MacBook Air M1 ,1 Week Review, Switch from 15” MBP

[James_C]

I thought it might be useful to summarise my thoughts after using the new M1 MacBook Air after using it for a week, and how it compares with a 15” MBP, if anyone else is thinking of upgrading.

The summary is for those that don’t want to read a long post is I am really happy with the switch, the new Air is faster, more responsive, with battery life that is amazing.

The Spec of the Air that I purchased was a Space Grey MacBook Air with 8 GPU cores, 16GB Memory and 1TB SSD

The MacBook Pro 15.4” that it replaced was a Late 2016 model A1707, Intel i7 2.7GHz 512GB 16GB Silver with Touch Bar

There were 3 things I did not like with the MacBook Pro

1. This was the first MBP released with the ‘butterfly keyboard’, and compared to the 15” 2012 Retina MBP I was using before, I hated typing on it. The travel is very shallow and it almost felt like typing on an iPad screen. Also the keys were prone to get dust under them causing them to work intermittently. The keyboard has already been repaired once in the Apple Store.
2. Some like the Touch Bar, and some don’t. I fall into the later category. When I first got it, I thought it was pretty cool, but then grew to dislike it for two reasons. Firstly having to take my hands away from my normal typing position to use it, also I am used to typing without looking at the keyboard and you definitely need to look at the Touch Bar to use it. Secondly it was too easy to accidentally brush your fingers on the touch sensitive keys. I had two main problems, in Outlook Microsoft thought it was a great idea to have the send key on the far left side. Too many times while I was half way composing an email when I would accidentally send it. The virtual esc key is also on the far left and I would often hit that and lose what I was typing.
3. The Fan, whenever I was doing anything processor intensive the fans would come on, particularly playing games would sound like you were sitting next to a hair dryer.

I was a little apprehensive as I since 2002 had always bought one of the Apple 15” pro Laptops, would I be happy with the performance of my first MacBook Air and would the 13” Screen be enough?

I was hoping for reviews to be published before launch day last Tuesday as I could not decide between the 13” Pro or Air. At 6 AM on 17th of November I woke up to find that while no formal reviews had been published a couple of users had got hold on units early and initial indications were that these M1 MacBooks were pretty powerful. So I checked online stock at Apple Stores near me, the one in Bath, England had stock of the 16GB versions of both Pro and Air, but with 1TB SSD rather than 500GB that I was originally going to order. For this reason I went for the Air, as the cost was starting to add up.

I decided to give the Air a go, and if it worked out, I would sell the MBP, which would cover most of the cost of the switch. If I could not live with the screen, or I was not happy then I would return the Air.

I was aware that some of the Apps I use (Screenflow for example) was not compatible with Apple Silicon (AS) yet, but I have a 27” iMac that can handle that until a AS native version is available. Also I was aware that Microsoft had a Beta version of Microsoft 365 available. I use a lot of the Omni Group’s app and I knew that all of these were AS Native as well as Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor.

My Macs are used for typical office work during the day ( Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OnmiFocus and the Apple Notes App as well as eMail). I am keen photographer so use Affinity Photo and do some video editing when I am not working.

Performance of the M1 MacBook Air

I did create a thread discussing various benchmark comparisons here

A summary of the main ones:

Edit : Table above has been updated since the original post as most scores are now higher as spotlight indexing has finished.

So the new M1 Air is around twice as fast as my old MBP. It really feels that way as well, Applications open much faster, normally in one ‘bounce’.

Safari and web browsing is ‘super snappy’ web pages load and render insanely quick on this M1.

Also love the ‘instant on’ as you open the lid, occasionally on the MBP it would hesitate for a few seconds before the screen came on.

The Keyboard

One of the reasons I wanted to switch was the Keyboard which does have a much better typing experience than the MBP, although not quite as good as the MacBook Pro 2012 retina, but pretty close.

One improvement that I was not expecting due to its tapered design, typing is more ergonomically comfortable particularly on the wrists. This is one advantage the Air has over the M1 Pro.

Not only has the Air got a set of traditional function keys, Apple has changed the functionality of three of make them to be more useful.

The F4 Key is a shortcut to spotlight search, F5 Siri and F6 Silence Notifications.

Rosetta 2

The new Rosetta 2 works very well, and with the power of the M1 chip even Intel Apps run on the whole quicker than my previous MBP. Do check App compatibility though, as for example my screencast App of choice, Screenflow can’t run even under Rosetta 2 yet.

Form factor & Screen Size

This was one of the aspects I was most concerned about as I had always used a 15” laptop screen previously. Would I be happy with a smaller screen ?

I was surprised on how good the screen is, particularly the fact that the Air now has a P3 wide colour gamut screen, which is important to me for photo editing. Also the screen on the Air has a much wider viewing angle than the MBP.

I have a 27” iMac so if I need a bigger screen I can always use that, and having the combination of a smaller and lighter portable makes more sense with a 27” iMac. The smaller size makes it more comfortable to use in bed or lounging on the sofa than the 15” was. If I did not have the iMac I probably would invest in a large monitor for long video and photo editing sessions.

Noise, Heat & Throttling

The Air was no fan, so unlike the MBP that under load sounds like a small hairdryer next to you, this is completely silent. Heat wise the only time it has got warm was playing World of Warcraft. It got hot, but not uncomfortably so.

I have not done extensive tests on throttling as to keep the Air cool the system will reduce power and clock speed. Looking at tests done by other YouTube reviewers this generally amounts to a 15% decline in performance. Given the huge increase in performance over my previous MBP (100%) this does not concern me.

Battery

I only used to get around 5-6 hours battery life on the MBP. To be honest I don’t know how long the battery on the Air lasts, as I use it all day and charge it at night. The battery life with the performance on the Air is nothing short of amazing. Yes I know the M1 Pro lasts longer, but if the Air can last all day I don’t really need more.

Gaming

I have been known to play a little World of Warcraft and with the new expansion being released soon I though I would re-subscribe and see how it performs. World of Warcraft is one of the few games at the moment that can run natively on Apple Silicon. I won’t dwell on this as others have already given their feedback. I was impressed. For example, can play for an hour with settings more or less maxed out and still get a decent frame rate (50-60 FPS).

Final Thoughts

This is my 6th Apple Laptop and for me has been the biggest increase in performance going from one laptop to the next. After using it for a day, I decided to put the old MBP on eBay and it sold within 30 minutes. I have been impressed with the M1 Air and I hope this review is useful to anyone considering the a similar upgrade.

I intend keeping this for at least 3 years as my portable machine, and intend upgrading my iMac to Apple Silicon in due course

I am not sure if I really needed 16Gb in hindsight, although as I intend keeping it for a while, hopefully it will come in useful, and yes Safari (and just about everything else) is definitely snappier on Apple Silicon.

 

[senttoschool]

The 2016 Macbook Pros were straight... garbage. Like you said, almost everything about it was worse than the 2015 version. Butterly keyboard. Incredibly stupid annoying touchbar. Dongle hell. For me personally, I hated the large touchpad as well. No Intel CPU progress. No battery life improvement.

It seems like the M1 Air is a huge upgrade over the 2016 Macbook Pros in just about every way except the screen size.

 

[handymanuk]

Really great review, thank you!

 

[Internaut]

Nice summary. Oddly enough, I have a 2015 MacBook Pro - probably one of the last to have the keyboard of old, and I rate that as slightly better than my M1 MacBook Air. The butterfly keyboard was just Apple losing it.

 

[jiholl]

Thank you for your review. I'm considering the same. Re the screen size...do you find that the switch to the 13 is more about loss of screen real estate or is it more of an eyesight issue..i.e. much smaller screen fonts, elements, etc?. Thanks

 

[James_C]

do you find that the switch to the 13 is more about loss of screen real estate or is it more of an eyesight issue.

I am shortsighted and wear glasses, I can see the screen fine, so its more loss of screen real estate, but as I indicated in the review the smaller size also makes it more portable.

 

[iKrivetko]

Well, it seems that the final step for Apple is to make a larger display by getting rid of the bezels, thus making the Air my dream laptop.

 

[playtech1]

A couple of my own thoughts to add from having had a MacBook Air (16GB / 8 Core) for a couple of days now:

1. I have definitely noticed the extra 'snappiness' when web browsing or just clicking around the Finder. Probably the thing I noticed first. Not worth the upgrade on its own, but nice to see.

2. The screen was a big concern coming from a 13 inch MacBook Pro that sometimes I felt did not get bright enough. I need not have worried - the screen seems nearly identical in terms of brightness and look. I'm sure there are measurable differences, but nothing my eyes can pick up.

3. The speakers were another concern, although I never thought the 13 inch MBP speakers, although pretty good, quite lived up to their stellar reputation - compared to the 12 inch MB speakers they were rather lacking. The MBA has speakers that seem to basically match the MBP speakers (I have the 4 port model). It's a slightly different sound, but to my ears better than the default 13 inch MBP EQ and slightly worse than the MBP with Boom 3D. I will get Boom 3D installed at some point on the MacBook Air and will tune the EQ, but basically this is a wash.

4. Performance in games has been better than expected. Combined with the great battery life and lack of a fan, it's a pleasure now to run something like Civ VI compared with the hot, noisy and short-lived experience on Intel Macs.

 

[The Game 161]

my air managed to last from 100% a full 16-17 hour working day over the space of two days amazing.

 

[nameste]

I am shortsighted and wear glasses, I can see the screen fine, so its more loss of screen real estate, but as I indicated in the review the smaller size also makes it more portable.

Don’t worry you get use to smaller or bigger screen after some time. Everytime after I switch from 27” to 34” I say wow and switch back to 27” I say damn that’s so small ?

 

[Mayo86]

View attachment 1678464

I thought it might be useful to summarise my thoughts after using the new M1 MacBook Air after using it for a week, and how it compares with a 15” MBP, if anyone else is thinking of upgrading.

The summary is for those that don’t want to read a long post is I am really happy with the switch, the new Air is faster, more responsive, with battery life that is amazing.

The Spec of the Air that I purchased was a Space Grey MacBook Air with 8 GPU cores, 16GB Memory and 1TB SSD

The MacBook Pro 15.4” that it replaced was a Late 2016 model A1707, Intel i7 2.7GHz 512GB 16GB Silver with Touch Bar

There were 3 things I did not like with the MacBook Pro

1. This was the first MBP with the ‘butterfly keyboard’, and compared to the 15” 2012 Retina MBP that I was using before I hated typing on it. The travel is very shallow and it almost felt like typing on an iPad screen. Also the Keyboard keys was prone to get dust under them, the keyboard has already been repaired once in the Apple Store.
2. Some like the Touch Bar, and some don’t. I fall into the later category. When I first got it, I thought it was pretty cool, but then grew to dislike it for two reasons. Firstly having to take my hands away from my normal typing position to use it, also I am used to typing without looking at the keyboard and you definitely need to look at the Touch Bar to use it. Secondly it was too easy to accidentally brush your fingers on the touch sensitive keys. I had two main problems, in Outlook Microsoft thought it was a great idea to have the send key on the far left side. Too many times while I was half way composing an email when I would accidentally send it. The virtual esc key is also on the far left and I would often hit that and lose what I was typing.
3. The Fan, whenever I was doing anything processor intensive the fans would come on, particularly playing games would sound like you were sitting next to a hair dryer.

I was a little apprehensive as I since 2002 had always bought one of the Apple 15” pro Laptops, would I be happy with the performance of my first MacBook Air and would the 13” Screen be enough?

I was hoping for reviews to be published before launch day last Tuesday as I could not decide between the 13” Pro or Air. At 6 AM on 17th of November I woke up to find that while no formal reviews had been published a couple of users had got hold on units early and initial indications were that these M1 MacBooks were pretty powerful. So I checked online stock at Apple Stores near me, the one in Bath, England had stock of the 16GB versions of both Pro and Air, but with 1TB SSD rather than 500GB that I was originally going to order. For this reason I went for the Air, as the cost was starting to add up.

I decided to give the Air a go, and if it worked out, I would sell the MBP, which would cover most of the cost of the switch. If I could not live with the screen, or I was not happy then I would return the Air.

I was aware that some of the Apps I use (Screenflow for example) was not compatible with Apple Silicon (AS) yet, but I have a 27” iMac that can handle that until a AS native version is available. Also I was aware that Microsoft had a Beta version of Microsoft 365 available. I use a lot of the Omni Group’s app and I knew that all of these were AS Native as well as Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor.

My Macs are used for typical office work during the day ( Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OnmiFocus and the Apple Notes App as well as eMail). I am keen photographer so use Affinity Photo and do some video editing when I am not working.

Performance of the M1 MacBook Air

I did create a thread discussing various benchmark comparisons here

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...16gb-1tb-ssd-compared-to-2016-15-mbp.2269024/

A summary of the main ones

View attachment 1678467

So the new M1 Air is around twice as fast as my old MBP. It really feels that way as well, Applications open much faster, normally in one ‘bounce’.

Safari and web browsing is ‘super snappy’ web pages load and render insanely quick on this M1.

Also love the ‘instant on’ as you open the lid, occasionally on the MBP it would hesitate for a few seconds before the screen came on.

The Keyboard

One of the reasons I wanted to switch was the Keyboard which does have a much better typing experience than the MBP, although not quite as good as the MacBook Pro 2012 retina, but pretty close. One improvement that I was not expecting is that it is a more comfortable tying experience as the Air has a tapered case design so the lower edge does not dig into your wrists like the MBP used to.

Not only has the Air got a set of traditional function keys, Apple has changed the functionality of three of make them to be more useful.


View attachment 1678471

The F4 Key is a shortcut to spotlight search, F5 Siri and F6 Silence Notifications.

Rosetta 2

The new Rosetta 2 works very well, and with the power of the M1 chip even Intel Apps run on the whole quicker than my previous MBP. Do check App compatibility though, as for example my screencast App of choice, Screenflow can’t run even under Rosetta 2 yet.

Form factor & Screen Size

This was one of the aspects I was most concerned about as I had always used a 15” laptop screen previously. Would I be happy with a smaller screen ?

I was surprised on how good the screen is, particularly the fact that the Air now has a P3 wide colour gamut screen, which is important to me for photo editing. Also the screen on the Air has a much wider viewing angle than the MBP.

I have a 27” iMac so if I need a bigger screen I can always use that, and having the combination of a smaller and lighter portable makes more sense with a 27” iMac. The smaller size makes it more comfortable to use in bed or lounging on the sofa than the 15” was. If I did not have the iMac I probably would invest in a large monitor for long video and photo editing sessions.

Noise, Heat & Throttling

The Air was no fan, so unlike the MBP that under load sounds like a small hairdryer next to you, this is completely silent. Heat wise the only time it has got warm was playing World of Warcraft. It got hot, but not uncomfortably so.

I have not done extensive tests on throttling as to keep the Air cool the system will reduce power and clock speed. Looking at tests done by other YouTube reviewers this generally amounts to a 15% decline in performance. Given the huge increase in performance over my previous MBP (100%) this does not concern me.

Battery

I only used to get around 5-6 hours battery life on the MBP. To be honest I don’t know how long the battery on the Air lasts, as I use it all day and charge it at night. The battery life with the performance on the Air is nothing short of amazing. Yes I know the M1 Pro lasts longer, but if the Air can last all day I don’t really need more.

Gaming

I have been known to play a little World of Warcraft and with the new expansion being released soon I though I would re-subscribe and see how it performs. World of Warcraft is one of the few games at the moment that can run natively on Apple Silicon. I won’t dwell on this as others have already given their feedback. I was impressed ,as I can play for an hour with settings more or less maxed out and still get a decent frame rate (50-60 FPS).

Final Thoughts

This is my 6th Apple Laptop and for me has been the biggest increase in performance going from one laptop to the next. After using it for a day, I decided to put the old MBP on eBay and it sold within 30 minutes. I have been impressed with the M1 Air and I hope this review is useful to anyone considering the a similar upgrade.

I intend keeping this for at least 3 years as my portable machine, and intend upgrading my iMac to Apple Silicon in due course

I am not sure if I really needed 16Gb in hindsight, although as I intend keeping it for a while, hopefully it will come in useful, and yes Safari (and just about everything else) is definitely snappier on Apple Silicon.

Thank you for the write up as it relates to your every day. I’m glad you are enjoying it and hope that you continue to do so.

 

[dasjati]

I have been impressed with the M1 Air and I hope this review is useful to anyone considering a similar upgrade.

Very helpful! Much more helpful than MacRumors telling people these Macs are just good enough for basic everyday tasks … Totally out of touch with reality these people It is obvious to me that these machines are now the top Macs if you can live with their limitations in regards to ports and external displays.

 

[kp98077]

really good review! assume you are glad you went with the 16gb over the 8? yeah i love the form factor of the air as well, so comfortable!!

 

[Serickmetz]

View attachment 1678464

I thought it might be useful to summarise my thoughts after using the new M1 MacBook Air after using it for a week, and how it compares with a 15” MBP, if anyone else is thinking of upgrading.

Why is the keyboard on that macbook air pictured different than the keyboard apple shows on their website? Like, the enter key is thin and tall on that one, but their website shows a shorter wider enter key.

 

[cwagdev]

I was impressed ,as I can play for an hour with settings more or less maxed out and still get a decent frame rate (50-60 FPS).

Are you saying you played for an hour and decided to stop or the battery lasted for an hour of gameplay?

I decided to put the old MBP on eBay and it sold within 30 minutes

I have nearly the same 2016 MBP (but with upgraded CPU and 1TB) curious how much you got for yours if you don't mind sharing?

 

[Cinetagonist]

This utility will definitely help you to deal with the smaller 13" screen: https://apps.apple.com/app/screen-expander/id1505216993?mt=12

 

[GermanSuplex]

I bought the 2015 MBP and have regretted it ever since. I mean, its an ok machine, but for some reason, 8GB of ram is insanely slow, even for basic web browsing with only a few background apps like 1Password and Dropbox running. If I have the music app open in the background, forget about it. The thunderbolt ports are useless compared to the hybrid Thunderbolt/USB-C ports that came out later.

I mean, its been five years, but I noticed some of these issues right away. I can't wait to pick up one of these new MacBooks.. the hype has been way better than I imagined.

 

[Devyn89]

I’m looking to pick up the same 13” air with 16gb and 512gb ssd so I’m glad your experience has been positive. It’s been a few years since I’ve had a Mac and my previous was a MacBook Air from 2012 so I’m excited to get this Air some time next year.

 

[Branmonkey]

my air managed to last from 100% a full 16-17 hour working day over the space of two days amazing.

THIS has been the huge win for me. I even didn't charge my computer over night on Friday and it was crazy to run it for two days on a single charge. Totally blown away ? !!! The thing I am having to re-train my mind is that when it hits 50% you don't need to run to find a charger, like you would with any of the previous models. That 50% legit can last 7 more hours. It is literally insane! Even at 10% you have a solid hour or two... I think many of us are going to have a rough time getting into that new habit, but it's by far a welcome one.

As the OP pointed out the keyboard is another huge win for me on the MBP. Coming from the butterfly era (having had it replaced four times by Apple warranty) I was so thrilled to have a better keyboard again. I will miss that computer for sentimental reasons only but definitely not that keyboard. Horrible keyboard.

For some odd reason, must be in the minority, I LOVE the touch bar. It's one of my fave features and glad they kept it. I hope moving forward Apple can make both parties happy and have it as an option on future MBPs. I've tricked it out and it's so great to use on so many levels for my productivity.

By far, still overwhelmingly happy with choice to upgrade to the M1 MBP (from 2017 MBP Retina) and I've hardly touched the surface on its potential. Just shipped off my trade in today!!!

 

[dougellison]

Same update. Same results. The new MBA is an absolute revelation.

 

[MikeKlump]

I bought the 2015 MBP and have regretted it ever since. I mean, its an ok machine, but for some reason, 8GB of ram is insanely slow, even for basic web browsing with only a few background apps like 1Password and Dropbox running. If I have the music app open in the background, forget about it. The thunderbolt ports are useless compared to the hybrid Thunderbolt/USB-C ports that came out later.

I mean, its been five years, but I noticed some of these issues right away. I can't wait to pick up one of these new MacBooks.. the hype has been way better than I imagined.

Isn't Dropbox known for being sort of a memory hog?


I've moved from the 2018 MBP -> 2019 MBP -> 2020 M1 MBA

The MBA w M1 is faster than my $1900 MBP from last year. Pretty incredible. Definitely not a power user though. I use TeamViewer, Zoom, Discord, Chrome

 

[James_C]

Why is the keyboard on that macbook air pictured different than the keyboard apple shows on their website? Like, the enter key is thin and tall on that one, but their website shows a shorter wider enter key.

The UK Keyboard layouts are different to the US ones.

 

[James_C]

Are you saying you played for an hour and decided to stop or the battery lasted for an hour of gameplay?

Just played for an hour the battery had plenty of charge left.

 

[James_C]

I have nearly the same 2016 MBP (but with upgraded CPU and 1TB) curious how much you got for yours if you don't mind sharing?

 

[James_C]

I’m looking to pick up the same 13” air with 16gb and 512gb ssd so I’m glad your experience has been positive. It’s been a few years since I’ve had a Mac and my previous was a MacBook Air from 2012 so I’m excited to get this Air some time next year.

You're going to love it.