Voenix Rising

It was time.  I hope I don't ultimately regret my decision.

After the third and last butterfly keyboard replacement on my 2016 MacBook Pro about a year and a half ago, everything had been working well until a few months ago. Between battery life having dropped to less than four hours (on a good day), the weekly need to offload files from a too-small drive and the near constant beach balls I'd suffer through on a daily basis, I knew the day was coming that the machine would have to be replaced. I had been hoping to hold off until fall, when Apple is expected to release  completely redesigned MacBook Pros with 14- and 16-inch screens, mag-safe power connections, and the return of most of the ports it had removed in the 2016 models, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that something had to give, and sooner rather than later.

Ben was suffering similar problems with his 2017 machine, and out of the blue last week he came home with a new M1 MacBook Air. I have to admit I was a little jealous. The keyboard alone was such an improvement over that butterfly piece of shit that alone was worth me getting a replacement. Since Apple was willing to give me $460 in trade for the old machine, it was a no-brainer for me to pull the trigger and buy something new—even if I was going to end up losing 2 USB ports in the process.

I did not get an Air. The M1 Air is nice, but I'm not a huge fan of the wedge shape. I had an Air back in 2011, and while I didn't hate it, I felt like I had to handle it with kid gloves because the display was so damn thin. So I ordered a slightly upgraded M1 MacBook Pro. I opted for 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD in case I'm not blown away by what Apple releases in the fall and end up keeping this machine for the next four to five years.

I've had it for a couple days now, and I while I didn't notice much of a speed increase at first, once everything got indexed, some things are now happening much faster. That does not include Adobe Bridge (which is actually slower in generating thumbnails), but it's not a native M1 application so it's running through the Rosetta 2 emulator and Bridge has always been a big steaming pile of crap to begin with, regardless of the platform it's running on.

The keyboard is a joy. I've yet to hear the fans kick in (even with Bridge, which in the past had been the biggest offender), and it stays absolutely cool to the touch.