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I can return my 2020 MacBook Air and buy the silicon version. Should i?

A

Adelphos33

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 13, 2012
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I timed my MacBook Air purchase to test it out before an announcement of Apple Silcon (I have usually been a MacBook Pro user and wasn’t sure about the Air format). I love the air - I now have two days to decide whether I want to return it and buy a silicon version.

I have the i5/516GB/16G ram version - i would buy the equivalent MacBook Air. I mainly use my MacBook Air for remote login, Office, Webex/Zoom, iOS apps like Photos/Safari/Music, notes, etc. Not a big video editor or anything like that.

I wanted to buy the Intel version because I wanted to make sure I could smoothly use Microsoft office and login to my work computer via Citrix / Javascript. Will I be able to do that with this Apple Silcon machine? As far as I can tell, actual performance will be identical with my use case (except for less heat)
 
I think you could exchange and the 14 days re-starts with the new one. Give that a go and if you don't like it I'm sure you will be able to pick up an Intel version at a reduced price?
 
Go for it, man. The specs of the new Air are crazy, and even if you don't care much, the battery lasts like double the time. Also, because of the low consumption the battery needs less recharging, meaning the longevity increases by a lot.
 
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I’m in a similar position I bought my first ever Mac (baseline MBP) two weeks ago and I’m contemplating returning it (last day I can return is tomorrow) and getting the new one. I just started a 6 year university course and would like my laptop to last 4-6 years. My laptop would be the last model of the tried and tested intel chips so feels reliable. I’m worried about the risks with being an early adopter as I cannot really afford to keep updating my laptop. Any advice??
 
Unistudent100 said:
I’m in a similar position I bought my first ever Mac (baseline MBP) two weeks ago and I’m contemplating returning it (last day I can return is tomorrow) and getting the new one. I just started a 6 year university course and would like my laptop to last 4-6 years. My laptop would be the last model of the tried and tested intel chips so feels reliable. I’m worried about the risks with being an early adopter as I cannot really afford to keep updating my laptop. Any advice??
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If you're worried about how long it'll last, better an early adopter in the current technology than a late adopter in a dying architecture. Some years from now, Apple will make the cut for the then-next version of macOS and Intel Macs will be cut off.

It's also much faster, so it's a no brainer for me. You should get the Apple Silicon one.
 
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Andropov said:
If you're worried about how long it'll last, better an early adopter in the current technology than a late adopter in a dying architecture. Some years from now, Apple will make the cut for the then-next version of macOS and Intel Macs will be cut off.

It's also much faster, so it's a no brainer for me. You should get the Apple Silicon one.
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Thank you that makes sense, am I correct in believing that any teething problems are unlikely to effect the basic work I do on the laptop as medicine uni student?
 
Unistudent100 said:
Thank you that makes sense, am I correct in believing that any teething problems are unlikely to effect the basic work I do on the laptop as medicine uni student?
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From what I've seen from the few medicine students I know, no, you probably won't be affected. If "basic" usage is mostly office, internet browsing, PDFs and the like, then it'll will be working fine even from day one and much better after the apps are updated for Apple Silicon (which will likely be a few months from now at most). And you'll have much better battery life which is always a plus.

What could be affected: old Apps running on 32-bits (which also wouldn't run on Intel on Catalina/Big Sur anyways) or apps that are not maintained anymore, some high-performance apps for 3D modelling or similar, or instrumentation that requires custom kernel extensions.
 
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Andropov said:
From what I've seen from the few medicine students I know, no, you probably won't be affected. If "basic" usage is mostly office, internet browsing, PDFs and the like, then it'll will be working fine even from day one and much better after the apps are updated for Apple Silicon (which will likely be a few months from now at most). And you'll have much better battery life which is always a plus.

What could be affected: old Apps running on 32-bits (which also wouldn't run on Intel on Catalina/Big Sur anyways) or apps that are not maintained anymore, some high-performance apps for 3D modelling or similar, or instrumentation that requires custom kernel extensions.
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Perfect, thank you! You have been so helpful! One last question, in your opinion should I go for the baseline pro with better battery performance and a cooling system or the air with 16GB ram given the boost in performance (bearing in mind that I‘ll only use it for research, zoom calls, watching movies etc)??
P.S sorry for all the silly questions I really don’t know much about computers
 
Unistudent100 said:
Perfect, thank you! You have been so helpful! One last question, in your opinion should I go for the baseline pro with better battery performance and a cooling system or the air with 16GB ram given the boost in performance given that I‘ll only use it for research, zoom calls, watching movies etc.
P.S sorry for all the silly questions I really don’t know much about computers
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That's up to you, both are great machines. It's hard to say how much performance difference is there between the MacBook Pro and the Air due to the improved cooling system. However, 8GB of RAM in the base MacBook Pro might fall a bit short in the future so I'd probably go with 16GB no matter what Mac you finally choose.
 
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Adelphos33 said:
I timed my MacBook Air purchase to test it out before an announcement of Apple Silcon (I have usually been a MacBook Pro user and wasn’t sure about the Air format). I love the air - I now have two days to decide whether I want to return it and buy a silicon version.

I have the i5/516GB/16G ram version - i would buy the equivalent MacBook Air. I mainly use my MacBook Air for remote login, Office, Webex/Zoom, iOS apps like Photos/Safari/Music, notes, etc. Not a big video editor or anything like that.

I wanted to buy the Intel version because I wanted to make sure I could smoothly use Microsoft office and login to my work computer via Citrix / Javascript. Will I be able to do that with this Apple Silcon machine? As far as I can tell, actual performance will be identical with my use case (except for less heat)
Click to expand...
Absolutely, you should exchange for the new Air.

I am really impressed with the M1 capability. Go for it!
 
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I'm in the same situation, I just bought a

Apple 13 in. MacBook Air, Intel i7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, would it make sense to look at the new M1 Air and return the Intel i7?​

 
AppleUser2 said:
I think you could exchange and the 14 days re-starts with the new one. Give that a go and if you don't like it I'm sure you will be able to pick up an Intel version at a reduced price?
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Apple is now in the holiday return period, so new purchases can be returned until January 8.
 
Adelphos33 said:
I wanted to buy the Intel version because I wanted to make sure I could smoothly use Microsoft office and login to my work computer via Citrix / Javascript. Will I be able to do that with this Apple Silcon machine? As far as I can tell, actual performance will be identical with my use case (except for less heat)
Click to expand...
I’d go for it. Microsoft will be releasing a native version of Office soon. Rosetta 2 should work for your other apps until native versions are available. If it doesn’t work out (and you’ll have until January 8 to return the M1 MacBook Air to Apple), you’ll be able to find the 2020 Intel model at re-sellers or even Apple’s refurb store for at least another few months.
 
Robin_C said:
I'm in the same situation, I just bought a

Apple 13 in. MacBook Air, Intel i7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, would it make sense to look at the new M1 Air and return the Intel i7?​

Click to expand...
I think so. Apple compared the performance against the i7 MacBook Air, and since you don’t need to pay for the CPU update, it will actually be cheaper ($1449) to get the 16/512 M1 Air than it was to get your i7.
 
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