For Context: I own several base model (8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, 7 GPU Cores) MacBook Air (M1, 2020) computers. I am an IT professional for a living and do Apple-flavored consulting on the side. I purchased those MacBook Airs for three main purposes:
(a) Testing - Either macOS betas, MDM solutions, software deployments via MDM, prospective app purchases, things for clients or any combination thereof
(b) Assisting others - If I need to devote a Mac to the purposes of helping a client complete a task that requires a Mac or if I need to do research specifically as part of my consulting efforts
(c) Training - For those wanting to get into IT as a career on the Mac platform
My primary Mac is a MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and the full 8 GPU Cores. The MacBook Pro has my Apple ID signed into it and all of my iCloud data. The Airs do not. Occasionally, when traveling, I'll take one of the Airs instead (given that they're worth a decent amount of money less, if something bad were to happen) and purpose it as though substituting for said MacBook Pro.
I also own a base model 2-Port iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021) with the exact same specs as the MacBook Airs that I have. This iMac isn't a part of my consulting arsenal. It's used alongside the aforementioned MacBook Pro (with my Apple ID signed into it and all of my iCloud data) and largely for recreational purposes.
I should also define my recreational purposes as using the following things: Mail (four e-mail accounts, each of them at least old enough to learn how to drive a car with messages dating at least as far back), Messages (with iCloud iMessage syncing turned on), Facebook Messenger, Safari (with anywhere between 10-45 tabs open at any one given time), give or take Photos, give or take Maps, give or take the Battle.net app. It's possible that I'll either launch a game of Hearthstone or a co-op game of StarCraft II.
With that context out of the way, I'll say that I think the base M1 is definitely fast and capable. That being said, my feelings on this base model Air really ought to be split into (a) How I feel about the 8GB of RAM + 256GB SSD + 7 GPU Cores variant of M1 combination found on both my Airs and my iMac and (b) How I feel about that package in the form of the M1 MacBook Air.
For the first:
I have no serious issues with not having an extra GPU core. There's little that I've done wherein I even notice that I'm missing an extra GPU Core. I'm not going to say that there aren't workloads or things I can do with my Macs wherein that difference wouldn't be more pronounced. But I also get the strong sense that if 7 Cores of the M1 family of GPUs isn't going to be enough, 8 Cores also won't be enough. Similarly, 256GB of storage, while not the kind of thing I'd recommend to anyone doing anything substantial with their Mac, works perfectly (a) for what I do with these Macs and (b) given that I have another Mac for myself with much more internal storage.
8GB of RAM is a different story. I know that this is a massive hot-button topic among M1 and M2 MacBook Air owners on here every single time someone posts a "Help! Do I get 8GB or 16GB?" thread. Obviously, I can only speak to my own experience with 8GB of RAM on an M1 Macs, let alone on several M1 Macs. If I am strict about using my Airs for the purposes I've outlined above, 8GB of RAM is just fine. Similarly, if I've got only ~20 tabs or so open, it's just fine. And when I say "it's just fine", I mean that I do not feel any noticeable sluggishness in system performance. However, when I exceed these limits, it's not. As it stands right now, I am writing this on one of the aforementioned MacBook Airs with Safari (10 tabs open including this one), Mail (with only two of the aforementioned four e-mail accounts signed in), FaceBook Messenger, Preview (with only the Mac Studio service manual and my resume open), the Apple "Developer" app (with no currently loaded video), and Activity Monitor open. Nothing else. My memory pressure is yellow. This is fine to have for a little while or in burst loads, but less than stellar to have all the time.
Now, for those that are sure to read the above paragraph and chime in with the "I own this machine and I'm having no problems at all" comments, again, my disclaimer is that this is my experience alone and your mileage will surely vary. And certainly, any of these base model M1 Airs will kick the crap out of any non-retina Intel MacBook Air. Though, having the experience that I currently am having, I really cannot say that I'd endorse or recommend 8GB of RAM in any Mac, whether M1 or M2 or even an 8th Generation Intel Core i5 in 2023.
For the second:
Speaking specifically about the 8GB RAM + 256GB SSD + 7 GPU Cores M1 configuration in the form of a MacBook Air (M1, 2020): I will say that, compared to any Intel MacBook Air, the thermals on this machine are truly fantastic. That really isn't saying much. The 2018-2020 Intel Airs were utterly atrocious in terms of (a) how hot those Y-series Intel processors got, (b) how poorly they were cooled, and (c) how small the thermal envelope was in those machines for them. Meanwhile, the 2010-2017 MacBook Airs were good machines for what they were, though, certainly Monterey on the very last of those machines usually resulted in a hot laptop with a roaring fan over pretty much nothing. To say that the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is an obvious night-and-day improvement over these things wouldn't be a stretch. But the bar was already pretty low.
THIS ALL BEING SAID: For a laptop that is marketed as being able to handle multiple simultaneous 4K streams and for a laptop famous for "I can't seem to get this thing to get warm" comments, I'm generally able to get it hot to the touch with a single co-op game of StarCraft II. We're talking about a game whose last major infrastructural update was at least five years ago. I understand that it's still an Intel binary running translated via Rosetta 2. As far as performance, the game runs smoothly on medium settings. Performance isn't bad. But I'm able to get this thing hot with a 13 year old game whose last major update is nearly 5 years old. For what it's worth Hearthstone for macOS is still not Apple Silicon native for reasons completely beyond me (it's not like they haven't had iPadOS versions for years already ARM native) and it does not make this computer warm in the same way that StarCraft II does. My mileage with other games like Civilization: Beyond Earth and Civilization V are closer to what I get with StarCraft II.
From what I've gathered about Apple Silicon is that much of its secret sauce is about optimizing for certain tasks and workloads. I don't doubt that my MacBook Airs would fly through most 4K projects without breaking a sweat. That's where Apple has spent a great deal of time optimizing the performance. Gaming (let alone with games still written for Intel Macs)? Not so much. And yes, I know that Macs aren't for gamers. (Incidentally, for how casually I game, I wouldn't call myself a gamer either.) And yes, an M1 MacBook Air at least RUNS StarCraft II comfortably (whereas I'd never have considered installing it on any Intel MacBook Air). But, I do not believe the lack of a fan in these machines to be infallible when it comes to low-end tasks. No, I do not ever get the sense that the Mac will overheat. But, I know the M1 runs cooler under the same load with a fan.
I'm generally not playing Blizzard or any other games on my MacBook Airs. So, this is mostly moot as far as my needs are concerned. But, at this point, if I know of someone who is largely only playing Blizzard Mac titles, I might not recommend the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) to them. Similarly, gaming might be a use case wherein this Mac is still not an ideal choice. I don't currently own any Apple Silicon native games, though I'd be curious to see how this differs there.
Honestly, for these reasons, I'm glad my MacBook Pro still has a fan.
I would still point the vast majority of those looking to buy a new Mac to the MacBook Air (M1, 2020). I'd definitely urge them to go for 16GB of RAM based on what I've experienced with not that much open. For those purchasing in IT departments for their business, a MacBook Air (M1, 2020) with 16GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB (depending on the company's on-device storage policies) is going to be absolutely plenty for the average rank-and-file computer user and for several years to come. It's still a great machine and it's certainly leaps and bounds more capable and performant than any Intel MacBook Air ever was. Though, I'd honestly reconsider its thermal limitations (at least from the standpoint of "I can't seem to get this thing to warm up!" type of sentiments since I'm easily able to with a 13 year old game that the machine otherwise handles like a champ).
(a) Testing - Either macOS betas, MDM solutions, software deployments via MDM, prospective app purchases, things for clients or any combination thereof
(b) Assisting others - If I need to devote a Mac to the purposes of helping a client complete a task that requires a Mac or if I need to do research specifically as part of my consulting efforts
(c) Training - For those wanting to get into IT as a career on the Mac platform
My primary Mac is a MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and the full 8 GPU Cores. The MacBook Pro has my Apple ID signed into it and all of my iCloud data. The Airs do not. Occasionally, when traveling, I'll take one of the Airs instead (given that they're worth a decent amount of money less, if something bad were to happen) and purpose it as though substituting for said MacBook Pro.
I also own a base model 2-Port iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021) with the exact same specs as the MacBook Airs that I have. This iMac isn't a part of my consulting arsenal. It's used alongside the aforementioned MacBook Pro (with my Apple ID signed into it and all of my iCloud data) and largely for recreational purposes.
I should also define my recreational purposes as using the following things: Mail (four e-mail accounts, each of them at least old enough to learn how to drive a car with messages dating at least as far back), Messages (with iCloud iMessage syncing turned on), Facebook Messenger, Safari (with anywhere between 10-45 tabs open at any one given time), give or take Photos, give or take Maps, give or take the Battle.net app. It's possible that I'll either launch a game of Hearthstone or a co-op game of StarCraft II.
With that context out of the way, I'll say that I think the base M1 is definitely fast and capable. That being said, my feelings on this base model Air really ought to be split into (a) How I feel about the 8GB of RAM + 256GB SSD + 7 GPU Cores variant of M1 combination found on both my Airs and my iMac and (b) How I feel about that package in the form of the M1 MacBook Air.
For the first:
I have no serious issues with not having an extra GPU core. There's little that I've done wherein I even notice that I'm missing an extra GPU Core. I'm not going to say that there aren't workloads or things I can do with my Macs wherein that difference wouldn't be more pronounced. But I also get the strong sense that if 7 Cores of the M1 family of GPUs isn't going to be enough, 8 Cores also won't be enough. Similarly, 256GB of storage, while not the kind of thing I'd recommend to anyone doing anything substantial with their Mac, works perfectly (a) for what I do with these Macs and (b) given that I have another Mac for myself with much more internal storage.
8GB of RAM is a different story. I know that this is a massive hot-button topic among M1 and M2 MacBook Air owners on here every single time someone posts a "Help! Do I get 8GB or 16GB?" thread. Obviously, I can only speak to my own experience with 8GB of RAM on an M1 Macs, let alone on several M1 Macs. If I am strict about using my Airs for the purposes I've outlined above, 8GB of RAM is just fine. Similarly, if I've got only ~20 tabs or so open, it's just fine. And when I say "it's just fine", I mean that I do not feel any noticeable sluggishness in system performance. However, when I exceed these limits, it's not. As it stands right now, I am writing this on one of the aforementioned MacBook Airs with Safari (10 tabs open including this one), Mail (with only two of the aforementioned four e-mail accounts signed in), FaceBook Messenger, Preview (with only the Mac Studio service manual and my resume open), the Apple "Developer" app (with no currently loaded video), and Activity Monitor open. Nothing else. My memory pressure is yellow. This is fine to have for a little while or in burst loads, but less than stellar to have all the time.
Now, for those that are sure to read the above paragraph and chime in with the "I own this machine and I'm having no problems at all" comments, again, my disclaimer is that this is my experience alone and your mileage will surely vary. And certainly, any of these base model M1 Airs will kick the crap out of any non-retina Intel MacBook Air. Though, having the experience that I currently am having, I really cannot say that I'd endorse or recommend 8GB of RAM in any Mac, whether M1 or M2 or even an 8th Generation Intel Core i5 in 2023.
For the second:
Speaking specifically about the 8GB RAM + 256GB SSD + 7 GPU Cores M1 configuration in the form of a MacBook Air (M1, 2020): I will say that, compared to any Intel MacBook Air, the thermals on this machine are truly fantastic. That really isn't saying much. The 2018-2020 Intel Airs were utterly atrocious in terms of (a) how hot those Y-series Intel processors got, (b) how poorly they were cooled, and (c) how small the thermal envelope was in those machines for them. Meanwhile, the 2010-2017 MacBook Airs were good machines for what they were, though, certainly Monterey on the very last of those machines usually resulted in a hot laptop with a roaring fan over pretty much nothing. To say that the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is an obvious night-and-day improvement over these things wouldn't be a stretch. But the bar was already pretty low.
THIS ALL BEING SAID: For a laptop that is marketed as being able to handle multiple simultaneous 4K streams and for a laptop famous for "I can't seem to get this thing to get warm" comments, I'm generally able to get it hot to the touch with a single co-op game of StarCraft II. We're talking about a game whose last major infrastructural update was at least five years ago. I understand that it's still an Intel binary running translated via Rosetta 2. As far as performance, the game runs smoothly on medium settings. Performance isn't bad. But I'm able to get this thing hot with a 13 year old game whose last major update is nearly 5 years old. For what it's worth Hearthstone for macOS is still not Apple Silicon native for reasons completely beyond me (it's not like they haven't had iPadOS versions for years already ARM native) and it does not make this computer warm in the same way that StarCraft II does. My mileage with other games like Civilization: Beyond Earth and Civilization V are closer to what I get with StarCraft II.
From what I've gathered about Apple Silicon is that much of its secret sauce is about optimizing for certain tasks and workloads. I don't doubt that my MacBook Airs would fly through most 4K projects without breaking a sweat. That's where Apple has spent a great deal of time optimizing the performance. Gaming (let alone with games still written for Intel Macs)? Not so much. And yes, I know that Macs aren't for gamers. (Incidentally, for how casually I game, I wouldn't call myself a gamer either.) And yes, an M1 MacBook Air at least RUNS StarCraft II comfortably (whereas I'd never have considered installing it on any Intel MacBook Air). But, I do not believe the lack of a fan in these machines to be infallible when it comes to low-end tasks. No, I do not ever get the sense that the Mac will overheat. But, I know the M1 runs cooler under the same load with a fan.
I'm generally not playing Blizzard or any other games on my MacBook Airs. So, this is mostly moot as far as my needs are concerned. But, at this point, if I know of someone who is largely only playing Blizzard Mac titles, I might not recommend the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) to them. Similarly, gaming might be a use case wherein this Mac is still not an ideal choice. I don't currently own any Apple Silicon native games, though I'd be curious to see how this differs there.
Honestly, for these reasons, I'm glad my MacBook Pro still has a fan.
I would still point the vast majority of those looking to buy a new Mac to the MacBook Air (M1, 2020). I'd definitely urge them to go for 16GB of RAM based on what I've experienced with not that much open. For those purchasing in IT departments for their business, a MacBook Air (M1, 2020) with 16GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB (depending on the company's on-device storage policies) is going to be absolutely plenty for the average rank-and-file computer user and for several years to come. It's still a great machine and it's certainly leaps and bounds more capable and performant than any Intel MacBook Air ever was. Though, I'd honestly reconsider its thermal limitations (at least from the standpoint of "I can't seem to get this thing to warm up!" type of sentiments since I'm easily able to with a 13 year old game that the machine otherwise handles like a champ).
