Are you happy with your MacBook Air?

[Mainsail]

In 2014, I bought an MBA and it was such a great computer. So, when the 2020 i3 MBA was released, I bought it. I love this computer. For grad school, I recently purchased an M1 MBA for my daughter. She thinks it is fantastic. It replaced her 2013 MBA, which was a workhorse through undergrad and her first professional job.

Bottom-line: If I could only have one device beside my iPhone, it would be the MBA. It is a fantastic value. I got mine for $899. Last month, I picked up an iPad Air 4th on sale, and it is nice. But, when I need to get stuff done, I reach for my MBA. It never disappoints.

 

[dizmonk]

I am starting to have second thoughts because I have read, that it is not only brightness, but also contrast that is better on MBP. Combined with people saying the fan is never running (my main reason to go MBA) and that the price difference in my configuration (8GPU 16GB ram 1TB ssd) is relatively insignificant compared to the price difference of base versions. Also all the debate about touch-bar has made me curious.

I just got a refurb 16GB/512Gb M1... I'm thoroughly impressed. I love the lack of a fan. It feels like a feature you don't realize how much you hate it until you don't have it. I mean I'm so used to all Mac laptops having fans that eventually kick into loud fan mode that when this one doesn't it feels really weird...(good weird). My only two concerns are a) the brightness... (I really wish this went up to 500 or 600 NITS) and b) whether or not to return this one and get one with 1TB... (maybe with 8gb). Anyone had any experience comparing the 8 v 16gb issue?

 

[EuroChilli]

I'm as happy as a pig in ...t

No really, my 2011 MBP was/is a fantastic machine, considering the abuse that's been thrown at it over the years (mostly ambient heat), and I still use it from time to time, but my new M1 Air is a little monster, and that's the 8GB RAM version. So unless you need to finalise feature length 4k movies in the field, every day, the 8 should serve you just fine in almost all other cases. The idea behind a laptop is to be portable. If you really need huge swathes of RAM, you may be better served using a desktop, with a bigger screen. Save your money.

The internal storage capacity is a moot point for me. I just went for the 256GB and got a 4TB Seagate external HD for €90 which I can connect directly with USB-C, no dongle required for that. Otherwise Satechi, who are also based in California, have a range of dongles available from Apple, or Amazon and other places. Only 2 USB-C ports is another moot point, for me. You learn to deal with such things.

One big plus point is instant wake from sleep, in fact, the login screen is already there before the lid is fully open, every time. If the computer went to sleep with the lid open, simply touching the ID button wakes it up in less than a split second.

But the biggest win is battery life, it just goes, and goes, and goes..... I charge maybe once every 2 days and can binge countless Netflix series before I need to plug it in again. I highly recommend Safari instead of any other browser, it seems to be the most energy efficient, and faster. I have no problem with the screen brightness, if you need something brighter, well you shouldn't really be working in direct sunlight, so maybe try moving into the shade ;-) A brighter screen will just kill your battery quicker.

According to the screenshot, the M1 uses nothing while sleeping, whereas the oldie always used something.

 

[navaira]

I discovered that something changes in the way the screen refreshes when I go below 50% brightness, so now I am at 9/16 with an app called SPF, and at least in comparison to my old Lenovo this screen gets BRUTALLY bright. (I don't work outside with full sun behind me.)

Yesterday I thought I finally made the laptop get warm under my wrists. I checked. Nope. My wrists made the wrist rests get warm. I am warmer than the computer is

And it is just soooooooooooooo silent. Same as @dizmonk – I haven't realised how intrusive the fan on the Lenovo was until I got rid of it.

The only problem, apart from needing SPF, is that twice the laptop crashed at night, then did some sort of very weird restart – I opened it to see the apple logo and 1/3 of the loading bar that headed nowhere. Next time I'll look at the logs, but I had something to do, so I just force-rebooted it.

 

[tpfang56]

Super happy with mine (M1 MBA 8/7c 16gb/512gb. Haven’t had a laptop in over 4 years, and that one was a mid-2012 MBP. It’s nice being able to use a computer sitting in bed watching tv, or going to a different room to work with someone else.

My only teeny tiny complaint is the screen brightness, I wish it had 500nits like the MBP.

 

[dizmonk]

I'm as happy as a pig in ...t

No really, my 2011 MBP was/is a fantastic machine, considering the abuse that's been thrown at it over the years (mostly ambient heat), and I still use it from time to time, but my new M1 Air is a little monster, and that's the 8GB RAM version. So unless you need to finalise feature length 4k movies in the field, every day, the 8 should serve you just fine in almost all other cases. The idea behind a laptop is to be portable. If you really need huge swathes of RAM, you may be better served using a desktop, with a bigger screen. Save your money.

The internal storage capacity is a moot point for me. I just went for the 256GB and got a 4TB Seagate external HD for €90 which I can connect directly with USB-C, no dongle required for that. Otherwise Satechi, who are also based in California, have a range of dongles available from Apple, or Amazon and other places. Only 2 USB-C ports is another moot point, for me. You learn to deal with such things.

One big plus point is instant wake from sleep, in fact, the login screen is already there before the lid is fully open, every time. If the computer went to sleep with the lid open, simply touching the ID button wakes it up in less than a split second.

But the biggest win is battery life, it just goes, and goes, and goes..... I charge maybe once every 2 days and can binge countless Netflix series before I need to plug it in again. I highly recommend Safari instead of any other browser, it seems to be the most energy efficient, and faster. I have no problem with the screen brightness, if you need something brighter, well you shouldn't really be working in direct sunlight, so maybe try moving into the shade ;-) A brighter screen will just kill your battery quicker.

According to the screenshot, the M1 uses nothing while sleeping, whereas the oldie always used something.

View attachment 1804034

I'm with you on almost all your points. My only variation was to get the 16GB version as I want this thing to last 5 years without issue. I'm fearful years from now, the then-new OS will require more than 8gb. Enjoy your new machine.

 

[Chucks4me]

Yes, super happy with the M1 MBA.
I actually replaced my 16” i9 with the MBA.
couldn’t be happier. At my desk I have it connected to a 4K LG Ergo monitor. It’s the perfect setup.

 

[dizmonk]

The ONLY thing that's bugging me and I'm struggling with is the brightness. I've tried tweaking some settings, like turning off the auto-brightness and the true tone and the auto-dimming on the battery. Yet it seems like it completely depends what room I'm in as to whether or not it's bright enough... It's really weird.