Owner of 2018 13" MBP - Make the leap and buy the M1 MBA?

[Rigtee]

Hi everyone,

Question asked many times on this forum but here I am, telling my story to you and asking for advice. I've owned a 2018 13" MBP for close to 3 years now and this machine has served me well as my main computer: MS Office suite, general browsing, coding (Pycharm, CLion), photo editing (RAW images on Lightroom Classic CC), occasional video editing (FCPX), video calls (MS Teams and Zoom), occasional use of a Windows 10 virtual machine (VM Ware)... Even though I'm a student, I do a lot on my laptop and take advantage of the 16GB of RAM of my unit. I bought it for an expensive price tag at that time (close to €2500) and wanted to fully use it. I also connect it to a big 32" BenQ 4K screen, laptop can get hot sometimes but overall the experience has been smooth.

I'm having a student exchange, starting next month, and my laptop will again be my main companion for everything. However, as it already happened in the past, my keyboard is slowly starting to malfunction with keys blocked, space bar counted as twice... The curse of the butterfly keyboard is following me and replacing it to Apple would, again, change the battery (good thing, got 203 cycles and 83% design capacity according to coconutBattery; battery life is a HUGE disappointment when using it unplugged with Teams e.g.) but leave me with the same buggy keyword that I hate.

Therefore, I was planning to sell my current MBP and buy a 16/512 MBA to replace it (I could potentially sell my current MBP for the same amount of money that I buy the new MBA). In the future, I however plan to add a desktop to my setup, that's why I didn't need a fan on my laptop anymore as the really heavy tasks would be transferred to the desktop. However, I still need decent power for the years to come, hence the 16GB of RAM. Furthermore, I will be covered by warranty when I'm abroad during my exchange if my laptop fails at some point.

I'm just wondering if this is the right timing or if I should keep my MBP longer and wait for the next M1X chip!

Thank you!

 

[Aggedor]

Well, the M1 MBA is the best computer I have ever owned, and it has a fabulous keyboard (I'm super picky about keyboards - I'm typing this now on a mechanical deck on my desktop), and it has incredible battery life. Not to mention performance that will blow that 2018 machine away. So yeah, grab one.

But it is always a case of the longer you wait, the better machine you will be able to buy. Sure, there'll be an M1X. Or an M2. M3. M4. M5. Maybe the MBA will come in different colours. That's what you have to decide on. If you're off next month, then it seems like taking the new machine with you will make life easier, just on the basis of battery life and the keyboard.

 

[mj_]

(I could potentially sell my current MBP for the same amount of money that I buy the new MBA)

Absolute no-brainer in my opinion, the M1 Air will run circles around your 2018 MBP. If you can really find someone stupid enough to pay you as much money for a used 2018 MBP as a new MBA would cost then I wouldn't hesitate even a split second.

However, keep in mind that running Windows 10 x86 VMs is no longer possible on M1 Macs.

 

[dizmonk]

From what I remember I don't think you can run Bootcamp Windows stuff on the M1... I might be wrong but since that's what you use it for... you should check into that.

 

[Rigtee]

Well, the M1 MBA is the best computer I have ever owned, and it has a fabulous keyboard (I'm super picky about keyboards - I'm typing this now on a mechanical deck on my desktop), and it has incredible battery life. Not to mention performance that will blow that 2018 machine away. So yeah, grab one.

But it is always a case of the longer you wait, the better machine you will be able to buy. Sure, there'll be an M1X. Or an M2. M3. M4. M5. Maybe the MBA will come in different colours. That's what you have to decide on. If you're off next month, then it seems like taking the new machine with you will make life easier, just on the basis of battery life and the keyboard.

The keyboard and the better battery life are paramount in my choice, so it seems that the MBA si a great option!
Like you said, if you wait forever, you don't even get a machine in the end. I see my laptop as a tool (even though I don't make money out of it, it is part of my success at the university).

Absolute no-brainer in my opinion, the M1 Air will run circles around your 2018 MBP. If you can really find someone stupid enough to pay you as much money for a used 2018 MBP as a new MBA would cost then I wouldn't hesitate even a split second.

However, keep in mind that running Windows 10 x86 VMs is no longer possible on M1 Macs.

The thing is that I don't pay VAT when buying a new laptop (company price from my family) and I can resell it as I bought it the VAT, simple as that. A no-brainer like you said, you're probably right.

From what I remember I don't think you can run Bootcamp Windows stuff on the M1... I might be wrong but since that's what you use it for... you should check into that.

Actually I don't even use the VM on my Mac that much. I installed it in the beginning to use Excel as I find the Windows version much more polished than its Mac counterpart but the latter is slowly catching up!

 

[jz0309]

I actually this week received my M1 MBA (8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores, 16GB, 512GB) earlier this week and set it up, it is replacing my 2019 15" MBP and I am very happy with the MBA the far. I got a good trade in on my MBP, basically 50% of what I paid just over 2 years ago, so the MBA cot me < $500, that was my main motivation, I had no issues with the MBP, other than what I now notice, the MBA is quiet and not getting warm
Go for it!

 

[trevpimp]

I would get the MacBook Air of your choice now, that's if you are looking forward to what's to come. Im betting that some form of new design will come by this fall (Macbook/air/pro) so if you want the latest and greatest we can bet on that.

Just my opinion, you can decide for yourself

 

[Aggedor]

Actually I don't even use the VM on my Mac that much. I installed it in the beginning to use Excel as I find the Windows version much more polished than its Mac counterpart but the latter is slowly catching up!

I use MS Office extensively on both my Mac and desktop PC, and I do agree that the Windows version of all those apps are better, snappier, more responsive, etc.

However, the Mac versions are probably... 95% there now? I have an Office 365 subscription (or whatever they call it now), and the Mac apps are perfectly fine. Yes, the Windows versions are still better, but the Mac apps used to be buggy and crashy, and that at least seems to have been fixed.

I'd recommend a 365 subscription, because at least that way you'll have a constantly updated version of the Mac apps. Plus you get 1TB cloud storage rolled in, which is very useful, especially as all the Office apps save directly into it, so you have a virtually foolproof backup (seriously, your computer could die mid-sentence and you won't lose a single word).