MacBook Air M1 512GB Buying Questions

[Sarbun96]

Hi guys, buying a MacBook Air model soon (or at least I'm hoping to). Can you tell me anything you think I should know about the M1 over Intel? I've watched all the videos but as users maybe you guys can tell me actual deal breakers if they exist?

It'll basically be for Minecraft which I originally thought was dead on ARM Macs but see now that it runs well. But does it crash or prove to be too unreliable in the real world?

Secondly... with the 512GB having 8 cores, are you seeing any difference compared to the 7 core or does the lack of a fan dumb down that slight gain?


And also, as it's a choice between the 256GB MB Pro or the 512GB Air, do any of you regret not buying the Pro and just depending on cloud storage?


Finally, does anyone in the UK know if I can pay monthly for Apple Care instead of swallowing the £210 upfront?

Other than that I'm thinking of Space Grey!

 

[G5isAlive]

The lack of a fan is largely meaningless... most reviewers say it rarely turns on for the m1 mini or m1 MacBook Pro, and no one really seems to miss the core in the 7 core gpu. I haven’t regretted the choice of the air.

honestly you can’t go wrong. So enjoy.

 

[Zippy99]

Minecraft (Java version) is the only app that has humbled my M1 MBA 512/16. I let my son play for a while with maximum settings on (including max view distance), and it overheated (and I mean *hot* to the touch) with visible throttling and performance degradation. This happened after about 15-20 minutes of playing. It may have been related to the part of the world he was in, but regardless it shows there are limits for the MBA.

Recommendation: Keep the settings reasonable and you'll be fine. But if your looking for sustained killer performance with max settings get an M1 with fan or wait until the Apple Silicon update improves things.

 

[pugxiwawa]

Minecraft (Java version) is the only app that has humbled my M1 MBA 512/16. I let my son play for a while with maximum settings on (including max view distance), and it overheated (and I mean *hot* to the touch) with visible throttling and performance degradation. This happened after about 15-20 minutes of playing. It may have been related to the part of the world he was in, but regardless it shows there are limits for the MBA.

Recommendation: Keep the settings reasonable and you'll be fine. But if your looking for sustained killer performance with max settings get an M1 with fan or wait until the Apple Silicon update improves things.

That’s probably due to Java not being native ARM version yet. Maybe give Azure a try to see if that improved the performance? I watched a video talking about compiling java on the new M1. It’s actually slower than Intel version if you are using x86 Java compiler through Rosetta2. But once switch over to arm versions it runs about 30% faster. Maybe this will help.

Azul Downloads

Click here to download the Azul Zulu Builds of OpenJDK for Java 8, 11, 17, 21, 23 for Linux, Windows and macOS. Also download Azul Platform Prime.

www.azul.com

 

[Sarbun96]

Thanks guys, I can't stress enough how much I appreciate the Minecraft Java specific experiences as this is mostly what I'll be doing in terms of 'performance'. And I'd be happy to stick with normal settings as the app determines suit the machine. I've never been one for shaders or even custom texture packs, or mods etc. I sometimes turn up the graphics just to take screenshots , but other than that I would keep it normal. My past machines that I've spend too much of my life on Minecraft to say out loud were a mid-2012 MacBook Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro 13", so I've never been accustomed to killer graphics as such. I trust the M1 and the latest Macs build on those older models integrated abilities.

I suppose given that I can't go wrong performance wise from model to model, now it's about should I make do with 256GB even though I love the idea of the 512GB headroom and not running into drive full territory as often. A lot of my files ARE on iCloud permanently, but the ability to have them there - especially as MacOS learns what to keep offline - and all is tempting. THEN, there's the MacBook Air or Pro decision, the prices are so close really. For a 512GB Air I can get the 256GB Pro. The 500 nits thing and P3 makes this even harder, as before I'd have dismissed the Air for lacking these.

I've had the Pro in the past, and jobs where I've depended on it and even got promotions because of the kind of things I could do for the company with software like Affinity. Now with M1 bringing the Air up to the 13" Pro performance (vs the i3 of months ago) and the on par screen it's getting more tempting for me to bag the advantage of the thin / light chassis over the Pro too.... aaarrrgghhh Apple why do you do this to us?! Who would have thought making the Air better would make this so much harder lol

Side note, I'm also going to be buying an iPhone, SE or 12 Mini and the amount I spend on the phone to the amount on the Mac matters... e.g. if I go for a higher end Pro 512GB I'd really need to get the SE. But having had the XR I'm not sure I could take the steps down.... but if I get the lower MacBook Airs I can get a better iPhone... decisions eh.

 

[Sarbun96]

Decision: Just ordered a MacBook Air, M1, 512GB, Space Grey. It won't get here until the 18th of January sadly, but in order to bag that student discount with Apple I went and decided to put up with it. So it won't be here by Christmas, but still looking forward to it! Plenty of M1 content on YouTube to keep me busy until then I guess. Thanks for all your advice