MacBook Air M1: The Best Laptop in 2020/21?
Okay, so I was pretty skeptical about getting this laptop because of two reasons:
- The performance of the past MacBook Airs has been pretty bad compared to this generation, with very bad thermals.
- I live in India, and Apple products are crazy expensive here compared to the US.
But, I bought it anyway and I don’t regret my decision at all. So, here’s why I think you should consider buying this if you haven’t already.
Points
I will divide this review broadly into these points:
- Variants & Pricing
- Performance
- Media Consumption (Display and Sound)
- Battery
- Other factors
- Should you buy it?
Variants & Pricing
On the official Apple website, this laptop starts at $999/Rs. 92,900, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD storage. It can be configured up to 16GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. For each RAM/storage upgrade, you have to pay $200/Rs 20,000. For example, if you upgrade from 256GB to 512GB of storage, you will pay $999 + $200 = $1199 or Rs. 92,900 + Rs. 20,000 = Rs. 1,19,900.
Performance
This MacBook is FAST. Fast for most users, be it, casual users or heavy power users. Now obviously, if you want to edit heavy 8K footage, then this laptop is not for you. However, I was surprised that this laptop scrubs through 4K editing footage like a hot knife on butter in Final Cut Pro. And the export times are even better. Apple has optimized its M1 chip so well that everything you do on this laptop is fast. Launching apps, switching between them, you name it. Now, that is also because of the new SSD, which is twice as fast as the last-gen.
Now coming to thermals — this MacBook is relatively cool and silent as it is well optimized, which obviates the requirement of a fan. Even during heavy and intensive workloads, the laptop is slightly warm to touch, but it doesn’t get HOT in any way. I was surprised with this as the previous-gen was very poor in the thermals, and it used to have issues with thermal throttling.
Media Consumption (Display and Sound)
This laptop has a 13-inch screen, which might be small for people who are coming from 15-inch laptops. But, the size hardly matters, as the display which is very crisp, thanks to its resolution of 2500x1600 with a DPI of 227ppi absolutely steals the show. And, the color accuracy is on point. We now have the P3 wide color gamut displays both on the Airs and the Pros, which is a departure from its previous generations, being only exclusive to the Pro, making this laptop an excellent choice for creative workflows (graphic designs, video, photo editing, etc.) This display also goes up to 400 nits, pretty bright in my opinion, and very good even for outdoor usage in the sun.
Note: According to Apple, this display covers 25% more colors than sRGB, but I have not tested this myself, so take this advice with a grain of salt.
Now for the sound. This laptop sounds AMAZING. It’s even louder than the M1 MacBook Pro, which is quite surprising. It has nice, crisp sounds with a decent amount of bass. Overall, this laptop is fantastic for watching movies or any media consumption.
Battery
Well, what can I say? This laptop has the best battery life I have ever seen. Apple claims 18 hours of web browsing, which are unreal numbers I couldn’t believe myself. But, I just charge this once every day or two days, which is amazing for a laptop. The compact form factor and the outstanding battery life make this laptop very portable. Apple includes a charger in the box (I know, I also thought Apple was pulling a fast one on us) of 30 watts and it is a very compact charger, but it still charges the laptop in the same amount of time as the last-gen Intel MacBook.
Other factors
Now, this laptop was my first ever Mac, and I had a fair bit of knowledge about macOS and its differences from Windows and Linux. But, the experience I had was better than I expected. Everything just seems complete and streamlined. I had a MUCH better experience with macOS than Windows.
Now let me talk about the trackpad because this review would honestly be incomplete without it. Apple has nailed the trackpad in every single way. Yes, Apple’s trackpad is just so good. Not to say that other trackpads don’t have gestures. Windows laptops’ trackpads also have gestures. But Apple’s gestures are useful and intuitive, as people will ACTUALLY use these gestures, instead of it just being another unused feature.
The keyboard — Apple has brought back the Scissor mechanism keyboards after a big controversy on the Butterfly keyboards, and this keyboard just feels so good to type on. I’m mostly going to be programming on this laptop, and it just feels fantastic. It is also backlit, not the brightest keyboard I’ve ever seen, but bright enough to be working in nighttime environments.
Ports — This laptop has only 2 USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports on the left side, so you’re gonna have to live the dongle life if you want to connect your USB drives. The surprising part is that it has a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right side of the laptop.
This laptop feels very premium as it is made up of an aluminum chassis, available in 3 colors — Gold, Silver, and Space Grey.
Should you buy it?
So here is my final verdict on this MacBook. Who should buy it, who should not, and who should go for the Pro instead of the Air?
If you are planning to game on this or planning to do gaming on this laptop, then I would suggest you go with other Windows laptops in this price range. They are much better for gaming than a MacBook.
If you have a creative workflow like animation, graphics, video, and photo editing, this laptop is for you.
If you are a software developer and programmer, this laptop is for you.
If you need a much heavy workflow and are willing to spend a couple of extra bucks, go for the M1 MacBook Pro, which has a 500 nits display and 2 extra hours of battery life, starting at $1299/Rs. 1,22,900.
According to me, this is the best bang-for-the-buck laptop as of now, having an insane price to performance ratio. So, my final verdict is — Go for it.