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

[Kes.Siebring]

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.

Probably different keyboard layout, you realise there many different keyboard localizations.
It's probably English US and English International.

 

[The Game 161]

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!!!

Really is crazy.

My old air I had to charge at say 14.00-15.00 everyday and god the fans were so loud. It got to the point where I just had it on the charger from 8am to avoid the drain so to have this and not need to charge into the 2nd working day is awesome

 

[drsox]

I switched from a 2020 Intel MBA to an M1 MBA, and I know not on topic, but the annoyance I am glad to see removed is that on quick login the first character would nearly always be MISSING - so the login would FAIL.

No longer.

 

[kp98077]

I switched from a 2020 Intel MBA to an M1 MBA, and I know not on topic, but the annoyance I am glad to see removed is that on quick login the first character would nearly always be MISSING - so the login would FAIL.

No longer.

did you go with 8 or 16? I was all set to do 8 until reading all these post... lol... I don't want to get a beach ball... I just use you tube, internet, outlook, MS office, etc... ideas?

 

[James_C]

did you go with 8 or 16? I was all set to do 8 until reading all these post... lol... I don't want to get a beach ball... I just use you tube, internet, outlook, MS office, etc... ideas?

You should be fine with 8GB, however if you are planning on keeping it for 3+ Years then 16GB would give you some future proofing.

You really need to be doing a lot of multi tasking with Pro grade Apps to stress the 8GB version.

 

[lederermc]

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.

Is it fair to say this review is transferable to the M1 MBP except for the touchbar, fan and price.

 

[drsox]

did you go with 8 or 16? I was all set to do 8 until reading all these post... lol... I don't want to get a beach ball... I just use you tube, internet, outlook, MS office, etc... ideas?

Just the 8. I do all those except u-tube, but I also do VNC. No problems.

 

[kp98077]

You should be fine with 8GB, however if you are planning on keeping it for 3+ Years then 16GB would give you some future proofing.

You really need to be doing a lot of multi tasking with Pro grade Apps to stress the 8GB version.

thank you very true!

 

[ascender]

Totally agree with your review, this new Air is already one of my favourite Macs. The combination of performance, battery life and the fact its fan-less make it a great machine to be using for pretty much anything & everything.

 

[motm95]

I also completely agree. I retired my trusty mid-2012 MBP with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD for the M1 MBA with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD and the difference is beyond night and day. I have owned Macs for decades and honestly this new laptop is a game-changer. I love it and have no issues with 8GB of RAM.

 

[MitchellvB995]

Nice, well written story. I have to admit that I traded in my 16" model and can't wait to get my hands on the new M1 13" Pro. I ordered a 16GB, 1TB version.

I'm curious to see if I'll regret it.

 

[lJoSquaredl]

Nice, a review from someone using the exact laptop i'm coming from with the exact same concerns I have...I appreciate this Definitely considering upgrading now, cuz I don't think i'll ever go back to a 15/16 inch again. I always went for those to get the extra power, but now the 13 inch seems like more than enough for any photo/video stuff i'd get into but with tons of other perks now. May go for the 14 inch next year, or if they release a more powerful redesigned 13 inch, but that's still a long way from now and I wanna play with the M1 now May just go for a refurb too, which will be another 3-6 months after they release anyways, but at least i'll save even more on that trade in.

 

[ZackSimpson]

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.

I believe EU’s keyboards are designed differently than those in the US. I’ve seen that enter key on several laptops before that one and the owners have typically been British, I think. Hope that helps.

 

[acalegari]

I did order a M1 MBP 16gb, 1tb to replace my 2017 MBP 15; however once I realised it would not drive 2 external monitors I cancelled it straight away... Really hope to see a Mx version with multi monitor support. My 15 inch can drive 4x 4K... 2x 4K would be reasonable! I can’t wait to get my hands on one; but got to be patient ...

 

[djlythium]

I did order a M1 MBP 16gb, 1tb to replace my 2017 MBP 15; however once I realised it would not drive 2 external monitors I cancelled it straight away... Really hope to see a Mx version with multi monitor support. My 15 inch can drive 4x 4K... 2x 4K would be reasonable! I can’t wait to get my hands on one; but got to be patient ...

M1 Macs Able to Run Up to Six External Displays Using DisplayLink

It is possible to run up to six external displays from the M1 Mac mini, and five external displays from the M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, with the...

www.macrumors.com

?

 

[acalegari]

DisplayLink is not an option! Don’t be fooled by these claims. If it does not natively support it you’re just eating up CPU to bridge the gap! Not for me!

 

[jwolf6589]

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 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:

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.

How does Safari perform on Facebook? I have a 2020 MacBook pro 13 inch and its very snappy on all websites but Facebook. I hate using Google Chrome (Firefox is better) on FB so have learned to live with Safari's sluggish performance with Facebook.

 

[bluecoast]

Thanks OP - great review & thanks for taking the time to do this, it was really well done ?

It would also be good to read more reviews of how the base config M1 MBA performs with ‘regular everyday’ tasks - meaning light productivity office tasks (iWork, office365 etc), light browsing (meaning a few tabs open at once), a little bit of photo (Apple Photos) and video editing (iMovie), light gaming (Apple Arcade) etc.

Many reviews nowadays assume that you’re going to be a ‘content creator’ & I just don’t think that’s the case for most people.

(OP: you obviously are a content creator though so it was authentic for you to review the machine in the way that you did ?).

 

[aleni]

Tapered design! No more sharp edge digging into our wrist anymore! This is what I love about the air.

 

[James_C]

How does Safari perform on Facebook?

Just tested and it and it works fine on my new Air. I also compared with my Late 2014 iMac and it lagged a little, but nothing major so maybe its a memory issue as the iMac has 24GB RAM and this Air has 16GB.

 

[jwolf6589]

Just tested and it and it works fine on my new Air. I also compared with my Late 2014 iMac and it lagged a little, but nothing major so maybe its a memory issue as the iMac has 24GB RAM and this Air has 16GB.

Cant be. I have 16GB of ram. It works great on Firefox so it’s a safari issue and not a ram issue. Also how detail was your test? I am very detailed and find that safari lags on FB.

 

[jwolf6589]

Just tested and it and it works fine on my new Air. I also compared with my Late 2014 iMac and it lagged a little, but nothing major so maybe its a memory issue as the iMac has 24GB RAM and this Air has 16GB.

But thanks for the test anyways.

 

[4sallypat]

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.

Yes, fantastic summary agreed.

I have the 2015 15" MBP but find it very heavy compared to a MBA - and since the M1 MBA is just a powerful as the MBP, I am considering the switch.

I love the MBA without the touch bar!

The only part that bugs me is the screen real estate.....

 

[James_C]

Cant be. I have 16GB of ram. It works great on Firefox so it’s a safari issue and not a ram issue. Also how detail was your test? I am very detailed and find that safari lags on FB.

Ok, I am not a big Facebook user, so I logged in and scrolled up and down the news feed, switched to other friends news feeds and all was pretty smooth to me on M1 Safari. Not sure if it makes a difference but I am on Big Sur on iMac and M1 Air. As I said the Air was smoother than the iMac but I would not have said the iMac as bad. What in particular do you do on Facebook that you see the lag?

 

[James_C]

Yes, fantastic summary agreed.

I have the 2015 15" MBP but find it very heavy compared to a MBA - and since the M1 MBA is just a powerful as the MBP, I am considering the switch.

I love the MBA without the touch bar!

The only part that bugs me is the screen real estate.....

If it helps at all I am getting use to the smaller display (I have been using 15" Portable Macs for 18 years this is my first 13") and I find the Air much better for 'Sofa Surfing' or using in Bed, and I have the advantage of having a 27" iMac if I need a bigger screen.