[hntrader]

I'm very ignorant of the M1, but heard it has some hardware optimizations for Mac OS. If I buy this laptop and install Windows on it (because of a need for specific software), does that largely defeat the purpose and significantly reduce the benefit of the Mac OS-specific hardware optimizations?

[cududa]

It doesn’t support Windows yet, and yes, it would defeat the purpose

[nkellenicki]

You can't install Windows on it. The processor isn't x86, it's custom Apple silicon built on the ARM architecture. Windows is incompatible.