Recommend: Best Performance / Value Laptop - is a MacBook Air M1?

ram4ram on 10/06/2023 - 14:12

Hi Ozbargainers,

  • We love deals, and am in the market for a new laptop. I'm a web developer and at work use a Macbook Pro M1 16gig ram. It's my first time using a Mac and I like it a lot, particularly due to the performance, without a fan.

My personal laptop (which I want to replace) is an old Acer i5 (7th gen), 8gb ram. It's not bad at all but it just feels like it will die in a few years time, and it is probably like 7 years old now (was 2nd hand - got a great bargain).

Reading more about the M1 processor in my work laptop, I was amazed with the battery life, performance (running on battery seems to make no difference to it), no fan design and heat (what heat?) dissipation… Basically, the M1 (yes, old), feels ahead of everything right now to me. Also the Macbook hardware seems 2nd to none.

With Windows machines, want the best performance? Must be plugged in. If not, the battery will drain quickly. Either way, the fan will be very busy and disruptive, especially compared to the M1.

  • So am I correct - is the Macbook Air M1 the best bang for your buck, performance-wise? What Windows alternatives are there?

Poll Options expired

  • 22
    - Macbook Air M1 is the best performance / value right now.
  • 8
    - There are better options than the Macbook Air M1 for performance / value.
Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • shrugies on 10/06/2023 - 15:00
    +1

    M1 Air 16GB RAM sounds great for you!
    Get it sealed with receipts from FB or Gumtree, or get discounted Apple GC and buy from AOC Apple site :)

    • ram4ram on 10/06/2023 - 15:19

      I've heard that 8gb is good enough for web development!

      8gb on my windows laptop has been good enough. For my next upgrade, if it were a windows laptop I would like 16gb, but for Macs I will be OK with 8gb (and save a kidney)

      • freefall101 on 10/06/2023 - 17:06

        Thanks to unified memory and the way macos handles ram it tends to do better with 8GB than a Windows PC does, for the majority of cases.

        If an application needs to load something into memory that takes up a tonne then you're boned, but generally it's a lot of little shared bits of memory that's very fast, so it can get away without duplicating stuff in memory.

        I did find Excel was terrible at one point, but I generally use Windows for Excel (and I have a desktop with 64GB so not a problem). I'm also playing with AI models - but even some of them are tweaked to specifically work with M1 macs with limited RAM.

      • ssfps on 10/06/2023 - 17:42

        If "web development" means having vs code open with a couple of tabs, sure 8gb is enough regardless of the OS.
        I have a 16GB M1 pro and that's not enough, ideally I would have 32GB, regardless of osx paging or 'unified memory'.

        tldr 8GB is a joke unless it's just a facebook/wordpad device

        • ram4ram on 11/06/2023 - 16:20

          Are you in web development?

          I use a 16gb M1 pro at work and it rarely skips a beat… very rarely. Haven't tried a 8gb model though.

      • Meconium on 10/06/2023 - 19:37

        username checks out

      • shrugies on 11/06/2023 - 00:29
        +1

        I think you would be okay, however it's a few hundred more for peace of mind and long term performance for a machine which could reasonably last you a decade. I only just upgraded from my base model 2013 MBA (laptop for mech eng uni student) to a 16GB MBA M1 this year. Apps will only get more and more demanding to take advantage of the hardware that comes out each year so I think if it's your only personal device and you do more than just browsing/office/streaming, then the 16GB will be worth it!

    • 87percent on 10/06/2023 - 16:25

      “Sealed with receipts from FB or Gumtree” ?

      I would be wary of this

      • stuckster on 10/06/2023 - 17:41

        Yeah… I was also wondering what they meant by this.
        Perhaps they meant only buy units from FB and Gumtree that come with original receipts for warranty purposes.??

        • shrugies on 11/06/2023 - 00:24

          Yep, exactly what I meant! :)

  • payless69 on 11/06/2023 - 07:07

    Bill Gates options?
    NO!

  • ram4ram on 11/06/2023 - 16:21
    +1

    What are the WIndows options / Macbook alternatives?

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