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M1 Macbook Air in 2023? Yes please!

9:01 video

This is the M1 MacBook Air, the baseline MacBook Apple still sells today, two and a half years old and the only original M1 Mac still available (released November 2020). Since then we’ve seen the M2 Air and 13-inch Pro, and two generations of 14- and 16-inch Pros, yet this one is still on sale. Should you buy it in 2023, what should you pay, and should you upgrade the specs? Yes, you should buy it. For most people and most things, it does what you need, and really well, at a good price.

Design

It looks like the MacBook Air from ten years ago, with the same size and wedge shape. And it still looks great, with unibody aluminum construction that looks and feels premium. The wedge makes it one of the most comfortable typing experiences on a laptop, if not the most. There’s a reason the MacBook Air has been the world’s best-selling laptop for so long.

How I’ve used it

It’s been my daughter’s laptop for two years, for schoolwork, research, a bit of Minecraft and YouTube, and I’ve used this very laptop for my full-time job, everyday computing and making these videos. Between us, we cover a wide spectrum, and the performance never disappoints.

This is the base model: an 8-core CPU, 7-core GPU, 8 GB of unified memory and a 256 GB SSD. The M2 Macs have higher benchmark scores, but in regular use you’ll be hard pressed to feel a difference. In some cases the M1 Air is actually faster than the base M2 Air: with only 8 GB of memory, the computer swaps to and from the internal SSD, which is about twice as fast on the M1 versions.

The heaviest thing I do is video editing for this channel, and with my regular work apps open (a browser with many tabs, email, Teams), timeline performance in Final Cut Pro is still really good. I use four streams of color-graded 4K footage, with no drop in timeline or playback performance. Without video editing, it flies. Whether you’re a student, a professional or a casual home user, it fits.

The two-port complaint

Some of you think it can’t be a professional computer with only two ports for charging and accessories, and that the M1’s limit of one external display isn’t enough. I agree that can be an issue, and that’s where today’s sponsor, UGREEN, comes in. The UGREEN 9-in-1 USB-C docking station has nine ports, connects displays, mice, thumb drives and SSDs, and uses USB-C at 10 Gb/s for fast transfers and Ethernet. With DisplayLink, you can connect up to two 4K displays at 60 Hz, mirrored or extended, even on M1 and M2 MacBooks. The description has a code for 25% off.

Display

The built-in 13.3-inch Retina display is really good: up to 400 nits, bright enough in most rooms and usable in a bright coffee shop or conference room, with True Tone and P3 wide color. It’s essentially the same display technology as the 27-inch 5K Studio Display I use, and if the other MacBooks had this display, just bigger, it would be hard to complain.

Fanless

One of its best features. How many times have you been in a class or conference room when the laptop next to you starts blowing loud, hot air? Not the person talking, the laptop. As COVID kicked in during 2020, my daughter’s MacBook Air with the i3 would run its fan all day with just a Zoom call, so she had to wear headphones, even though it was far better than my work PC laptop. The M1 Air is dead silent 100% of the time, with almost no effect on performance thanks to the M1’s low thermal requirements.

The 720p camera, speakers and microphones are all more than acceptable for the price, and the speakers are way better than you’ll find in more expensive PC laptops.

How much to pay

Apple still sells it at $999, the same as in 2020. I don’t think you should pay that when you can get it on Amazon for $799, brand new (sometimes a little less). If your budget requires, a renewed one on Amazon is cheaper, but I can’t vouch for their refurbishment process.

If you want upgrades like more memory or a bigger SSD, your best bet is to buy refurbished directly from Apple: upgrading to 16 GB or 512 GB will save about $180 off the new price and get you a basically brand-new machine with a full warranty. I’ve bought a lot of Apple refurbs, and they’re indistinguishable from new.

If you’re an adult and you want it to last another five years or more, I’d bump it to 16 GB of memory: even with super-fast unified memory, apps keep wanting more, and it relieves stress on the SSD. But for casual use or a kid’s homework, the base spec will still make you very happy.

Dollars to performance, it’s about the best laptop you can get. I didn’t compare it with the M2 Air here, because I think the M1 stands on its own, even today.

In this video

  • 0:00 should you get one?
  • 1:37 performance
  • 3:54 display
  • 4:42 silent computing
  • 5:27 battery
  • 6:17 camera, mic, speakers
  • 6:36 how much should you pay?

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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