M1 MacBook Air Review - Ultra Cool

I spent a decade using 15” MacBook Pros expecting the same thing: moderate power in a thermally-constrained chassis. But I recently traded my base model 2018 15” MacBook Pro to make the M1 MacBook Air my daily driver. The one I purchased came with an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 1TB of storage. In this review I want to share my personal experience with Apple’s MacBook Air and why I think it’s probably the most compelling computer this decade.

The single greatest aspect of the M1 MacBook Air is its performance. If you think you’ll need more power than the M1 can provide, then Apple would be happy to sell you computers that are twice as powerful and cost more than twice the price. But believe me when I say that this thin and light laptop should be quite sufficient for nearly everyone.

I’m a professional video editor, and my primary editing application is Final Cut Pro X. While I can’t speak to other editing applications, I can say that Final Cut Pro runs faster on this fan-less MacBook Air than it does on my company’s fully specced out 2019 16 inch MacBook Pro. I was editing a 4K multi-cam edit (shot on a couple of Canon c300s and a Sony FS7) on the MacBook Pro and noticed that scrubbing through the 20+ minute timeline was less than smooth. Playback stuttered from time to time, with many beach balls appearing on the screen during long editing sessions.

Normally I wouldn’t even think about trying to edit a project like this on a thin and light laptop without a fan. In fact I probably wouldn’t have tried on my older 15 inch MacBook Pro either. But I decided to give it a shot. The M1 MacBook Air handled it with aplomb. For seven hours I worked on that project on the Air, and it never once skipped a beat. In short, it handled that massive project better than the $5,000 MacBook Pro. I was astounded.

It’s nice to have normal scissor switches in the keyboard.

This is a very non-scientific and highly specific case. Nevertheless, the M1 MacBook Air’s complementary qualities make it the most well-rounded laptop I’ve used. It’s a capable computer when I need it to be, and when I’m not editing photos or videos, it’s a fantastic web-browsing and video streaming device that I can easily take on the go.

Using this machine has been a joy. I don’t miss the larger screen and form factor of my MacBook Pro. In fact, 13 inches seems to be the perfect size. Its wedge-shaped design is inviting to travel with, and its fan-less operation means I don’t have worry about blocking its airflow when I’m in bed or using it as a laptop. The Magic Keyboard is leagues better than the butterfly-switches of yore. And trackpad is just as good, though smaller than my previous 15 inch MacBook. I haven’t even talked about its all-day battery life!

If you’re on the fence about buying an M1 MacBook Air, I would highly suggest you give it a try.

The iPhone 13 Mini is the Best iPhone.

Good things come in small packages.

I recently traded in my iPhone 12 Pro Max for an iPhone 13 mini. I had seen other reviewers praise the smaller form-factor of the iPhone 12 mini from 2020, but I was reluctant downsize because of its notorious battery life. However this year Apple increased the thickness of its entire iPhone 13 lineup which allowed them to fit bigger batteries inside their new phones. I still wasn’t sure. 

But when I heard that the 13 mini has a battery life of almost 6 and a half hours of screen-on time compared to the less than 6 hours battery life of last year’s full sized iPhone 12, that was all I needed to hear. 

I quickly filled out the trade-in form on Apple’s website, and I was off to the nearest Apple store. As I arrived home and began an iCloud backup, I was a little concerned with just how small the Mini was. I was sure that it was going to be too small for me — that I had made a mistake. However you can probably tell by the title of this post that’s not the case.  

Having lived with an iPhone 13 mini for almost 2 months now, I can’t imagine going back to a larger iPhone. The size and form factor is just perfect, even for my large hands. It took a while adjusting to the keyboard as I kept accidentally pressing unwanted keys. It was also an adjustment going from the massive 6.7 inch screen size from my 12 Pro Max. You lose a lot of information on web pages, in the music app, and so on the mini’s screen. Now I just scroll more, which isn’t much of an inconvenience.

In fact, switching from an iPhone 12 Pro Max to a 13 mini has been a breeze. I get the same quality screen as my 12 Pro Max — just smaller. I get the same cameras as well, minus the telephoto lens. The speakers are fine for podcasts and YouTube, though no better or worse than other iPhones I’ve used previously. And the A15 SoC is just as snappy as last year’s A14, though I’m at a loss to notice a difference in my day to day. Basically, I downsized to the same phone I had been using for a year, and I couldn’t be happier.

The iPhone 13 mini fits perfectly in my hand.

Having a smaller phone, especially when compared to the Pro Max behemoth, has made life simpler. It fits perfectly in all my pants pockets. It’s easier to hold and use in one hand. Even for my large hands the Pro Max was a chore to use one-handed. Often times I would have to precariously balance the phone on my pinky finger just to reach a button towards the top of the screen.

But there were also some other quality of life improvements in downsizing that I wasn’t expecting. For one thing, I take more pictures with my 13 mini than I did with the 12 Pro Max. I can’t explain why, except for maybe its smaller form factor is just more inviting to use. Taking the Pro Max out of my pocket, opening the camera app, then putting it away was sometimes just too much work (I know how it sounds) and I rarely used it for photography except when sending messages to friends. But what’s crazy is in the 2 short months of using the 13 mini I’ve taken more photos so far than in a year with the 12 Pro Max. 

iPhone 13 mini’s cameras are just as good as the 12 Pro Max.

Another quality of life improvement is using my phone less. I have to say, when your screen is this small, sometimes browsing the web isn’t worth it. Rarely will I spend long sessions mindlessly browsing on my phone.

I think the iPhone 13 mini is the perfect iPhone for me. It’s capable, not intrusive, and will do everything I need. It has great cameras, a great screen, and descent speakers all in a perfect handheld form factor. When comparing it to my wife’s iPhone 11, it feels just right. I don’t know how I managed all this time with that massive 12 Pro Max. Even the iPhone 11 feels too large to hold.

Rumor has it that Apple is nixing the mini lineup next year due to poor sales. While I can’t blame them, I’ll have to hold onto this one for as long as I can. Using it has made me nostalgic for my first iPhone — the iPhone 5 — which was one of my favorite iPhones of all time. For me, the iPhone 13 mini brings the magic back to the iPhone.

Here’s to a 14 Mini.  

Apple’s iPad Pro Needs macOS.

Apple put their MacBook chip in the new iPad Pros to make it super fast — all that power and hardly anything to use it on.

This year’s iPad Pro refresh added Apple’s M1 SoC (system on a chip), a chip first used in Apple’s MacBook Air and13 inch MacBook Pro. It’s a chip that has punched well above its weight in terms of processing power relative to its energy efficiency. It’s this very reason that makes the iPad Pro all the more disappointing.

Most of the rumors that surrounded the iPad Pro speculated the release of macOS on the iPad, or something very similar. And you would be forgiven for thinking that was a possibility given they share the same brains.

Instead, Apple is doubling down on making the iPad more “iPad” and keeping macOS locked on the Mac — and never the twain shall meet.

Every year iPad Pro has gotten faster and faster, yet seemingly held back by its software. If only there were apps we could use to take advantage its speed. So what happened?

Did Apple plan to put macOS on the 2021 iPad Pros, or will they always keep iPad neutered by its software? Allow me to propose three ideas which may help appease both sides of team iPad and team Mac.

1. MacOS is an app — Just like any other app in your dock, you can seamlessly switch between iPadOS and macOS. This way on the go you can enjoy the comfort of touch via iPadOS, and when it’s time to work you can jump into your desktop and access the apps you need, like a desktop version of Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, for instance.

2. MacOS when docked — When docked to the Magic Keyboard or a Thunderbolt monitor, iPad Pro will intelligently switch from iPadOS to macOS, allowing you to work as you would on any other MacBook or iMac.

3. iPad is a Mac — Or maybe Apple could just make macOS compatible with touch, and have it run by default on iPad Pro.

Either way, until we have software and apps that can take advantage of iPad Pro’s latest and greatest hardware, it will be a hard sell to actual pros who need to get work done to either buy one or upgrade from a previous generation.

Of course there are changes like the new mini-LED display found in the new 12.9 inch iPad Pro which benefit both pros and casuals, but on the whole the usual SoC upgrades mean very little in terms of day to day use. That’s for most people. What can a pro really do on the iPad Pro this year that they couldn’t have done last year? Could they draw that much better, multitask that much easier, and game that much faster? I don’t think so.