Tech Advisor - UK (2021-05)

34 TECH ADVISOR • MAY 2021

REVIEWS

the MacBook Pro

(M1) is limited to one

external display, which

can run at 6K resolution

at 60Hz. If you need

to attach at least two

external displays,

you have to get the

£1,799 or £1,999 13in

MacBook Pro models

with Intel processors.

They can handle two

displays running at

4,096x2,304 resolution

at60Hz.Also,external

GPUdevicesarenotsupported.

Overall,weliketheMacBook

Prodesign.It’sattractive,practical,

sturdyandfamiliar.Butit’sa design

we’veusedforsometimenow.It

would’vebeenniceforAppleto

introducesomethingnew,thoughthis

maybea tritecomplaint,considering

howwelltheMacBook Proworks.

VERDICT

I was giddy during the firstcoupleof

days using the new 13inMacBook

Pro (M1), and each timeI witnessed

another broken benchmarkrecord,my

excitement levels rose. Thenthere’s

the battery that seems likeit couldgo

on forever, even when you’redoing

serious work. I’ve seen andtesteda

lotofMacs– I didtestingduringthe

Motorola68000-to-PowerPCtransition,

and I even reviewedthe first Intel

MacsforMacAddict.Butthis...thisis

somethingelse. This is a revolutionary

moment for the Mac.

You need to have software written

for Apple silicon to get the speed, but

I can understand if you can’t sit on the

sidelines and wait. Even if your apps

aren’t Universal yet, they probably will

be soon. In the meantime, if you use a

non-native app, it will run under Rosetta2

emulation, and the performance is

acceptable.

However, there are a couple of other

reasons to wait. The first is that this is

just the start of the Apple silicon roll-out,

and Apple’s next step could be chips

This is a revolutionary moment for the Mac.