple's though. I can definitely recommend it for graphic designer looking for a great laptop for the job.
Macbook and the Apple system also has its own strange workflow, and some are clearly lacking some basic features if compared to Windows. The jargon of "just works" is simply not true. Some basic function still need some tinkering, and perhaps the victim of its own another jargon "think different".
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