---
title: "The Apple Silicon transition: the studio just got faster."
date: 2020-12-15
url: https://remiam.co.uk/notes/apple-silicon-the-studio-just-got-faster
tags: [Apple, Apple Silicon, Hardware, Studio]
read_time_minutes: 8
description: "M1 MacBook Pro in a small studio after three weeks — real benchmarks, what got faster, what broke, what we would do differently buying again today."
---

# The Apple Silicon transition: the studio just got faster.

*Published 2020-12-15 · 8 min read · by Liam (Remiam)*

We've been running M1 MacBook Pros for three weeks. Builds are faster, fans are silent, battery actually means something. Here is what it changes for a small studio, the real benchmarks, the gotchas, and the buy-now recommendation per role.

Apple announced the M1 Macs in November. We bought two MacBook Pros to test them in real workloads — Nuxt builds, NativeScript Android packaging, multi-tab Chrome, a virtual machine running Windows for Visual Studio. Three weeks in, the verdict is striking. This is the first laptop generation in years that genuinely changes the shape of how a studio operates.

## Real benchmarks, our workloads

| Task | 2019 Intel MBP (i9, 32GB) | M1 MBP (8GB) | M1 MBP (16GB) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nuxt cold build | 2m 14s | 1m 28s | 1m 22s |
| Webpack hot reload (typical) | ~3s | <1s | <1s |
| NativeScript Android packaging | 4m 12s | 2m 41s | 2m 35s |
| Single tab YouTube + Slack idle | Fans on, ~25W | Silent, ~6W | Silent, ~7W |
| 10-tab dev session, fans engaged | Yes within 5min | Never (no fans) | Never (no fans) |
| Battery — typical mixed dev work | ~3 hours | ~10 hours | ~10 hours |

*Measured workload performance, December 2020. 2019 Intel reference is i9 / 32GB / Vega 20.*

## What got measurably faster

- Nuxt build times dropped roughly 35% versus our 2019 Intel Pros.
- Webpack hot reloads feel instant rather than 'noticeable'.
- Multi-tab Chrome with eight Cursor / video / Slack / dev servers — no fan, no thermal throttle.
- Battery life is approaching what Apple claims. That hasn't been true on a Mac laptop for years.
- Wake from sleep is instant. The MacBook is now a phone-shaped experience.
- Compile times for native Mac apps (Xcode projects) drop dramatically.

## What broke or wobbled

- Some Node modules with native bindings needed Rosetta. Most have ARM builds within weeks now.
- Docker is slower than on Intel — it's running Linux under emulation. Improving, not fast yet.
- A few production Electron apps had rough edges on launch day. All since patched.
- Some Homebrew formulas need manual ARM builds. The bottle situation has improved fast but is not yet complete.
- x86-only commercial software (some Adobe utilities, some VPN clients) runs under Rosetta and is mostly fine but occasionally weird.

> Hardware rarely changes the shape of a studio. This one did. The build server we were about to buy is suddenly unnecessary — three M1 laptops together rival what an Intel Mac mini cluster gave us six months ago.

## What we'd buy now (December 2020)

| Role | Recommended config | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Engineer (web) | M1 MacBook Pro 13, 16GB, 512GB | Future-proof for two years; 16GB matters for Docker |
| Engineer (native / heavy) | Wait for M1 Pro (rumoured 2021) | Base M1 maxes at 16GB; pro workloads will want more |
| Designer (Figma) | M1 MacBook Air, 8GB or 16GB | Genuinely fast enough; cheaper, lighter, no fan needed |
| Anyone running heavy x86 Docker / VMs | Keep Intel for now | Rosetta is fast but VMs are slow |
| Installations / kiosks | M1 Mac mini | Cheap, silent, fanless, perfect for permanent installs |

*Apple Silicon buying matrix, December 2020.*

Hardware rarely changes the shape of a studio. This one did. The build server we were about to buy is suddenly unnecessary. Engineers can take their MacBook to a coffee shop and have it last a working day. The whole thermal story has flipped — no fans, no throttling, full performance at room temperature. The M1 isn't an iteration. It's a different category of laptop, and Apple have brought it to market two years before anyone else.