512 gb 8gb Space Gray Pro owner here. Everything is so seamless. It's unreal. Granted, I do not run windows or any complicated programs. I am blown away. How can this be a first gen machine? I am now trying to figure out what to do about my other MacBooks because all I want to do is use this one. I am in love. Logic tells me I should return it and get the second gen version of it and I will eventually run into some major problems, but I don't want to take it back lol.
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Is anyone else blown away by how fast these M1 MacBooks are?
- Thread starter Jacoblee23
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I have been very M-pressed with my new M1 as well. Very nice machine.
I do not think there will be a gen 2 of the current M1 Macs in 2021....so if you are happy with what you have, just keep it and enjoy....you also said you do not run anything complicated, so I'm sure there would be no need to change it.
I also think that the next release of M chip Macs will be a lot more expensive too for no other reason than they can.
I think we have got quite lucky to get the current M1 Macs at the price that they have been released at...£700 for the Mac mini, £1k for the MBA are really well priced in my opinion....was never bothered about the MBP and for me the £300 increased price was not justified for my use case of a laptop.
I also think that the next release of M chip Macs will be a lot more expensive too for no other reason than they can.
I think we have got quite lucky to get the current M1 Macs at the price that they have been released at...£700 for the Mac mini, £1k for the MBA are really well priced in my opinion....was never bothered about the MBP and for me the £300 increased price was not justified for my use case of a laptop.
I have used mine almost every day since I got it, but I'm still impressed every time I open the lid and see how fast and efficient it is. As opposed to my work Intel MacBook Pro that I have to plug in at lunch if I want it to last me through the full work day.
They are light and day different compared to prior gen Intel machines. Its like getting a Mac for the first time again in terms of the experience.
I think most people are very impressed. It just highlights how far behind Intel-based macs are.
Absolutely. I've even moved my Music software from my aging 2015 iMac to this machine and the difference is astounding. My full orchestrations, which I worked through the limitations of the older Macs I had, seem to take hardly any toll on the MB Air M1 I got. Now I am free to push more intensive projects with this.
I do plan to replace my desktop so I think I'll wait for the next major brand of iMac to be the new dedicated desktop. But for now, this is my new workhorse until the new more powerful Arm-based desktops arrive. My intention was simply to replace my previous 2019 MacBook Air, (which I used for MainStage gigging) but didn't expect it to become my most powerful Mac I owned, by a long shot. Glad I got the 16GB, 1TB SSD options. So obviously, the desktop I get has to be better so I don't end up moving projects to the desktop and realize I can't work there.
I'm also excited for all the extra ARM support that will be ready by the time I can get that ARM Mac Desktop.
I do plan to replace my desktop so I think I'll wait for the next major brand of iMac to be the new dedicated desktop. But for now, this is my new workhorse until the new more powerful Arm-based desktops arrive. My intention was simply to replace my previous 2019 MacBook Air, (which I used for MainStage gigging) but didn't expect it to become my most powerful Mac I owned, by a long shot. Glad I got the 16GB, 1TB SSD options. So obviously, the desktop I get has to be better so I don't end up moving projects to the desktop and realize I can't work there.
I'm also excited for all the extra ARM support that will be ready by the time I can get that ARM Mac Desktop.
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Love it so far. This is my first mac and it is easily the best laptop that I have ever owned and arguably the best computer next to my gaming pc.
This is me exactly. First Mac, best laptop owned, best computer next to my gaming PC. Love it!
This is my first Mac and I am both completely blown away and extremely happy about this machine being the first real Mac I've used. I have never experienced anything quite like it, besides my iPhones of course 😄
to be honest I might go the mac route for desktops too since the cost of a gaming pc is quickly rising out of my range.
The M1 is a great first Mac. Welcome. The problem with that is the expectation bar has now been raised to a very high level and future Macs will have a harder time enthralling you.
The M1 is a great first Mac. Welcome. The problem with that is the expectation bar has now been raised to a very high level and future Macs will have a harder time enthralling you.
To be honest I was planning on getting a Mac when I was in college back around the 2016? redesign. I ended up saying no because of the price rise. Then I heard about the keyboard and overheating and each year I kept delaying my purchase until I heard they are switching to ARM. Then I waited a few more years until the M1 macs came out and after confirming temps on the Air I went for it. It seemed like the perfect time to switch.
Yeah there might be a redesign in 2 years (I say 2 years because the Air got the redesign after the Pros so if the Pros get a redesign this year then I wouldn't expect the Air for at least 2 years) but the performance is great, battery life is long, screen is good, and I do not care about the bezzels so it works perfectly for me.
I did wish I went with 16gb though. I haven't run out of ram during my work tasks but for some reason when I use reddit I get a message saying that the site takes too much ram which is strange.
I had considered getting 16GB, but I had a strict budget and I wanted 512 internal storage, as I did not want to have to deal with external drives at any point. I've had gaming sessions with Divinity Original Sin 2 going, along with a browser and a few other apps, and I've checked to see if I am using swap file, which I am, but I never feel anything get any slower. I attribute this to just how super fast the internal SSD is. I'm OK with my choice now. Of course I would like more RAM, but I can't deny that I am completely happy with the performance with 8. If I couldn't see the amount of RAM, I would not have guessed that it was only 8GB, going by my preconceived notions of speed/swapfile slowdown.
I do see a lot of people being pretty happy with the 8GB configuration. Many tests shown around, usually show the 8GB keeping up well for a number of tasks.
I mainly went with 16GB because of the "room to grow" workhorse stuff. When it comes to music and video, I planned to go further than before, and user created conditions usually means I'll start using up a bigger pool space of ram, while requiring more multiple levels of simultaneous drive reads. Alas, it was really for creative and performance room, made a bit easier given that I'll get paid for that stuff.
The only snag I hit, from the music part is not a new one, and it doesn't stop anything, and it's more of a issue specifically with MainStage itself. There is a particular set of instrumental and environment overlays that still, when first loading the concert, bring up a message that certain patches could cause issues, totally ignoring the amount of extra power the machine has to overcome it. Just means I have to continue to tell it to ignore that whenever I bring up the concert. It played well enough (with the same complaint) on the Intel machines, but seems like I should do a small workaround to remove the warning message, or wait for a MainStage patch.
I mainly went with 16GB because of the "room to grow" workhorse stuff. When it comes to music and video, I planned to go further than before, and user created conditions usually means I'll start using up a bigger pool space of ram, while requiring more multiple levels of simultaneous drive reads. Alas, it was really for creative and performance room, made a bit easier given that I'll get paid for that stuff.
The only snag I hit, from the music part is not a new one, and it doesn't stop anything, and it's more of a issue specifically with MainStage itself. There is a particular set of instrumental and environment overlays that still, when first loading the concert, bring up a message that certain patches could cause issues, totally ignoring the amount of extra power the machine has to overcome it. Just means I have to continue to tell it to ignore that whenever I bring up the concert. It played well enough (with the same complaint) on the Intel machines, but seems like I should do a small workaround to remove the warning message, or wait for a MainStage patch.
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Yeah I am pretty happy with 8gb. Its only reddit that maxes out the ram for some reason. Though my first desktop mac will have 16gb or more whenever I get one. Waiting until at least M3 first
I am completely blown away, I agree with you. I purposely got the lowest M1 Macbook Air 8GB 256GB, and it kicks the crap out of my 2015 15" Macbook Pro with 16GB of RAM. Not even close...
So I wanted to report my battery life after my first full day with my m1 pro. I unplugged at 8am used it till 2:30. Used it again from 7:30 till 9:30 and still have 50% yet. Mind=blown!
It's ridiculous how good the M1 machines are. I'm using my Intel MBP 2017 and the difference is night and day.
I upgraded from a 13" 2013 MacBook Pro - to the M1 MacBook Air 8GB 512GB - the difference is like night and day!😍
Yup. M1 Air is just Air-mazing! I used iMac 2011 almost ten years (still my secondary machine), and without SSD. So difference is... pretty noticeable 😃Macs are exiting again.
Some websites have many scripts running and thus trigger Safari warnings. I get warnings when using Twitter on Safari. I have 32 GBs of RAM and Safari is not using virtual memory, yet I see the same warnings as you.
My first Apple computer in my life (MBA 8/256). I just wanted to do something after I was bored with Windows. M1 was a great reason to try it. And I'm really impressed. Wake up is so fast... I can't believe it. The display is fantastic compare to almost 6-year-old Yoga. Speakers are good enough to listen to music. OS is something new and fresh for me. The aluminum body is so nice (I loved aluminum phones in the past).
Well, I really don't regret move like this.
Well, I really don't regret move like this.
I can tell you I got that message on Catalina on my old iMac with 24 gb of ram too for some sites. It is nothing that is reserved for M1 macs and has very little to do wih the actual ram in the computer and more to do with how much crap some sites load.