Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do you still love your M1 MacBook Air?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 73 89.0%
  • No, I don't care anymore

    Votes: 10 12.2%

  • Total voters
    82

dmr727

macrumors G4
Dec 29, 2007
10,435
5,195
NYC
Still love mine! 16GB/1TB.

Every once in awhile I take a peek at the 14" MBP and wonder if I should upgrade for the better screen (I won't take much advantage of the extra processing power), but decide that I love the size and weight of my MBA and put away my wallet. :)
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
15,703
11,000
M1 to me is showing its age on daily activities, for I feel more noticeable stutter, slowdown and freezes than when it was released back in 2020. If not because of how expensive Apple MacBook Pro is (I didn’t go for Air back then), I’d upgraded to later models already. iPad Pro M1 on the other hand, still hold strong.

The only thing I still love is the battery life. Plenty for my use case between recharge and USB-C port charging is a godsend.
 

klspahr

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2013
92
151
Central PA
I don’t do a lot of heavy work on my ‘puter any more, but I when I do the M1 flies through it. Love not having a fan and eternal battery life. Hard to believe this was a low-end Mac. I do wish I had bought more built-in storage. I may consider buying a used one with maxed storage.
 

ignatius345

macrumors 604
Aug 20, 2015
6,965
11,422
I keep thinking it would be nice to get one of the M2 Airs, but then I realize the M1 is doing absolutely everything I need. If an upcoming OS update slows it down (as they always do, eventually) then I'd consider moving to whatever the current generation is. Probably by then it'll be M3 or even M4.

The one MacBook they could release that would make me leave my M1 Air behind right now would be an ultralight like the Retina MacBook, updated with an M-series chip and usable keyboard.
 
Last edited:

ignatius345

macrumors 604
Aug 20, 2015
6,965
11,422
I don’t do a lot of heavy work on my ‘puter any more, but I when I do the M1 flies through it. Love not having a fan and eternal battery life. Hard to believe this was a low-end Mac. I do wish I had bought more built-in storage. I may consider buying a used one with maxed storage.
I actually had to do the same thing. I bought a base model M1 Air because I thought I would only be using it for writing and web stuff. When I started having to use it for graphic design, the files piled up and overwhelmed that tiny 256 GB SSD. I sold it on eBay and picked up a lightly used M1 Air with a 1 TB SSD and 16 GB of RAM to make things a little smoother. Annoying swap to have to make, but in the end it only cost me a few hundred bucks.
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,897
I was never that enthused about the design as such, and the lack of ports can be frustrating, but I use mine for a few hours every day, and as much as I have some concerns about Apple and some of their apparent policies, my M1 MBA has been rock solid and runs flawlessly.

I could do with more storage, but that's where the limited ports come in, because I could end up with a bunch of external wires and boxes. But for what it is, this is the first laptop I've been able to take as a serious platform to work on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iHammah

ctjack

macrumors 65816
Mar 8, 2020
1,371
1,412
I love the sh** out of it. It has 8gb ram and 512 gb ssd, my m1 pro 14 is nicer and faster with better screen and sound, but i am still on m1 Air.

It even allowed me to share ethernet internet while adding l2tp vpn to my xbox, which allowed me to buy 300 worth of games for 50 bucks using my country’s credit card. This is not happening with macbook 14 which sits on newer macos which disabled l2tp vpn sharing.

I have wrist cramps from mbp 14 but not with air. Also air is so sleek to put into the bag and haul, use in a stealth mode that nothing else can beat it.
 

BanjoDudeAhoy

macrumors 6502a
Aug 3, 2020
833
1,426
I have a base model and it’s my favorite laptop I’ve ever owned.

No issues with speed in anything I do, great keyboard, silent, wonderful shape, good screen…

Every now and then I feel like getting an M2 MBA but then I realize it’s a “want to have” rather than actually needing to upgrade. The M1 MBA is just a great computer 😌
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scarrus and mblm85

BanjoDudeAhoy

macrumors 6502a
Aug 3, 2020
833
1,426
I was never that enthused about the design as such, and the lack of ports can be frustrating, but I use mine for a few hours every day, and as much as I have some concerns about Apple and some of their apparent policies, my M1 MBA has been rock solid and runs flawlessly.
I’m curious - what are those concerns?
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Mitchan1999

sunapple

macrumors 68030
Jul 16, 2013
2,752
5,143
The Netherlands
It's not that I don't love the design of newer models, it's just that the M1 Air does everything perfectly and does not show any signs of aging yet (even my base model). And at a low price with unprecedented stable second hand resale value. There is no metric where this product is lacking for my use case - casual "computing" (whatever that means). If it broke today, I would replace it with the exact same product. This is Peak MacBook to me (and I have owned quite a few).
 

LeeW

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2017
4,246
9,237
Over here
I said yes on behalf of my wife. She loves her M1 and won't let me replace it. She is far from a power user but loves that it effortlessly does everything she needs: no noise and no heat. Only needs to charge it a couple of times a week instead of every day with past MBA models.

She is tempted by the larger screen on the 15" MBA but has so far resisted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Mitchan1999

Wando64

macrumors 68020
Jul 11, 2013
2,190
2,784
M1 to me is showing its age on daily activities, for I feel more noticeable stutter, slowdown and freezes than when it was released back in 2020. If not because of how expensive Apple MacBook Pro is (I didn’t go for Air back then), I’d upgraded to later models already. iPad Pro M1 on the other hand, still hold strong.

The only thing I still love is the battery life. Plenty for my use case between recharge and USB-C port charging is a godsend.

I am not disbelieving your experience, but I would suggest that there could be more than a small possibility it could be caused by software/OS issues. Perhaps your usage has changed? Or perhaps something needs cleaning up?

The M1 is serving the vast majority of users (me included) in the same way it did on day of release, so if I were experiencing the symptoms you are describing, before dismissing it as “showing its age”, I would try a fresh reinstall.

Your Mac, your choice.
 

GerritV

macrumors 68020
May 11, 2012
2,143
2,471
I've loved the Air design from day 1, but unfortunately it wasn't really fit for my work back then.
Right after my retirement, almost 4 years ago, I ran out to get one and haven't regretted it for one moment.
Super laptop if you ask me !
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,897
I’m curious - what are those concerns?
This is probably not the best place to dig into that since it's about the M1 MBA, but basically revolves around the bloat they continue to add to macOS, poor software implementations and the fact they've abandoned their own programming and interface guidelines. It's all got a bit sloppy is all.
 
Last edited:

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
15,703
11,000
I am not disbelieving your experience, but I would suggest that there could be more than a small possibility it could be caused by software/OS issues. Perhaps your usage has changed? Or perhaps something needs cleaning up?

The M1 is serving the vast majority of users (me included) in the same way it did on day of release, so if I were experiencing the symptoms you are describing, before dismissing it as “showing its age”, I would try a fresh reinstall.

Your Mac, your choice.
The cost of fresh reinstall is just too high for me right now due to various factors. Besides, it’s the same M1 (maybe with higher clock?) running both iOS and macOS, the latter of which is a desktop operating system. I’d bet even photoshop on Mac is more demanding than the one on iPad.

I’ve seen this “serving vast majority of users” claim countless times, but struggle to figure out who those “vast majority of users” are. I’m happy for you to enjoy your M1 MacBook Air, but I’m clearly not one of those “vast majority” and many people I asked similar question online (about 100) also don’t unanimously agree M1 suites their needs, and none of them are editing videos.

Whether it’s just Macrumors thing or our world is vastly different, I can’t share that sentiment and can’t agree with that claim. What I can agree on is Intel Mac would stand no chance in almost every way against Apple silicon should same workload be put on their latest processor.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Mitchan1999

azentropy

macrumors 601
Jul 19, 2002
4,040
5,421
Surprise
Love my M1 MBA. I originally got the base MBA just to look at Apple Silicon with all intentions to return it as I had just purchased a quad core 13" MBP with 32GB of RAM earlier that year. However it was so better 95% of the time so sold the MBP instead.

My only complaint is those few things I do at times that do require more RAM to run better. So what would interest me is if Apple either improves the base RAM for the the various retail configurations and/or significantly reduces upgrade prices.
 

ignatius345

macrumors 604
Aug 20, 2015
6,965
11,422
I am not disbelieving your experience, but I would suggest that there could be more than a small possibility it could be caused by software/OS issues. Perhaps your usage has changed? Or perhaps something needs cleaning up?

The M1 is serving the vast majority of users (me included) in the same way it did on day of release, so if I were experiencing the symptoms you are describing, before dismissing it as “showing its age”, I would try a fresh reinstall.

Your Mac, your choice.
Yeah, mine is every bit as responsive as it was several years ago. Same with my M1 iMac. Both machines are on Sonoma. I don't buy that the M1s are generally slowing down at this point. May (and probably will) happen with some future OS update as it inevitably does -- but so far the newest OS seems to be quite crisp on M1.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BanjoDudeAhoy

ctjack

macrumors 65816
Mar 8, 2020
1,371
1,412
Forgot another thing: this is the only and last laptop that allows to sideload ios apps.

It is good to have my 2 factor authentication related to work requested and approved from my laptop instead of reaching or always searching my smartphone. It basically runs almost any app from my iphone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scarrus
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.