One Year With The M1 MacBook Air
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I got the Apple M1 MacBook Air.
As much as I wanted to hold off until the 14 and 16-inch Apple Silicon-based MacBook Pros were announced, I finally had to give in and replace my Mid-2013 MacBook Air with the M1 MacBook Air early last year.
With all the then current software updates and upgrades, my Mid-2013 MacBook Air simply couldn’t keep up and I was experiencing serious performance lags, spinning wheels and frequent crashing/freezing when using Final Cut Pro X and Adobe products (even a clean install of macOS didn’t help). It just got to a point where I was spending more time trying to get tasks done rather than getting them done.
Granted, my Mid-2013 MacBook Air (with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM) was never intended to be used for digital production. It was an upgrade from my early-2009 MacBook. I intended to use the MacBook Air primarily for travel due to its portability. However, things change and eventually, I started creating videos and recording podcasts and my Mid-2013 MacBook Air became my digital production laptop.
I debated between the M1 MacBook Air vs the M1 MacBook Pro but based on the specs and pricing, I couldn’t justify spending the additional dollars towards the M1 MacBook Pro. My thinking was I’ll eventually need to get a more powerful MacBook Pro with the larger screen real estate, more CPU/GPU power and RAM but in the interim the M1 MacBook Air would get the job done while saving me some money!
On the M1 MacBook Air, I’ve edited numerous short videos in Final Cut Pro X and hour plus long podcast episodes in Logic Pro X. I’ve also performed tasks in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. I was able to transcode, render and export in a fraction of the time it used to take on my Mid-2013 MacBook Air. I’ve watched 1080p and 4K videos without freezing or buffering. The Retina Display is vibrant and bright. The keyboard is comfortable to use (significantly better than the one on my 2016 12-inch MacBook), the sound quality is much better, and the fanless design makes for whisper quiet operation. I have run into a few minor quirks (primarily issues with certain applications, some of which are not yet natively compatible with Apple Silicon, but they can probably be resolved in future software updates) here and there but no major issues.
I’ve been able to make do with the two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports without using any dongles or adapters for access to legacy ports and the M1 MacBook Air does still have a 3.5mm headphone jack. My only hardware complaint is probably the 720p camera. Would’ve preferred at least 1080p.
In terms of the M1 MacBook Air configuration, I opted for the 8-core CPU/8-Core GPU/16-core Neural Engine, 16GB Unified RAM and 1TB storage which will allow for future growth and I’m thinking the M1 MacBook Air will eventually replace my 12-inch MacBook. Don’t get me wrong … I still like my 12-inch MacBook which is lighter and smaller than the MacBook Air but it’s getting older. It’s a 2016 base model with an Intel Core m3 1.1GHz processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. It’s not very powerful and again, with all the latest software updates & upgrades, performance has taken a hit. I’ve primarily been using it for Boot Camp to run Windows 10 Pro and performing basic tasks in macOS.
Keep in mind, M1 Macs do not support Boot Camp. If you need to run Windows on a M1 Mac, you can run it virtually using the latest version of Parallels Desktop and a preview version of Windows ARM64 available through the Windows Insider Program (requires sign up for the Windows Insider Program).
I was hesitant about getting the M1 MacBook Air at first given it’s a first-generation M1 device but so far so good! The M1 MacBook Air has not disappointed!
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