In 2020, Apple pulled off one of the rarest events in the world of computers—a multi-generational leap. The first generation of Apple Silicon chips weren’t just better than the Intel Macs that had come before, they were substantially better in every way. They were so good, that most people didn’t need anything more than the cheapest Mac Apple sold—five years later, they still don’t.
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Why a 2020 laptop can still outperform today’s competition
It’s easy to forget just how much of a jump Apple Silicon was, and the base model Apple MacBook Air I bought absolutely destroyed my 2019 Intel quad-core MacBook Pro. It had triple the battery life with my personal usage pattern, and it had hugely more CPU and GPU power. I couldn’t believe that I could now play essentially console level games on my little MacBook—without any fans!
It’s taken x86 Windows laptops years to catch up to the balance of power efficiency and performance the 2020 MacBook Air achieved, and they still haven’t really done it. Arm Windows laptops have been a bit of a disaster for most of the intervening time, with only more recent models offering decent software compatibility and performance.
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The M4 upgrade further confirms that the MacBook Air is the best laptop for most people.
The performance that refuses to feel old
Of course, Apple has improved on the M1 in leaps and bounds. I upgraded from my M1 MacBook Air to an M4 MacBook Pro and the jump is phenomenal. But, these improvements only really show themselves when I push my new laptop. When it comes to normal day-to-day work using productivity apps, web browsers, media players, and other typical things people do with their laptops there wasn’t any real room for improvement left.
If you swapped out my current laptop for the M1 Air and didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t notice during these common tasks. The truth is that we passed a certain performance floor for daily computing a long time ago, and the M1 is still way above that floor today.
A design that got almost everything right
Performance isn’t everything when it comes to a laptop. Unlike a desktop where you can tuck it away somewhere and pick your own peripherals, a laptop is something you have to live with and use on a very personal level. The M1 MacBook Air still uses Apple’s old “wedge” design, and honestly it’s better than the more squared-off approach we get nowadays.
The screen, speakers, trackpad, and keyboard are better than anything you’d get for the same money in the Windows world, and it’s one of the few laptops that’s suitable for light creative work and entertainment. People complain about the premium price of MacBooks, but a lot of that money goes into the bits of the laptop that actually interface with your senses. In this area, Apple’s cheapest MacBooks beat even the premium models in the Windows stable.
The only fly in the ointment is that the lack of active cooling does lead to some throttling under sustained loads, but even throttled the M1 Air is faster than most tasks need it to be.
Value that new models can’t easily beat
As of this writing, Apple no longer sells the M1 Air as a new laptop, and there are rumors of a new low-cost Mac on the horizon, but it’s not out yet. You can, however, pick up a “renewed” M1 Air base model for around $350. That’s the one with a 128GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a heck of a lot of laptop for the money. Assuming that the refurbishment has been done properly with original parts and the battery is still good.
I wouldn’t be worried about getting that base model if you’re just looking for a general-purpose entertainment, student, or work laptop. However, if you go for the 16GB 256GB model, which goes for around $500, you’ll literally be set for years to come. Since these Macs are all solid-state, there’s not much that can go wrong with them, and the M1 itself is a beast even five years later.
If you have the budget for it, I’d have no issue recommending whatever the current cheapest base model MacBook Air is at any given moment. Apple has lifted the bottom of its specs so that the cheapest M4 Air has 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Yours (usually) for a touch above or below a grand.
However, if your budget is closer to $350-$500, then a refurbed M1 Air will still put a smile on your dial, it sure did for me over the years.
- Operating System
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macOS
- CPU
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Apple M4
- RAM
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16 GB
- Storage
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256GB
- Colors
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Midnight, Silver, Sky Blue, Starlight
