Should I buy the MBA M1 now?

[Bazza1]

There's never a 'best time' to buy any electronics - and Macs are no exception. Short of not buying a product that is routinely being reported on as a disaster by pretty much everyone, there will always be the occasional hiccup, and the 'Next Big Thing' is almost always guaranteed to come out the week after you make the purchase.

That said, there are ways to mitigate some issues and save some money at the same time. Apple's own 'Refurbished and Clearance' store online is starting to have M1s show up there, and that can mean a $150 savings over retail. Don't let 'refurb' scare you off - this can be products that did return with an issue, but these are repaired, while often they are products returned (buyer's remorse, wrong device for needs, wrong colour, etc - and being 'open box' they can't be sold new) - and every item gets a full individual check (arguably better then to factory inspection) before being put in the store with the usual warranty. And they're eligible for AppleCare +, too.

 

[tps3443]

There's never a 'best time' to buy any electronics - and Macs are no exception. Short of not buying a product that is routinely being reported on as a disaster by pretty much everyone, there will always be the occasional hiccup, and the 'Next Big Thing' is almost always guaranteed to come out the week after you make the purchase.

That said, there are ways to mitigate some issues and save some money at the same time. Apple's own 'Refurbished and Clearance' store online is starting to have M1s show up there, and that can mean a $150 savings over retail. Don't let 'refurb' scare you off - this can be products that did return with an issue, but these are repaired, while often they are products returned (buyer's remorse, wrong device for needs, wrong colour, etc - and being 'open box' they can't be sold new) - and every item gets a full individual check (arguably better then to factory inspection) before being put in the store with the usual warranty. And they're eligible for AppleCare +, too.

Thats like saying don't buy a new car because there will be a new one released the next year. I don't think a new Mac Air replacement is set to come out until around 2022 or maybe even later than that.

Just because something new comes out, doesn't mean its better.

If someone needs a laptop right now, then that person should get one, or you'll just keep sitting around for years, and years, and years? (Ive just gotta keep waiting) (One more year) (Just one more year lol)

We as customers and users probably waste the price of a base M1 air every year on silly subscriptions and items that are not even needed. If you need a laptop, then yeah a M1 MacBook is a great machine. It'll last you years. Don't overthink it. It's just a laptop that cost $899 brand new from the education store.

I am in college, when I purchased from the Apple Education Store, ( They required no proof of anything at all) They just discounted $100 dollars and sold it to me. (Made me think everyone must be paying $899 for one then lol)

Then I went in to the Apple store I picked it up from originally, so I could exchange for a 16GB/1TB M1 and they wanted proof of education. (But not online)

 

[weeesss]

I picked one up a few days ago at the Apple Store and just told them it was for my daughter who is on college. He asked where, I told him, and gave me the discount.

 

[tps3443]

I picked one up a few days ago at the Apple Store and just told them it was for my daughter who is on college. He asked where, I told him, and gave me the discount.

Yeah my first M1 Air was purchased online for in-store pickup. Nothing required for the discount at all. When I went to exchange in-store, and I had to pay the difference in-store too. This time they wanted my student ID, and school info.

I assume it varied based on the store, the girl that checked me out looked like it was her first day. So I assume she was going by the book.

 

[Bodhitree]

I’ve been very tempted to get an M1 MacBook Air to replace my 2011 MBA, it’s a great machine. If you need a new laptop I would go for it.

 

[Ghostrider72]

Go for it. A couple of weeks ago I decided to purchase a brand new mba with 16 gb ram and 512 ssd. This machine is fast, fluid, smooth. Apart from the fact that I am coming from Windows and my old printer and smart card reader are not working neither I can find updated drivers, I have never had such a powerful machine, I couldn't imagine there were on the market laptops like this. I can confirm it is a pleasure to use and the battery is a...Tesla!

 

[ignatius345]

The M1 MacBook (Air and Pro) are showing up on the Apple Refurb page pretty frequently these days. That's ~15% off right there, if that swings it one way or the other. You can get another 3% off if you happen to have an Apple Card.

If you're particularly worried about SSD wear or whatever this is (?)

-MBA M1 owners reporting their laptop died and just will not turn on.

... then just pony up for AppleCare and know that for three years you're totally covered as long as you've been backing up your stuff.

 

[jjahshik32]

Yes buy now as M1X will be alot more expensive and the MacBook Air will take another year to get refreshed.

 

[ipos]

Thats like saying don't buy a new car because there will be a new one released the next year. I don't think a new Mac Air replacement is set to come out until around 2022 or maybe even later than that.

Just because something new comes out, doesn't mean its better.

If someone needs a laptop right now, then that person should get one, or you'll just keep sitting around for years, and years, and years? (Ive just gotta keep waiting) (One more year) (Just one more year lol)

We as customers and users probably waste the price of a base M1 air every year on silly subscriptions and items that are not even needed. If you need a laptop, then yeah a M1 MacBook is a great machine. It'll last you years. Don't overthink it. It's just a laptop that cost $899 brand new from the education store.

I am in college, when I purchased from the Apple Education Store, ( They required no proof of anything at all) They just discounted $100 dollars and sold it to me. (Made me think everyone must be paying $899 for one then lol)

Then I went in to the Apple store I picked it up from originally, so I could exchange for a 16GB/1TB M1 and they wanted proof of education. (But not online)

will they change the processor to M1X this year?

 

[xraydoc]

will they change the processor to M1X this year?

For the MacBook Air? Only Apple knows for sure, but I highly doubt it. The next M-series chip will almost certainly be marketed for higher-end machines.

I doubt Apple will put their next chip into every single one of their computers -- where would the model line and price point differentiation be if the MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro, 16" MacBook Pro and iMac be if they all used the same chip.

The M1 still outperforms on a power-per-watt basis anything Intel & AMD has on the ultrabook side of things.

 

[DaMax85]

Don't think twice and buy it. The M1 Air is great.

 

[thadoggfather]

I don't think the Air will even be updated this year, personally.

If anything, at the very end but still not convinced. Think they're gonna want the M1'x' upsell models to shine

Air has such a good value prop and is a quantum leap from the early 2020 Intel Airs, that I just don't see it.

 

[tps3443]

The coolest thing about the MacBook M1 Laptops is how the memory usage works.

Before I owned one, I saw that 8GB ram
and genuinely worried over it... Everyone else did too lol. Then I thought, well Apple is great at optimizations. So it’ll run smooth right? Probably so.. Well, this is an understatement!

You can take a base Macbook Air M1 with 8GB of ram and push 20GB of system ram usage 100% smoothly with only like 60% memory pressure showing. Yes, the 16GB ram Air M1 can go insane with ram
usage. it can use more ram that my 32GB PC can.. How?! My desktop is a beast that hits like SUB 30K in R23 lol.

Anyways, the swap feature is nice.. Even a base 256GB modern day SSD is capable of around 200 TB of writes in a life. So we’re talking about a 8+ year SSD life span with HEAVY ram usage.

If you need more life than 8 years with (Extreme ram usage), then a 512GB model would last 300TB writes in a life. And 1TB even more than that.


So yeah, this is exactly why people rave so much about just the base M1 Air. Because they’re serious beast systems.

What an amazing system. Which is exactly why I bought one (My first Mac ever lol)

 

[fitcious]

So who wants to buy my 2020 MBA I7? Lol

 

[tps3443]

So who wants to buy my 2020 MBA I7? Lol

Trade it in, or maybe even just eBay it off.

 

[trevpimp]

You can always wait for tomorrows event to see what Apple brings to the table

cheers

 

[jjahshik32]

I'm going to wait until tomorrow's event to buy a MacBook Air. I doubt there is any refresh to the notebook lines but I am a little interested in the iPad Pro.

 

[DaMax85]

I'm going to wait until tomorrow's event to buy a MacBook Air. I doubt there is any refresh to the notebook lines but I am a little interested in the iPad Pro.

Likely won't be a major Air update because its current form factor was updated in 2018. We're probably at least another year from a redesign. But who knows?

 

[DaMax85]

The coolest thing about the MacBook M1 Laptops is how the memory usage works.

Before I owned one, I saw that 8GB ram
and genuinely worried over it... Everyone else did too lol. Then I thought, well Apple is great at optimizations. So it’ll run smooth right? Probably so.. Well, this is an understatement!

You can take a base Macbook Air M1 with 8GB of ram and push 20GB of system ram usage 100% smoothly with only like 60% memory pressure showing. Yes, the 16GB ram Air M1 can go insane with ram
usage. it can use more ram that my 32GB PC can.. How?! My desktop is a beast that hits like SUB 30K in R23 lol.

Anyways, the swap feature is nice.. Even a base 256GB modern day SSD is capable of around 200 TB of writes in a life. So we’re talking about a 8+ year SSD life span with HEAVY ram usage.

If you need more life than 8 years with (Extreme ram usage), then a 512GB model would last 300TB writes in a life. And 1TB even more than that.


So yeah, this is exactly why people rave so much about just the base M1 Air. Because they’re serious beast systems.

What an amazing system. Which is exactly why I bought one (My first Mac ever lol)

I agree. We have to think differently about ram now. This is my 4th Apple laptop, and I've learned that the base model is always the one for me. I'd rather spend less upfront, and then upgrade to a new machine more frequently. Storage creep isn't as much of a concern for me either due to cloud storage.

 

[SaguaroSeven]

It's already been 17 days or so since you started this thread. So wait until tomorrow, then buy the MacBook Air, if that's what you're in the market for. It's a great machine. Updates to MBA and MBP13 are very unlikely in 2021. Whatever next Apple Silicon processor comes, it will be in the new "pro" machines (14" & 16"?), and probably not until summer or fall.

As for your concerns:
1. If it dies, it's covered for at least a year under warranty; you should have a regular backup plan, so inconvenient at worst?
2. The "high SSD writes" may or may not be an accurate issue. Apple's SSDs are probably provisioned to last many, many years. If real, Apple will either fix it in software, or address through a repair program. Or their SSDs are so overly provisioned that it makes no difference.

These issues aren't getting traction outside of tech-news/forums, so they don't seem to rise to the level of "not buying a MacBook Air that you need/want." The only reason NOT to buy MBA now is that you don't need now and want to hold out for a $1900 base-price MacBook Pro redesign.

 

[drdudj]

I really need to get a new laptop, being a lifelong windows user I really wanna try switch to Apple. Yet there are concerning issues that prevent me such as:

-MBA M1 owners reporting their laptop died and just will not turn on.
-SSD high writes. Been checking the below thread daily:

ssd swap - high usage of Terabytes Written

I was wondering whether to do that as well! Thanks, will look into 8)

forums.macrumors.com

Yes, daily. For over a month.

Those two issues are the biggest concern for me.

What do you guys think?

i was like you, i needed a new laptop, my 10 year old toshiba/windows 10 finally had enough issues it was time to upgrade. having been a windows user since 1995, it was daunting for me to think about switching OS's but my cousin had switched over to macs about 12 years ago and kept telling me i needed to make the jump. when i had finally had enough with the toshiba's problems i started checking out reviews of dell's, toshiba's, and mac's, and that's when i came across the article about the MBA M1. i read a dozen different articles about the M1, and what helped me make the decision was that the testers were able to have dozens of tabs open, videos running, numerous 3rd party programs running and there was no lag. my toshiba could hardly run a video without buffering the entire time.

my main concern was the screen size at 13" compared to my toshiba's 17" but my cousin's wife had an older MBA with 13" screen and he said after a few hours of use i wouldn't even notice the difference, and he was right.

as to the SSD write factor, from everything i have read on this forum, and based on my usage; web surfing, youtube videos, emails/messaging, numbers spread sheet, i average between 15 and 20 gb write per day, so the hard drive should last about 25 years!!!

i've had my M1 8/7 256 since january and i've never had a computer this fast, this responsive, and a pure joy each day to turn on and go about my daily activities. you won't be disappointed.

 

[neuralengine]

This MacBook Air is way, way better than the Intel one. But if Mac chips follow the same pattern of year-over-year improvement as the phones, there won’t be the same gap between this MacBook Air and the next one.

If you need ports or multiple displays though, definitely worth waiting.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I traded in my high end 13' i7 MBP 2020 for an M1 MBP and I don't regret it at all. This thing has replaced my iPad for me and actually plays my games smoother than my 13' MBP with an eGPU. Yep, I'm happy.

One thing I miss are the 4 ports though... But I figure once the new M1 chips come out I can trade in to upgrade.

I've never had such a fast pleasant OS experience with no fan noise. Apple has a solid customer here.

 

[iHorseHead]

I got AppleCare just incase of the SSD issue.

 

[thadoggfather]

Dude you’re getting an iMac on the go. Do it