I Purchased Macbook Air M1 and I’m a bit Disappointed
Here is my 6 months recap using a base model Macbook Air M1. Mostly great, but with one small issue.
It’s been 6 months since I bought my Macbook Air M1. The reason was simply that my previous Macbook Air 2015 was as slow as snail and randomly crashed out of the blue. I’m a full-time backend developer with an occasional job as frontend developer as well as app developer, and sometimes become a graphic designer and video editor. I’m using a lot of tools to get the job done, namely Docker, Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ IDEA, Sublime Text, Sequel Ace, DBeaver, Postman, Figma, Vectornator, and DaVinci Resolve. Browser? Yes, mostly Chrome and Safari with 10 tabs opened. Sometimes I held a meeting while coding in VS Code.
Why did I purchase a base model? First, I need to know the limit of this infamous M1 chip to handle my workload. Second, 256 GB storage feels just right, while most of my files go to Google Drive or git repositories. Third, 8 GB RAM seems still acceptable to handle the moderate workload, moreover, the very-fast SSD will be served as a swap when memory is low. Fourth, it is the best bang for the buck, the 1000 USD that will outperform any higher price Intel or AMD configuration laptop. Leading performance per watt, Apple said.
Here’s what I found
I was right, it is lightning fast, everything feels snappy. 20 tabs Chrome? No problem. Held a meeting while debugging? Fine. Compiling Java code while browsing? Still fine. The M1 chip is awesome! Battery? Incredible, I could work all day without needing a single plug.
No fan, no worries, the CPU managed to sustain in 33–34 degrees Celcius most of the time in moderate usage. The display also makes a leap over my previous laptop: namely brighter, higher-res, wide color (P3) support, and True Tone support. The dimensions are also still fine for my portability.
Apple’s effort to enable Rosetta 2 translations seems to works just fine, by the time I write this, almost all of my apps already support the ARM x64 version. The only I missed is VirtualBox, Parallels might just work, but it is not free.
But there’s a catch
It won’t be an all-day laptop if you maxed out the CPU. Don’t get me wrong, the M1 chip can handle any task without being fully loaded, thus it saves energy (battery). But if it is for a very specific reason you need to max out the CPU, the battery will drain fast. I already tried to render a movie clip with DaVinci Resolve, it utilizes 100% of the CPU, thus the battery percentage level dropping rapidly.
Is 8 GB RAM enough? Not really. If I use it to debug my React or Node app, it will be okay. But if I open IntelliJ IDEA while debugging the Spring Boot app, and at the same time open DBeaver, I will suffer from lag. Tried to open Memory Activity in Activity Monitor, whoa, Swap Used already hit 3 GB with red memory pressure. Here I noticed when I had too much memory pressure, i.e. Swap Used more than 1 GB, the computer started to slow down. The fast-SSD, which is where swap is, doesn’t help after all. My solution? Restart!
So, here’s my take
Did I regret buying this base-model configuration? Nope. It is a great machine, I will be fine for most of my everyday tasks. Sure, I am a bit disappointed when debugging the Java app in IntelliJ IDEA. I have to use Java-based IDE, run Java app, and manage database in Java-based DB Manager. I am pretty sure you would have a similar experience when debugging using Android Studio plus running Android Emulator.
To sum up, if you are a web developer, an 8 GB RAM configuration is the bare minimum for you to work seamlessly. You will need more if you are an app developer, although coding while running emulators will be fine for a few hours, you will suffer for the next more hours, except you can manage your workflow like this: open IDE — write code — run emulator — maxed out memory — force quit all apps — repeat.
