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I own a MacBook Air Pre M1 2020 edition
- Thread starter shenfrey
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What model is it? I just traded in a previous MBA and received very fair compensation from Cash for Your Mac.
Even though the M1 Air is blazingly fast and all that, the early 2020 Air is still a great computer. It boots up fast, loads programs quickly, has good battery life, and works perfectly for everyday computing. Leave it on Catalina and it will serve your needs for years to come.
Do you think that Catalina performs better than Big Sur?
I have the model listed below (given to me by a friend). As soon as I configured it, Big Sur installed. Thus, not sure what the previous OS was, etcetera...
I have been using Big Sur since the public release on my base 2020 i3 MBA. No issues. Smooth as butter. Op has a 2020 i5 MBA. It shouldn't be a problem.
MacRumors is kind of an echo chamber of the good and bad that is Apple. Everyone is jumping on the M1 bandwagon, and it does look like promising and exciting step forward. But, there are posts recommending that folks with perfectly functional early model 2020 MBAs trade-in for the M1 MBAs. That seems a bit rash to me. If your computer is doing everything you need and is performing well, take a breath and wait a few beats to see what happens. My guess is there will be some growing pains. Also, It probably won't be long and you will see rumors about a new form factor for the MBA with an edge to edge screen, better camera, and a next generation M processor. Perhaps even better battery life so they can reduce the size and weight of the chassis and battery.
Remember when the 16in MBP came out and everyone jumped on that band wagon. Remember when the early 2020 MBAs came out with scissor switches and i5/i7 processors and everyone hailed those computers. With time, they all show some warts because nothing is perfect.
MacRumors is kind of an echo chamber of the good and bad that is Apple. Everyone is jumping on the M1 bandwagon, and it does look like promising and exciting step forward. But, there are posts recommending that folks with perfectly functional early model 2020 MBAs trade-in for the M1 MBAs. That seems a bit rash to me. If your computer is doing everything you need and is performing well, take a breath and wait a few beats to see what happens. My guess is there will be some growing pains. Also, It probably won't be long and you will see rumors about a new form factor for the MBA with an edge to edge screen, better camera, and a next generation M processor. Perhaps even better battery life so they can reduce the size and weight of the chassis and battery.
Remember when the 16in MBP came out and everyone jumped on that band wagon. Remember when the early 2020 MBAs came out with scissor switches and i5/i7 processors and everyone hailed those computers. With time, they all show some warts because nothing is perfect.
You know what, I agree with this.
I bought an early 2020 base MBA. This laptop does everything I want, very fast, and has a very good battery life(I stay at my desk all the time anyway). Now that m1 MBA is out, I wish I had bought it instead, because its faster at tasks I never do, and has 3-4 hrs extra battery life, over the ~9hr I already get.
I thought about selling it for $600, and getting a new one for $900. But then I thought, I'm just taking a $300 hit, for a marginally better laptop(for my use case), when I'm probably gonna get a new Mac 4 years down the line anyway, regardless of what I use now. There's always going to be something better around the corner, and although if I had bought a laptop 6months later, I would have definitely go the m1 one, its okay. My current notebook, works very well anyway. Maybe the m1 model will show some problems couple of months down the line, maybe there's a gamechanging re design 2 years down the line. The next laptop I buy after 4 years, will be much better than both.
So I'm gonna chill with my current laptop, it works great, and be happy Apple is doing well, because my next laptop will be a Apple laptop anyway. Its kinda cool I have the last Intel Mac.
Thanks for the responses guys. I have decided to keep the MBA as have many of you have said it still works and does what I need it to do, I don't sit here complaining that it's slow. I will upgrade perhaps when the 16" MBP with the M chips are released.
For Intel and AMD processors, yes. For the M1 (which consumes far less wattage and therefore produces far less heat), a fan would only make a difference in certain situations. These new processors beat Intel's fanless CPUs in every conceivable metric, and the results are not even close. If you haven't seen this video, I'd recommend watching it, since it compares the 2020 i3 MBA to the base M1 Air, including thermals. I'm already planning to trade in this i3 Air for an M1 Air, and this video along with a few others only served to justify my decision.
M1 Air vs. i3 Air
While I love my early 2020 i3 MBA and will wait before upgrading, I do believe that the addition of the M1 chip firmly places the MBA back on top as the best portable everyday laptop on the market. I am bias because we have had so many great MBAs in our family, and they have been essentially flawless. We never even had a problem with the butterfly kb on a 2019 model.
Anyway, from the reviews, the M1 processor combined with MacOS is just such a great experience on the MBA that I believe this will be the go to computer for college students, office work, and home users. Sure, edge to edge screen and better camera would be nice, so I will wait for a future iteration. But, if I needed a laptop right now, this is the computer I would buy or recommend to my friends.
Anyway, from the reviews, the M1 processor combined with MacOS is just such a great experience on the MBA that I believe this will be the go to computer for college students, office work, and home users. Sure, edge to edge screen and better camera would be nice, so I will wait for a future iteration. But, if I needed a laptop right now, this is the computer I would buy or recommend to my friends.
That's the issue, I don't really need a portable computer, just a second machine to do secondary browsing and media consumption on whilst on my main computer. Upgrading to a faster portable machine that is just going to stay plugged in 24/7 seems pointless, when my current MBA works fine for just this purpose.