Got one of these from Amazon for this price sometime in December and I'm very happy with it. Does all the Mac stuff I need / want it to. I have a Windows laptop for work (ArcGIS) (and some games) and an Air for...everything else!
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Deals: Apple's 256GB M1 MacBook Air Drops to $849.99 ($149 Off)
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No way to upgrade the RAM or storage, which is par for the course for Apple and its desire to keep their userbase on a regular new device upgrade cycle.
I don't care of the RAM is baked into the M1, that is still a bad design, especially for a company like Apple, that preaches the less-features-for-customers-because-we-care-about-the-environment story all too often. An SOC with the power that the M1 has should have at the very least, 16GB of RAM to start with.
This is from Apple's description:
As it stands, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will very quickly become an issue for anything close to "professional-quality editing" and games will devour whatever is left of that tiny storage space.
Looks like it's $899 now on Amazon.
I don't care of the RAM is baked into the M1, that is still a bad design, especially for a company like Apple, that preaches the less-features-for-customers-because-we-care-about-the-environment story all too often. An SOC with the power that the M1 has should have at the very least, 16GB of RAM to start with.
This is from Apple's description:
- Powerful Performance – Take on everything from professional-quality editing to action-packed gaming with ease. The Apple M1 chip with an 8-core CPU delivers up to 3.5x faster performance than the previous generation while using way less power.
As it stands, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will very quickly become an issue for anything close to "professional-quality editing" and games will devour whatever is left of that tiny storage space.
Looks like it's $899 now on Amazon.
Yep, exactly. I really want to upgrade from my 2012 MBA to Apple Silicon, but now I will wait to get the new one with (hopefully) Magsafe and M2 in fall.
Few users would ever upgrade storage/memory. Supporting the ability means adding more material(!)/weight/volume/complexity to something most won't ever use. Just the math on added unused connectors, hinges, etc would likely add up to considerably more e-waste than a few users replacing theirs (and, being an otherwise perfectly good computer, would sell/trade/gift the prior to others - the best form of "recycling").
Note also the imposing limits of physics: computers are so small not just for user preference, but because the components must physically be small/close to operate so fast. Replaceable RAM means adding distance between CPU and memory unit, which limits data operation speeds. Operating at multi-gigahertz speeds requires physical components be millimeters away, limiting options for clumsy fingers.
I'm soooo tempted by this deal but I really want a new MBP. Not that I'm some big time power user or anything but I am blown away by just how nice the new 14"/16" are. Of course they are MUCH more money... Just how good is a baseline M1 Air for $850 I mean it seems like a real bang for the buck?
I used one of these for a few weeks when my 16" Pro got water damage. For Safari and Xcode development, along with the usual compliment of Slack and email, I never noticed any trace of a slowdown. I'm not saying it wouldn't happen, but my guess is that 8 GB of RAM is more than enough for the majority of people. Hard drive is very user-specific though.
User replaceable storage/memory is not only for upgrade.
They are also good for repairs. By soldering them on, that render a computer that is not repairable by the user when one of those components went bad.
Same problems remain:
1. Contrast the e-waste of cumulative unrepairable computers vs the e-waste of including repair-supporting hardware on every machine.
2. Every lengthened wire and added connector slows the data rate on every machine.
Re:
1. A MBA is 1000 cubic centimeters. If you add 1cc of stuff to support repair, the "e-waste" argument only holds if the failure rate of repairable components is greater than 1 in 1000. If less, then hard-soldering creates less e-waste. If failures are >1:1000, that's a major design failure.
2. Light travels 1 foot in 1 nanosecond. An MBA completes at least 3 operational cycles in that time. Each cycle involves at least 10 sequential events (probably more). Each of those needs electrically operate within certain precision (say, 10%). That means stretching the connection between CPU and RAM by one millimeter will have a meaningful impact on practical processing speed. That doesn't leave room for "user repairable", and impacts all users whether they ever repair.
Really? Speak for yourself. Any device marketed as capable of professional work needs to be upgradeable.