Apple MacBook Pro M1

Hi Guys and welcome to 123myIT. In this video, we will show you everything you need to know about the Apple MacBook Pro M1.

I have to say right of the bat, I am not a Mac fan. However, this MacBook Pro has me surprised and impressed.

Design of the MacBook Pro M1

On the outside, the design of the Apple MacBook Pro M1 has not changed from the previous model. However, the biggest change is on the inside of the Mac. It’s the M1 chip that is custom designed by Apple. Previously a Mac needed multiple chips to deliver its features. Now all those chips are in one Soc. Basically making it faster and more efficient.

The new chip allows the MacBook Pro to perform better and run longer on battery, than its Intel-based predecessors.

How much for the MacBook Pro M1?

Pricing for the MacBook Pro M1 starts around $1299 USD for the 256 GB SSD model and goes up to $2299 USD for the 2TB model. In addition, it comes in two difference colours Space Grey and Silver. After using the 256 GB model, I found the upgrade to 512 GB is probably worthwhile as I started having disk space issues after installing Fortnite game, which requires about 90 GB. I started to wish I had the extra space. So consider this when buying the MacBook Pro.

macbook pro m1
Fortnite taking up 90GB of hard disk space!

In the box, you will get Warranty and setup documentation. Along with Apple stickers. Also included is a 61 watt USB 4 power adapter. The MacBook draws 61 watts of power when charging. Moreover, you can expect to get around 20 hours of battery life. Which is just outstanding.

Display

Next, you will have the MacBook Pro itself. The MacBook Pro M1 comes with a 13.3-inch LED Backlit Retina Display with IPS technology. And it has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 with 500 nits of brightness. True Tone technology also adds a warmer more realistic colour to the display. In Terms of how heavy the MacBook Pro is its 3 pounds, which is slightly heavier than the MacBook Air on 2.8 pounds. In addition, regards to Dimensions its .61 inches high and 11.97 inches wide.

Connectivity Ports

On the left side, you have two Thunderbolt, USB 4 ports. I would have like to see three as one could be taken up with a power adapter. There is No Ethernet, so this model is WIFI only. The USB 4 doubles as a display port so if you have a USB 4 to HDMI adapter you can plug in an external display.

On the right side, you have a 3.5 Headphone Jack. Moreover, there is no SD card reader which I get it, you can buy an Apple Adapter if you need that. However, it does feel limited in terms of connectivity.

Audio

The MacBook Pro M1 has Stereo speakers with high dynamic range. They sit both side of the keyboard and are designed to point upwards towards your ears. The speakers have the best sound on any laptop I have heard so far. They are truly amazing. Take a listen. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Touch Bar

Above the keyboard, you have the Touch Bar. This allows you to control whatever apps is on the screen. So for example, I can fast forward or rewind the YouTube song. Alternatively, if I wanted to turn the volume up and down.

The Backlit Magic keyboard is a delight to type on and does not bend when pressing the keys. And there is very little flex on the keyboard too. Which is nice.

The Force Touch trackpad is nice and wide and I never find myself missing a click or having to click twice.

Always On?

Another nice feature is the MacBook Pro has this always on feature when you open the lid. Just like your iPhone it’s on and ready to go. Along the top, you will find an integrated 720p FaceTime HD camera with an indicator light. I would like to see a button to manually close the webcam. It is a nice to have feature for the security conscious.

The overall build is excellent quality but the display hinge does not fold all the way back 180 degrees, however other laptops go all the way to 180 degrees, so it does feels a bit awkward.

Fortnite

Now for the Amazing part, I was able to get FortNite to run really well giving up about 50 to 70 Frames per second on high settings. And when I dropped it back to low settings. I was getting 130 to 140 frames. So much better performance from the gaming side of things. Having said that FortNite did crash on my once. I am not sure if that was down the MacBook hardware being so new or a bug with the FortNite software itself. At any rate, a great result in terms of gaming performance.

Benchmarks

Cool, let us run the benchmarks quick and I will show you the fan noise. Starting the Cinebench software really works the MacBook Pro hard. You can hear the fan spinning its quite loud. To be fair though the room temperature was quite warm at 30o degrees. One thing to mention is the MacBook Pro does have a fan while the MacBook Air does not. So you won’t get any fan noise from the MacBook Air.

Heres the Cinebench multicore score which is 7795 points and if you look at the CPUs ranking its pretty good for a laptop.

Here is the Geekbench CPU score and the GPU score.

Let us run the GFXBench Metal tool. As you can see here the MacBook Pro M1 scored and average of 55.4 frames. So not outstanding but a good result.

Who should buy?

The MacBook Pro M1 is aimed for people who are doing allot of video editing or graphic design work. This laptop is amazing for that type of workload. Plus it’s very portable. For those that want to know if they should buy the MacBook Air or the MacBook Pro I would say that if you a student and just using learning some video editing or graphic design go the MacBook Air. IF you are a professional or semi-professional then go the MacBook Pro. However if you want to see the MacBook Air review and comparison then subscribe to my channel as I will have both of those videos coming up after this one.

Guys don’t forget to check out my other videos such as How to Backup Your Android Phone to Google Drive. And do me a favour if you know anyone who might need this video please share it will them, hit the subscribe button and smash the bell icon.

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HP EliteBook 840 G7

Hi guys and welcome to 123myIT. In this video, we will show you everything you need to know about the HP EliteBook 840 G7.

The design of the HP EliteBook 840 G7 has changed somewhat from the previous model the HP EliteBook 840 G6. The biggest change is its thinner and lighter and this is mainly due to the reduced bezels around the screen.

This is 14-inch mid-range business laptop and it sits between the lower-end ProBook series and the high-end EliteBook 1000 series. And the only difference between the EliteBook 840 G7 and EliteBook 830 G7 is the screen size.

Pricing for the G7 starts around $1400 USD for the Intel i5 CPU and goes up to $1600 USD for the i7 CPU.

Inside the box – HP EliteBook 840 G7

In the box, you will get a gray HP laptop bag. Warranty and setup documentation. Along with a 65 watt USB C power adapter. The laptop uses around 7 to 31 watts of power. And you can expect to get around 11 hours of battery life. Charging the battery will take just under one and a half hours.

Next you will have the G7 itself. The 840 G7 comes with a 14 inch FHD LED Anti-Glare HD Display. With a resolution of 1920×1080 and 250 nit of brightness. Because the bezels are thinner the laptop footprint is smaller. So you are saving space on bezel overhang. Which is awesome.

HP EliteBook 840 G7
Testing Fortnite Frames Per Second.

Out of the box, though I was able to get FortNite to run ok on giving up about 35 to 50 Frames per second. This would be mostly due to the Intel quad core i5 10th gen CPU and 8gb of ram as the Intel  GPU is not the best for gaming.

Finger Print Scanner – HP EliteBook 840 G7

The G7 does also have a finger print scanner. Thich allows you to unlock Windows with a touch of the button. Along the top, you will find an integrated HD 720pwebcam with dual microphone and indicator light. One of the cool things about the G7 design is you can close the camera off with a sliding button.

On the right side, you have the charging port, one HDMI 1.4 port, two USB C ports and a SIM card slot. No RJ45 Ethernet, so this model is WIFI only. You also have an indicator light to show when the laptop is being charged. The USB C doubles as a display port so if you have a USB C to HDMI adapter you can plug in an external display.

On the left, you have a Kensington lock, two USB 3 ports, Audio Jack and SC card reader. Annoyingly there is no SD card reader because of the size of the laptop.

Speakers – Bang & Olufsen

The 840 G7 comes with Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers, they are designed to point upwards towards your ears. The speakers sounds pretty good but missing a little bass.

The Trackpad is nice and wide but I do find myself right clicking allot because to left click you need to press on the left side of the Trackpad. And for me it feels like the trackpad sits too far to the left.

This model comes with an extra right and left mouse button along with a rubber nipple which I know some people prefer over the Trackpad.

The keyboard is a delight to type on and does not bend when pressing the keys. Also the letters printed on the keys are bigger than normal which would be great for some users.

Build Quality

The overall build feels like good quality and display hinge folds all the way back 175 degrees, however other laptops go all the way to 180 degrees, so 175 feels a bit awkward.

 You can also upgrade the G7 by removing the screws from the bottom cover. The system supports 64 GB of RAM so you can upgrade that along with a 1TB NV Me SSD if you want. The WIFI has also been upgraded to WIFI 6.

Here’s the Geekbench CPU score and the GPU score.

If you are looking for a gaming laptop then you are better off looking for a laptop with the GeForce MX or Radeon RX GPU configured. While this laptop is small and easy to carry, I feel the lack of and SD card reader and other ports a bit of a letdown for me.

Guys don’t forget to check out my other videos such as How to use the Camera app One-Handed on iPhone. And do me a favour if you know anyone who might need this video please share it will them, hit the subscribe button and smash the bell icon.

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