Is M1 MBA 8/256 enough for me?

[Jeepguy01]

So I decided I’ll take 8/256 M1 MBA. It will be my first Mac ever so I’ll check if the system is for me.

It should be sufficient for my current needs. Regardless, if this base MBA occurs not enough in the future, I’ll take new one in next 3-5 years.

Thanks for all your comments.

Congrats. Report back to us in 7 years.

I got an 8/256 MBA for basically the same usage scenario as you. You won’t regret it.

 

[mrt.plt]

It is definitely enough for you. I have a desktop PC for intensive tasks, but I recently picked up a MacBook Air a couple of days after my girlfriend did. Hers is the base model and mine is the 512GB version (that also adds a GPU core)
My girlfriend is the type of person that has 50 Chrome tabs open at any given time among which at least 5 are YouTube. She hasn't run into any slowdowns or anything. I am not like that, but we also both do light-to-moderate coding on these machines. Neither of us had a single problem.
Sure, 8 gigabytes of RAM might be an issue 6-7 years down the line, but do you see yourself keeping your MacBook for that long?

 

[theunk]

Now you have me rethinking. I cancelled the Pro order. I really only want macOS in portable, so I am sure the Air will suffice. I still have the basic 2018 mini, which gives me zero issues, so I can save $200.00 on a refurb and carry on.

 

[frog252]

I went from a i7/16GB/1TB MacBook Pro 13 to a M1 MacBook Air with 8GB RAM and it feels much snappier. Initially I ordered a MBP14 with 10 Core M1 Pro, you really don't need it. The M1 is fantastic, it runs really cool even with no fan and cost 1/3rd the price of a MBP.

 

[ghanwani]

So I decided I’ll take 8/256 M1 MBA. It will be my first Mac ever so I’ll check if the system is for me.

It should be sufficient for my current needs. Regardless, if this base MBA occurs not enough in the future, I’ll take new one in next 3-5 years.

Thanks for all your comments.

Did you already make the purchase? What is the size of all your data currently? For optimal performance, you don't want to exceed about 70% of the capacity of the SSD. This means you should not plan to exceed ~180GB of storage over the time that you own the machine.