I recently started a project with a client that shipped me a laptop. It's one of the new MBP's with an M1 Pro. Even with all the crapware this client loves to pile on these machines (standard enterprise MDM fare), this is still by far the fastest computer I've used. The fact that this thing is noticeably faster than my "main" work machine which has the same amount of ram, zero company crapware (oh how i love working for small and med sized corps) but an i7. The i7 machine is fast, chews through anything that I throw at it, but the M1 Pro is just faster, like noticeably faster all-around, not just under certain workloads.

I've thrown around the idea of dropping big money ($4.8k the way I specced it) on a Mac Studio with an M1 Max. Up until now the idea was silly considering I have a perfectly good Macbook Pro from work without any spyware that I get for free. But dammit this M1 loaner might have pushed me over the edge.