Is an M1 MacBook Air worth picking up for $799? I saw that Amazon as well as Best Buy has the M1 MBA on sale for $799. My use case probably wouldn’t be anything out of this world, just streaming twitch/YouTube and some browsing, etc. I’m wondering if for my use case it would be worth picking up. I’ve never had a MacBook but have always been interested in picking one up.
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M1 MacBook Air
- Thread starter Djones96
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Great little office computer. I used one from launch until I switched to the newly released 15'' MBA a couple weeks ago. Very good battery life, very efficient. Apple's M-series laptops in general provide an excellent user experience. This computer might be the "cheap" Mac but it is by no means a "bad" Mac. There are few compromises with it as its even capable of doing some basic edits and garageband/logic work
Better in terms of value I think - the M1 Air is great. If you don't mind the 13.3 screen then its great value for your usage / general computer. All depends on the persons preferences.
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I used an 8GB stock model as a temporary replacement for 32GB 2017 i7 Vega20 for a few weeks. I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but it worked so well I considered continuing on with the MBA instead of my regular machine when my regular machine came back from the shop.
I haven't been following developments lately so I can't opine about price to performance ratios, but yeah it's a very formidable machine.
I haven't been following developments lately so I can't opine about price to performance ratios, but yeah it's a very formidable machine.
Note that it's not a sale, this has been the regular price for about a year or so. The lowest I've seen was $779 at Microcenter and I think it saw it somewhere at $749 as well (actual sale). So that is just the normal price for it now.
It's still a good deal as the battery life is great and it's well built, but in the years since the M1 release other laptops have started to catch up at least in terms of performance, so M1 is no longer the crazy fast chip it once was. Nonetheless, the Air has the benefit of being fanless and complete silence is not something you can always expect from such cheaper devices.
Keep in mind that there is very little free space on that thing and the low memory sets a limit for multitasking.
It's just a question of your priorities and preferences, you can get a laptop with more storage and worse build quality for the same money, or more storage and similar build quality for more money, and so on. To me the Air would be the number 1 choice for devices under $1k.
The M1 is so under rated. If there was no M2 out people would be saying the M1 is the best thing since sliced bread. Insane value for the performance.
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I'm using the base model M1 Air and I'm shocked at what I'm able to get away with on it. I bought it to just use for light use (writing, email, web, etc), so I spec'ed it with just 8GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. Turns out things changed and I got a graphic design job where I'm using it all the time to do work on big Illustrator and InDesign documents in addition to all the other ancillary stuff like email and lots of websites open. That's way more work than I'd expect a base model Air to keep up with, but even with all that, it performs brilliantly. I'm sure a properly spec'ed MacBook Pro would do better, but I'm not seeing tons of beachballs or freezes or anything.
And because the battery life is so good, you get a side benefit: the battery goes through fewer charge/discharge cycles and will thus have a much better lifespan.
M1 MBA is an all-timer. It has been on sale for 3 years totally unchanged and is still a value buy. How many electronic products can you say that about?
If I were shopping I would be looking to Swappa.com for a lightly used model. $800 could get you more RAM or drive space than new pretty easily.
If I were shopping I would be looking to Swappa.com for a lightly used model. $800 could get you more RAM or drive space than new pretty easily.
I've got an M1 MBA which I kept hold of even after getting a 16" M2 MBP - it's a perfect travel companion and has plenty of power to do anything I would want to do when travelling or on vacation (I own my own business so have to be permanently connected for support purposes).
I've got a lot of love for the M1 MBA as it was the first Apple Silicon mac I got and it still holds up brilliantly: I can't see myself getting rid of it until it literally falls apart: My first portable Mac was the 12" G4 Powerbook and I still regret getting rid of it and won't make the same mistake with the M1 MBA 😀
I've got a lot of love for the M1 MBA as it was the first Apple Silicon mac I got and it still holds up brilliantly: I can't see myself getting rid of it until it literally falls apart: My first portable Mac was the 12" G4 Powerbook and I still regret getting rid of it and won't make the same mistake with the M1 MBA 😀
Eh. Not much of one unless you're seriously going crazy. MacOS memory management very gracefully moves things in and out of disk swap, and the performance penalty is very subtle at this point with the fast SSDs we're all using. Back in the olden times you would wait ages for a spinning hard drive to slowly read out to RAM when you switched between things, but it all happens in the blink of an eye now. Even with "just" 8GB, an Apple Silicon Mac will let you work quite well.
Which part? the smaller screen? dimmer? 720p camera? heavier? half size function keys? thicker bezels? No MagSafe? The only real advantage the m1 air has is in the base model form for the storage speeds which even then has been proven that in 99% of real world use cases makes zero difference. Still a cheap move on apples part dont get me wrong lol
The M1 is the best value, but it's definitely not "better". I held out for the M2 in the hopes of a design change from the M1 air and im glad I waited. But those looking to stretch their dollar while still getting an awesome machine should definitely consider the M1 air
I personally prefer the wedge shape of the Air M1, the thin front lip makes it more comfortable to type and the device feels thinner while being handled. It does not have that ugly notch. Also a better value since 98% of users will never use the full potential of the M1 chip, let alone the M2.
I love my M1 MacBook Air that I bought earlier this year. Sure, the M2 has some nice advantages, but since I use this as a secondary/travel computer, these things (design, webcam, a bit brighter screen) didn't justify the cost increase where I live. For all my heavy work, I have my 14-inch M1 Max MBP.
Yes, it is. An excellent machine.
I think, and this is only my opinion, is that you should consider the base model M2 Air. It is $300.00 additional (plus tax if appropriate). Try for an education discount and you can save 5% which is $55.00. You get MagSafe (frees up USB-C port), better camera, bigger function keys, and an arguably slightly better performing machine. (from the user perspective, not performance nit pickers).
You could also consider the Apple refurbish store which can also save you some money. Carefully checked machines, probably better than supply chain models, and the same warranty
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its hard to believe ive had mine coming up on 3 years already, its a great machine
probably the best value out of any Mac laptop ive ever had personally
probably the best value out of any Mac laptop ive ever had personally