I’m almost a month in now with the M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB Storage) and I’m still impressed with it everyday I use it – in fact it’s risen above the 2016 12″ MacBook as my favourite machine that Apple has produced. As you may know I went from testing an M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB Ram to this base 8GB Air and I still don’t notice any difference in day to day use. I have been using it for all of my day to day writing, photo editing and even a bit of Logic Pro and it’s surpassing my expectations for an £899 machine – remember this is iPad money.

This isn’t to put down the iPad at all, I still love using my Mini every day but it’s to say that FOR ME, I see better value in the MacBook Air with it’s 13″ screen and trackpad and keyboard.

The keyboard is great and the trackpad whilst smaller than on the Pro is very satisfying to use.

Performance is still great, even on the beta of macOS Monterey it flies with everything that I do on it.

Battery is still amazing, going a few days between charges still even on the beta. I’ve even been playing Xbox Cloud Gaming with a PS4 controller on it and whilst it really drains my iPhone, the Air just carries on fine and doesn’t seem to drain much more than usual. With macOS Monterey you also get Low Power Mode, which I have started testing out.

Extend your MacBook battery life with Low Power Mode, which manages energy-intensive apps and processing. It directs power where you need it to get the most out of your battery

I can’t recommend this machine enough, if you’re after a laptop then I really think that this is the one to buy right now.