How do you feel about going from 15" to 13"? I have late 2013 15 inch pro and am thinking of getting the M1 13 inch pro? I'm thinking perhaps use that for a few years and then get a 16 inch when it is updated and second gen or so? Just worried about smaller screen size...not so much for screen real estate but for eyesight I think. Thanks!
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New MacBook Air M1 16GB 1TB SSD compared to 2016 15” MBP
- Thread starter James_C
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Interestingly enough i just installed O365 from Office.com vs the app store. Enrolled in the beta and tried to do the update using MS Auto Update. The update downloads but fails during installation of each Office component (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc).
Not sure if the OS is recognizing it still as the Rosetta version that installed which is preventing the update to the M1 version?
What did your upgrade to beta process look like?
I have a 27" iMac, so if I need a bigger screen I can use that. I also have an iPad Pro. I was finding that I tended to use the iPad for watching Netflix and web browsing and the iMac for work related stuff. I was not using the MacBook Pro very much. I did love the 15" screen though, but I hated using the butterfly keyboard and the Touch Bar. I found that it was too easy to brush by hand on the esc key on the Touch Bar and lose what I was doing.
It early days still, but I think that I will be keeping this M1 Air and selling the 15" Mac Book Pro.
The positives are
1. The performance - its almost twice as quick as my MBP
2. The Keyboard is a significant improvement
3. No Touch Bar
4. I have not tested battery life yet, but it looks like a significant improvement
5. It has no fan, so when I am rendering video it will be silent and much quicker than my MBP
6. I can use iOS apps if I want.
7. Smaller and lighter
8. Screen has better colour accuracy for photo editing.
The negatives
1. Giving up 15" screen for the 13"
I had no issues. Upgraded from late-2013 15" MBP to intel 2020 Air last March. I'm surprised how I don't miss the extra size. I've upped the resolution on the Air to 1680 x 1050.
Maybe already asked but how does skype or zoom work on your new machine in battery mode? my MBP 13” 2020 got very hot after only 15min and it lasted less than 4 hours in skype conference with video.
Also what battery times you get with youtube and easy webbrowsing in Safari?
Also what battery times you get with youtube and easy webbrowsing in Safari?
Same thing happened to me, if you click the dropdown arrow , you can redownload, the second time it activated ok.
I don't have any Skype or Zoom calls for the next couple of days. I have been sitting in bed using the Air for the last 50 mins and the battery still says 100%
Can confirm that Side Car is working on my 13" M1 Pro
Blackmagic SSD Scores
Update - Looks like Spotlight was still indexing - I am now getting Write scores above 3,000 and Read above 2,700
Update - Looks like Spotlight was still indexing - I am now getting Write scores above 3,000 and Read above 2,700
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Nice!
Wouldn't mind trying the Blackmagic RAW speedtest would you?
It's in the App store - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-raw-speed-test/id1466185689?mt=12
EDIT - here's after running it a few minutes on my early-2020 i5 MBA on Catalina - grabbed screenshot while it was running since apparently it displays the "best" numbers once stopped.
Here's the while-stopped displaying "best" numbers that showed up in the first little bit.
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Will do, downloading Final Cut at the moment, will run it as soon as the other downloads finish.
Its possibly because the MBP had brightness turned all the way up and the Air was at about 50%, I only realised after I posted the video. I will check again in the morning and report back.
After using the new M1 Air for a day, I am really impressed. I have been using Apple Macs since 2002. I have always gone for a PowerBook 15" / MacBook Pro 15" laptop. I was slightly nervous of using a smaller screen, but I am really happy. I have always disliked notebooks when the fans are audible. This has been a great experience so far. I hated the keyboard on my 2016 MBP and never used the Touch Bar. The performance and battery life on this machine is breath taking.
I have sold my old 2016 MBP. This Air is a keeper.
I have sold my old 2016 MBP. This Air is a keeper.
I watched Captain Marvel Movie earlier and I was impressed with the speakers. Unfortunately I have sold my MBP so I can't do any more comparisons.
Have not tested the microphones - but I tend to use a Blue Yeti microphone for conference calls anyway.
The MacBook Air M1 is INCREDIBLE!!! I've always had top-of-the-line MBP 15" laptops. Sold my last one for this MBA 16/1TB. Its ridiculously fast. It performs about the same in Logic Pro in the sessions I've tested so far when comparing to my studio Mac Pro 12-core trashcan! I.N.S.A.N.E. I'm very happy with the future of MacOS.
I am actually going the opposite route. I love the 13” m1 pro but can’t get used to the small screen vs the 16” pro.
Am still going to use it more to check but as of now it’s been hard to get used to the smaller screen.
Thanks for the all the info. I'm still using a 2013 15" MBP and this thread has helped me to decide on the air over a pro for the next 6 months until the 16" comes out. Once the 16" comes out I'll then pass the MBA on to the wife which will suit her perfectly.
Think I'll go for the 7C GPU though with 16gig Ram and 512HD. the one less core won't really make any difference to my wife and saves my some cash which I can spend on getting an extra power brick and USB C to A dongle.
Think I'll go for the 7C GPU though with 16gig Ram and 512HD. the one less core won't really make any difference to my wife and saves my some cash which I can spend on getting an extra power brick and USB C to A dongle.
I have the luxury of a 27” iMac as well, so if I need a bigger screen I can use that. I will upgrade the iMac to Apple Silicon when they update it. If the Air was my only Mac then I would probably buy an external monitor as these days WFH having a mobile large screen Mac is not so critical.
Howver it looks like you need a larger screen. So your decision makes sense. Also you have a 16” so the difference in performance is much less than mine.
I may be wrong but I think once you go for the 16GB and 512 SSD, the config also becomes 8 cores.
Depends how you get to the 16/512 config.
If you start with the $999 7-core GPU model and configure it to 16/512, you have a $1399 7-core GPU 8/512 Air
If you start with the $1249 8-core GPU model and configure it to 16/512, you have a $1449 8-core GPU 8/512 Air.