This is the M1 MacBook Air, the baseline MacBook that Apple sells today that is 2 and half
years old.
This is the only original M1 Mac still available, that was released in November 2020.
Since then we have seen the updated M2 MacBook Air and 13” MacBook Pro, along with 2 generations
of the 14 and 16” MacBook Pros, yet this guy is still available for you to buy today,
so Should you buy it in 2023, what should you pay, and should you upgrade the specs?
I’m just going to tell you….Yes, you should buy it….For most people, for most things
this laptop will do what you need it to, and not just ok, but really well, at a good price,
too!
Sure, it looks like the MacBook Air from 10 years ago with basically the same size and
wedge shape design, but you know what?
It still looks great with the unibody aluminum construction.
It still looks and feels like a premium device and the wedge shape actually makes this one
of the most comfortable typing experiences on a laptop, if not The most comfortable.
Hey, there is a reason the macbook air has been the world's best selling laptop for so
long.
This has been my daughter's laptop for the last 2 years which she has used for school
work, research, a bit of minecraft, and of course a YouTube viewer.
I have used this very laptop for my full time job, everyday computing, and making these
YouTube Videos.
Between My daughter and me, we definitely cover a wide spectrum of use cases and the
performance of this machine never disappoints.
This is the base model M1 MacBook air with the 8 core cpu, 7 core gpu, 8gb of unified
memory and a 256gb ssd, and although the newer M2 based Macs have higher benchmark scores,
in regular use you will be really hard pressed to feel a difference between them.
And actually, in some cases this M1 Air is faster than the newer M2 Air because when
equipped with just 8GB of memory the computer swaps memory to and from the internal SSD
which is about 2 times faster on the M1 versions.
The heaviest workload I do on my computers on a regular basis is video editing for this
channel.
With all my regular work applications open, web browser with many tabs, email, teams,
etc…..the timeline performance in Final Cut Pro is still really good.
I am using 4 streams of 4k footage, color graded, and there is no drop in performance
on the timeline or with playback.
So, take away the video editing, and this thing flys for regular computer work.
Whether you are a student, a professional, or just a casual home user, the M1 MacBook
Air will definitely fit right into your workflow.
And I know that some of you are still thinking that this computer can not be a professional
computer because it only has an anemic 2 ports which have to be used for charging and accessories,
Or that the M1’s limit of a single external display just is not enough.
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And speaking of displays, the built-in 13.3” retina display is actually really good.
It gets up to 400 nits of brightness which is really bright in most rooms but that also
means its usable in a bright coffee shop, conference room.
It sports truetone technology like most apple displays and it also supports P3 wide color
for very accurate color representation.
This is great for me as a video maker, because it shows me just how bad I am at color grading,
but if you are working with photo tools or anything else that requires accurate colors,
this display will do pretty well.
Honestly, if this were the display on the other MacBooks, just bigger, It would be hard
to complain about.
Heck, it essentially is the same display as what is on the 27” 5k Studio display that
I use so, ya, it's pretty great.
One of the best features of this laptop is the fanless design.
How many times have you been in a class or a conference room and the laptop next to you
starts blowing loud, hot air?
NOT the guy talking, the laptop…..
It's distracting…….As covid kicked into high gear in early 2020 we were all doing
video calls for work and school.
I remember my daughter’s MacBook Air with the i3 processor would basically run the fan
all day with just a zoom call going.
She had to wear headphones because it was so loud and constant, even though it was far
better than my work pc laptop.
The M1 Air is dead silent, 100% of the time, no matter what you throw at it.
And the good news is this almost never has any affect on performance with the super low
thermal requirements of the M1 chip inside.
And just to round things out, The 720p camera, speakers and microphones are all more than
acceptable for the price point of this laptop.
Actually, the speakers are way better than you will find in more expensive PC laptops.
For school or work meetings, entertainment….these will get the job done.
Now, How much should you pay for an M1 MacBook Air.
Well, Apple still sells this 2 and a half year old computer for the same amount as it
did in 2020.
$999 for the base model which I have here.
I do not think you should pay $999 when you can get it on Amazon using the link below
for just $799, brand new.
Now that is an absolute steal and sometimes you can get it for a little less brand new,
but $799 for this performance, in this package is a total bargain.
If your budget requires, you can save a few more dollars and go for a renewed version
on Amazon, but I can't vouch for their refurbishment process.
.
What if you want or need some upgrades like more memory or a larger ssd?
For that, your best bet is to buy refurbished directly from Apple.
Whether you upgrade the memory to 16gb or the storage to 512GB, you will save $180 off
the new price and get basically a brand new machine with full warranty where Apple has
done the best refurbishment of the device you can find.
I mean really, I have bought a lot of Apple refurbs and they are indistinguishable from
brand new.
Also, in my opinion, if you are an adult and you want this computer to last you another
5 years or more, I would get this bumped to 16gb of memory.
Even with the super fast unified memory, apps will continue to want more and more memory
over time and this also relieves any possible stress on the ssd.
But, if this is truly just for casual use or for a kid to do homework, stick with the
base spec and you will still be very happy.
Simply stated, dollars to performance, this is about the best laptop you can get.
Now, I purposely did not compare this M1 MacBook
Air to the M2 MacBook Air in this video because I think the M1 version stands on its own,
even today, but if you have any other questions about the M1 MacBook Air, let me know in the
comments below.
If you do want to see a full comparison between the M1 and M2 versions, check out this video
right over here.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it, hit subscribe if you want and Ill see you
next time