After getting a LOT of mileage out of my Intel I7 Late 2013 Laptop Mac, the beast was beginning to show its age (and wear and tear). I had been keeping my eye on Mac developments over the years and had seen things getting worse..the removal of the Mag Lock, the introduction of the gimmicky Touch Bar, the stinginess with ports..but then..Apple reversed course on all of those developments and rolled out a whole new line of “non Intel” processors.
This family of “M” Macs boasted some amazing power specs but many software manufacturers had to scramble to recode their plug ins to be compatible with the new Mac “M” architecture. By now, most of the companies have rolled out “M” editions but some of the major ones (hello…Avid ProTools???) can only be used in “Rosetta” mode which means that the Mac is working within an Intel Shell..not exactly maximizing the true potential of the M Chips.
Even under Rosetta, this thing does pack a lot of power. The fan noise is virtually non existent and I’m able to run an external HDMI Monitor along side multiple open programs (Firefox/Word/Protools) with a TON of processor intensive plug ins. And as much as we all hate ilok, it made the transition Mac old Mac to new Mac much less painful.
Of course, Apple released more advanced “M” Series Macs in quick order, scaring all of us who just recently bought into the “latest and greatest” models. When I took the plunge, I went for a pretty maxxed out Mac so I’m hoping to get a good number of years out of this one. Let’s hope that Avid can make ProTools “M Native” soon.
