in recent months I have used my brother's MBA 8/256 and while using it I have not had any particular problems. I also have a new MBP 8/256 to activate, Now does it make sense to sell it for € 1200 (I bought it for € 1153 in december) and buy the MBA for € 977 or the 16/256 version for € 1149?
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MBA Buying Advice
- Thread starter GG567
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What "makes sense" is whatever course of action results in you possessing a computer that meets your needs at the least cost from where you are now.
If you're unaware of any particular reason you'd prefer an MBP over an MBA, then the MBA is a fine choice.
If you can return the MBP 8/256 for refund, then that'd be the first thing to do.
As for whether 8/256 or 16/256 is the better fit for your need... us anonymous strangers on the internet don't really have any sense of what you need to do with the computer or how much stuff you need to store on it.
I would suggest performing your normal workload on your brother's MBA and watch the Memory Pressure graph in Activity Monitor. If it stays completely green then you're probably fine with an 8GB memory config. If you see bits of yellow (or more), or any red, then you need the 16GB memory config.
As for the 256GB storage - you need to look at your own storage needs and how much you'd have leftover. Unless you were at ~100GB free with everything loaded, I'd probably look to step up the storage to 512GB just because very few people ever find they need *less* storage in two years.
If the M1 Air works for your workload, why not buy that. The Air and 13" MBP M1 are V1 of Apple Silicon. New versions will appear with more performance and storage for the same amount of money. So I would not overspend on an M1 system. Get what meets your needs today, not 2-3 years or beyond from now.
I bought a bottom spec M1 MBA for 799$ and have been blown away by its performance. I’ve run a Linux VM periodically so see it paging to VM but it really doesn’t slowdown. What I notice relative to an Intel is that it’s instant. Everything responds immediately. The Intel has a definite lag which is positively limping along when TB is disabled under low battery power remaining.
My use is office, web browsing, zoom, teams, mail, video conference recordings with Obs studio but still for a while, parallels every now and then when I needed a Windows-only program.
My doubt is: given my use, does the MBA make sense and save € 220 or better to keep the MBP?
Does the MBP have any real differences for my daily use that justify the additional price?
Other than touchbar, ability to sustain higher sustained CPU loads, and possibly (as reported by some people) display, audio, and keyboard improvements, the MBA and MBP are largely the same.
If anything, your stated usage likely would benefit more from greater RAM (16 vs 8) than from MBP vs MBA differences.
Though I don't know what Obs studio is, and I'd recommend researching current status of running Windows programs on M1 architecture systems (I haven't paid attention to whether that's possible yet).
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Parallels 17 was just released to work on both Intel and M1 macs. I haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure there will be a thread or two about it.
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Does it run Windows x86 or x86_64? Because as far as I'm aware it doesn't, which means it's basically pointless.
I sold my MBP 8/256, paid 1153 sold at 1200, I hope not to regret it.
Since the differences are minimal, I am moving towards the MBA.
For my use are there any differences between the 8 core 8/512 and 7 core 8-16 / 256 version?
Which one do you recommend to buy? 8/512 1189 €; 8/256 977€; 16/256 1149€
Has anyone tried these versions and could you tell me the real differences?
Thanks.
I've never tried the 7 core model, and I don't know what Obs studio is, so I can only guess that 7 core vs 8 core likely won't make an appreciable difference to you. But that's a guess.
As for memory and storage... buy what you need for what you want to do. It quickly becomes frustrating when you don't have a big enough SSD. So is 256GB what you need? Only you can answer, and you'd do so by looking at your usage on your current / recent computer. Same for memory. 8 vs 16. 8 is still often sufficient for low intensity usage today, but then you mention using Parallels... and the moment you start talking about needing to use virtual machines I'd say you need to be at 16GB of RAM. Though you also need to verify Parallels will do what you expect it to do on the M1 machines.
I can tell you that I was just thinking today what a delightful computer this M1 MBA has been for me, and I only have the base 8 GB $999 model. Right now I have it set up with 3 desktops in Spaces:
1) Personal stuff like Messages, Mail, and Calendar, as well as whatever else I need for specific tasks like photo/video editing, streaming video, music, etc.
2) Work stuff like Slack, Teams, Outlook, etc.
3) Study materials in Books and Safari
They're all three pretty much open all the time unless one of them needs to update. I never have any slowdown in performance or really anything other than a buttery smooth experience, no matter what I've asked this machine to do.
It also continues to wow me with how cool it operates and how efficiently it uses battery power. I still only have to plug it in once a week, even as I ask more and more of it. I've never felt it get any warmer than slightly above room temperature.
I have never loved the laptop form factor due to the lack of all the things I listed above. I've never even LIKED laptops for most of my computer-using career. I LOVE this Macbook Air. It feels like witchcraft to have a computer this powerful, battery efficient, and cool-operating even under heavy load.
1) Personal stuff like Messages, Mail, and Calendar, as well as whatever else I need for specific tasks like photo/video editing, streaming video, music, etc.
2) Work stuff like Slack, Teams, Outlook, etc.
3) Study materials in Books and Safari
They're all three pretty much open all the time unless one of them needs to update. I never have any slowdown in performance or really anything other than a buttery smooth experience, no matter what I've asked this machine to do.
It also continues to wow me with how cool it operates and how efficiently it uses battery power. I still only have to plug it in once a week, even as I ask more and more of it. I've never felt it get any warmer than slightly above room temperature.
I have never loved the laptop form factor due to the lack of all the things I listed above. I've never even LIKED laptops for most of my computer-using career. I LOVE this Macbook Air. It feels like witchcraft to have a computer this powerful, battery efficient, and cool-operating even under heavy load.
I personally have the 16GB/1TB MBA so I don't have direct experience with your options but the only one I would consider is the 16/256. Of course it depends on your usage but RAM is fixed and can't be updated after purchase. While only 256GB of SSD would be annoying I know that I can add a small external TB/USB4 SSD when the 256 GB fills up. Or something like iCloud can offload a lot of space if you are willing to pay the small cost for 250 GB for example.
For many uses, 8 GB of RAM will be plenty but if you plan on keeping the computer for a few years, it is hard to know if your requirements will change over time.
Thanks to everyone for helping me, the best solution for me would be the 16/256 version because in the future I may need more ram and I could not upgrade it unlike SSD which would add an external hard drive.
But thanks to a special offer I found the 8/256 version at 750 € (I couldn't let it slip away) which is fine for my use today, I don't know in the future, I'll think about it when the time comes 😁
But thanks to a special offer I found the 8/256 version at 750 € (I couldn't let it slip away) which is fine for my use today, I don't know in the future, I'll think about it when the time comes 😁