M1 MacBook Air Review - 2 Years Later

Vemuda Techno - Did Apple mess up and give us a better option than the M2 MacBook Air for less money? Last month I made a post about the M2 MacBook Air where I’ve covered everything there is to cover about that laptop.

But I left one thing out of the picture – it’s position in the lineup and its rivalry with another, very capable macbook that may actually be a better deal for 90 percent of the people.

Source: Digital Trends

In this post I will tell you how you can spend 500 dollars less and get a laptop that is even better in some cases. Buckle up, and let’s start!

Before I reveal to you this super duper cool laptop, let’s rewind the clock and see, what makes MacBooks great? Why do millions of people love them so much?

First date – 2008 and first Unibody MacBooks. Before that, MacBooks were made out of plastic, aluminum, or titanium, but they did not look premium at all. Then, the 2008 MacBook Air and 2009 MacBook Pro reinvented the wheel and made macbooks sexy.

Full aluminum enclosure with no seams, glass screen, and perfect keyboard. Okay, the first item our super laptop should have is the design and build quality.

In 2015 Apple made another revolution – retina display. It was a substantial upgrade back in the day. Brightness, contrast, and resolution were improved dramatically, and those laptop screens look great even now, 7 years later. So the second item – the screen should be good.

Next, in 2016 Apple made its biggest design decision yet – slimmer, less ports, and more compactness. This principle stays to this day. So the third thing our ideal MacBook should do is be modern-looking.

What else? Oh, the performance, for sure. For the past couple of years Apple has been making its laptops very powerful, and now you can’t think about a MacBook without thinking about power.

So, is there a laptop that satisfies all those demands? That is at the same time powerful, modern looking, well-built, and with a great screen? Yes, there is one.

And what if I tell you that it also has great battery life, supports the latest MacOS, can be repaired cheaply, does all the work done effortlessly AND costs only 700 dollars? What is this secret laptop? Are you ready?

The M1 Macbook Air! Yes, the M1 MacBook Air in many ways is a better deal than the M2 MacBook Air. But why? How can this laptop  after two years still be a king? Well, there are a few things that make it great.

First – that design. I know a lot of people like that boxier design of new Pro MacBooks and M2 MacBook Air, but you just cannot beat the wedge. Wedge-shaped MacBook Air offers totally different sensations and user experience.

This design goes all the way back to 2008, and, like good wine, has aged perfectly. Now the M1 MacBook Air is seen as a modernclassic, refined and perfected.

It’s aluminum body looks sleek and modern, without showing its age. That design is really, really good. All the seams are invisible, the hinge is sturdy and opens with a pleasing resistance, and the shape itself just screams “lightweight”. 

This wedge shape, tapered edges, and sloping form make this MacBook feel almost like paper. When you hold it and look at it you don’t think about that thicker part – you’re seeing only the thin edge.

This visual trick makes it seem even slimmer almost like a piece of paper. For many of you, this design will actually be better, because typing on the M1 Air is slightly more comfortable.

So if you’re a student and typing huge documents is your mundane routine – there will be no better laptop for it than the M1 MacBook Air.

What about the screen? The 13.3 inch display  is definitely not a weak side of this MacBook. Bright, colorful, and super high resolution, it is still better than on any windows laptop at the same price.

Watching movies and YouTube on this screen is pure bliss. Yes, it doesn’t have pro motion like MacBook Pros, and it is slightly dimmer than the M2 Air screen, but it doesn’t have that notch.

I know, I have said many times that you’re getting used to the notch, but even after two years I still notice it. It still bugs me sometimes, just the idea of a notch on a laptop.

And coming back to the traditional notch-less screen of this MacBook Air feels like putting on your favorite slippers. And it supports P3 wide-color gamut, which is a very nice thing to have for such a price.

This MacBook can become a great photo-editing machine for budding photographers simply because of the screen. Perfectly calibrated by default, super sharp, and impressively bright – that’s all I have to say about the display of this MacBook.

Now to the best part – its performance. It may surprise you, but the M1 inside is just as fast as it was the day I bought it. My model here is the cheapest one, with 8 core cpu, 7 gore gpu, 8 gigs of ram, and 256 gigs of storage.

And believe me – it just flies. M1 is a very, very powerful chip and delivers a stunning  performance in a completely fanless design. Of course, the baseline M2 MacBook Air has one extra GPU core, and faster ram, but don’t be fooled.

I have used both of them and the M1 Air  performs just as good. The apps open instantly, web browsing is smooth sailing. If you think that M2 will give you much more performance – it’s not true.

The M2 is definitely faster, but only by 10-15 percent, which is completely unnoticeable in real life. That extra GPU core makes no  difference in everyday use, just like that ProRes media engine.

Put two laptops side by side and you will not tell where is which. M1 is still a king. Fast, snappy, and very reliable.

You can’t overestimate the importance of good performance, especially when you’re dealing with large files. When you have huge files to take care of, it can be very handy to just compress them, make them smaller. 

Modern compression software can turn heavy files into smaller ones without damaging the data or decreasing the quality of files. 

Personally, I like to use Wondershare AniSmall for all my file compression needs. Wondershare AniSmall is a powerful tool for audio and video file compression and supports lossless compression of extensive data.

It is compatible with over a thousand different  formats. The parameters may be altered, including the compression type, chosen file  size and compression ratio, data rate, and preferred resolution.

It offers four key features: audio from video extraction, video compression, video conversion, and audio conversion. You may easily convert your videos to almost any audio or video format.

The baseline M1 MacBook Air has only 256 gigs of storage, and if you are doing any creative work, the space gets filled up quickly. With AniSmall, you can fix that.

Compression is also useful if you are trying to send big videos via email, upload them to social media, or you simply store too much music.

High-speed lossless compression is supported, along with the ability to preview the result before saving it to the disc. It is a vital tool for batch compression of multimedia data in various formats.

The sleek, dark interface welcomes you and explains the three easy actions you must complete to compress your files: adding or dragging files to the main window, determining the output size, and beginning the compression. That’s how easy it is.

Now, back to discussing our MacBook. When it comes to battery life, both laptops are equally great. M1 is still very power efficient, and MacBook Air with M1 can easily last 10 to 15 hours of binge watching YouTube, browsing the web, and texting via imessage. 

Even under heavy loads these two chips perform identically. 7-8 hours under heavy  workload is a very respectable number. So if you think that cheaper, older laptop is worse in every way – you’re fundamentally not right.

There is only one thing you may notice that M1 Air does worse – the facetime camera. M1 air has a 720p camera, while the M2 Air has 1080p camera.

The difference is noticeable, especially during video calls. But the M1 Air is perfectly fine for studying, casual calls with friends, and so on.

When it comes to ports and connectivity, both the M1 and M2 MacBook Air have the same arrangement: two Thunderbolt 3 ports that support USB 4 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds. Both devices are capable of supporting just one external display, however.

M2 has an extra magsafe charging port, which frees up one type c. It doesn’t really matter because you need a dongle anyway, and almost every dongle now comes with a type-c  power-through port for charging.

So technically, you won’t have any difficulties with M1 or M2. Both laptops also support the same Wi-Fi 6 wireless standard and Bluetooth 5.0, if it matters to you.

But you are not here to hear about similarities. You want to know where this older, cheaper laptop is better. If we talk performance again, the M1 MacBook will actually crush the M2 Air in some tasks.

For example, file transfer. Every workflow that requires loading files from the SSD or writing on it will be two times faster on 1. Yes, because of that memory chip layout. Two 128 chips are faster than one 256 gig.

Yes, this difference can be seen only in a select number of cases which involve file transfers, but it is there. It doesn’t mean that m2 air is unusable, no. 99 percent of the time these laptops will perform identically, but in that one percent, that one time you really need a faster SSD, the M1 will be a winner.

And the second thing that M1 Air does better is throttling and thermal performance. If you watch any disassembly video you’ll see, that M1 actually has a small heat sink.

M2 doesn’t have that, thus heats up more. It’s no secret that M2 after a few minutes goes as high as 105 degrees Centigrade. In heavy tasks, M1 will maintain its performance longer. Not by much, but longer.

These five minutes the M1 can win in heavy tasks before throttling can translate to half an hour of waiting time on M2. If you are planning on doing bursty tasks up to 5 minutes  – both laptops will be identical.

But if you go over that time – M1 will perform better and finish faster. What amazes me even today is just how well the M1 holds up.

It pushes through everything a casual user can throw at it without breaking a sweat. M1, even with a 7 core GPU, still leaves a huge headroom for personal growth. You can start learning coding on this thing and you’ll have no problems with it.

Video Editing? Easy. It’s hard to count how many videos our team has edited on this M1 Air. 3D modeling? Not a problem. Music production? Done. You can do all that and still have some power left to spare.

But performance is not the only thing that’s  better on M1 Air. Most people underestimate what a difference a good set of speakers makes. M1 Air has speakers aimed at the viewer, and M2 Air has them hidden near the hinge.

This makes sound from M2 Air not significantly better. M1 is slightly louder, however M2 has more bass. So if you are planning on watching movies without headphones – the M1 will perform almost the same, if not better.

The M1 MacBook Air was already a capable  machine for everyday computing, productivity, and even video editing.

Now it's just a lot of a computer for only 700 dollars. You can pick up a refurbished one on Amazon right now for 700 dollars. Yes, 700. I’ll remind you that Apple sells M2 Air for 12 hundred. Even refurbished ones are still 400 bucks more expensive than this M1 Air.

For half the price of this M1 Air you are not getting much – a newer design, new screen, and improved facetime camera. And that’s it. For only 700 dollars you’re getting an immensely powerful laptop with a great screen, amazing battery life, and classic design.

Usually, it’s easy to recommend the new model over the old one. But in this case, the M2 MacBook Air feels more like a completely new model rather than a replacement of the old one.

And since the original M1 MacBook Air can be bought at a significantly lower price, the answer to the question of which you should buy may not seem so simple.

I think that for any student, casual user, or teacher there is no better laptop than M1 Air. It gives you so much and still leaves headroom for growth. That’s why I think that it is a better deal than M2 Air.

Those still holding on to an Intel-based MacBook Air may want to consider upgrading, as Apple touts a 15x increase in power over the older Intel models.

However, those who already have an M1 Air probably don’t need to upgrade unless you really want the MagSafe connector. And if you  want to get a new design – you are welcome to pay extra.

But if you want the best laptop money can buy – then the M1 MacBook Air is a no-brainer. Thanks for reading.

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