Returned My MAXED Out MacBook Air and Saved around $500

[deanforwin]

After having multiple notorious purple screen crashes on my 16gb version of M1 MacBook Air, I decided to return it for the base Silver model, and am very happy with it!

It runs equally as well, if not smoother, with all my softwares, Safari tabs open. I have Google Drive and iCloud services, which show inactive, on cloud files anyway. I can get an external ssd, however, Apple Music, Netflix, all run online nowadays. I won't be needing an external drive or more storage as I used to years ago. I literally saved $500 and it's the same, exact experience. I am a "power user", a graphic designer, and I'll be prospectively uploading finished projects to the clouds to avoid hoarding.

My point is, if you are dubious, it's an overkill and you should go with the base model.

 

[Kung gu]

After having multiple notorious purple screen crashes on my 16gb version of M1 MacBook Air, I decided to return it for the base Silver model, and am very happy with it!

It runs equally as well, if not smoother, with all my softwares, Safari tabs open. I have Google Drive and iCloud services, which show inactive, on cloud files anyway. I can get an external hard Drive, however, Apple Music, Netflix, all run online nowadays. I won't be needing an external drive or more storage as I used to years ago. I literally saved $500 and it's the same, exact experience. I am a "power user", a graphic designer, and I'll be prospectively uploading finished projects to the clouds to avoid hoarding.

My point is, if you are dubious, it's an overkill and you should go with the base model.

make sure to update to 11.4 for even better stability.

 

[leman]

Good judgement ? People get too obsessed with specs and lose track of what actually matters: usability. There is no point in spending more money if you experience does not improve.

 

[Apple_Robert]

A lot of people overbuy for what they currently need. Glad to see you got a properly working Mac now and are happy with the base model.

 

[deanforwin]

A lot of people overbuy for what they currently need. Gad to see you got a properly working Mac now and are happy with the base model.

If money is not an issue, sure, go for it. I am picky and tried out three different configurations. They all run the same when it comes to day to day use. Noiseless and smooth like the iPads. It's amazing what they have achieved, and the ultrabook competition is even more expensive with less horsepower (the Surface Books, XPS with similar config etc).

I also don't understand the concept of "future proofing." Most of us get a new laptop every 4-5 years, considering how fast tech evolves.

 

[PaladinGuy]

What do you mean “maxed out”? Was it 2TB and 16GB RAM?

 

[deanforwin]

What do you mean “maxed out”? Was it 2TB and 16GB RAM?

Does it matter? That's not the point of this post. 16/512

 

[PaladinGuy]

Does it matter? That's not the point of this post. 16/512

Just was curious. I debated back and forth, myself. I ended up going the 16GB/512GB route, but it probably wasn’t a big deal either way.

Glad you figured out the ideal configuration for your needs.

 

[antwormcity]

Does it matter? That's not the point of this post. 16/512

Explain to us then what exactly is the point of your post when you hesitate to share the exact config.

Your post makes little sense comparing $500 savings, to each their own and their use case honestly. Too bad you had bad experience with the one you returned and it has nothing to do with your configuration.

Bottom line - you got another exact model M1 Air for a faulty one, period.

If base works its perfect, and your assessment (read 'use case') may not apply to others. 4 months back those mounting SSD swap spaces on 8GB Air/Pro models would have made you roll in your sleep, keep an eye on it nevertheless though those days are mostly over. Enjoy in good health and spirits.

 

[LFC2020]

make sure to update to 11.4 for even better stability.

11.4 has been awesome, it’s given me back my legendary M1 battery life.

 

[dieselm]

fwiw, i returned the 8gb for 16gb. If you have an external monitor and run lots of tabs/apps, it's like night and day.

It's not like 8gb doesn't work, it does. But the lag/hiccup speed difference is very noticible. Which isn't hard to reason why, the OS will take up a few GB, the external 5k screen will also eat memory, leaving only a few GB and swap for your applications. Running Chrome, even with 16gb, when I get to 40-50 tabs+, the machine starts slowing dramatically.

 

[Frixos]

Does it matter? That's not the point of this post. 16/512

Of course it matters. You’re comparing two configurations, so it is helpful to know what configurations you are actually comparing.

 

[MrGunny94]

fwiw, i returned the 8gb for 16gb. If you have an external monitor and run lots of tabs/apps, it's like night and day.

It's not like 8gb doesn't work, it does. But the lag/hiccup speed difference is very noticible. Which isn't hard to reason why, the OS will take up a few GB, the external 5k screen will also eat memory, leaving only a few GB and swap for your applications. Running Chrome, even with 16gb, when I get to 40-50 tabs+, the machine starts slowing dramatically.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? Was it regarding due to lack of memory for the GPU? Also do please give us more information on the type of display you used with it and what apps did you run on the background.

 

[doboy]

Of course it matters. You’re comparing two configurations, so it is helpful to know what configurations you are actually comparing.

He got caught claiming he bought ”maxed out” Air, haha. Normally people would buy the minimum and trade up if not suitable, but he went backwards.

 

[dahlblom]

Should´ve waited with that return until June 7th at this stage tbh.

 

[dieselm]

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? Was it regarding due to lack of memory for the GPU? Also do please give us more information on the type of display you used with it and what apps did you run on the background.

The M1 Macbooks don't have dedicated video memory. The frame buffer for the LG 5K display shares system memory.

Safari is more efficient than Chrome, but each browser tab seems to eat 35MB of memory minimum (up to 100s for GMail and complex websites). If you have 100+ tabs, do the math. Dropbox is a real pig and will lockdown hundreds of MB to 1GB+ of memory. Twitter will lock down hundreds of MB. System will take many GB. Add Photos, Spotlight, Activity monitor, Time Machine and background tasks. Then layer on actual applications. OS X left to itself will aggresively cache files / old tabs for better performance.

OS X does memory compression to squeeze out a bit more out. Anything outside the working set will still force swapping to the SSD and eventually the system starts 'beachball'-ing.

Because the SSD is so fast and the OS scheduler will put 'low priority' tasks onto the efficiency cores, the system will deliver responsiveness as best it's able. Compared the Intel macs, the system can seem 'usable' with 8GB.

That said, if you're only going edit a word doc or two, have a couple thousand photos, only use a few tabs, only use the laptop screen and don't load any background helpers like Dropbox, etc, you could get away with 8GB. But this is what people are talking about when they say "well, it's fast, but not THAT much better than my old iMac". I didn't totally appreciate it until I sent back the 8GB model.

It's nothing compared to having real memory. 16GB flies by comparison. For $200, much much much smoother experience.

 

[MrGunny94]

The M1 Macbooks don't have dedicated video memory. The frame buffer for the LG 5K display shares system memory.

Safari is more efficient than Chrome, but each browser tab seems to eat 35MB of memory minimum (up to 100s for GMail and complex websites). If you have 100+ tabs, do the math. Dropbox is a real pig and will lockdown hundreds of MB to 1GB+ of memory. Twitter will lock down hundreds of MB. System will take many GB. Add Photos, Spotlight, Activity monitor, Time Machine and background tasks. Then layer on actual applications. OS X left to itself will aggresively cache files / old tabs for better performance.

OS X does memory compression to squeeze out a bit more out. Anything outside the working set will still force swapping to the SSD and eventually the system starts 'beachball'-ing.

Because the SSD is so fast and the OS scheduler will put 'low priority' tasks onto the efficiency cores, the system will deliver responsiveness as best it's able. Compared the Intel macs, the system can seem 'usable' with 8GB.

That said, if you're only going edit a word doc or two, have a couple thousand photos, only use a few tabs, only use the laptop screen and don't load any background helpers like Dropbox, etc, you could get away with 8GB. But this is what people are talking about when they say "well, it's fast, but not THAT much better than my old iMac". I didn't totally appreciate it until I sent back the 8GB model.

It's nothing compared to having real memory. 16GB flies by comparison. For $200, much much much smoother experience.

Thanks for your input, my workflow is basically web apps due to using Linux on the side in some of my other laptops. However I think 16GB is the way to go for us prosumers

 

[xraydoc]

Bought 16GB/512GB and would never have done it any other way.

256GB of SSD storage is too small (for me). While I likely won't use a full 512GB on a laptop, I do hover around 350GB used.

8GB of RAM is also simply not enough (again, for me). If you're a one or two apps at a time kind of a person, then I'm sure it's sufficient. I often keep 5-6 apps open with multiple windows each, especially when I'm docked to my big desktop monitor. Yes, the M1 platform is good at swapping to virtual memory in low-RAM situations. That's still not a replacement for real, actual RAM. Not if you don't want beachballs and out-of-memory warnings.

 

[Blue Quark]

I just bought the 8/512 MacBook Air M1 two days ago, and I have to say I'm really enjoying it.

To be honest, while I was aware Apple had decided to build their own CPUs and switch away from x86, I haven't paid any attention to it. I started thinking about getting another laptop recently, and thought it would make sense if I'm going to have the broadest possible knowledge for doing tech support work to have a current version of macOS to use. That's when I started digging into the M1 and learned it actually does go toe to toe pretty well with Intel and AMD's CPUs. So, two days ago I bought the MacBook Air (I had thought about getting the MacBook Pro, but really didn't see the justification for the extra money, and wasn't actually all that impressed with the TouchBar) and this is honestly such a nice little machine.

 

[symphony]

Explain to us then what exactly is the point of your post when you hesitate to share the exact config.

Your post makes little sense comparing $500 savings, to each their own and their use case honestly. Too bad you had bad experience with the one you returned and it has nothing to do with your configuration.

Bottom line - you got another exact model M1 Air for a faulty one, period.

If base works its perfect, and your assessment (read 'use case') may not apply to others. 4 months back those mounting SSD swap spaces on 8GB Air/Pro models would have made you roll in your sleep, keep an eye on it nevertheless though those days are mostly over. Enjoy in good health and spirits.

The point of this post is so that the user can feel vindicated on downgrading to save money. And wanted to share so people can make the user feel better about the downgrade.

it’s why people watch reviews that agree with their own opinions. It’s similar to confirmation bias. I’ve studied to math to know this.

 

[RUQRU]

A lot of people overbuy for what they currently need. Gad to see you got a properly working Mac now and are happy with the base model.

Excellent point. With the latest hardware most people do not need the top spec machines. Back in the day it did make a difference in usability. But machines today far outpace software demands that there is no point in "future proofing" a machine.

 

[MrGunny94]

I think the base model is fine for 90% of the consumers. Honestly I'm still torn between 8GB vs 16GB especially since I hook up to big 4k / 5k displays.

I like to usually keep 5-10 tabs open per browser ( safari for personal and chrome for work) but honestly what drains most memory on my Mac is HANA Studio and Safari.

 

[Queen6]

Good judgement ? People get too obsessed with specs and lose track of what actually matters: usability. There is no point in spending more money if you experience does not improve.

Well said, far too many push others to overspend in fear of future proofing which is an impossibility in this game. Personally I only ever purchase base models unless there's good reason to upgrade and that needs to be revenue. Apple knows this hence the pricing...

M1 MBP, 8GB, 256 SSD good enough for what I need with 10TB of external storage. As and when I need 16GB of RAM on the 13" platform I'll opt for that. This Asus has 32GB RAM, equally for specific purpose (engineering applications). As you stated no point to spend on something that has no tangible benefit ?

TLDR over spec is a fools errand...

Q-6

 

[smbu2000]

Upgrading to 16GB of RAM costs $200, how did you save $500?
Unless you also changed the storage size as well.

Using 8GB or 16GB depends on your usage. If 8GB works for you, then feel glad you didn’t need to spend an extra $200 in your case.
Storage capacity also depends on a persons needs. 256GB might be fine for some and very limiting for others. If it works for you, then great.

 

[Queen6]

Smart money is on external storage now, especially if using multiple systems. Your system goes down, your data is safe and you can continue to work with little to no interruption. High capacity internal storage is more a factor of convivence these days.

Not a lover of dongles by any means, equally a M1 13" MBP with 4TB of fast SSD storage over a single port isn't too bad of a compromise.

Q-6