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I'm a cynical bastard, but the M1 MacBook Air is the real deal. I don't recall being so pleased with a laptop in a long, long time. I'm yet to find something I
by nindalf 6y ago
I'm a cynical bastard, but the M1 MacBook Air is the real deal. I don't recall being so pleased with a laptop in a long, long time. I'm yet to find something I could possibly gripe about.
- kelchm 6y agoCompletely agreed. I've owned a lot of laptops and other devices... There's no question at this point that the M1 MBA has become my all time favorite. The only complaint I have is that you can't run two external monitors off of it, but I have no doubt that the next generation will address that.
- aminozuur 6y agoUsing a DisplayLink adapter, you can extend a second external display. Still silly these machines they can't do it out of the box.
- agloeregrets 6y agoBingo. I do this. It's a little buggy every now and then, you lose unlock with Apple Watch and there is a small performance cost on one core of the system, but they just shipped a native driver too. Compared to my coworker's 10 core i9 build with over 64GB of ram, my base model Macbook Air builds our node app in half the time.
- herpderperator 6y agoJust be aware that DisplayLink uses the CPU to do this, so it will increase overall CPU utilisation, and you'll notice dropped frames occasionally.
- SXX 6y agoI kind a like that I can run my primary display at 164Hz via dedicated Type-C to DisplayPort adapter. Too bad DisplayLink can't go beyond 60Hz on 2K screen.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- thebruce87m 6y agoA lot of people will still prefer/need two monitors I’m sure, but if you haven’t tried an ultrawide yet I would encourage you to. I would always pick an ultrawide over two monitors.
- function_seven 6y agoAny recommendations on software to tile the display? One reason I like 2 screens is because things like maximizing or full-screening still leaves me with the other display for other windows. A single ultrawide would be way better, if I could count on having 2 virtual displays within.
- theturtletalks 6y agohttps://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle works great for me!
- mkskm 6y agoAlternatively, there's a Hammerspoon package that supports this. https://github.com/scottwhudson/Lunette https://github.com/scottwhudson/Lunette These bindings match Spectacle but you can map to Rectangle's instead.
- ch4s3 6y agoI'm a big fan of Spectacle App https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle. * Edit* Apparently Spectacle has been discontinued.
- mkskm 6y agoThere are also some frustrating bugs with USB-C / thunderbolt connections like the LG UltraFine 4K monitor that have been improved but not yet fully resolved. This isn't unique to M1, but does seem to be new to the more recent MacBook models (possibly related to the T2 chips).
- Jonovono 6y agoAs far as I know that's not a M1 MBA limitation, that's a M1 limitation. As the M1 pros also are limited to 1 monitor. Or i'm wrong?
- jcims 6y agoI'm perplexed at the hot/cold stories of the M1.
- smoldesu 6y agoMe too, I ultimately ended up quite frustrated with the laptop. My suspicion is that it ultimately comes down to your comfort with MacOS and your workflow. I spent a long time trying to get my M1 Macbook Air to simulate my workflow on Linux, but it was never _quite_ there. Sure the thing is zippy, but it doesn't mean much to me without a proper package manager or open operating system. With that being said, I'm an old-school curmudgeon when it comes to computers. I'm hard to please, and I don't necessarily hold it against Apple that they didn't make "the perfect computer". As an aside, is anyone interested in an $850 8gb Macbook Air? Lightly used with only 70tb written to the drive.
- stu2b50 6y agoThat doesn't seem to have anything to do with the M1, though? It just seems you're uncomfortable with macos. A new processor isn't going to change that macs run macos, and if you don't like macos, then you're not going to like the Mac. As a chip, the M1 is an absolutely amazing.
- smoldesu 6y agoI mean, I mostly agree with you. It is an issue with MacOS, and the M1 is a pretty nice package for what it offers. If I could reliably run Linux on it, I'd be a lot more excited. Hell, if I could even drive my monitors with it I'd be mostly satisfied. I guess I'm just one of those "niche users" at the end of the day.
- danieldk 6y agoAs a chip, the M1 is an absolutely amazing Sure, it is an amazing chip. But the delta is only large compared to the rehashed 14nm Intel chips that Macs shipped with in the last few years. Recent Ryzen-based APUs are in a similar ballpark as M1's performance-wise. I think that a lot of Mac users overestimate the M1, since their only experience with x86_64 is low-point Intel and not peak AMD.
- jedberg 6y agoAt first I was skeptical, but I've seen nothing but good things about the M1. I'm now desperately waiting for the 16" M1. My 2015 Pro is starting to show it's age.
- romanovcode 6y agoSame here, really hoping the removal of the touch-bar is not a myth. MacBook with M1, good keyboard and no touch-bar would definitely be the best laptop on the market for a looong time..
- darklion 6y agoOut of curiosity, if they kept the touch bar but as an addition to a row of function keys, rather than a replacement, would you still have an issue with the TB?
- dbt00 6y agoPersonally I would rather it was gone. My fingers are big enough that they brush the edge of the touchbar while I type and volume/brightness/whatever just flaps endlessly while I'm trying to get work done. I have to use an external keyboard with that thing.
- karmakaze 6y agoBtw you can lock the mode of the touch bar and customize/remove the items.
- samatman 6y agoI doubt that would happen if there were a row of physical half-height function keys between the numbers and the touchbar. But I also doubt they would make that laptop, it would require a smaller touchpad and most people wouldn't want that, myself included. Or 4:3 screen, but we can keep dreaming there... My hope is that they offer the touchbar as a configurable option on all MacBooks going forward, at least until they realize no one is buying the ones with the touchbar included. Maybe some video editors like it? It's a failed experiment from where I'm sitting.
- tamrix 6y agoThese comments are just too generic and lack detail. Be cautious of advertising.
- LeanderK 6y agoit's not a new account. The amount of praise is too much to pull off without being suspicious i think. A few fake accounts will probably just get accepted, but the more you use it the faster somebody finds something wrong is my reasoning.
- Toutouxc 6y agoApple, one of the most recognizable brands in the world, pays people to go and tell the nerds at Hacker News that the MacBooks are good? That's way less probable than the machines being actually good. Which they are.
- stu2b50 6y agoAnd also trusts the nerds to not immediately post the email offering them this deal to their blog for the street cred immediately.
- nindalf 6y agoDamn you got me. It's true, I created an account 7 years ago, slowly accumulated 6k+ karma commenting on a variety of topics, all so that I could shill the M1 laptop in 2021. I planned it all. And I would have gotten away with it too! If it hadn't been for you meddling kids...
- samatman 6y agoThis kind of post is specifically discouraged in the HN guidelines. > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
- _gtly 6y agoThe one thing I'm concerned about are reports of potential SSD overwear e.g.: [1]. 1. https://linustechtips.com/topic/1306757-m1-mac-owners-are-experiencing-extremely-high-ssd-writes-over-short-periods-of-time-likely-thanks-to-aggressive-swap/ https://linustechtips.com/topic/1306757-m1-mac-owners-are-ex...
- stu2b50 6y agoI think that's mostly FUD. It's just one tool that's reporting those reads, and the reality is that with modern storage hardware, the numbers they report can be very misleading because of additional layers between the OS and physical drive. In practice, I can't imagine the SSD load to be particularly worse than what the iPhones endure, and I have yet to hear anyone complain about their iPhone dying from their flash storage being overused.
- SXX 6y agoNo it's not FUD and I can absolutely prove this to you. Just open Activity Monitor -> Disk and then watch disk writes. Then check how SMART report changes and you'll see it's exactly match what MacOS itself reports. MacOS is heavily rely on swap at least on M1 hardware for absolutely no reason.
- artursapek 6y agoWhy are people downvoting this without saying anything?
- lawnchair_larry 6y agoIt's definitely not FUD, but it's probably a bug. I'm surprised at how many people are in complete denial that this could be happening and are assuming that people aren't understanding the tooling or something, instead of the obvious explanation, that it's actually an issue.
- ChrisLTD 6y agoI was just looking at Disk tab of Activity Monitor, and the numbers just don't make any sense, unless Mac apps are all throwing gobs of bits at the disk for no particular reason. For example, in two days of uptime it says the SafariBookmarksSyncAgent has written 1.94 GB to disk. I haven't added any bookmarks to my machine in those two days and I haven't used Reading List, so how is that even possible?
- breck 6y agoI was an Air user for 10 years (2010 - 2020). Got the M1 MacBook Pro with TouchBar this time around and love it, and wouldn't go back to Air (but haven't tried the Air M1). Also got an M1 Mini and love that too.
- qbasic_forever 6y agoIt's like that on the server side too with ARM64. Using AWS graviton 2 instances has been incredible--faster, cheaper, and just better in every way for most of my workloads. I think ARM caught nearly the entire industry flat-footed and asleep. It's going to be wild to see all the big PC and server manufacturers, the cloud providers, etc. scramble to have similar ARM offerings. I can't believe Amazon is a year into a solid v2 of ARM instances, while Azure and Google don't even have a beta or v1 on the horizon.
- vosper 6y agoWe're busy moving stuff AWS stuff to Graviton, too. I'm not directly involved, but my understanding is it's been all good (except that not every instance type is available with Graviton). We're going to save a whole lot of money (we spend several million per year on AWS) and as far as I know there's been no performance penalty or any kind of issue.
- chubs 6y agoI would love to do the same, but i'm based on Lambda which i believe is x86-only (would love to be proven wrong!)
- qbasic_forever 6y agoOne day hopefully soon you'll wake up with an email from Amazon that your lambdas are on ARM, there's nothing for you to do, and by the way your bill is 20% cheaper. They've publically mentioned an intention to move all of AWS internals to ARM, starting with elastic loadbalancers. I'm sure lambda will be a high priority for them.
- chubs 6y agoThat seems possible for eg JS lambdas, however mine are compiled rust so I don't think I'd be eligible for that :)
- IndySun 6y ago>I'm yet to find something I could possibly gripe about. Have you experienced the accelerated hd degradation? An odd story that popped up recently. (Not the greatest link....https://www.gizmochina.com/2021/02/24/apple-m1-mac-users-face-severe-ssd-degradation-report/ https://www.gizmochina.com/2021/02/24/apple-m1-mac-users-fac...)
- reader_mode 6y agoI wish they would ship a Surface Pro like form factor with touch and tablet functionality. iPad Pro with MacOS basically. Remote development is the name of the game for the backend, for frontend the M1 chips seem capable enough and can fit the form factor easily. When I'm doing focused work I use an external screen/keyboard/mouse, the only times I use laptop ones are when I'm trying to get work done in a coffee shop or something like that - I even travel with BT keyboard/mouse because the laptop ones make me unproductive. And for media consumption and casual browsing, couch surfing, travel, bed shopping - the laptop form factor is clunky, a tablet is a much better device. Maybe I should just give up and buy both, but I wish I could have one device for everything (even if it costs as much as both of those combined)
- kefabean 6y agoExactly this! An iPad with bluetooth keyboard (I cannot bring myself to drop £349 on the magic variety) is frustratingly close but it’s just not quite a ‘proper’ computer and I end up carrying the keyboard everywhere it’s so useful.
- read_if_gay_ 6y agoDo get the magic keyboard. It completely transforms the iPad. It is ridiculously expensive for a keyboard but still it's worth it.
- ericmay 6y agoThe issue for me is cost. iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard is more expensive than a MacBook Air... and I can't write code on it effectively or multi-task... I do like the iPad Pro a lot though.
- ngcc_hk 6y agocan't zoom (not that I like that software but reality bite). Need a laptop ... may be they can fix that so iPad Pro can do single task if one want to
- PostThisTooFast 6y agoHow about the soldered-in SSD going bad (which it will)? Or the soldered-in RAM going bad (I've had RAM failures on two MacBook Pros, easily fixed at the time but not now).
- Jonovono 6y agoIt's actually unreal. The only thing not great about it is only two ports. When i'm trying to build to 3-4 devices it's a pain. But found a good USB-C coming out in May which should hopefully help. Worth it to escape the touch bar and fan.
- TheRealSteel 6y agoI agree, but I think it's sad that we have to "escape" the Touch Bar. It drives me insane and I'm considering switching from a Pro to an Air just to get rid of it. But that doesn't say anything good about Apple.
- gnicholas 6y agoAgreed. It’s crazy that people on HN (you, me, and other commenters) are considering an Air just to get away from the TB. Airs only have one free port (one has to be used for charging). It really says something that HNers are willing to give up ports and speed (and possibly SD, if rumors are true) just to get away from the TB.
- Skinney 6y agoOne can be used for display _and_ charging, right?
- gnicholas 6y agoPerhaps if you have a certain kind of monitor, presumably an expensive one? I have a no-TB 2017 MBP that has two ports, and I use one to charge and the other to connect a monitor over HDMI. That means I have zero free ports. And since I run in clamshell mode, I can't even unplug the power cord temporarily, as the computer will only run in clamshell mode if it is plugged into power. I do have an Anker mini-dock dongle, but it gets very hot when I use it, so I only use it when necessary. Also, it annoyingly cannot be used to charge any devices, so I can't even plug my iPhone into it to charge. I'm sure there are some other docks out there that are better, but when I was looking in 2017 it wasn't clear which ones those were (aside from the $200+ ones, which I wasn't about to purchase).
- TameAntelope 6y agoTry building node 10! But seriously, I've had a very poor time getting my mac mini M1 to cooperate with the aging tech stack at work, especially since it involves docker. I've had to resort to running my old laptop and SSHing in to get things working until I can put our web app onto a modern set of tech...
- ArchOversight 6y agoHave you tried the Docker for M1 preview? It's been great for me!
- TameAntelope 6y agoYep, it's been terrible for me. Literally requires a full docker service restart every code change.
- pier25 6y agoI'd buy it today if it had a 14'' or 15'' screen. I love the portability, but I just can't work on 13'' anymore.
- rootusrootus 6y agoI am overall happy with mine. It is very quick, and the battery life is quite exceptional. > I'm yet to find something I could possibly gripe about. I can. It does not much like my Philips 328E1 monitor. When it wakes up the display, sometimes it renders all the colors as sorta-inverted. Like, not actually inverted, but maybe just one color channel is inverted. Repeatedly sleeping & waking the display sometimes fixes after a few tries. Rebooting always fixes it. Also, on a fresh login, after I reach the desktop it will sleep the display maybe 5 seconds later for unknown reasons. Usually it wakes up okay after a few more seconds, and then things are fine from then on. I tried all sorts of things, then gave up. Now I don't let the display sleep, so I manually turn it off when I walk away from my desk. It makes switching to my other MacBook a little more hassle because I have to do it manually, but I can live with it. And before you ask if there's something wrong with my display... it works great, 100% of the time, never a single glitch on my work computer, which is a 16 inch MacBook Pro. Sometimes I regret getting the M1 and not waiting for them to work out the bugs.
- mlindner 6y agoHave you tried changing the cable/adapter out? USB4/Thunderbolt is an incredibly complex protocol now and cables are now active with built in microprocessors sometimes even running full OSes inside the cable. It's possible that could be the cause. You didn't mention what type of monitor connection you're using.
- finchisko 6y agotry attach your printer and print something (hint: no drivers)