Apple 2020 MacBook Air Laptop M1 Chip, 13" Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD Storage, Backlit Keyboard, FaceTime HD Camera, Touch ID. Works with iPhone/iPad; Gold

i am a windows man way back 40 yrs. since i used windows software for work i saw no reason to switch to apple. although i did have an apple IIc for fun way back in the early pc daysMy surface pro entry model has been around for many yrs and the battery has run down and mostly i use it plugged in. I decided to try a mac to learn something new. After research i decided to get the mac air m1 w 8GB ram and the 512GB SSD - this is what i learned ( not going into why i decided what i did as anyone can do the same research1. setup and initial use was not as easy as advertised- couldnt get past the country selection and found after search many had same problem. almost returned it but i finally found i could move selection by tab key AND selection based on space press and NOT return key - track pad was useless - ( it had a little to do with track pad setup that can only be performed later as well as track pad difference from MS product) .windows and track pad usage not same as windows and i couldn't resize screen windows or even drag them on the screen -plenty of tutorials on you tube - but none really helped decipher selection until i figured it out watching an excel tutorial on how to select and drag cells - you have to "hard" press.This hard press finally solved the moving and resizing windows issues - again none of this info was included with product.2. very confusing from reviews n QnAs whether or not this mac had 7 or 8 core GPU - according to internal report its 8 core3. what have i learned -- very lightweight machine- lots of internal tweaking can be done to personalize machine- very fast on the task used - browsing and some excel files now needing to run under mac for which i purchased new software- beautiful screen- great battery life- particularly liked my iphone messages show up on the mac and i can send and receive on same - apple makes computer look sim to phone4. recommendation - for 1000$ to 1200$ a student or any one like me, whos not going to program or have a gazillion windows open or need a large screen, can get this machine - a comparable windows machine would cost same but a windows machine can also be purchased for a lot less and still be capable of student tasks.However, the battery life and weight and integration w iphone tip the scales to this machine if you want to purchase a comparable MS product

Replaced a MacBook Pro from work when I got laid off. I'm not really an Apple person, but know my way around. I am looking for tech writer job so creativity apps are priority. Still need remote windows machine for rare missing software.When connecting external Dell monitor, it couldn't detect (or support?) correct settings. Cannot get image to fill full wide screen.. Worked flawlessly on MacBook Pro.I miss right hand usb ports. Nice screen resolution.Rosetta stone wasn't pre-installed like review articles indicated. Works well after painless install.Wifi connection not nearly as good as MacBook Pro. My Routers (3 choices: Orbi, Synergy, Motorola) are all wonky; old machine stayed connected for weeks, this one hops between networks multiple times per day, each time cancelling current network jobs.Love the battery life, nice portability, looks good. Fast wake and fast reliable fingerprint recognition.

I owned a MacBook Pro in the past. This time around, there was no real selling point for the pro. So I got the 512gb air, so that I get better storage as well as the 8 core gpu. the base only comes with a 7 core. I love this laptop, for light to medium gaming, media browsing and for productivity. This laptop hits it out of the park. Stupid fast, great battery and a wonderful premium feel that no other laptop can match. This apple m1 processor is a beast and should scare the heck out of intel. This baby plays Minecraft and high settings with good frame rate, and pairs up amazingly with my other apple devices. Apple is really pushing hard to bring a great product here, at a competitive price. In the thin and light laptop market, apple destroys the windows laptops in every way.

Update:I saw some reviews that said their 3rd party usb hub broke their Mac. I've been using a usb-c to usb-a for a few weeks now with no problems (made by UNI). It's worked for everything I threw at it; Logitech G910 keyboard, Razor mouse, Yamaha digital piano, RME Audio Interface, Roland A-49 midi keyboard. They all worked. I also have a cheapo Amazon Basics single usb adaptor cord about 6" long, and it too works with everything on the MacBook.After decades of looking through Bill Gates' Windows, I bought my first Mac but only because of the new M1 chip, where everything is on this one chip, which makes it faster. Applications optimized for the M1 now rival high end PCs (and for the first time too). I never was interested in Macs because they were overpriced and underpowered, but it looks like that worm has turned. Just don't buy an earlier version of Macs, especially with Intel chips.Keep in mind when/if you buy this, there are NO upgrades later on; ZERO, NADA, nothing to change out. You can't add RAM nor Storage once it's built. (There is a workaround on storage, by adding an external SSD drive, but as I understand it there are some problems viewing what is on your external drive, but that may change over time.)Also, SSD storage, while blazingly fast and so worth it, need about 10% 'headroom.' That is for example, if you have 256GB storage, you can only use 230GB as you need a 10% reserve to account for SSDs getting used up. It's the nature of the beast. And of course the preinstalled software also takes up storage space from day one. For my PC I bought a 250GB SSD and found that it was maxing out pretty fast, so I replaced with a 1TB SSD and have already filled up half of it, but I don't expect to fill it up completely anytime soon. It should be good for maybe a decade or so.So bottom line, get at least the 512GB storage or you'll be sorry. It does kind of suck that Apple charges so much for each step increase in storage, but paying the extra $200 in this case is worth it, IMHO. The jury is still out on if you need 16BG of RAM vs the 8GB models currently in stock, (Apple treats it like a custom order at this time, with a waiting period.) If it was a PC, then getting 16GB RAM is a no-brainer, but in the case of the M1 chip, it shares memory within the chip, making the most use of it. I have 32GB in my PC because RAM sticks are relatively cheap.Remember, once you buy a MacBook, it will stay as is. Upgrades are impossible (which has always been the case for notebooks anyway).