In the Year 2025: M1 MacBook Air

We're in a world where it seems like you're expected to update your phone every single year to the latest and greatest, lest you miss out on some feature that you'll regret not being able to use. For reference, this was me when the iPhone 14 Pro came out and I really wanted to use the Dynamic Island, but was still on an iPhone 12. I stayed strong, and managed to hold off until last year when I finally upgraded to the iPhone 16 Pro. Regardless, Upgrade Culture is a thing and it can be really overwhelming. Technology moves fast enough as it is, and phones made it a million times worse. It's a far cry from the way it used to be, when one could get several years out of their technology before having to upgrade.

One place that has resisted the never-ending world of upgrading is the PC space, specifically Apple's line of iMacs and MacBooks. iPads too I suppose, since they're not as vital as the iPhone to everyday life in 2025. Anyway, Apple computers are generally known to be something you can buy brand new and have it last for up to a decade as a useful machine for average users, and maybe even some power users, long as it still got the needed software and OS updates to keep it humming. It was their trademark, and made the initial high cost of entry worth it, knowing you would have a strong return on investment.

In 2020, Apple announced they were separating from Intel as the primary fabricator of the processors used in all of their computers, and were taking it in-house with ARM chips, dubbed Apple Silicon. The first fruits of that labor were the M1 powered MacBook Pro, and the M1 MacBook Air. The MacBook Air at least, was just the prior Air design for Intel with the new chip shoved in there, and we wouldn't see the real fruits of the new direction until the M2 MacBook Air that bought the infamous notch to laptops. Regardless, I remember when these shipped - I had been using a Lenovo Windows laptop that was fast and useful, but had the battery life of a child's toy, and would run out of juice after 3 hours, leaving me tethered to a power plug. Hence, I was frustrated and looking for a new laptop to replace it. When I read the glowing review from The Verge, I knew what to do.

5 years later, I can say without debate it's the best laptop I have ever owned and despite all the upgrades and new models and new M series chips, I'm riding and dying with the OG. I'd never say to buy one today unless your budget is busted and can't wait for the occasional sale on the current M4 MacBook Airs, but I consider this sound advice: if you buy one, it will probably last you a long, long time, even when OS updates stop coming. And you can get it brand new at Walmart for $600, which puts it in the same league as the mid-range Windows laptops out there. Set it, forget it, love it. Just don't expect to be a real graphics-intensive powerhouse. Even compared to my M4 Mac mini, where this is being typed on, it can keep up pretty well just as your average productivity machine.

In 2025, the M1 MacBook Air still runs the latest and greatest OS - macOS Tahoe Beta is currently installed on mine and despite being many years downstream of the original OS it shipped with, Big Sur, it's still speedy. Apps open very quickly, with minimal lag, thanks to the entire chipset being one huge blob, including the RAM and SSD. Because it still gets full OS updates, it remains safe and stable. It is starting to show its age with regards to graphics-intensive games that have come out recently - the base model with 8gb RAM will not run Cyberpunk 2077, though if you have the 16gb version, it will. As I mentioned, it doesn't run modern games very well unless you really dial down the resolution, below 1080p even. It also has a very poor webcam for FaceTime, which was the biggest knock against the computer when it shipped. It's likely due to the hardware being a general swap from the prior Intel version, and used the same camera.

What makes this stand out for me is that it's just built for everyday use and gives minimal fuss. I can open the case, log in via Touch ID, admire the beautiful Retina screen, and get to what I want very quickly. This is my baseline thing with computers - if I have to twiddle my thumbs like Sonic taps his feet, you're gonna lose me and I'm just going to put the computer away and move onto my phone or iPad. I generally use it as a couch-surfing device, checking socials, email, YouTube, using Apple's Office-like programs, and the like. It's all still very smooth and to someone who doesn't know any better, it's as fast as anything else out there. Apparently Apple Silicon is some kind of sorcery to keep their hardware fast and efficient through the years. The only thing that has really taken a hit over the years is battery life. While I can generally go a few days without charging it after using it 2-3 hours a night if that, it has shown some small reductions in battery life. This is what the battery capacity shows for me:

So 9% of the battery has been permanently used, never to return. I guess 2% reduction per year isn't too bad, and actually, it's shown 91% for at least a year if not longer, so it's hanging on well. Besides, it says "Normal" so it hasn't heavily degraded. If I can get another few years of it staying in the mid to high 80s, I'll be happy. My goal is to hold on to this laptop until either the battery can't hold its charge well, if it at all, or when Apple decides to stop pushing OS upgrades for this model. I'm expecting next year to be the last time they do upgrades, but they have been surprising me with how long they've been supporting the phones and tablets with iOS, so my hope is 2027 will be the last year. 7 years for a laptop to be useful? I'll take it.

As I said, unless paying more than $600 for a laptop is just too much for your budget, I don't advise buying one of these brand new due to its age - at some point Apple will stop supporting it, and it might be sooner than you'll want. That said, if you need something cheap for a kid, a grandparent, or want to find a solid Apple laptop used that still has punch and probably will maintain that punch after Apple stops supporting it, you can safely buy the M1 MacBook Air. The point of the piece here is not to make the argument that in 2025 you should abandon all new hardware and buy this one, but that spending $1000 or so on the current models can be a good investment if you want something you can almost guarantee will still deliver the goods in 5, 10 years. It's been tempting for years to trade up to an M3 or M4, but I have held strong and have been rewarded with a truly great computer. It more or less is the reason I abandoned Windows computing all together.