This is my 14 inch
M two Max MacBook
Pro, and I love it.
This is the best,
fastest laptop I've ever
owned and it's amazing.
So why, what?
I want to give it up and
go to a 2018 MacBook Air
with a slow intel chip.
Well, I did a video a
while back about using
an iPhone 10 R for a
week, and the experience
was really positive,
so I decided to look
for an old MacBook
Air to see if I could
replicate the experience
for this experiment.
I knew I wanted a 2018
MacBook Air because
that's when it got
the retina redesigned.
It got a retina screen
that year, and there
is no way I'm ever
going non retina.
I'm not crazy, so I love
getting new computers.
If you don't.
And I always want the
newest Mac laptop.
When Apple moved from
Intel to their own chips
in 2020, it was like
a lightning bolt of
new performance shoved
right into the New
Max, and it's amazing.
Since then, we've seen
some minor improvements,
I guess, with the M
two line, but hey,
it's new and ever so
slightly faster, so I
wanted it actually, I
may be one of the only.
Who bought the M two
max and still has it?
Well, I'm a glutton
for punishment, so I
started to wonder if
I can actually use an
older Intel Mac for
a week and see how
different it is in 2023.
Is it really that
much slower than the
current MacBook, or do
I just think they are?
Like I said, I wanted
a 2018 macare because
that's the year that
they got the retina.
Which brought the
retina display and the
butterfly keyboard and
it still looks just
like the current M one
MacBook Air, which you
can still buy today.
Plus, there really
weren't any real speed
improvements on the
Intel MacBook Airs
between 2018 and 2020.
So I headed over to
eBay and it looks
like the going rate
for a 2018 air.
Was about three to $400
depending on the quality.
And because I'm vain, I
wanted a laptop that was
as near mint as possible,
and I found a listing
that seemed good for the
base model, dual core I
five with 128 gigabytes
of SSD and eight
gigabytes of memory.
They also promised
a grade a excellent
condition, whatever
that means, and a
battery with at least
81% of the original
battery capacity,
which Apple claims was
about 12 hours of web.
You just never know how
these things are going
to look when you buy one
of 43 or whatever, and
the photos don't really
represent the actual
device you are buying.
But I rolled the dice
and spent the $375.
I waited a week and
this is what I got.
This 2018 MacBook Air is.
Almost pristine.
Like the case,
the display, the
keyboard, everything
just looks perfect.
I was super surprised
to say the least.
The only marks that I can
find was one little small
ding on the bottom of the
case and a couple tiny
little scratches around
leaf thunderbolt ports.
Other than that,
this laptop looks
basically untouched.
It really looks
like this computer
was not even used.
I even checked
the battery.
And it was at 91
cycles with more than
93% of the original
battery capacity.
So I'm not sure you
could find a better
version of this
laptop for this price.
Now there will be a
couple of things that
I lose by downgrading
to the air, including
the extra ports on
the 14 inch Meco
Pro, the promotion
display, the SSD size.
But I'll be using my
cow digit TS four wind
dock, which will give me
all of the ports I need.
Plus I'll use an external
Thunderball SSD because
128 gigabytes is just not
going to be enough for me
to do my YouTube stuff.
Also, I've never used a
butterfly keyboard for
any extended length of
time, so I'm not sure
what to expect there.
So I'm going to do a
full wipe of this machine
and transfer all of my
data from my M two max.
Pro I will have
to reinstall some
applications for the
regular Intel version
versus the Apple silicon
version, but if I run
into issues with that
or anything else, I will
definitely let you know.
So wish me luck and
now I've run into the
first big issue of
moving over to this
older Mac, and that is
the size of the S sd.
I knew that was
going to be an issue.
And we can see right
here that migration
assistant wants to
transfer over 277
gigabytes of user data,
and I just don't have
enough space on here.
So I'm going to have to
go through here and see
if I can deselect enough
folders to be able to
complete the migration.
Now the total transfer is
going to be 83 gigabytes
of data with about 21
gigabytes left over.
I might still have
to do a little bit of
cleanup when I'm done.
That's where again,
this external SSD is
going to come in handy.
So I am in the first
morning of using this
2018 MacBook Air as my
only device, and I'm
running into a number
of issues, mostly
with performance and
some weird app issues.
And I'm not sure
what I'm going to do.
I might have to actually
wipe out and read.
Configure this MacBook
from scratch because
of some of the issues
that I'm seeing.
I mentioned before that
some of the apps are
going to have to be
reinstalled or reloaded
because maybe they
were built for Apple
silicon specifically,
and I needed the
Intel versions.
Well, I've done that,
but I'm still running
into odd issues.
Even something like Final
Cut Pro, I've removed
it, deleted it from
the Mac and reinstalled
it from the App store.
But I'm still having
strange issues.
Like I'll open the
app and it will just
bounce and bounce and
bounce and bounce, and
sometimes maybe it will
open up and sometimes
it just stops bouncing.
It will show as it's
running in Activity
Viewer, but I can't
actually open the app.
And if I try and open the
app, it will usually just
say, Hey, it's already.
Let's see if it pops up.
Well, it's not gonna
do anything this time.
All right, so day one was
almost a complete loss.
I did end up needing to
go back and completely
wipe and set up this
computer from scratch
because I ran into
so many issues with
the applications
not even opening.
So I went through
the reset and I
reinstalled all of my
applications manual.
Which was
painful as well.
Things that usually
took seconds to a
couple minutes took
much, much longer.
For example, I downloaded
a couple of applications
from the Mac app store
and I left for lunch,
and when I came back it
was still downloading
and installing.
That is abnormal,
and I know because I.
Do a lot of installs
of applications and
reinstalls of Max because
of, you know what I do.
This one was just
slow, and so just
running my regular work
applications that I
need during the day to
get my job done, plus
a web browser and email
and some other things,
everything has a lag.
Everything's slow.
Nothing is instant.
You win using
this computer.
For example, using Pixel
Made or Pro to do some
basic edits on a photo
adjustments took multiple
seconds or longer just
to apply to the photo.
Whereas with the M one
and the M two, everything
is just instant.
The other thing
about that is even
with the very light
workload, The fans
are frequently running
almost all of the time.
Even just a browser
with a tab or three
open will kick on.
The fans watching the
YouTube video going
through certain news
websites, you just,
you can't do it without
that fan picking up.
I also wanna mention that
even after completely
reinstalling all of
the applications from
scratch, they still
take an abnormal amount
of time to actually
open up and they just
continue to bounce.
I actually do want
to share a positive
experience I'm having
with this Alder MacBook
Air, and hopefully
you can hear me beyond
the fan spinning
on this because
of the transcoding
that's happening.
But the keyboard is
the third generation
butterfly keyboard, and
I've actually had a.
Pretty good
experience so far,
pleasantly surprised.
This is the third
generation butterfly
keyboard on this MacBook
Air and third generation,
because they kept
having problems, but
the typing experience
has not been as bad as
I thought it would be.
They have a lot less
key travel, and you can
definitely notice that.
Coming from a regular
magic keyboard on a Mac,
BGA MacBookPro, or even
the iPad Magic keyboard,
but after just a couple
of hours or days, you
get used to it and it's
actually not too bad.
I do think that I do
miss the extra key
travel overall on
the other keyboards.
But I would say this one
has not been bad, and
actually, like I said,
a pleasant surprise.
So now I've hit the point
where I just cannot edit
videos on this computer.
It's just not
going to happen.
At least my videos,
my 4K Sony camera
videos are uneditable
on this computer.
Even trying to create
proxies was insane.
Just the first couple
minutes of my video took
more than six hours to
create proxies, and the
performance still wasn't
good enough to actually
edit on this machine.
So, Video editing
for me on this
machine is just out.
It's just not
going to happen.
It's impossible.
So now I get to focus on
some of the other things.
Like this morning, I
was able to take this
computer downstairs
and use it on the couch
while I got ready for
work, doing my initial
writing and going through
emails and brainstorming
and the other things
that I usually do on
the computer early
in the morning.
And this computer
handled it just fine.
So without video editing
and without trying to
do all of that, I'm back
to, can I do my regular
work on this computer?
We'll be doing that over
the next couple days
and seeing how it goes.
So lag is starting to
be a constant problem
with this matchbook,
for example, just
opening up applications
takes a very long time.
So Asari is now open.
Let's go ahead and
go to say, docs and.
What you're gonna
see is how long this
takes to open, which
is pretty crazy.
But then worst of all,
I have major typing lag.
So I'll start a new
document here and
wait for that to load.
And this, nope,
can't type yet.
Still waiting.
This is how I am
typing poorly.
Of course.
But there is a major lag
as demonstrated above.
So I'm done typing,
but this is still
trying to figure
out what's going on.
Done typing, and during
all of this here, lemme
take my microphone
off, put it down here.
The fan is going crazy.
And I have very
little open.
I have Safari Open, I
have Messenger, I have
mail, calendar, photos,
notes, and I have
Pixel made are open,
but it's not actually,
there's nothing open.
There's no document, and
the fans are going nuts.
Just trying to
run Google Docs.
All right, so welcome
to day six, and today
we're going to be
working away from the.
So we are at
approximately 9:00 AM We
have a battery life of.
100% and we are going
to see how this guy
performs away from
the desk without being
powered and see how it
performs and see most
importantly, how the
battery life performs.
So for the first couple
of hours this morning, I
worked on getting through
my email messaging
my team on teams.
I logged into remote
systems to check
on things, and of
course I had a few
browser tabs open.
So before,
finally, Smooth.
Also joined a couple
of conference calls
and even a Zoom call,
which stuttered for
the first 30 seconds.
So I've been using this
completely un undo and
unpowered for the last
two hours, and you can
see that I'm down to 60%.
So I only have probably
a couple hours left
on Battery Life.
Here's the applications
that I've been using.
As you can see, nothing
too crazy, but they
all do suck up a bit.
All right, so it's
past 12 o'clock and
I am hungry, so I'm
gonna put this guy down
and go get some grub.
But after about three
hours, we've used about
60% of the battery.
What that means is
there's no way I can
get through a full
day on this computer.
I mean, I can get a
couple hours more maybe
after lunch, but that
there's no way it gets
me till four or five.
Performance-wise, it
has actually been okay.
Some of that typing
lag that I've had
with Google Docs and
other applications,
I have not really
noticed much today.
Every now and then
I get a couple of
keystrokes that don't
quite go through as
quick as it should.
So yes, I did determine
that I could get most
of my regular work stuff
done using this computer.
However slow it may be.
And frustrating.
I cannot do some of my
more creative things
on this computer.
It's just does not have
the horsepower to do it.
On a positive note, the
design still looks pretty
modern because Apple
still sells essentially
this exact same shape,
size computer with
the M one match air.
It looks just as good as
it did many years ago.
The classic wedge safe.
Black keyboard, silver
track pad, it looks good.
Also, the screen is
still a retina display on
here, which looks better
than most other laptops.
The bezels do look a
little large compared
to the M two MacBook
Air, but you know what?
That's not too bad.
So that's what I have
to say that's positive
about this computer.
The hardware looks
great on the outside.
The display is great.
Okay.
I made it seven days and
it was actually pretty
rough going into this.
I did not really expect
the performance for
regular tasks to be
as bad as they were.
I knew benchmarks
were not great, and
they don't always
tell the full story.
Well, in this case, it
actually does, and I
can't wait to get back
to my 14 inch macro
pro heck, even the M
one base models could
be a solid upgrade to
what I have, right.
What I learned over
the last week is
that my memory of the
transition from Intel
to Apple, Silicon was
correct, like pure night
and day difference.
Luckily, I had actually
stopped using Max between
2013 and 2019, so I
missed this dark period.
In Apple laptops,
there's just.
No way that this machine
can keep up with me and
my daily work, which
makes it unusable for me.
Even without the YouTube
stuff I was experiencing
frequent lag.
The battery life,
although nowhere
near 12 hours, that
Apple claims of web
surfing wasn't terrible
for this machine.
It just would not get
me through a full day.
The M one and newer
max have definitely
spoiled me.
Allowing me to get
more than a single full
day's work out of it
and not worrying about
where I need to plug in.
Unlike switching from
the latest iPhone to one
that's a few years old.
This experience
completely changed
the way I worked.
Every single thing I
did was slower from
opening apps to switching
Safari tabs to just.
Typing in a Google Doc
took longer than it
should and caused me to
have to slow down and
actually get less done.
And I don't even use
anything that crazy
for my day job beyond
normal office type apps.
But I do multitask
constantly.
I couldn't even switch
between apps without
being hit with lag.
I'm actually debating
whether or not to resell
this laptop or just
recycling the apple
silicon transition
really was revolutionary.
But what about you?
Are you still rocking
an older MacBook and
wondering if you should.
Let me know when the
comments pull up.
Also, if you wanna see
my experience using
an iPhone 10 R for a
week, check out this
video right over here.
Hit the thumbs up
button if you liked it.
Hit subscribe if
you want, and I'll
see you next time.