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Perfection - M1 MacBook Air (2020) Review

2020-11-18 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 16:32 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: Aimed at students

Ali calls the M1 MacBook Air (2020) as close to perfect as an entry-level laptop can be: Apple's own M1 chip makes it fast, fanless, cool and long on battery, so anyone spending about $1,000 on a laptop should buy the cheapest model, while long-term keepers and those wanting a brighter screen might pay $300 more for the MacBook Pro.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Upfront conclusion: the M1 MacBook Air is a no-brainer

  • ★★★ Ali thinks the 2020 M1 MacBook Air is basically as close to perfect as an entry-level laptop can be. — 00:00:00 · MacBook

    “as close to perfect as an entry-level laptop can be”

  • ★★ Ali says the early 2020 MacBook Air was nearly the perfect laptop, and even then he said anyone in the market for a laptop who can afford and wants a MacBook should just go for the MacBook Air. — 00:00:00 · MacBook

  • ★★★ Ali calls the M1 MacBook Air a no-brainer: anyone with $1,000 to spend on a laptop, or $900 with the student discount, who wants a reasonably priced MacBook might as well just buy it. — 00:00:29 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says Apple, which used Intel processors, has this week (week of 16 November 2020) switched the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini to its own Apple Silicon M1 chip. — 00:00:58 · Apple, MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says his reviews of the M1 MacBook Pro and the M1 Mac mini are coming shortly. — 00:00:58 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says the M1 chip is similar to the processors in iPhones and iPads: very fast and very well optimised, because Apple now makes the software, the hardware and the processor, so the laptop turns on as soon as it is opened. — 00:00:58 · Apple, iPhone, iPad, iPad Pro

00:01:05 — Processor: Apple Silicon M1 and its Geekbench scores

  • ★ Ali says he has now started caring about processor numbers because he is trying to be a better tech reviewer. — 00:01:57
  • ★★ Ali says that in Geekbench single-core scores the M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini are miles ahead of everything else; even the mid-2020 iMac with a 10-core Intel Core i9 is about 25% slower. — 00:02:26 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says normal users, and even pros, of the M1 MacBook Air are very unlikely to have any performance issues because the M1 processors are so fast. — 00:02:55 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says the M1 Macs score 7,200 to 7,400 in Geekbench multi-core, so the cheap M1 MacBook Air beats the 16-inch MacBook Pro with an eight-core Intel i9 from last year (2019). — 00:03:19 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali's main machine since 2018 has been a 15-inch 2018 MacBook Pro driving his whole desk setup, and it was fast enough that he never upgraded; the M1 MacBook Air beats it in Geekbench. — 00:03:19 · MacBook

00:04:04 — Thermal performance without a fan, and app compatibility

  • ★★ Ali's computer use is fairly basic: Chrome, Notion, Spotify and Slack, and only occasionally Final Cut, since he does not really edit his own videos. — 00:04:18 · Notion, Spotify, Slack, Final Cut Pro
  • ★★ Ali says the fanless M1 MacBook Air did not come close to getting hot even with about 20 Chrome tabs, Slack, Spotify and a Zoom call open, unlike the early 2020 MacBook Air, which overheated and got noisy. — 00:04:47 · MacBook, Slack, Spotify, Zoom
  • ★★ Ali says only people using very intensive apps might want the M1 MacBook Pro instead, since its fan should mean less thermal throttling; most people, including him, do not need that performance. — 00:04:47 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says Apple's own apps are perfectly optimised for the M1 chip, but many Adobe apps are not yet; a fully optimised Photoshop is apparently coming early next year (2021). (hedged) — 00:05:46 · Safari, Final Cut Pro, Apple
  • ★ Ali has not tested them himself, but says other reviewers report that even the unoptimised Premiere Pro and Photoshop work completely fine on the M1 Macs. — 00:06:15
  • ★★ Before buying an M1 Mac, Ali recommends anyone relying on a niche app to search Google or YouTube to check it has been updated for the M1 chip; he says 99% of viewers will have no issues. — 00:06:15 · Google, YouTube

00:06:43 — Design: weight against the iPad Pro, wedge shape, bezels

  • ★★ Ali weighs the M1 MacBook Air at 1,262 grams, lighter than his 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard at 1,366 grams, a setup that costs about 1,300 to 1,400 pounds overall. — 00:06:44 · MacBook, iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard
  • ★ Ali likes the unchanged wedge design of the M1 MacBook Air; his only slight complaint is that the bezels around the screen are a bit thick. — 00:07:41 · MacBook

00:07:55 — Keyboard and a typing test on 10FastFingers

  • ★★ On a 10FastFingers typing test on the M1 MacBook Air's keyboard, Ali types 159 words per minute, beating his previous record of 156. — 00:08:18 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali calls the M1 MacBook Air's keyboard, Apple's new keyboard model, fantastic with no complaints; he likes that it has an escape key, unlike the MacBook Pro line with its touch bar. — 00:08:40 · MacBook, Apple
  • ★★ Apple advertises 15 to 17 hours of video playback or web browsing on the M1 MacBook Air and two hours more on the M1 MacBook Pro; Ali says the battery is the same size and the efficient M1 chip makes the difference. — 00:09:09 · Apple, MacBook

00:09:13 — Battery life

  • ★★ Ali says he would have upgraded for the battery alone, because he thinks an extra 50% to 100% battery life is worth it. — 00:09:38 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali carries a charger everywhere with his current MacBook; with the M1 battery life he would not need to, a real quality-of-life gain for his shoulders and back. — 00:10:07 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says he is probably going to buy the M1 MacBook Pro rather than the MacBook Air, partly because an extra $300 gets two more hours of battery life. (hedged) — 00:10:07 · MacBook
  • ★★ Because a laptop battery gets worse over the years, Ali says anyone buying a laptop to keep for the long run might want the M1 MacBook Pro, with its slightly better battery, for $300 more. — 00:10:37 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali calls the MacBook trackpad best in class: nothing he has tried in computer shops is as nice, and it has barely changed since about 2011 apart from Force Touch and haptic feedback. — 00:10:37 · MacBook

00:10:53 — Trackpad

  • ★ Ali says the M1 MacBook Air keeps its Retina display of 2560 by 1600 pixels with 400 nits of brightness. — 00:11:06 · MacBook

00:11:24 — Display brightness and the two ports

  • ★★ Ali says 400 nits is fine for most people, but anyone who works in bright sunlight, on a beach or in a garden, might want the M1 MacBook Pro, whose 500 nits are 25% brighter; he cares about this himself. — 00:11:35 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says the M1 MacBook Air's two USB-C Thunderbolt ports are fine for most people, especially with the longer battery life, though old USB-A devices need a dongle; anyone needing more ports probably does not want it. — 00:12:04 · MacBook

00:12:53 — Microphone and camera

  • ★★ Ali says the M1 MacBook Air still has an annoyingly bad 720p FaceTime camera, but the M1's neural engine now improves the image on the fly, as on iPhones and iPads, so video calls look slightly nicer. — 00:13:03 · MacBook, iPad, iPad Pro

00:13:50 — Which configuration to get: SSD and RAM

  • ★ Ali says the base M1 MacBook Air costs £999 or $999, with a £100 discount for students. — 00:13:55 · MacBook
  • ★★★ Ali recommends the cheapest base M1 MacBook Air for most people: its 256 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM are reasonable for most students and many others, with no upgrades needed. — 00:13:55 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali says pros probably want to wait for the proper 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, which he expects early next year (2021) with even better performance, rather than buy the M1 MacBook Air. — 00:14:20 · MacBook
  • ★★ Ali, who cares a lot about performance and little about spending money and works with large 4K video files, would upgrade his own MacBook Air, probably to a 2 TB SSD. (hedged) — 00:14:49 · MacBook
  • ★★ On RAM, Ali thinks a student strapped for cash will probably not notice 8 GB versus 16 GB, but anyone who can afford it might as well upgrade to 16 GB, especially to keep the laptop a long time. — 00:15:35 · MacBook

00:15:57 — Conclusion: buy it, or consider the MacBook Pro for the long run

  • ★★ Ali says his next video, out in the next few days, covers the M1 MacBook Pro, which he would consider for anyone keeping the laptop a long time and willing to pay $300 to $400 more. — 00:16:04 · MacBook

In the description and comments

  • ★ Asked whether he could replace his 15-inch MacBook Pro as a desktop with the M1 MacBook Air, Ali replies that he is going to use the Mac mini as his desktop replacement. — creator comment · MacBook

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Apple M1 · MacBook

Also: Organizations: Apple · Intel

Products: 10FastFingers · Adobe Photoshop · Adobe Premiere Pro · Final Cut Pro · Geekbench · Google Chrome · iPad · iPad Pro · iPhone · Mac mini · Magic Keyboard · Notion · Safari · Slack · Spotify · Zoom

Also centred on Apple M1: My New Daily Driver - M1 Macbook Pro (2020) Review · Tough Choice - M1 Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro

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