MacBook Air M1 was launched three years ago, and students & professionals still wonder if Apple's most affordable laptop is worth it in 2024. The short answer to that is Yes; this little thing is quite relevant even to this day. So, should you consider it in 2024? There are a few things you need to know before you decide to get the MacBook Air M1. Let's take a look at MacBook Air M1 in detail:
Price:
The first and the most important thing is the price. If you go to the official Apple website right now, the M1 MacBook Air is still selling at ₹99,999, which is just ridiculous. However, fortunately, we have Amazon, where the base 8GB+256GB model is listed at ₹83,990, which according to us, is reasonable considering the specs of the laptop. Click here to check the current Amazon listing.
You can get an additional 5% cashback with the Amazon Pay ICICI bank credit card. If you don't have one, you can apply for it from here (This is a lifetime free credit card with no joining or annual fee.) After a 5% cashback, the price of the laptop comes around ₹79,790. At this price, it's a perfect choice if the budget allows.
Please note that the price is going to be further lower during the upcoming Great Republic Day sale.
Design:
Now moving on to design, the MacBook Air M1 comes with an iconic design that gets thinner from the top down. It also has a premium sturdy aluminum build and lightweight design. So it is suitable for students or anyone who has to carry around the laptop all day. It is one of the most well-built and most portable laptops out there.
Ports:
Talking about ports, it is one of the very few shortcomings that I have noted as it comes with just a couple of Thunderbolt/USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. One of the Thunderbolt/USB-C ports gets occupied by the charger. So while charging the laptop, you will have only one spare port. In case you need to attach two or more accessories, you need to have a USB-C hub or a docking station.
Display:
The M1's 13-inch display holds up perfectly fine to this day as well, if you don't mind the bezels. Except for the bezels, everything is perfect as the display is sharp, color-accurate, and bright enough for day to day uses.
Speakers:
The built-in stereo speakers are also pretty good and much better than most Windows laptops in this price range.
Webcam:
The webcam comes with just 720p resolution, which is not up to 2024 standards. So the overall video quality is just average. The microphone's quality is also acceptable.
Keyboard & Trackpad:
The Keyboard & Trackpad are one of the best out there in the similar price range. The Keyboard gets all the fundamentals like key spacing, travel distance, and the tactile feel right. So the keyboard is snappy and responsive. The same can be said for the trackpad. It's smooth, super spacious, and responds to all the gestures smoothly.
Performance:
MacBook Air M1 comes with Apple's own M1 chip which can handle everything including occasional video editing. So there is no question of performance for students and professionals.
Now, you might think that it's been three years since its launch so there might be some slowdowns. Let me tell you that the MacBook Air M1 still feels as new as ever. Absolutely no slowdowns or anything like that. The M1 chip is easily the most reliable laptop for day-to-day uses. Please keep in mind that you should not go by the benchmark scores as they are a measure of peak performance of the laptop. Also, if you want a laptop for gaming, MacBook Air M1 is not for you. You should look at powerful Windows laptops as M1 GPU is simply not powerful enough to handle most AAA titles.
RAM & Storage:
The base model comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, which turns out to be less than needed in some scenarios. If your work requires more than that, you can always go for the upgrade to 8GB RAM and 512GB storage, but it is going to cost you ₹1,20,000, which according to us is not reasonable and beats the purpose of this article.
Battery Life:
The MacBook Air M1's battery life is very impressive. Under casual everyday use, you can comfortably expect around 9 hours of screen-on time on average here, which cannot be said about most of the mid-range Windows laptops.
Conclusion:
So this is our analysis of MacBook Air M1. If you want a premium yet affordable laptop that's easy on the backpack, super powerful, has a battery that lasts all day, and nails all the basics, MacBook Air M1 is for you. Even though Apple has a couple of newer MacBook Airs with slightly faster processors, a newer design, and a better camera among other upgrades, the M1 Air is in a league of its own. And based on this analysis, we will recommend you to buy it in 2024.
So everyone, that's all for this analysis. I hope you found it useful. What do you think about MacBook Air M1 in 2024? Share your opinion in comment section below. Follow us on Twitter for more such interesting analysis.
