You may want to invest in an inexpensive laptop cooling stand / pad.
Thanks. Do you have some example links / products? I don't know what you mean.
I identified Stage Manager as very CPU hungry. After disabling that, it's much better
You may want to invest in an inexpensive laptop cooling stand / pad.
Yeah, the performance of the 2018-2020 Intel Airs is pretty poor; the M1 is a much better computer.Hmmm... That's too bad. Which model does she have?
I was considering a used 2020 i5 MBA for my young kid since performance is not a big concern, just OS support. Usage would be surfing, online interactive websites, Zoom, Messages, and simple stuff like that. (We have older less powerful Macs which handle that workload just fine.) M1 is a consideration too, but the M1 MacBook Airs are considerably more expensive. The (much) longer battery life of M1 would be a bonus, but isn't mission critical as it will be mainly used at home.
Thanks. Do you have some example links / products? I don't know what you mean.
I identified Stage Manager as very CPU hungry. After disabling that, it's much better
They have iPads already, but some of the interactive websites don't work properly on the iPad. Also, the online web-based Google applications sometimes act funky on the iPad.Yeah, the performance of the 2018-2020 Intel Airs is pretty poor; the M1 is a much better computer.
For your kid's use, why not just get an iPad? They'll do Zoom, Messages, and browsing just fine.
Hmmm... That's too bad. Which model does she have?
I was considering a used 2020 i5 MBA for my young kid since performance is not a big concern, just OS support. Usage would be surfing, online interactive websites, Zoom, Messages, and simple stuff like that. (We have older less powerful Macs which handle that workload just fine.) M1 is a consideration too, but the M1 MacBook Airs are considerably more expensive. The (much) longer battery life of M1 would be a bonus, but isn't mission critical as it will be mainly used at home.
Interesting. Other people have said the keyboard is similar, aside from differences in the function keys, since both are scissor.She has the i5. I would avoid the 2020 MBA, keyboard is not great, they tend to run hot. The M1 MBA is night and day a much better machine. Better Keyboard, silent, much quicker than the March 2020 Intel variant, much longer battery life. The early 2020 Intel MBA is one to avoid. Apart from that Apple is moving to Apple Silicon now which is likely to mean in the not to distant future, new Mac OS releases will be Apple Silicon only (although security updates will be available for a while longer).
The 2020 keyboard on the Intel Air is the scissor one that's virtually identical to what's in the M1. The 2018 and 19 keyboards are the terrible butterfly versions.Interesting. Other people have said the keyboard is similar, aside from differences in the function keys, since both are scissor.
Sorry my mistake, I thought it had the old butterfly keyboard. Please ignore my keyboard comment. The other points are valid though. Heat issue is real, my daughter complains that the fans come on when she is streaming movies.Interesting. Other people have said the keyboard is similar, aside from differences in the function keys, since both are scissor.
Well, that's unfortunate. My wife's 2017 i5-5350U MacBook Air's fan never comes on, including with video streaming. It probably is only 720p though.Sorry my mistake, I thought it had the old butterfly keyboard. Please ignore my keyboard comment. The other points are valid though. Heat issue is real, my daughter complains that the fans come on when she is streaming movies.
Yep - easier iterations of the MBA are fine. My wife had a 2015 MBA which lasted many years until I got her a M1 Air last year. The Early 2020 variant is one to avoid.Well, that's unfortunate. My wife's 2017 i5-5350U MacBook Air's fan never comes on, including with video streaming. It probably is only 720p though.
The 2018 and 2019 versions are equally poor performers, but also have the faulty butterfly keyboard so they're even worse than the 2020 Intel.The Early 2020 variant is one to avoid.
Yep - easier iterations of the MBA are fine. My wife had a 2015 MBA which lasted many years until I got her a M1 Air last year. The Early 2020 variant is one to avoid.
Yes, I went from looking at the 2015 MacBook Pro and 2015/2017 MacBook Airs last year on the used market, directly to the 2020 models this year, specifically because of the butterfly keyboard.The 2018 and 2019 versions are equally poor performers, but also have the faulty butterfly keyboard so they're even worse than the 2020 Intel.
Apple doesn't call the 2020 Intel Air an "early 2020", it's just the "Retina, 13-inch, 2020".
Were you talking to me or the OP? In either case... The M1 MBA will likely get macOS support for a bit longer than its release date suggests considering that it's still being sold now, but probably not too much longer. So maybe only a year less than the M2 MBA, and probably not two years less.Bear in mind that the M1 is now 2 year old technology - and given Apple's penchant for creating OSs that require newest possible tech for all the bells and whistles (their hardware outlasts their OSs) - I'd rather suggest that you keep an eye on their online Refurb and Clearance site for a M2 instead.
The 2018 and 2019 versions are equally poor performers, but also have the faulty butterfly keyboard so they're even worse than the 2020 Intel.
Apple doesn't call the 2020 Intel Air an "early 2020", it's just the "Retina, 13-inch, 2020".
I'm still trying to get a handle on the used pricing here, but it seems that for the 2020 MBAs, a rough guess would have the Intel models about CA$200 / US$150 less here. IOW, the M1 models probably cost about 25-30% more on the used market. I guess for the hardware and OS support advantages for M1, that's worth it.
Not really struggling with budget... but sorta... in the sense that I'm struggling to wrap my head around spending the cash on a machine that's just gonna get used for stuff like Google Classroom and low budget educational web games.I know you are struggling with budget, but the M1 Air is not just an incremental upgrade, but a huge upgrade from the Intel MBA it replaced. There is a very good reason why the second hand Intel MBA are going so cheap... $150 extra is definitely worth it to get a laptop that will last many years.
I bought this one: Coolertek USB Powered Laptop Cooler. It worked well and was reasonably quiet but not silent like they claim. I bought it on a whim to do some testing of my M2 MacBook Air to see if it would improve performance under load—spoiler, it does. I haven't used it since I did the testing but it was only $20.Well it looks like you found the culprit.
This appears to be the most popular Cooiling Pad on Amazon in the UK, at least you get the idea. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooling-HAVIT-Laptop-Cooler-Lighting/dp/B00NNMB3KS/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=10UC5UNTT41MI&keywords=Laptop+Cooling+pad+for+MacBook+Air&qid=1667484124&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjk0IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ==&sprefix=laptop+cooling+pad+for+macbook+air,aps,84&sr=8-1-spons&th=1
The M2 is more a frequency bump like 2013-2014 macbook upgrades were performance wise. The case and magsafe are the most noticeable changes. I'm pretty sure their future support isn't going to be that different. I replaced my wife's early 2020 MBA for the M1 MBA on clearance as it's heavily discounted. The early 2020 MBA fan is constantly running and noticeable even when just browsing. The only thing my wife misses about the i5 MBA is that it makes a great leg warmer during the fall/winter. The M1 MBA is always cold 😀Bear in mind that the M1 is now 2 year old technology - and given Apple's penchant for creating OSs that require newest possible tech for all the bells and whistles (their hardware outlasts their OSs) - I'd rather suggest that you keep an eye on their online Refurb and Clearance site for a M2 instead.
I had that model before I got the M1 - it was fine, but the battery would not last all day. So, if it needed recharging at the same time as a Zoom call, the fans would be so loud as to drown out the audio. The M1 of course is silent, whatever's happening.Hmmm... That's too bad. Which model does she have?
I was considering a used 2020 i5 MBA for my young kid since performance is not a big concern, just OS support. Usage would be surfing, online interactive websites, Zoom, Messages, and simple stuff like that. (We have older less powerful Macs which handle that workload just fine.) M1 is a consideration too, but the M1 MacBook Airs are considerably more expensive. The (much) longer battery life of M1 would be a bonus, but isn't mission critical as it will be mainly used at home.
I just picked up an M1 Mac mini 16 GB with 1 TB SSD. My 2017 Core i5-7600 iMac 24 GB with 1 TB SSD is plenty fast for mainstream computing, but nonetheless the M1 feels significantly faster. For example, on the iMac web pages render very quickly, but on the M1 they render almost instantly. I mean we are talking fractions of a second differences, but it's not that hard to notice. The iMac is fast enough that I'd have no problem at all continuing to use the iMac as my daily driver for many years to come, but M1 is still quite impressive in comparison.M1 and M2 are amazing chips. They run very well on Mac Mini and Macbooks, with heat, noise and power limitations and do it exceptionally well. I have not used Studio or iMac to judge the desktop M performance. Generally, for desktops recent Intel chips are very powerful too, so probably a draw here, but in notebooks anything M is very much ahead of competition from Intel.
Might have to do with the screen setup. I’m using a third party USB-C to dual-link DVI dongle on the M1, with a 30” Cinema Display. With the 2014 Mac mini, I was using Apple’s OEM mini-DP to dual-link DVI dongle.That’s really odd because wake-from-sleep is pretty much instant on my M1 iMac. But I agree with you that the M1 just generally feels very quick, it’s like the latency on common operations has suddenly gone down a lot compared to its Intel predecessors.