The Apple M series chip for MacBooks is the best thing Apple has invented in a long time. My M1 13-inch MacBook Pro has a battery that lasts at least 8 hours a day of moderate work. When just reading and browsing, it’s more like 10 hours-and that’s with 84% battery health. It’s still very powerful and completely silent when handling more intensive tasks, which has made me love MacBooks with the M series chip more and more. I can’t wait to get an M4 Pro in a few months.
Me too. I went to college in 2018 and dad bought me new 2017 MBA for 900$ with education discount. I sold it last year for 250$, but it served me very well for 5 years, so I would say it was great even for this 900$
The first Mac I ever got myself was the 2018 MacBook Air. Looking back in hindsight, it's kind of surprising how I continued to stick with that laptop and Macs in general because that laptop really was terrible value. I guess that just showed how terrible of an experience I was having with my Windows laptop before I switched to Mac. Fast forward 3 years to 2021, I decided to get the M1 MacBook. While the design was identical, the M1 chip, updated keyboard, slightly better display, and higher storage/ram capacity just made it a solid enough upgrade for me. I would have continued using that MacBook Air today if it weren't for the fact that I managed to find a MacBook Pro 14" for such a good deal which is what I'm still using today to do everything I use a computer for from watching YT videos to making YT videos for my channels.
I’m buying an Mac mini M4 earlier next year, and a couple of years after that I’ll probably get an used M1 MacBook Air for collection, or to replace my work MacBook Pro 2016 if it couldn’t hold up anymore.
I am thinking about buying the M1 Air now, because for school I use the MacBook Air 2012 4GB RAM on Sonoma with OCLP but its a little laggy. Nice Video, I like it because your not the one that says "ohhh the M3 is the best and the intels are not usable" Thank you for the grate Video
I own a mid-2013 MacBook Air (1.3 GHz Core i5) with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD, a pretty basic configuration. I purchased it second-hand in 2018 and it's been an amazing machine, which has really surprised me on more than one front. I still run Mac OS High Sierra on it, since I consider it the last good Mac OS 10.x version. Batttery life is still fine - this Air lasts me about 5 hours on normal usage. If you don't need to perform particularly demanding tasks like video editing, this is still a great, compact machine to use especially when travelling. In fact, I really miss a MacBook Air of this size among the laptops Apple is currently offering. True, these MacBooks don't have retina displays, but the physical size of the display makes the resolution sufficiently 'dense' as to provide a decent-enough image overall. I'm on the market for an M1 Air at the moment (alas, the last notchless MacBook!), but I honestly wouldn't mind snatching another 11-inch model, maybe from 2015. I really really love its form factor and design. Keep up the good work! Cheers, //Rick
My first macbook was a 13" Pro from 2010, it had HDD, and in 2014 its getting quite slow with tethering raw 24mp photo files versus previously cams were more like 12-16mp. So I am faced with either buying a new one or upgrading the existing to SSD. I went with an early 2014 13" Air with a speced out i9 8gb RAM instead of 4gb. Really happy with it coz 10 years on today, it had over the decade processed easily over a 100,000 tethered RAW files images which is my main use of it, alongside with countless presentations in client meetings at small cafes. Its now replaced with a speced out MBP M3 Max but it still remains as the beater that you can take it to the beach or risky places without worry. Its so light and convenient. Since its not the main machine and can't handle the file load of today nor supported, I estimate I can get another 10 years of use out of it for light usages, till 2034. Then I will buy the 2034 version, maybe it will be M34 chip :D Hahaha. As mentioned by so many other folks here, the Air is for 'on the go', its the 'light cavalry hit squad', you dont need a lot of computing powers for those tasks, web browsing, writing office documents, even photo editing if its low volume and JPEGs. And old one serves a lot of value in reality. They are like $100-$300 now... cheaper than the nvm2 SSD and enclosures people think they need to buy when they go M1234 with base storage.
I just ordered a high spec M1 macbook air refurb in excellent condition, it comes with 1TB ssd 16GB ram and 8 core gpu, I think if you are doing anything remotely intensive for a long period of time I would recommend getting a high spec used or refurbished one with 16gb ram instead of a brand new base model, I payed $799 and I think that's a very good deal considering the specs.
The 2010 MacBook Airs were the last to run 10.6 Snow Leopard, which makes them nice in my books. Only downside (which you didn't mention) is that the 2010 Air was the only model of MacBook Air that didn't have a backlit keyboard. You also made a mistake. I've never heard the "2010" models described as Unibody. This is just inaccurate; the original 2008 Air was the originator of the unibody design. I don't know of anyone who called later models "unibody" - they all were unibody from the beginning.
I’m patiently saving for an M2 MBA, because of the 16 GB of memory by default, as well as the screen and the magsafe. A friend of mine has the M1 and the battery is so good. My poor MBP 2012 is in life support with OCLP and the battery lasts less than 2 hours
I use my 2011 MacBook Air all the time, but I admit using OpenCore to run Monterey it just wasn't a great experience, with Linux it is still a great computer, and I primarily use it to play games via Steam streaming, watching video, emulation gaming via RetroArch, and for writing documents. It is nice to have all of the Apple services, but I don't think it is worth it to run one of the old versions that work well with it. Linux is just better, and I still have all of my Apple services on my Mac Pro and iPhone. Turns out, I just don't need high performance computing on the go, and it isn't lost on me that a cheap old MacBook or Windows Laptop and a brand new Mac Mini are cheaper than buying a new MacBook.
I would have agreed with your recommendation until... a few weeks ago. But now that M2 and M3 Macbook air come with 16GB RAM for the base model, going with an 8GB M1 even to get $500-600 discount is not worth it. While the best is probably to wait for the M4, used 16GB RAM M1 are still too expensive to be worth it (for a couple of hundred more get a new M2/M3) and 8GB devices are not worth it even at $500, but I am sure some of the 8GB RAM buyers will say that's totally fine for them, but personally I don't recommend it for anyone I care about...
I would say that as far as use cases go the 2020 intel MacBook Air does have a decent opportunity to serve as a budget gaming laptop since it’s continuously coming down in price and seen as being less and less valuable the more apple silicon receives upgrades not to mention recently when I was checking steam many popular windows and macOS games are only supported on Intel Mac systems with support being choppy even with Rosetta often times the developers of said games with one example being project zomboid outright tell people to only play the game on a intel machine likely due to compatibility issues so with there still being countless steam games unplayable on modern Apple silicon and with the 2020 intel air being around half the price if not a quarter of the price of more modern intel MacBook pros it’s definitely not that bad of a deal for a small minimal usage laptop especially considering how well it can run windows 10 but that’s a whole discussion on its own as to which way is a better way to run windows on Mac
Scoured Ebay looking for deals never owned a Mac before the prices always seemed outrageous but came across a 2015 Macbook Air 11", i5, 8gb for 75$ in good condition. Going to try to find something upgradable with an I7, bigger screen next and throw 16gb of Ram into it and see how it goes, still using the i7-7700k in the PC I built and it holds up awesome in 2024 with 32gb of ram. Some of the used Macbooks on Ebay look like they were mauled by a wild animal or ran through a wood chipper I don't understand how people can bang up such expensive machines and still ask for top dollar 😆
@@montaguebarnabasltd Amazon has a deal do the M3 16GB 256GB for $850 right now. Is getting the M3 worth the extra $100? I have the M2 16GB 256GB right now and am not sure if I should return it while I still can to get the M3 version
One problem is that M1 MacBook Air has PWM flickering and temporal dithering ( all M SOC powed Mac’s but it may be possible dissable it with still color app from GitHub) which newer MacBooks air don’t have. I say for eye protection and brain M2 is safer choice.
It’s crazy how fast the Air went from mid to one of Apple’s best creations when they switched to M1
Completely agree
The Apple M series chip for MacBooks is the best thing Apple has invented in a long time. My M1 13-inch MacBook Pro has a battery that lasts at least 8 hours a day of moderate work. When just reading and browsing, it’s more like 10 hours-and that’s with 84% battery health. It’s still very powerful and completely silent when handling more intensive tasks, which has made me love MacBooks with the M series chip more and more. I can’t wait to get an M4 Pro in a few months.
I remember buying an MacBook Air 2017 brand new in 2018 for $1000, it's crazy now how cheap they gotten
Me too. I went to college in 2018 and dad bought me new 2017 MBA for 900$ with education discount. I sold it last year for 250$, but it served me very well for 5 years, so I would say it was great even for this 900$
The first Mac I ever got myself was the 2018 MacBook Air. Looking back in hindsight, it's kind of surprising how I continued to stick with that laptop and Macs in general because that laptop really was terrible value. I guess that just showed how terrible of an experience I was having with my Windows laptop before I switched to Mac. Fast forward 3 years to 2021, I decided to get the M1 MacBook. While the design was identical, the M1 chip, updated keyboard, slightly better display, and higher storage/ram capacity just made it a solid enough upgrade for me. I would have continued using that MacBook Air today if it weren't for the fact that I managed to find a MacBook Pro 14" for such a good deal which is what I'm still using today to do everything I use a computer for from watching YT videos to making YT videos for my channels.
I’m buying an Mac mini M4 earlier next year, and a couple of years after that I’ll probably get an used M1 MacBook Air for collection, or to replace my work MacBook Pro 2016 if it couldn’t hold up anymore.
solid plan 👌
I am thinking about buying the M1 Air now, because for school I use the MacBook Air 2012 4GB RAM on Sonoma with OCLP but its a little laggy. Nice Video, I like it because your not the one that says "ohhh the M3 is the best and the intels are not usable" Thank you for the grate Video
@@Timi_-dk2vh that’s really sweet, thank you. Yeah I can’t recommend M1 enough if you’re dealing with something older like that.
Holy! I use OCLP on MBP’s with 8-16GB ram but 4!?!? Wow! Yeah get a used 2017 MBP non touchbar and use OCLP on that
Always looking for your recommendation and really love it. Thank you for your valuable and honest insights 🎉
I own a mid-2013 MacBook Air (1.3 GHz Core i5) with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD, a pretty basic configuration. I purchased it second-hand in 2018 and it's been an amazing machine, which has really surprised me on more than one front. I still run Mac OS High Sierra on it, since I consider it the last good Mac OS 10.x version. Batttery life is still fine - this Air lasts me about 5 hours on normal usage. If you don't need to perform particularly demanding tasks like video editing, this is still a great, compact machine to use especially when travelling. In fact, I really miss a MacBook Air of this size among the laptops Apple is currently offering. True, these MacBooks don't have retina displays, but the physical size of the display makes the resolution sufficiently 'dense' as to provide a decent-enough image overall. I'm on the market for an M1 Air at the moment (alas, the last notchless MacBook!), but I honestly wouldn't mind snatching another 11-inch model, maybe from 2015. I really really love its form factor and design.
Keep up the good work! Cheers, //Rick
Always loved the 11 inch ones. Can’t recommend an M1 enough if you can find a good price, though.
Thanks for watching.
Purchased a barely used 16/512 M1 MBA on eBay for £380 a few months ago - for the average user, this is the best laptop for most consumers, period.
I am so jealous of that deal. Absolutely true, yeah.
Great Vid, I agree with your recommendation, I have a M1 Air and I absolutely love it.
My first macbook was a 13" Pro from 2010, it had HDD, and in 2014 its getting quite slow with tethering raw 24mp photo files versus previously cams were more like 12-16mp. So I am faced with either buying a new one or upgrading the existing to SSD. I went with an early 2014 13" Air with a speced out i9 8gb RAM instead of 4gb. Really happy with it coz 10 years on today, it had over the decade processed easily over a 100,000 tethered RAW files images which is my main use of it, alongside with countless presentations in client meetings at small cafes. Its now replaced with a speced out MBP M3 Max but it still remains as the beater that you can take it to the beach or risky places without worry. Its so light and convenient. Since its not the main machine and can't handle the file load of today nor supported, I estimate I can get another 10 years of use out of it for light usages, till 2034. Then I will buy the 2034 version, maybe it will be M34 chip :D Hahaha. As mentioned by so many other folks here, the Air is for 'on the go', its the 'light cavalry hit squad', you dont need a lot of computing powers for those tasks, web browsing, writing office documents, even photo editing if its low volume and JPEGs. And old one serves a lot of value in reality. They are like $100-$300 now... cheaper than the nvm2 SSD and enclosures people think they need to buy when they go M1234 with base storage.
Its major on how macbook airs are cheap and offers great performance even if they're old, they work completely fine
My issue with the m2 and m3 is the shape of the keyboard, I don't like how flat it is compared to the wedge shape of the older ones.
I just ordered a high spec M1 macbook air refurb in excellent condition, it comes with 1TB ssd 16GB ram and 8 core gpu, I think if you are doing anything remotely intensive for a long period of time I would recommend getting a high spec used or refurbished one with 16gb ram instead of a brand new base model, I payed $799 and I think that's a very good deal considering the specs.
The 2010 MacBook Airs were the last to run 10.6 Snow Leopard, which makes them nice in my books. Only downside (which you didn't mention) is that the 2010 Air was the only model of MacBook Air that didn't have a backlit keyboard.
You also made a mistake. I've never heard the "2010" models described as Unibody. This is just inaccurate; the original 2008 Air was the originator of the unibody design. I don't know of anyone who called later models "unibody" - they all were unibody from the beginning.
Still rocking with MBA 2017 i5 and later custom to 16gb of ram, It’s capable doing daily task perfectly. MBA sit side by side to My Mac Studio M1 Max
I’m patiently saving for an M2 MBA, because of the 16 GB of memory by default, as well as the screen and the magsafe.
A friend of mine has the M1 and the battery is so good.
My poor MBP 2012 is in life support with OCLP and the battery lasts less than 2 hours
I use my 2011 MacBook Air all the time, but I admit using OpenCore to run Monterey it just wasn't a great experience, with Linux it is still a great computer, and I primarily use it to play games via Steam streaming, watching video, emulation gaming via RetroArch, and for writing documents. It is nice to have all of the Apple services, but I don't think it is worth it to run one of the old versions that work well with it. Linux is just better, and I still have all of my Apple services on my Mac Pro and iPhone.
Turns out, I just don't need high performance computing on the go, and it isn't lost on me that a cheap old MacBook or Windows Laptop and a brand new Mac Mini are cheaper than buying a new MacBook.
The MacBook Air m2 is on sale this Black Friday for 649-799 depending on specs I got a brand new 16gb ram for 749
Great video ! i love your voici btw
13" M3 MBA on Amazon for $844 right now, I'd say that's a steal since it has 16GB ram
I would have agreed with your recommendation until... a few weeks ago. But now that M2 and M3 Macbook air come with 16GB RAM for the base model, going with an 8GB M1 even to get $500-600 discount is not worth it. While the best is probably to wait for the M4, used 16GB RAM M1 are still too expensive to be worth it (for a couple of hundred more get a new M2/M3) and 8GB devices are not worth it even at $500, but I am sure some of the 8GB RAM buyers will say that's totally fine for them, but personally I don't recommend it for anyone I care about...
want to get a mac. Trying to decide between spending £500 ish on an m1 8gb used vs £900 on an m2 16gb new
@@adamek9750 the M2 won’t be worth the extra money, in my opinion. I’d suggest the M1.
I would say that as far as use cases go the 2020 intel MacBook Air does have a decent opportunity to serve as a budget gaming laptop since it’s continuously coming down in price and seen as being less and less valuable the more apple silicon receives upgrades not to mention recently when I was checking steam many popular windows and macOS games are only supported on Intel Mac systems with support being choppy even with Rosetta often times the developers of said games with one example being project zomboid outright tell people to only play the game on a intel machine likely due to compatibility issues so with there still being countless steam games unplayable on modern Apple silicon and with the 2020 intel air being around half the price if not a quarter of the price of more modern intel MacBook pros it’s definitely not that bad of a deal for a small minimal usage laptop especially considering how well it can run windows 10 but that’s a whole discussion on its own as to which way is a better way to run windows on Mac
Scoured Ebay looking for deals never owned a Mac before the prices always seemed outrageous but came across a 2015 Macbook Air 11", i5, 8gb for 75$ in good condition. Going to try to find something upgradable with an I7, bigger screen next and throw 16gb of Ram into it and see how it goes, still using the i7-7700k in the PC I built and it holds up awesome in 2024 with 32gb of ram. Some of the used Macbooks on Ebay look like they were mauled by a wild animal or ran through a wood chipper I don't understand how people can bang up such expensive machines and still ask for top dollar 😆
@@kev_sen best of luck!
Yeah I can’t imagine owning something that expensive and letting it get damaged really
Your wrong about the 2011 airs having 4gb ram options,The 2010 airs had them as well and they weren’t standard until 2012
Can I edit 4K footage on the MacBook Air M1? or render 3D images with Blender?
I wouldn’t recommend it. It’ll be a bit slow, especially with the 3D rendering. In a pinch it might do the job though.
I’m sure it can if you need it to.
watching video on m1 air, no doubt m1 air is beast if use don't have any extensive computing power,
You you recommend getting the M2 16GB Ram and 256GB SSD for $750 or the M3 8GB and 256 GB for $850
For some more context, I’m a college student and will only be using my MacBook for web browsing with multiple apps open
of course the M2, RAM is much more important the M3
M2 16gb is the better deal by far
M2 hands down
@@montaguebarnabasltd Amazon has a deal do the M3 16GB 256GB for $850 right now. Is getting the M3 worth the extra $100? I have the M2 16GB 256GB right now and am not sure if I should return it while I still can to get the M3 version
One problem is that M1 MacBook Air has PWM flickering and temporal dithering ( all M SOC powed Mac’s but it may be possible dissable it with still color app from GitHub) which newer MacBooks air don’t have.
I say for eye protection and brain M2 is safer choice.