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Please convince me that M1 air is the correct laptop for me

M

mzamonster

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 18, 2022
4
8
Hi,
I'm waited for m2 release for more than 1 year now..
But now with the base $1200 m2 price tag is too much for me for an 8gb/256gb laptop.
I want to use the laptop for office work (word, powerpoint, excel), tradingview, web browing (10+ tabs open at the same time) & streaming movie and a little bit of apple arcade gaming
Disclaimer, Never used a mac laptop before or own an iphone.
The reason I want a mac laptop because of portability and battery life (important!) where windows laptop equivalent usually much more expensive.
So I think that a macbook air m1 with 16gb/512gb (cost about $1399) should be enough right for at least 5 years of usage?
Sure m2 new look is very nice but this will be my main laptop and I want a consistent performace for a least 5 years in the future
We don't get much discount on apple devices where I live tho (Asia)

Thank you for your advices.
 
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Sounds to me that a higher-specified M1 would be better for you than a more basic M2 for the same price.
But with either of those computers you need to manage your workflows efficiently so you only have open what you need to be open rather than having a trillion tabs open that you expect it to be able to refresh in an instant when you click on them.
 
16GB/512GB combo regardless of which M-powered Macbook you get should be the correct choice if you plan on using it for 5 years.
 
I just bought the new MacBook Air M2 8GB/512GB. My understanding is that 8GB is enough in this new ARM architecture where the SSD helps memory, increasing the performance during heavy-duty tasks. In Canada, the M1 16gb/512gb is just $100 bucks cheaper than the M2 8gb/512gb. And the new MBA has more GPUs (+3 cores), new design, better processor, screen, camera, microphones, etc. To me, it's a better deal. Stick to the M1 just if you want the base model.
 
Last edited:
mzamonster said:
Hi,
I'm waited for m2 release for more than 1 year now..
But now with the base $1200 m2 price tag is too much for me for an 8gb/256gb laptop.
I want to use the laptop for office work (word, powerpoint, excel), tradingview, web browing (10+ tabs open at the same time) & streaming movie and a little bit of apple arcade gaming
Disclaimer, Never used a mac laptop before or own an iphone.
The reason I want a mac laptop because of portability and battery life (important!) where windows laptop equivalent usually much more expensive.
So I think that a macbook air m1 with 16gb/512gb (cost about $1399) should be enough right for at least 5 years of usage?
Sure m2 new look is very nice but this will be my main laptop and I want a consistent performace for a least 5 years in the future
We don't get much discount on apple devices where I live tho (Asia)

Thank you for your advices.
Click to expand...
I literally bought an M1 MBA 16/512 used and I absolutely love it. But in reality some of it is I just didn't want to think about RAM and HDD for the foreseeable future--whether I need that much or not.

This is the key advantage for some of us. Whether or not I need it, whether or not swap is a thing, I don't have to worry about it at all now. :)
 
BaddAdvice said:
Yep, sounds like the M1 Air, which is still a very capable machine, will do the trick.

BTW, off topic - why do people have so many open browser tabs open at any given time? I get hives if I have more than a couple open!
Click to expand...
I can't imagine having that many tabs open... I think my max comfortable tab number would be around five, with three being the average...

But to each their own 🤷‍♂️
 
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IMO, you should get the M2 and then enjoy. it will do just fine.

You won't feel like you got an old-looking machine few years down the road.

You have waited this long for the M2, why would you backtrack and get the M1? You could have gotten it and enjoyed it over the last year.

What you want is an M2.
 
FattKingHugeman said:
IMO, you should get the M2 and then enjoy. it will do just fine.

You won't feel like you got an old-looking machine few years down the road.

You have waited this long for the M2, why would you backtrack and get the M1? You could have gotten it and enjoyed it over the last year.

What you want is an M2.
Click to expand...

What I thought before the M2 reveals is similiar priced laptop as M1 just with newer design + minor improvement on processor.
Now, it's 200 dollars more with slower SSD too? also I read on this forum that 8gb is not quite future proof. Might be sufficient now, but in 5 years who knows? to add 400 dollar to $1200 for 16/512 is too much for me.
I think I have to give and take you know, I might missed the latest design m2 but at least I know M1 16gb ram is more than sufficient enough for the next couple of years.
 
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mzamonster said:
I want to use the laptop for office work (word, powerpoint, excel), tradingview, web browing (10+ tabs open at the same time) & streaming movie and a little bit of apple arcade gaming
Click to expand...
I use the base model M1 Air as my main computer for the works you've mentioned and I got no issue with the performance. It never lagged, stays relatively cool even with 10+ tabs open, and not to mention its insanely great battery life. If an older design is not a huge issue for you, I really think the M1 is enough for most of your daily usage.
IMG_4103.jpg

My M1 Air setup for now, really happy with the result :)
 
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7hiang said:
I use the base model M1 Air as my main computer for the works you've mentioned and I got no issue with the performance. It never lagged, stays relatively cool even with 10+ tabs open, and not to mention its insanely great battery life. If an older design is not a huge issue for you, I really think the M1 is enough for most of your daily usage. View attachment 2031638
My M1 Air setup for now, really happy with the result :)
Click to expand...
lol m1 mba and mx mouse. That's literally what I had in mind.
 
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I did everything you do on my base m1 air. Never had any problems or slowdowns.
After I had an accident and broke the screen, I choose the second most low budget replacement and bought a base m1 pro with a nice discount.
 
mzamonster said:
What I thought before the M2 reveals is similiar priced laptop as M1 just with newer design + minor improvement on processor.
Now, it's 200 dollars more with slower SSD too? also I read on this forum that 8gb is not quite future proof. Might be sufficient now, but in 5 years who knows? to add 400 dollar to $1200 for 16/512 is too much for me.
I think I have to give and take you know, I might missed the latest design m2 but at least I know M1 16gb ram is more than sufficient enough for the next couple of years.
Click to expand...
The M2 is not just a minor improvement, it's a big step up since it can be up to 40% faster for some tasks. The slower SSD is just in the 256gb version.
 
7hiang said:
I use the base model M1 Air as my main computer for the works you've mentioned and I got no issue with the performance. It never lagged, stays relatively cool even with 10+ tabs open, and not to mention its insanely great battery life. If an older design is not a huge issue for you, I really think the M1 is enough for most of your daily usage. View attachment 2031638
My M1 Air setup for now, really happy with the result :)
Click to expand...

What monitor do you have there?
 
BaddAdvice said:
Yep, sounds like the M1 Air, which is still a very capable machine, will do the trick.

BTW, off topic - why do people have so many open browser tabs open at any given time? I get hives if I have more than a couple open!
Click to expand...
Glad it's not just me. A computer is apparently underpowered if it can't cope with the 'absolutely normal' workload of 200 tabs open across multiple browsers + FCP running an 8K render of a Hollywood feature film all while they're developing something in XCode. I'm the weirdo who has it running basically one major app at once plus maybe ONE browser open with 10 tabs at the most, because that's the limit my two eyes and one brain can handle, and I never before considered myself particularly unrepresentative of Joe Average.

TLDR = it's amazing how little computing power you do need if you close down what you don't need
 
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netnative said:
Unfortunately, the 512GB SSD in the M1 MacBook Air is faster than the 512GB SSD in the M2 MacBook Air.
Click to expand...
The 512gb SSD is actually the same on both M1 and M2: A dual NAND chip SSD. The 256gb version is slower though, because it has only one chip instead of two.
 
BaddAdvice said:
BTW, off topic - why do people have so many open browser tabs open at any given time? I get hives if I have more than a couple open!
Click to expand...
Ha -- I feel the same!

There may be a time where I get up to 3, but you can only read one at a time. I will find content I want to read later and add it to reading list.
 
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