Need a new Mac - pronto-ish

[In the sticks]

All, I know there have been a number of threads recently on the new Macs but I'm in need of a new one, pronto-ish.

Currently have a 13"MacBook retina pro i7, 16gb.
Am I mad to consider getting a M1 Air, 8gb as a replacement? I know that the M2 is in the process of being released but my battery has really seen better days and this won't be supported on Ventura anyway.

I don't do much that pushes it to its limits but is it daft to not have 16gb RAM in this day and age?


tia.

[Magnum 475]

Mrs Magnum has an m1 air 8gb. It’s used for standard office style work (Apple apps, not MS), participation in video calls, and some photo editing. It never gets warm, memory pressure stays ‘green’. It copes with these workloads no problem, and seems to have spare capacity.

I use an M1 Pro 16Gb for all sorts including 4k editing. Fan never comes on, and memory pressure stays ‘green’. The M1 family seems to be very effective at managing memory and workload. Either that, or Intel architecture is very poor at memory management and utilisation.

[mmm-five]

Nothing wrong with the M1 Air...but I'd still play safe and go for the next level up of both RAM and SSD, as the GPU cores share the memory...and you can't upgrade at a later time.

But for the £1399 that Apple is asking for that you could get the same model with a 1TB SSD from Apple's Refurb store, or a MacBook Pro (silver or space grey) with 8/512 config for £1269.

If you really think you can get away with the base model, and are a Costco member, then they list the base MB Air for £880, and base MB Pro for £1145.

https://www.costco.co.uk/search?searchOption=uk-se...

[colin79666]

They quietly dropped the 8 gpu core variant of the M1 in the Air with the announcement of the M2. Not likely to make much difference and if is a major thing to you the you are probably more of a Pro customer but still something to be aware of.

The M1 Air is a fantastic machine for probably 90% of use cases.

[In the sticks]

so, went and got a 14"pro. Man maths suggested that an Air was fine, but when spec'd with 16gb RAM and a 512 SDD then the difference wasn't much.

probably overkill but meant that I could take the car for a spin as well :-)

[sutoka]

Batteries are available and easy to fit should cost around £60 and about half hour tops to fit.

I've have a 2013 Macbook Pro 15 Retina but mainly work on a M1 24' inch iMac but I've fitted two new batteries every 2-3 years and had no issues. Planning on replacing the Pro on it's 10th anniversary as it has served me well.

[megaphone]

Yes, just get a new battery fitted, you'll get a good few more years out of your current Mac.

[the-norseman]

megaphone said:

Yes, just get a new battery fitted, you'll get a good few more years out of your current Mac.

Agreed, I'm not a Mac user (I had one briefly for about a a year and a half). I picked up a 2010 MBP locally about 5 years ago, was in really good condition apart from Battery wouldn't last more than an hour, fitted a new battery, swapped in SSD and upgraded the RAM at the time, kept it for about a year and a half and then sold it for about £30 more than I bought it for.

I got rid of it in the end because it came to the end of the life for OS updates etc, went back to Linux after that.