I picked up a 6 month old Air with 16GB /1TB with AppleCare for $950. I see no reason to upgrade as the performance on this one is excellent for my workflow. The only thing that would make me consider would be added support for dual monitors and a SDCard slot. I don't see apple doing that so I will stick with this one for a while longer. I briefly picked up a 14" M1Max MacBook Pro. Yes it was faster and the display was nice, but the value was not there considering the cost difference for me.
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When are you planning to upgrade from your M1 Air and to what?
- Thread starter thadoggfather
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I was where you were at as well - 14" M1 Max. While it was a lovely machine, and had thinner bezels, better ports, a better screen, better webcam, and more RAM, the MacBook Air is where it's at for value per dollar, portability, and much better battery life.
Performance-wise, my m1 air should hold up for at least 5 more years. The only thing that would get me to replace it before then would be a smaller macos-capable device. I was a big fan of the 11'' mba, and I think apple silicon makes these smaller form-factors more usable.
Could you please elaborate for us how you felt it was faster? If it is multi-threaded fast like for faster rendering, then it is not appealing. But if on everyday tasks it feels faster than 16GB M1 Air, then that makes things a little bit different when choosing between those.
This is the 12" rMB's time to come back, really. Just with usable keyboard. Less than 1 kg, fan-free, 12" screen, way smaller than the old 11" Air (once bezels are removed).
Apple dont make an ultra portable anymore and the iPad doesn't really do enough for me. I know its not been a priority because of the pandemic.
The MacBook Air is not an ultrabook anymore, the fact it isnt that noticeable moving to the 13/14 MacBook Pro.
I would like an ultra portable that is thin and light as I travel a lot and would love a bigger screen, the M1 chip is so good that it fills 90% of peoples needs so I would take that if it was the M2 even better.
With all the failings of the 12" MacBook that machine was perfect and the M1 MacBook Air feels massive and heavy in comparison.
I would take a 12" MacBook style with an M1 and a bigger screen.
I have a few including the 2020 16" i9 2.4 32gb 2tb 5500m 8gb and apart from endurance exports of video and photos the M1 MacBook Air feels snappier but there is barely a difference.
Considering my M1 MacBook Air 16gb 1tb cost £1500 vs the £4k+ of the MacBook Pro I think it is incredible. A combination of the 16" screen and form factor of the air (smaller would be even better) would be my pick but alas its never been an option. Fingers crossed these rumours come true! The nice thing is the air doesn't throttle all that much so a bigger chassis would reduce this further.
On huge thing I would like to see is dual screen capacity for docking. Its an absolute joke that the M1 can only output to one external display.
The MacBook Air is not an ultrabook anymore, the fact it isnt that noticeable moving to the 13/14 MacBook Pro.
I would like an ultra portable that is thin and light as I travel a lot and would love a bigger screen, the M1 chip is so good that it fills 90% of peoples needs so I would take that if it was the M2 even better.
With all the failings of the 12" MacBook that machine was perfect and the M1 MacBook Air feels massive and heavy in comparison.
I would take a 12" MacBook style with an M1 and a bigger screen.
I have a few including the 2020 16" i9 2.4 32gb 2tb 5500m 8gb and apart from endurance exports of video and photos the M1 MacBook Air feels snappier but there is barely a difference.
Considering my M1 MacBook Air 16gb 1tb cost £1500 vs the £4k+ of the MacBook Pro I think it is incredible. A combination of the 16" screen and form factor of the air (smaller would be even better) would be my pick but alas its never been an option. Fingers crossed these rumours come true! The nice thing is the air doesn't throttle all that much so a bigger chassis would reduce this further.
On huge thing I would like to see is dual screen capacity for docking. Its an absolute joke that the M1 can only output to one external display.
If the air is upgraded with a new chip I will likely jump, ut the design has to be decent as well. I have a 2020 early air so it was before the new chip.
I often have to use a lot of apps including Safari and my M1 Air sometimes starts to lag or slow down a lot, Safari seems to be the main issue though, if that gets fixed I would not need to upgrade for a couple of years.
I love my M1 Air, but there are a few things that Could be improved. I wish they upgraded ”standard” configuration was 16/512 instead of 8/512. I wish it had at least one more usb-c or thunderbolt port. I wish it supported more than one external display. I’m anxious to see the new M2 variant of Air or whatever they name it, however it will be a hard pass if it only has white/light colored bezel options. I’m fine with color options, but give those of us who really prefer black bezels (for whatever reasons) an option too!
Maybe and I did own 5 of those in the past (2006 MB, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2020 intel). But I have a feeling we aren’t going to get a 13” M2 MBP and instead Apple will move to a refreshed 13” and eventually add a 15” MBA Or just call them Macbooks.
My 2012MBA held on for 10 years before the battery finally died. I am sure my M1MBA could handle the workload I would face for the next 15 years with ease.
The 12" MB already has the width of the full size keyboard. They can't make it smaller without shrinking the keyboard, which would be terrible for a lot of people. What they can do is leave it the same size but increase the size of the display to 12.6" or so.
Are you sure it can't be made slightly smaller? What about the keyboards used for the 11" IPP?
Im contemplating either selling my 8mo old cheapie ThinkPad(that I bought for rather cheap to have as universal Windows laptop at home for occasional need here and there) and use those funds to buy myself base config MBA and be happy with it until OLED Macbooks come out or wait for Macbook Air refresh, hopefully during WWDC and then sell my current ThinkPad and get either base 2020 M1 Air even cheaper or upgrade to latest MBA during summer. when its released in mid config with 16GB/512GB or 16/1TB combo, unless it gets too close to current base level MBP 14, in that case weight, battery life and perhaps ports will play large role in making decision.
But, overall I see, at least for my use scenario, base level M1 MBA as rather good stop-gap laptop until OLED ones come out.
Why I didnt get one last summer, when I bought ThinkPad, you might ask? Well, back then TP cost me 579+60 euros for 16GB RAM stick while base level M1 MBA cost me above 1100 euros, now I can get one for 900 brand new or ~750 used in like new condition and still more than year warranty left.
But, overall I see, at least for my use scenario, base level M1 MBA as rather good stop-gap laptop until OLED ones come out.
Why I didnt get one last summer, when I bought ThinkPad, you might ask? Well, back then TP cost me 579+60 euros for 16GB RAM stick while base level M1 MBA cost me above 1100 euros, now I can get one for 900 brand new or ~750 used in like new condition and still more than year warranty left.
I can't speak for everyone, but I am an adult with normal (average) sized hands. I would not want to type on that kind of baby keyboard for longer sessions (such as normal work). I have however used the 12" MB as my main laptop for years.
I really love my air. It's a daily driver work laptop for me and works great when I travel. I've also been using it as my photo editing machine, connected to my 2011 27" iMac using Luna Display. I only wish for 3 or 4 ports instead of 2.
I don't see a need to upgrade for at least 5 years. My 2011 iMac (with SSD swap) is still running strong and is a nice computer as well.
I don't see a need to upgrade for at least 5 years. My 2011 iMac (with SSD swap) is still running strong and is a nice computer as well.
I plan on keeping my admire MacBook Air for however long it stays running. I'm impressed at how my battery capacity is at 100% with 74 cycles so I would definitely consider taking care of it as much as I can.
And also it feels good to anticipate as much excitement for Apple when they release new products
And also it feels good to anticipate as much excitement for Apple when they release new products
What I meant was a non-butterfly keyboard, the same size/weight as the 12" rMB used to be, but with smaller bezels to accommodate a screen as large as possible. In retrospect the 12" rMB feels like rehearsals for the Mx computers.