M1 13 Air is too big to replace a 11 Air / 12 Macbook

[ahendarman]

I have a 2017 i5 512GB 8GB model and absolutely love it.

I wish Apple put an M1 in the 12" form factor, shrink the bezel to fit a slightly larger screen and somehow fit a magic keyboard. Also fix the potato webcam and replace the headphone jack with another usb-c port on the right side.

I will buy one in a heartbeat. One can only dream ....

 

[Biscotti]

I have a 2017 i5 512GB 8GB model and absolutely love it.

I wish Apple put an M1 in the 12" form factor, shrink the bezel to fit a slightly larger screen and somehow fit a magic keyboard. Also fix the potato webcam and replace the headphone jack with another usb-c port on the right side.

I will buy one in a heartbeat. One can only dream ....

Literally the same - 2017 i5 512 8GB and love it as well. My only issues really are:

1) Put an M1 in it! It currently struggles to drive a 4K Samsung display. The CPU usage while driving the display is around 30-40%, so the remaining 60-70% is for applications. Noticeable usage, lag, and throttling. M1 would fix this.

2) KEYBOARD! That keyboard is pretty bad. Some love it, I hate it. I feel like it's giving my fingers and finger joints arthritis. The ONLY reason I'm considering selling my Macbook and getting an M1 is for the keyboard experience. I have a 16" MBP and the typing is night and day.

 

[imacomputah]

I have found my people! - I've got a 2013 air 11" with 8gb of ram. Between a new battery which gets me 8-10 hours of use, and Big Sur's recent firmware update that let me toss in a 1tb nvme running at 1400mbps r/w, it feels like a new machine.

That said, with this baby going on 8 years, the longest I've ever used a Mac, and now officially on the obsolete list I've been looking for an upgrade path and had the same experience as a lot of you, trying and returning newer laptops for the last while:
- 12 inch macbook: hated the keyboard
- 13 inch pro: hated the touchbar
- 13 inch air (intel): slow, hot, less battery life, constant t2 crashes

I recently picked up an M1, and this thing finally feels like an upgrade. Amazing battery, super fast and very cool, and a major display jump to P3 retina with True Tone. That said, it's still not an ideal replacement, and i'll miss the 11 inch form factor.

I do wonder how long the last 11 inch will be supported. In terms of system architecture, the 2015 models are all identical to 2017 (which they sold until 2019 and are likely to support for 5-7 years after), so it will be hard for apple to draw a line in the sand between them for an O/S update.

My guess is they eventually make the OS cutoff at 8gb, but someone with a maxed out 11 inch from 2015 has the potential to be sitting on the longest-supported mac ever made.

 

[DaMax85]

Ordered an M1 Air (8gb/256gb) to replace my 2016 12" Retina MacBook (8gb/256gb). When I visited the Apple store, I noticed the Air does feel more bulky compared to the svelte 12", but with the Air, I am getting:

-Incredible battery
-Powerful M1 processor
-Better display
-An extra USB-C port
-Better camera
-Touch ID

I do have mixed feelings about how much storage and ram to get. It feels odd to be buying a laptop in 2021 with the EXACT SAME ram and storage capacity as a laptop I bought in 2016.

I've always been ok with base models. My workflow is Final Draft, some light editing on Final Cut, Web Browsing, Word Processing, Email, and streaming music and videos. I do multitask, but I'm not a "50 tabs open while I render videos and re-touch photos" kind of person.

I do think the 12" Retina MacBook is the most aesthetically pleasing laptop Apple has ever made. But I think the Air will be more functional.

 

[jdoyle]

When I son upgraded I inherited his Air 11Inch as a second computer ( imac 5K being my main workhorse) I love the form factor and size ( I cycle commute and feel every bit of weight) and still find it zippy and usable for everyday tasks running Big Sur. They could make one with same size. make the screen bigger due to smaller bezels and make it Retina. Hope they do. But not holding my breath.

 

[Biscotti]

Ordered an M1 Air (8gb/256gb) to replace my 2016 12" Retina MacBook (8gb/256gb). When I visited the Apple store, I noticed the Air does feel more bulky compared to the svelte 12", but with the Air, I am getting:

-Incredible battery
-Powerful M1 processor
-Better display
-An extra USB-C port
-Better camera
-Touch ID

I do have mixed feelings about how much storage and ram to get. It feels odd to be buying a laptop in 2021 with the EXACT SAME ram and storage capacity as a laptop I bought in 2016.

I've always been ok with base models. My workflow is Final Draft, some light editing on Final Cut, Web Browsing, Word Processing, Email, and streaming music and videos. I do multitask, but I'm not a "50 tabs open while I render videos and re-touch photos" kind of person.

I do think the 12" Retina MacBook is the most aesthetically pleasing laptop Apple has ever made. But I think the Air will be more functional.

I think that this is finally going to make me do the jump to the Air M1 For personal + work. I love this thing, but working with it hooked to the 4K today just shows how much it struggles. Jumpy windows, PPT lags, I’m moving too fast for it all the time.

I hate that I want to sell, but everything you pointed to says upgrade...except the size of course.

 

[DaneTheGr8]

Ah you guys have re-ignited a very hard topic that laid with me upgrading. I have always eyed upgrading from a MacBook Pro Mid-2012 (non-retina) those HUGE bricks, and then wanted in January 2021 to completely change that due to travelling around to coffee shops, bars, different parts of my home, the garden, etc have portability be a factor.

There I researched the best options moving forward. Hadn't realised about M1 yet (I lived in a tech/social media bubble) but had seen and experienced the beauty of the MacBook 12". I researched it as a replacement hard but the lack of speed of RAM and the throttled down M3, or even the throttling turned me off because my job required a lot of concurrent apps, browsing etc. and coming from my 4GB RAM 1600Mhz which struggled and took soooo much of my day cursing the "colourful wheel of death" -I didn't want to upgrade after 8 years to a machine which would eventually be obsolete as it was discontinued. Oh and everyone online on the hundreds of reviews, videos etc. I watched scared me out of the fear of Butterfly Keys.

So eventually I eyed moving to a MacBook M1 Air, but loathed that while you could or the untrained eye could say it was the same - it was eventually a much bigger and different version of the sexy ultra portable MacBook 12".

One day over some wine I had discussed to my dad on what I had done that day (gone to the local Apple store with my brick of a laptop to compare my MacBook to the current M1 range) as I was thinking of a new laptop upgrade. Conversation ended there. Gratefully and amazingly I was blessed with a M1 MacBook Pro from him for a birthday gift a week later.

I love the M1 MBP, but I really had my heart set on portability of the Macbook 12", however this MBP Pro M1 is still light and a really great design and I've come to enjoy and love the TouchBar.

POINT IS - It's taken me a while to fully accept this M1 MacBook Pro (I know I am awful kicking a gift horse in the face) - to the point I still research MacBook 12" comparisons, but yeah a nice sleeve for this laptop and the extra 500g (I am South African) is not really felt and I guess I am super grateful for the gift of the M1 and how INCREDIBLE the battery life and speed of this is - makes me wonder if I could ever go back to Intel or something dated.

Do not get me wrong when (and I PRAY) Apple launches the MacBook 12" with M1 or M1X or the MBA M1X shrinks bezels and size and weight - I am changing over to that ASAP!

 

[Dhonk]

It sounds like what you want is an iPad.

I’m in the same boat. I bought a used 2017 12” MB this summer as an iPad replacement. Love the screen, battery, keyboard, etc. it’s been perfectly fine for using numbers and browsing the web on the couch or in bed. I think it’s the perfect form factor. I picked up an iPad Air when my iPad mini 5 broke, and I find myself still using the MB12” more. I casually lying around doing a lot of my texting from my computer, so I prefer the computer experience to an iPad

 

[intervenient]

Yeah pretty sure Apple will never make a form factor close to the 12 incher ever again. Maybe stick a 14 inch screen and make it a little smaller, but definitely not close to the rMB. Which is a shame. I’m writing this from my iPad, which is cool and all, but man I miss that form factor.

 

[supertiffany]

Yeah pretty sure Apple will never make a form factor close to the 12 incher ever again. Maybe stick a 14 inch screen and make it a little smaller, but definitely not close to the rMB. Which is a shame. I’m writing this from my iPad, which is cool and all, but man I miss that form factor.

exactly

 

[Pugly]

Yeah pretty sure Apple will never make a form factor close to the 12 incher ever again. Maybe stick a 14 inch screen and make it a little smaller, but definitely not close to the rMB. Which is a shame. I’m writing this from my iPad, which is cool and all, but man I miss that form factor.

I've come to that same realization recently. I don't think the 12" was ever that great of a seller... it was dropped pretty unceremoniously from the lineup. And the 11" wasn't that great either. It was dropped without a replacement too, and kinda existed to drop the Air price down... and bring the price of the more mainstream laptop up. Kinda like the iPhone mini today. And back then the iPads weren't as good of a laptop alternative.

I ordered an M1 Air, because all told it is a nearly perfect laptop. The amazing battery life is as good as being a little lighter and smaller, no need to always bring the charger.

 

[supertiffany]

I've come to that same realization recently. I don't think the 12" was ever that great of a seller... it was dropped pretty unceremoniously from the lineup. And the 11" wasn't that great either. It was dropped without a replacement too, and kinda existed to drop the Air price down... and bring the price of the more mainstream laptop up. Kinda like the iPhone mini today. And back then the iPads weren't as good of a laptop alternative.

I ordered an M1 Air, because all told it is a nearly perfect laptop. The amazing battery life is as good as being a little lighter and smaller, no need to always bring the charger.

tho the Air is no different with Pro in terms of size lol

they should really widen the screen of Air to 14 to maximize and justify that size.

 

[mindhaq]

I have found my people!

Haha, this!

Still loving my 2013 11" for travel, but it is feeling very dated by now.

I was thinking about getting a second hand 12" retina as a replacement, but the failing keyboard makes this really a no-no for me. The 11" was actually quite rugged because of the large bezel and aluminum body.

 

[ChrisA]

Apple makes the iPad for those who need the smallest portable device. You can get a case with built-in keyboard for wellunder $100. My daughter just bought a setup like this for school and it seems to do everything she needs.

Me? I like my 30" 4K monitor. But I work in that space that includes software and hardware design and need both CAD and many terminal windows. Need a bigger screen. But as I see it, except for specialized use cases like mine, iPads seem to work

One more thing the "pencil" works on the lower-end iPads just fine. Buy a 3rd party pencil as they are as good as Apple's version.

 

[mindhaq]

Apple makes the iPad for those who need the smallest portable device. You can get a case with built-in keyboard for wellunder $100.

While I also like my IPad, my use case while travelling was sorting and quick editing of photos, exporting web-comptaible JPGs and uploading them to my server via rsync, which seemed like the best choice for unstable WiFi connections.

(And I was using Aperture at the time, another Apple product which didn't get the love it deserved)