Sometimes, I also game, mainly Minecraft and Rimworld. The performance is nothing to write home about, but it’s good enough for casual gameplay.
Peripherals
The MacBook is connected to a Thunderbolt 3 dock via a single cable, so the setup is really clean. I then connect everything, including my 4K monitor, mouse and keyboard, three external drives and headphones to the dock. It works perfectly!
Apps
I don’t really use any special apps. 99% of the time, I use built-in apps like Safari, Calendar, Notes etc. One special app that I use more than most is Craft for note taking.
Gripes
I have the base model M1, so that means 8GB of RAM and 256 of storage. The lack of RAM really hurts, I can’t have more than one mildly-demanding app open at one time, and it really slows the entire thing down.
If I could afford it, I would definitely get more than 8GB of RAM.
Yeah, 8 GB can get painful. That’s actually one of the few embarrassing aspects of Apple Silicon – even right now, you can still get brand new Macs with M2, but only 8 GB of memory. Like, I understand why it exists, but raising the minimum to 16GB is long overdue at this point.
I’m using the MacBook Air M1, which I bought around the time it came out.
Use case
I mainly use it for my job, which is writing technical documentation. I also code apps, including Mlem, the iOS client for Lemmy and Cork, a GUI for Homebrew.
Sometimes, I also game, mainly Minecraft and Rimworld. The performance is nothing to write home about, but it’s good enough for casual gameplay.
Peripherals
The MacBook is connected to a Thunderbolt 3 dock via a single cable, so the setup is really clean. I then connect everything, including my 4K monitor, mouse and keyboard, three external drives and headphones to the dock. It works perfectly!
Apps
I don’t really use any special apps. 99% of the time, I use built-in apps like Safari, Calendar, Notes etc. One special app that I use more than most is Craft for note taking.
Gripes
I have the base model M1, so that means 8GB of RAM and 256 of storage. The lack of RAM really hurts, I can’t have more than one mildly-demanding app open at one time, and it really slows the entire thing down.
If I could afford it, I would definitely get more than 8GB of RAM.
A fellow M1 MBA connoisseur! 🤝
Yeah, 8 GB can get painful. That’s actually one of the few embarrassing aspects of Apple Silicon – even right now, you can still get brand new Macs with M2, but only 8 GB of memory. Like, I understand why it exists, but raising the minimum to 16GB is long overdue at this point.
Thanks for sharing!
You bet that Apple will only include 16GB as a base when it’s about as good as 8GB is today. I’m not hopeful at all!
And thank you for sharing your perspective, too :)