The hardware is indeed great. The software experience is getting worse imo, particularly when upgrading. It used to be rock solid for me.
The m1 worked without any issues for 2 months. I upgraded yesterday to macOS Ventura:
* Upgrade finished but laptop froze. Hard reset.
* On first boot, the new System Settings failed to load icons, then froze. Trying to quit it froze the OS. Hard reset.
* I left the laptop plugged in for 12 hours, connected to 2 other displays over USBC. Laptop screen didnt turn on, other monitors did. Unplugged monitors, mashed keys on keyboard, replugged, laptop screen was still off. Hard reset.
I give Apple lots of credit for switching to ARM, but the last time I had this many issues that required a hard reset because the OS became unusable was Windows ME.
I used to praise macOS for its stability. It's still on average very stable, but in the last ~5 years the upgrade experience has not been rock solid anymore. I must have used at least a dozen Macbook Pro/Air and Mac Pro in that time, so I know it's not just 1 buggy laptop.
The m1 worked without any issues for 2 months. I upgraded yesterday to macOS Ventura:
* Upgrade finished but laptop froze. Hard reset.
* On first boot, the new System Settings failed to load icons, then froze. Trying to quit it froze the OS. Hard reset.
* I left the laptop plugged in for 12 hours, connected to 2 other displays over USBC. Laptop screen didnt turn on, other monitors did. Unplugged monitors, mashed keys on keyboard, replugged, laptop screen was still off. Hard reset.
I give Apple lots of credit for switching to ARM, but the last time I had this many issues that required a hard reset because the OS became unusable was Windows ME.
I used to praise macOS for its stability. It's still on average very stable, but in the last ~5 years the upgrade experience has not been rock solid anymore. I must have used at least a dozen Macbook Pro/Air and Mac Pro in that time, so I know it's not just 1 buggy laptop.