M1 Air Owners - Any regrets for not getting Pro or an Intel?

[AltecX]

I'm thinking of finally replacing my 2015 Air with a M1 Air. My usage isn't heavy, Browser, Office, light Photoshop work.

Does anyone with a similar workload either regret not getting the Pro or not getting an Intel? I'm trying to hold off till we see if the rumors of a new 14in pans out (mostly just for the added screen size), but if not, the Air looks like the best suited for me.

 

[PaladinGuy]

I don’t regret it. It was a hard call. I tried both the M1 MBP and MBA. I really loved the battery life and speakers on the MBP. the screen brightness was occasionally nice.

I ultimately decided that it just made more since for me to have 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD And AppleCare over those things. I don’t need the small bit of headroom the fan provides, and the battery life is still great on the MBA. It’s just next level amazing on the MBP. I also like the wedge shape of the MBA for typing.

They’re both great computers. The speakers are the main thing I miss, but I have AirPods Pro and Sony XM4s, so that’s not that big of a deal.

I think it depends on if money is a factor at all. If I didn’t need to think about use of money, I would have gotten a same speced MBP. I just couldn’t justify spending nearly $300 more for small improvements.

In terms of Intel, it wasn’t even a consideration for me. I sold my 2019 13” MBP to get the M1. That’s the future for Apple, and that’s already starting to pan out. Some of the Mac Monterey features already won’t work on Intel Macs.

 

[vigilant]

I'm thinking of finally replacing my 2015 Air with a M1 Air. My usage isn't heavy, Browser, Office, light Photoshop work.

Does anyone with a similar workload either regret not getting the Pro or not getting an Intel? I'm trying to hold off till we see if the rumors of a new 14in pans out (mostly just for the added screen size), but if not, the Air looks like the best suited for me.

I have a MacBook Pro M1, but I used a MacBook Air M1 for close to a month before mine came in.

The MacBook Air M1 is my wife’s go to computer. The BIG difference between the Air and Pro is the fans and battery size. I can tell you from experience you can run the Air under heavy full load for about 30 minutes before performance starts throttling in performance.

If you are using video meeting software that isn’t optimized for the M1 I’d say get a Pro if you’re on a lot of calls.

The Pro M1 seems to have virtually infinite thermal headroom. The fan is so quiet that even when it’s running I don’t hear it. I’ve heard the fan come on once, and it was doing several fairly intensive things at once, I was installing and running Windows 10 using Parallels, and using Microsoft Teams for several hours.

YMMV

 

[0128672]

No regrets getting the Air over the Pro, and it’s been a solid performer. I stopped indulging my spec nerdness and overbuying.

 

[rJonze]

There's not much difference in performance until you start encoding or running a task that really warms up the proc. Pro speakers and screen are a little better but I find the ones on the air adequate. Touch bar is the big thing. For me the smaller size is worth the trade off. I think a 16/512 air is a better buy than a base model MBP.

 

[xraydoc]

Zero regrets.
Lighter, silent, and for my uses, equally as fast as the MBP or the Mac mini.
l‘ve yet to increase the screen brightness beyond about 75-80%.

Bought the 8-core GPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

 

[Minerbot360]

I'm actually typing this response on my M1 MacBook Air right now! I have absolutely no regrets. For light usage such as using safari or pages, it is perfect. It is so nice to have a computer that doesn't ramp up the fan just by turning the dang thing on (I'm looking at you old HP 'Elite' laptop). I did check out the MacBook Pro, but I just couldn't justify the extra GPU core, slightly brighter screen, touchbar, and fan for $300 more.

7-core GPU, 8gb of RAM, 256gb storage

 

[alien3dx]

nope. The most problem of normal laptop is heat and fan noise . I prefer to bring this macbook air to meeting compare last time ryzen.

Mac cannot game ..

 

[iHorseHead]

Not really. I've had problems with kernel panic and it randomly shutting down several times per day while I'm just surfing the web and some other issues, but I clean installed it 4 times. 4 times because it got stuck at "Creating your account" on the installation screen, but the 4th time it actually worked.
It's been a day since clean install and nothing has happened yet. Seems to be working fine now.

 

[Significant1]

No regrets. I do wonder if I would like touchbar. But I might not and every time I run the numbers I end up with Air for my needs. I also loves there is no fan. Besides touchbar (I might or might not like) the only feature advantage for me in Pro is bit brighter screen, but only beause I know the specs, not because I have needed more brightness.

 

[KUKitch]

None at all, I’m also not a heavy user and came from a 15” Touch Bar Mac and don’t miss the size or the Touch Bar. I never hated that, but I didn’t use it too much. It is awesome having no fan at all, my wife has the 15” now and it just randomly turns into a jet engine, as does my work laptop - no noise in operation is fantastic! I have the 8/8 with 8/512 and it’s been perfect.

 

[vagos]

No regrets. I can even play diablo 3 @ 4k resolution on my external monitor, without fan noise. A dream come true.
Plus for anything work related it's fast and responsive. Best 1500 euros I've ever spent.

 

[Toutou]

None. I use my Air as a software development workhorse and it's been smooth sailing for me since day one. Great value for the money.

 

[Mistborn15]

The only thing I regret is getting it at the time I did - when all the apps I use weren't yet ready. I wouldn't hesitate to get it now!

 

[James_C]

From the perspective of someone who has always in the past bought the 15" PowerBook / MacBook Pro since 2002. The 13" MBA is the best laptop I have ever had. I did a full review comparing the M1 Air to my 2016 15" MacBook Pro here. I never use the screen at max brightness and unless you are a full time video editor I doubt that the lack of fan will be an issue. My only suggestion is get the base 7 core GPU air and upgrade the RAM to 16GB with the money saved vs the pro. With the Pro you are mainly paying for the Touch Bar which a lot of people do not like, and it is rumoured that this will be dropped on the next gen MBP anyway.

I just received my PS5 after trying to find one after six month. That thing is a mini room heater and reminds me of how fantastic the MBA is in terms of thermal management to power (Yes I am aware that the PS5 has a much more powerful GPU).

 

[bobcomer]

Regrets on buying the M1 Air, it gets hot and throttles too much, but I'll admit my work flow seems to be different than most. I bought an Intel Mac Mini last year too, and no regrets there.

 

[AAPLGeek]

Regrets on buying the M1 Air, it gets hot and throttles too much, but I'll admit my work flow seems to be different than most. I bought an Intel Mac Mini last year too, and no regrets there.

Which Intel mini did you get last year?

 

[Weisswurstsepp]

Well, I just bought a Mac mini M1 with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 10GBE, and I'm close to returning it. Don't get me wrong, the performance of the M1 is very good. However, the image on the (DisplayPort connected) monitor it produces is horrible, with blurry fonts and skewed colors, caused by the fact that the default color space for the monitor outputs on the M1 (both HDMI and DisplayPort) to YPbPr422 (an old format for HD TVs) instead of the common RGB format that's used pretty much everywhere. It appears all M1 based Macs are affected, and unless you have one of the handful of monitors the M1 can correctly identify then it'll fall back to YPbPr422. Needless to say, the same monitor works fine with my Mac Pro 2010, my old intel Mac mini 2012 and the various PCs I connected to it.

The other issue is that I originally bought the Mac mini not because I wanted a Mac mini but because Apple's lackluster product policy. With my Mac Pro 2010 being stuck on Big Sur 11.2.3 I needed something new which can replace it, and as far as non-AIO desktop Macs are concerned the only options that exist are the Mac mini and the Mac Pro 2019. And considering that Apple has destined the intel platform to the dustbin there's no way I'm going to pay more than five grands for an intel Mac Pro with a single processor only or more than a grand for an intel Mac mini, so the Mac mini M1 is pretty much the only option for a new desktop Mac. Of course I could go 2nd hand but intel Macs and their intel GPU don't play nice with KVM switches, and the Mac Pro 2013 (Trashcan) comes with proprietary obsolete GPUs that are slower than the RX580 in my current MP, is a thermal design failure and highly unreliable, and 2nd hand prices are simply insane. So there's that.

So right now that leaves me with the Mac mini M1, or the alternative to move my work to another platform (Windows, Linux) where there is an abundance of great hardware available (I have a nice HP z840 standing next to my Mac Pro). Which is why I'm procrastinating if I should return it or keep it and pray that Apple will soon fix the YPbPr422 problem (which I have my doubts, considering it's still unresolved despite how widespread this problem has been since the day M1 was introduced).

Apple really does make it difficult to stay on their platform.

 

[SenorWhyMe]

nope, plus in fact I did the thermal pad mod, been using it for rendering and developing, now with monterey beta. I just can’t wait for universal control to be activated so it connects easily to my ipad pro.

The way I use my macbook is more like a desktop than a laptop. I keep my macbook air in dock mode use my benq monitor and my ipad pro under my screen behind my keyboard. soon Universal Control will come out and I will fully take advantage of it

 

[SenorWhyMe]

Regrets on buying the M1 Air, it gets hot and throttles too much, but I'll admit my work flow seems to be different than most. I bought an Intel Mac Mini last year too, and no regrets there.

time to thermal pad mod it. it works; but will be honest I never use my laptop on my lap always on a desk or surface

 

[alien3dx]

Well, I just bought a Mac mini M1 with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 10GBE, and I'm close to returning it. Don't get me wrong, the performance of the M1 is very good. However, the image on the (DisplayPort connected) monitor it produces is horrible, with blurry fonts and skewed colors, caused by the fact that the default color space for the monitor outputs on the M1 (both HDMI and DisplayPort) to YPbPr422 (an old format for HD TVs) instead of the common RGB format that's used pretty much everywhere. It appears all M1 based Macs are affected, and unless you have one of the handful of monitors the M1 can correctly identify then it'll fall back to YPbPr422. Needless to say, the same monitor works fine with my Mac Pro 2010, my old intel Mac mini 2012 and the various PCs I connected to it.

The other issue is that I originally bought the Mac mini not because I wanted a Mac mini but because Apple's lackluster product policy. With my Mac Pro 2010 being stuck on Big Sur 11.2.3 I needed something new which can replace it, and as far as non-AIO desktop Macs are concerned the only options that exist are the Mac mini and the Mac Pro 2019. And considering that Apple has destined the intel platform to the dustbin there's no way I'm going to pay more than five grands for an intel Mac Pro with a single processor only or more than a grand for an intel Mac mini, so the Mac mini M1 is pretty much the only option for a new desktop Mac. Of course I could go 2nd hand but intel Macs and their intel GPU don't play nice with KVM switches, and the Mac Pro 2013 (Trashcan) comes with proprietary obsolete GPUs that are slower than the RX580 in my current MP, is a thermal design failure and highly unreliable, and 2nd hand prices are simply insane. So there's that.

So right now that leaves me with the Mac mini M1, or the alternative to move my work to another platform (Windows, Linux) where there is an abundance of great hardware available (I have a nice HP z840 standing next to my Mac Pro). Which is why I'm procrastinating if I should return it or keep it and pray that Apple will soon fix the YPbPr422 problem (which I have my doubts, considering it's still unresolved despite how widespread this problem has been since the day M1 was introduced).

Apple really does make it difficult to stay on their platform.

if they sell cheaper intel macbook pro i would buy but apple dont want to reduce price and spec pretty old .

 

[11235813]

No regrets at all. On the contrary, I got so used to a fanless and cool laptop that I'll never go back. I have not had a single incompatibility problem with any app that I use.

 

[Royksöpp]

Intel is in Apple's rear view mirror. There would be no point in buying yesterdays chips, especially when they have no future at Apple. Intel is now on their 1th Gen chips, yet The 16 inch MPB has 9th and the 13 is on the 10th. Unless you absolutley need something that will run specifically on those machines, I would stay far away from them. It would be like buying an iPhone XS or 11 at full price instead of the 12. The value for your money isn't in those machines anymore.

 

[bobcomer]

Which Intel mini did you get last year?

i7, 64GB RAM, 2TB disk.

 

[bobcomer]

time to thermal pad mod it. it works; but will be honest I never use my laptop on my lap always on a desk or surface

I never use it on my lap either, but I don't like voiding the warrantee. I'll probably just trade it in on the 14" MBP when/if it comes out.