MacBook Air is mine.

[TSE]

Just bought an ultimate M1 MacBook Air. 16 GBs of supercomputer-level memory. 256 GBs of SSD encrypted like Fort Knox. Silver. Purchased it from Apple's world class refurbish program.

I'm moving from a 14" MacBook Pro - my previous company called it back in and I needed a new computer. I'm excited to report back if I can do my UX Design duties fulltime on it. What the battery life is like. What the screen is like. I'm excited.

What do you guys think of the MacBook Air? Like it? Hate it? Meh? What's your opinion? Because mine's coming out soon. So I need to know who is wrong and who is right when I receive it Monday.

 

[StoneJack]

well, coming from 2019 Macbook Pro Intel, MBA M1 is great in terms of performance, battery life and response. Macbook Pro Intel wasn't bad, but just MBA is better.

 

[MBAir2010]

What the battery life is like. What the screen is like. I'm excited.

What do you guys think of the MacBook Air? Like it? Hate it? Meh? What's your opinion? Because mine's coming out soon. So I need to know who is wrong and who is right when I receive it Monday.

my concern is how long as years these M1 batteries last.
the 2010 MBA battery i have can exceed 3 hours, then 20%
but never ran over 5 hours

there are many members here whom love the 2021 MBA
and compare theirs to the pros that were realized the same time.
and seems to me Monterey is better than Big Sur which is a important aspect as well.

good luck and have fun Monday!

 

[Pugly]

I'm a huge fan of this M1 Air. I had the other 2020 Air briefly and thought it was the worst Mac I ever used... I ended up returning it because it just wasn't that much better compared to the older Airs.(performance wise)

Now the Air has finally become the pinnacle of the ultrabook concept Apple started with the original. For all the press the M1 Max/Ultra get, I think it's still the Air that's benefited the most from this transition. The M1 Air gets performance that rivals previous 15" MacBook Pros. I never thought that would happen in Apple's entry level device. And keeping the price at $999 is just great from Apple, I don't think they've ever done that... give you so much more while not increasing the price.

The only problems with the Air is only 2 ports and dated design. Everything else that was a problem with older is solved. The biggest areas of improvement is just support for more than 1 external screen, and GPUs can always be faster.... those are pretty minor concerns for me.

There were just so many missteps, or weird market segmentation issues for the Air to be perfect before. The 2nd generation was great, but the storage was small and the upgrades were pretty expensive. And then the Retina design increased the price, while getting a reduced power chip compared to competing laptops. The older Air wasn't a powerhouse, but it wasn't just okay like the retina Airs, and it was still stuck on 128GB of base storage (before 2020)... and the whole keyboard debacle. Apple charging more money for these really soured the whole Mac platform.

But now all's been corrected. I have a nearly top spec M1 Air, 16GB and 1TB and there is no pain points for me with this Mac, all for a decent price. The 2TB upgrade is really the only one that seems ridiculous.

 

[StoneJack]

I'm a huge fan of this M1 Air. I had the other 2020 Air briefly and thought it was the worst Mac I ever used... I ended up returning it because it just wasn't that much better compared to the older Airs.(performance wise)

Now the Air has finally become the pinnacle of the ultrabook concept Apple started with the original. For all the press the M1 Max/Ultra get, I think it's still the Air that's benefited the most from this transition. The M1 Air gets performance that rivals previous 15" MacBook Pros. I never thought that would happen in Apple's entry level device. And keeping the price at $999 is just great from Apple, I don't think they've ever done that... give you so much more while not increasing the price.

The only problems with the Air is only 2 ports and dated design. Everything else that was a problem with older is solved. The biggest areas of improvement is just support for more than 1 external screen, and GPUs can always be faster.... those are pretty minor concerns for me.

There were just so many missteps, or weird market segmentation issues for the Air to be perfect before. The 2nd generation was great, but the storage was small and the upgrades were pretty expensive. And then the Retina design increased the price, while getting a reduced power chip compared to competing laptops. The older Air wasn't a powerhouse, but it wasn't just okay like the retina Airs, and it was still stuck on 128GB of base storage (before 2020)... and the whole keyboard debacle. Apple charging more money for these really soured the whole Mac platform.

But now all's been corrected. I have a nearly top spec M1 Air, 16GB and 1TB and there is no pain points for me with this Mac, all for a decent price. The 2TB upgrade is really the only one that seems ridiculous.

Yes, probably will agree. Mine is 512gb ssd, 16gb of ram.

 

[1369281]

I picked up a MacBook Air / 16 GB RAM / 1 TB from Apple today. It's fantastic. I am coming from a 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro. I also use a maxed-out 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro... the MacBook Air is leaps and bounds faster. It's absolutely insane!

 

[iFan86]

The M1 MacBook Air has been my favorite computer to date. The size and speed is just perfect. I'm even more happy with it then what I thought I would be.

 

[jerryk]

Very happy with my Air. However, I should have gotten 16 GB of memory. I will definitely do that next time.

Battery life is great 8+ hours is pretty common for office tasks and programming.
Screen is good, not as bright as some of the pro models. With that said, I have never needed a brighter screen to be productive.

 

[ctjack]

Ok, subbed for a great topic. Many thanks to OP. Sister is graduating from HS and decided to pursue comp.sc.
Now wondering if 16/512 would make the most sense as a gift.

 

[TSE]

Ok, subbed for a great topic. Many thanks to OP. Sister is graduating from HS and decided to pursue comp.sc.
Now wondering if 16/512 would make the most sense as a gift.

You are very welcome my friend. Just received my ultimate MacBook Air and wow - it is incredible. No fan noise. Battery life beyond comprehension. Great little device that packs a lot of punch! Your sister will get straight A's.

 

[1369281]

Ok, subbed for a great topic. Many thanks to OP. Sister is graduating from HS and decided to pursue comp.sc.
Now wondering if 16/512 would make the most sense as a gift.

Software engineer here. Yes, that config will work wonderfully.

 

[TiggrToo]

Just bought an ultimate M1 MacBook Air. 16 GBs of supercomputer-level memory. 256 GBs of SSD encrypted like Fort Knox. Silver. Purchased it from Apple's world class refurbish program.

I'm moving from a 14" MacBook Pro - my previous company called it back in and I needed a new computer. I'm excited to report back if I can do my UX Design duties fulltime on it. What the battery life is like. What the screen is like. I'm excited.

What do you guys think of the MacBook Air? Like it? Hate it? Meh? What's your opinion? Because mine's coming out soon. So I need to know who is wrong and who is right when I receive it Monday.

I have a 32GB 16 Core 2019 Intel MBP for work and a 16/16 M1 for home.

Outside of being unable to run some docker containers, for me personally, the Air beats the Pro in everything except for the screen and the limitation of 1 external monitor.

 

[Toutou]

Sister is graduating from HS and decided to pursue comp.sc.
Now wondering if 16/512 would make the most sense as a gift.

Oh yeah, the Air is a CS student's dream. Runs all day, light, portable, great keyboard, retina display (but not the Pro fancy expensive one) for looking at code and reading docs, it packs more than enough firepower to chew through the CPU intensive parts (compiling, long-running algorithms) quickly and then continues to sip power like nothing happened.