I’m kind of angry right now. For years we have been using computers that seemed to be very fast and energy-efficient, but it was only so because we didn’t know of anything better. And now we know. It could have been so much better.
The computer I’m typing this on is the new MacBook Air with the Apple M1 processor. This is the cheapest laptop Apple currently sells, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. I have tried to make this computer feel slow (common knowledge says 8GB of RAM is the absolute minimum you need to have workable computer these days. And while workable, it would never feel fast), and I have failed. Before this computer, my main computer was maxed out 2015 5K retina iMac with 32GB of RAM. That computer sometimes feels slow, and when it does, I can hear the fans just blasting away. This MacBook doesn’t even have a fan. It’s completely, totally silent, and it just goes.
And it goes for a long time. I charged the laptop to 100% on Saturday morning and unplugged it at around noon. I spent the day installing apps, testing out how iPad-apps work on this computer (more on that later), surfing the web, watching YouTube, quickly testing some games and running Xcode. And I continued this on Sunday, spending even more time with Xcode and Youtube. At around 8pm the battery was at around 20%. After 2 days of heavy usage.
I keep on thinking that something has to give. “The computer is fanless? It must be slow as it can’t be properly cooled!”. No. This computer is outrageously fast. “It’s fast, and it’s thin and light? It must have poor battery life!”. No, the battery seems to last forever. Yes, you can have it all. You can have excellent performance and outrageous battery-life, in a device that is totally, 100% silent. And this is the cheapest laptop Apple sells! While the price is not bargain-basement price that you can have with cheapest PC-laptops, it’s not expensive. And let’s just say that with those you super-cheap PC-laptops, you get what you pay for.
This laptop is so good that it’s kinda of a problem for Apple. The new M1-laptops have more or less made all of their Intel-computers obsolete. Only reason you might need one is if you really, REALLY need lots of RAM (current M1-models max out at 16GB). But even then I routinely see benchmarks where the new laptops outperform Intel-based Macs with twice the memory. And if you really need all the processor-performance you can get, there’s still iMac Pro and Mac Pro with massive multicore-CPUs. Those are desk-bound behemoths with starting prices 5-6 times higher than this MacBook Air. These laptops have no right being this fast. But they are. It does make you think what they are going to be releasing in upcoming months, as they introduce their processors to their higher-end products. They have now replaced their low-end products (Mac mini, MacBook Air and cheapest MacBook Pro), just what exactly do they have in store for us for the higher end?
One of the things of using Apple products is the overall “niceness”. And it’s something that you can’t measure or benchmark. But this computer just feels nice. And it’s something you don’t realise until you have it. Having no fan means you don’t feel any slight vibration from the fan against your hands. You never feel any uncomfortable heat emanating from the laptop. You never hear whooshing air or the fan humming. Or hell, how about a trackpad that doesn’t suck? You will never know to want those features until you have them, and you will only miss them when they are taken away from you. This computer takes that niceness to a new level. It’s outwardly identical to previous model, but the silence and coolness are just out of this world.
Yeah, this computer runs iOS-apps. I’m two minds on this. Individually I see it as a clear benefit, as the selection of applications has suddenly gone way up. For example, I can (and do) have Overcast running on this computer, which is a clear benefit for me. But on the other hand, I worry that developers might decide to not create kick-ass Mac-apps anymore, and instead they will just offer their iOS-apps for the Mac as well. Which, even at best of times, will feel about 95% native to the platform. We might lose that last bit of integration and polish that makes an app truly great. I’m happy for the short term, while nervous for the long-term. We will see in year or two how it turns out.
Yeah, some iOS-apps don’t really work on MacOS, and they feel like a kludge. But then again, you are not required to run them, they are just an additional alternative for you. But like I said, I worry that in the future those alternatives might become the only choice.
Oh, there is also the new MacBook Pro. Everything I have written here also applies to that computer. It costs few hundred more than the Air, while having a bit brighter display, better microphones and speakers, even better battery life, a fan that helps with sustained performance and Touch Bar. Whether those features are worth the extra money is up to you. But it is a superb computer as well.
Bottom line
This computer is the best, most exciting computer I have used in a long time. I know, in the end it’s just a MacBook Air that looks exactly like its predecessor. But it is about 2-3 times faster than its immediate predecessor, while having battery-life that is about twice as long, while having no fan at all, and running cool to the touch. Any one of those improvements would have been truly huge improvement, but we got them all, simultaneously, with no downsides at all. It’s kinda telling that the one complaint in the reviews is “the webcam, while overall a bit better than before, is still mediocre at best”. You know we are scraping the bottom of the complaints-barrel, when we are talking about the webcam. But that’s because it really is the only thing about this computer that you could really complain about, and even that downside is workable. It just stands out negatively, as everything else about this computer is just so good.
If you are in a position where you are thinking of getting a new computer, this is the computer to get. This computer has made me feel excited about computers again. Make no mistake, the hype is real.
Lumisade 