Longevity of Macbook Air M1?

[JPack]

Probably 5-7 years if you don't care about security.

M1 will be officially stop receiving major macOS upgrades in the next 1-2 years. After that, you'll be stuck and apps will sooner or later stop working and updating. Chrome for instance, requires macOS from 2021.

 

[MBAir2010]

Probably 5-7 years if you don't care about security.

M1 will be officially stop receiving major macOS upgrades in the next 1-2 years. After that, you'll be stuck and apps will sooner or later stop working and updating. Chrome for instance, requires macOS from 2021.

this works fine now, as i type and i need to graphic design as this MBA is better than the MBAM1

this entire "duh....5 years....."
really needs to stop since that idealogy is efecting every product and mind now
on this forsaken planet.

 

[AppleTO]

We also don't know if there will be anything like OpenCore Legacy Patcher for Apple Silicon. At this point, it doesn't look promising.

 

[darkblu]

Aren't the M1 & M2 extremely similar? I remember reading that the performance increases were pretty much because of increased clock speed, not by improved in the architecture itself, and hence the M2 powered devices ran hotter and throttled faster.

Not in the GPU department. M1->M2 GPU advancements were massive, akin to M3->M4, i.e. in the 35-40% bracket.

 

[Happy_John]

We also don't know if there will be anything like OpenCore Legacy Patcher for Apple Silicon. At this point, it doesn't look promising.

There are no Apple Silicon Macs that are unsupported by the latest versions of MacOS, so there's nothing yet to work with.

You can't say it looks promising and you can't say it doesn't look promising.

 

[AppleTO]

There are no Apple Silicon Macs that are unsupported by the latest versions of MacOS, so there's nothing yet to work with.

You can't say it looks promising and you can't say it doesn't look promising.

It doesn't look promising because the 2018/2019 MacBook Air with the T2 is still not bootable and they don't have a solution (and that machine is mostly still Intel). Not saying they won't come up with a fix for even that, but AS may be a whole different ballgame.

 

[Astuces iOS]

Did you bother reading the OP? It doesn't look like you did.

Still the same, it might not support the lasted macOS in 2 years

 

[Apple_Robert]

Still the same, it might not support the lasted macOS in 2 years

The OP was asking for a 12 year old child who has never had a Mac.

 

[Happy_John]

It doesn't look promising because the 2018/2019 MacBook Air with the T2 is still not bootable and they don't have a solution (and that machine is mostly still Intel). Not saying they won't come up with a fix for even that, but AS may be a whole different ballgame.

I think it very much will be a whole different ballgame, but we will know nothing until there are AS Macs that are unsupported.

It obviously will not be a solution built on OpenCore or any other x86 bootloader. But there was a very active community jailbreaking iPhones, iPads and AppleTVs, and that might be a better reference.

The AS Macs technically don't have the T2 chip, as the equivalent functionality is within the SoC itself, but the same functionality doesn't necessarily mean the same code. What we do know is that it is possible to downgrade AS Macs to previous versions of macOS via a DFU method (as long as the the version of macOS doesn't predate the original release of that Mac).

The first thing that comes to mind is if the MacOS install package can be patched to spoof the hardware that it is a different version of MacOS than it actually is.

 

[scouser75]

Sice your kid is 12 and you have reservations whether or not it will be taken care of properly, I would stick with the used M1. I know several in the thread suggested newer and more expensive but, at this point, I think it wise to go used. In my opinion, have your kid earn money for a newer model if she decides she likes using a Mac.

Absolutely my way of thinking.

As much as I tease my kids for being brats, they value everything they have. Never ask for anything unless it's absolutely needed. But they do get what ever they need, lots of treats, and holidays (far more important than any tech). I never buy new tech and all our phones are bought used but mint. My TV was ex display and is almost 20 years old (haven't upgraded as its a rare 21:9 format set, but the time has now come for an upgrade and currently looking for the right TV), and they do get what ever they need. We aren't that mean 😉

I’m impressed she’s going to use it! My daughter is 11 and has no interest in computers… she’s happy on her iPad!

My one is 12 and loves the iPad. But has no interest in laptops but needs the laptop for home work, which she has to be forced to do!

And an update - M1 bought and at £300 ($396). I should get it by the end of the week.

 

[zgagato]

Wow! Guys thank you so much for the super helpful replies.

For context, the M1 I'm looking at is a used model in great condition, which I could get for £350 (maybe less).

It's going to be used by my kid, who's 12 right now and if she looks after it, she'll hopefully be using it for the next 5 years at least. All she really will need it for is MS Apps, Safari, Mail etc. Nothing fancy.

I also own a MBP M2, which as my kids would say, I mother ❤️ 😆 And I also own a 2006 Mac Pro, which I used until the power went. It's currently sitting in my office room. I would love to get it fixed, but this would mean taking it in for repairs and leaving it there. Unfortunately, I have a lot of personal info on there and really do not trust the repair shops.

Just give the mac pro to the repairshop without the drives, pull the hdds out. They dont need your os to get it fixed.