Poll: *** The official 2020 MacBook Air/13" MacBook Pro thread (it has the M1 chip and everything!) ***

What 2020 Apple Silicon notebook have you ordered?

  • MacBook Air

    Votes: 71 71.0%
  • 13" MacBook Pro

    Votes: 29 29.0%

  • Total voters
    100
Soldato
Joined
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UK
Is everyone still finding the M1 to be "enough"? I do very light web browsing, emails etc., though sometimes run MainStage to play guitar and "djay" alongside to pitch shift/slow down songs from Tidal, and occasional light Lightroom use but that's about as taxing as it gets.

Given the reviews of the Air vs base-MBP, I imagine the Air would have more than enough for me provided I spec up to 16GB RAM/512 SSD - sound about right? Currently running a 2013 13" MBP which does everything I need though sometimes I get little pauses here and there, though suspect that could be RAM swap, hence wanting to get 16GB.
 
Commissario
OP
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In the radio shack
Is everyone still finding the M1 to be "enough"?
Yup, without a doubt whatsoever.

It'll be a huge increase over what you've already got.

I edit videos from time to time and I'd rather do it on my M1 MBA than my 2017 27" i7 iMac. I recently had about twenty minutes of 4K drone footage to edit and I did it all on the M1 MBA. It was noticeably quicker to work on and then export than the iMac.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Apr 2009
Posts
6,165
Location
UK
Yep, it's far more than enough for me, all I do on it are browsing, some coding (mainly HTML, CSS and a bit of JS), occasional retro gaming, with these use-case, it'll last for a while before I need to upgrade.

That's good to hear. I've been monitoring usage on my 2013 13" MBP with 8GB RAM and even with a few things open I'm only getting up to about 6.5GB used. Given my workload is unlikely to change over the next couple of years, I'm thinking I'd definitely get away with just a base M1 MBA now, and get a good few years out of it.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,887
One thing that I've noticed about my M1 Air is just how bloody cold the chassis is through the winter months. My i7 Pro in comparison is a mobile heater.
 
Commissario
OP
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In the radio shack
Do any of you guys use Aldente the battery management app ? (AppHouseKitchen – Mac Software for the Gourmet).
No. I have coconut battery installed but that's not management, just monitoring because I like the percentage remaining indicator. I often notice that the MBA itself is keeping the battery at 80% rather than topping it off, so it's doing its own management. I don't see any need for a third party app to do something like that.

/edit - Heat management? Heat? On an M1 MBA? Yeah, that's really not needed :D
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Dec 2012
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2,699
Location
Northern Ireland
Honestly, battery tech and the algorithms that are used for charging are advanced enough now that such matters shouldn’t even be taking up brain space.
Yes you could mollycoddle your battery but for what little gains you could potentially get it just isn’t worth it. Just enjoy your new shiny :D
 
Associate
Joined
12 Sep 2009
Posts
1,552
Honestly, battery tech and the algorithms that are used for charging are advanced enough now that such matters shouldn’t even be taking up brain space.
Yes you could mollycoddle your battery but for what little gains you could potentially get it just isn’t worth it. Just enjoy your new shiny :D

Thanks for the help guys much appreciated :)

Cheers all
 
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