The MacBook's price has dropped further, 20% off the Space Grey and Gold models.
Samsung Galaxy S23+ 512GB, 30% off RRP$1849.
CamelCamelCamel.
I would but my daughter's apple propagandised , just not sure how long they'll support this hardware
I feel like the only argument you have is that it only has 8GB RAM. Other than that they're great laptops.
Our daughter did fine with her original apple MacBook air from school . Had to hand it over to her sister because of water damage to her laptop unfortunately. I'll ring Officeworks and see if I can pricebeat.
That isn't the only argument at all. They have worse panels compared to cheaper laptops, they get hot under load due to a lack of cooling and they are closed ecosystems. The latter might appeal to cultists like yourself, but not for people who value extensibility.
They are absolutely horrendous value at $1200. Nothing you say will change this. Claiming that $1200 for an 8GB ram laptop as a "bargain" is criminal.
Not in the ecosystem at all. But they provide things not many laptops can. Such as long battery life, cooler temperatures, no fan noise, and great performance for its size and weight. But of course you wouldn't know unless you've used them yourself. And considering your tone, I don't think you have.
I’ve used a base m1 air since release as my work laptop. It’s brilliant and the price point is crazy low for what you get and how responsive it is.
I literally use this thing for up to 12 hours a day and have for years with tasks ranging from the usual office variety (confluence, jira, slack, zoom) to more demanding apps like Xcode and I can’t think of a machine that’s better value.
Terrible value? Just over $1k for a fast, light weight, all solid state, fanless machine, with a great high res screen, and great battery life, that will in all likelihood still be a great computer for web/email use (that 95% of people use a computer for) even 10 years from now. I have bought a heap of exactly these machines for employees (and family) and everyone that has one, loves them, even years down the track.
The "you simply MUST have max RAM" PC people make out like everyone is running multiple virtual machines and editing multi cam 8k all day. If you do, you know that this machine is not for you, why do you need to tell everyone that 8GB is not enough for anyone?
In my experience these M1 Airs never die because they don't suck in dust (no fan) and their solid state drives are super reliable. So it will likely still be worth good money in 10 years time when you sell it. Surely that is the definition of great value
Your just wrong mate. That's all there is to it. It's not that expensive. It's a really well made product that IS fast, quite, efficient, great screen, light, thin.
There are plenty of windows laptops at this price in the thin and light category that just aren't as nice to use and have worse screens, battery.
Get over it.
in 5 years time your windows laptop will be worthless meanwhile the m1 air will have an actual decent resale price
@BigPeeper: If resale value is a concern or deciding factor when buying an electronic device, do not buy it. Simple as that, and that macbook air will not have that great resale value, as it's already 3 years old, after five it's going to be eight years old and no longer supported.
@Mishgy: Why would you not consider resale value? You can buy an m1 air used for just under 1k on ebay. No other laptop company has a similar spec with a resale value like that after 3 years.
Give up mate I’m cringing.
You’re really embarrassing yourself with every reply.
Deep down I’d say you’ve ordered two yourself , by the looks of your past buys your a Mega Apple fanboy 🤓
I feel you haven’t even used one… they are totally fine for most people’s usage (web based stuff, office work) Of course better options for hardcore power users who need to run VMs etc.
I used my wife’s M1 with 8GB and work for a few weeks (I use a heap of chrome tabs, often 30+) and it handled it without issues. In fact it handles it better than my new work laptop (Dell) with 16GB.
You can’t beat the usability of an M1 Air at this price.
The only think I don’t like about it is single external monitor support, I prefer 2.
Who cares if it's "totally fine" for Apple fanboys like yourself? It's hot garbage value. 8GB ram laptops for $1200 being shilled on a website dedicated to "bargains" is contradictory and nothing short of embarrassing.
I absolutely have used them. I got a high-end Macbook Pro for christmas in 2010 which lasted about 4-5 years before carking it and not booting. My younger siblings both got Macbook Airs that same year which always felt like an oven on your knees. My younger brother got a Macbook Pro in 2015 which developed a faulty trackpad after the warranty expired, and slowed to a crawl. Then he got another Macbook Pro in 2018 and it had a permanent verticle black line running right down the middle of the display. Earlier this year the display finally decided to stop turning on.
It's because of all this experience from family members alone that I know you Apple fanboys are full of it. They aren't nearly as reliable or issue-free as you all keep claiming, and it's a well-known fact that they've always had heat issues because they prioritize aesthetics and vanity appeal over proper cooling.
You have no right to boast about "usability" while attempting to play down the significance of 8GB ram in the current year. You literally can't use anything effectively besides browsing the web.
All that is a moot point though. What really counts in the context of this website is value for money. It doesn't matter how suitable for office tasks this is, it's still god awful value for money at $1200. Ozbargain is a site for bargains, good deals, good value. Only an Apple fanboy would preach good value for a laptop with 8GB ram at $1200.
Keep reaching mate. You are being shut down by everyone here. My mid 2014 MacBook still runs like a champ. I can point you towards my graveyard of windows based laptops that are crap. 8Gb is fine for majority of people for 95% of day to day computing tasks.
And I’m not an apple fanboy, I’ve used all sorts of equipment over last 30 years majority PC and for my experience from a laptop perspective MacBooks are best for usability, reliability and longevity
@dlcx: That person is frustrated and seems paranoid about others being "apple fanboys" for some reason. And keeps screaming that. WTH!
I am not an apple fanboy, I have been using windows laptops and PCs for yonkies, going back to the times when pixels were large and green
also I hate iPhones they are just dumb. this is a Samsung household, no apple phones are allowed here lol
but M1 is truly a groundbreaking technology advancement. I too had a MacBook in 2010 and it was painfully slow and I sold it on shortly after
now I picked up this basic M1 model from 2020, with baseline 8/256, and I can say boy! windows laptops are pretty much redundant now for anything besides gaming. high quality screen? check. awesome performance? check. unbelievable battery life? check. solid build quality? check. and look at the price!
it's just hard to beat. if you haven't tried M1 give it a go. M2 / M3 are insignificant upgrades, and actually M1 8/256 is better than M2 8/256 because M1 has twice the bandwidth to the storage if you ever need to page to SSD as you run out of RAM. I've been editing photos all day on M1 yesterday and it's been faster than my current i7-1260P laptop with 64GB RAM. ridiculous! also it still has juice! my Intel laptop would have dies after 2 hours of photo editing, while also being slower in the same bloody app!
now yes, I admit it, Apple pricing policy is outright extortion: you can't add storage, and have to pay ridiculous premium for it. but look at this 8/256 puppy, after initial install and upgrade there's still 200+GB of free space. for normal day to day use this will be fine for a lot of folk out there
Nothing wrong with 8gb - my X1 Carbon with 8gb from 2017 is still going strong
Nothing wrong with 8gb
There is everything wrong with 8GB if it's costing $1200 in the current year, champ.
I used to have windows laptops. My MacBook, which I’ve been using for 5 years, is the best laptop I’ve ever head.
Windows is absolute garbage
You're right 8gb is not enough. Unless all you do is look at youtube videos and have no more than five tabs open then you'll be fine. Even my iPad Pro runs out of ram in safari and has to constantly reload tabs. The only reason I can see to defend this behaviour is for people to validate being tight on a gift for a family member or to validate a poor buying decision. The storage is also not enough, also if you plan on editing anything through photoshop or final cut you will run out of ram. Do not buy this unless you are just looking for light computing, also remember than ram is shared with the integrated graphics so anything that is graphically intensive is going to start chewing into the ram.
For light computing users 8gb you can get away with for everyone else you need 16gb. I have 16gb on my mac and I regularly use most of it, with multiple excel files open, word, xero and everything else you need the extra ram, don't be stupid and upgrade now. Don't end up with buyers remorse, there's nothing worse than that.
Price still so stubborn and not willing to go below $1k yet.
You will be waiting til your dead. Apple has never been friendly with discounts, and it will always be this 10-15% at best rubbish.
What will happen is the m3 air will come out, and they'll straight up kill the m1 air line in a heartbeat instead.
To make this even more definite, they would be supporting the m1 at least x years from the last m1 sold, so they don't want to hang on it forever
will Officeworks do price match?
Already matched
any ideas when this will finish?
I have 3 kids and have to buy new windows laptop every other yr. Meanwhile their friends have had the same Macbook Air from the start of byod.
For the last yr, they would rather resurrect their old ipads than use their laptops. Buy cheap apple pencil imitation. Actually for education, iPad is the best. No books or stationery needed.
They are not asking for a laptop but they said if we ever buy them another laptop pls buy Macbook Air. Pretty much 90% of their cohort have converted to Apple for reliability and built. It’s annoying because their lao tops have good specs and only 2 yrs old and they only used it for 1yr.
For education just get Apple. Our school promotes windows too so most students did start with windows.
The other reason is they can chat through imessage in class. All the Apple users are connected n online.
have to buy new windows laptop every other yr.
Why? $500 Windows laptop I bought 6 years ago still works perfectly fine even with intensive daily usage. Just needed a battery replacement and SSD upgrade.
The other reason is they can chat through imessage in class.
They can also chat through social media ie. Instagram? They shouldn't be on their phones in class anyway 😆
Can you explain the process to pay like this
to add my comment to the "8GB MacBook Air" discussion. I have been a windows laptop guy for years and years, and perceived Macs as expensive toys
but recently I've been struggling to get a dependable photo editing laptop to process photos on the go. in the Windows world it's a bumpy ride trying to procure a model that ticks all the boxes of performance, good screen, battery life - necessary for photo editing on the go.
after changing I don't know how many laptops I decided to get MB Air M1 8/256 from Officeworks, when they dropped to $1197. first thing I did is I copied some photos to it, installed Luminar AI which is my fav photo editing tool which I know is optimised for M1 chip. and next I was simply blown away. everything is super fast compared to my current editing laptop which boasts i7-1260P, 64GB of RAM, and RTX 3050 Ti to top it off (and a Pantone validated 4K panel). Edits are faster, images load time is better, adding images to library is almost immediate, battery lasts for much longer.. and screen doesn't need calibration
I will be selling my Windows laptop now lol
Should see if I can price beat with Officeworks , otherwise a good deal ?