MacBook Air M1 Review (After a full week of use)
Hey, guys so I said I would make a review after using the MBA M1 (Base model) and after one week, here we are!
Background: A little background about myself, I am a junior Computer Science student and as you know during these hard times I spend almost all day on my MacBook doing homework, studying, and running multiple applications at the same time. This is simply a review of how the M1 MacBook Air is on daily usage and I will be focusing less on the specs and numbers, and more on how efficiently the device works.
Long story short, I had the 2020 MacBook Pro 13in. (Base Intel Model) and I sold it for about $1100 (I had spent roughly $1200 when I bought it). Then I used that towards the Base Model MacBook Air M1. I had posted here saying that I will find out if this was an upgrade or a downgrade since I went from the Pro lineup to the Air lineup. In terms of words, LOL, the model I had previously must surely be the superior device right? Well, I can tell you that I personally made the right choice.
TO CUT TO THE CHASE:
This is a superior device that gets the job done and is the best bang for your buck (personally I would be fine paying more for this LOL). Highly recommend it. (Especially for students!!!)
Review:
- Application Compatibility: I immediately downloaded all of the programs I initially had for my previous device and they downloaded perfectly! Even my programming editors, as well as Python and Java. Rosetta which is what makes programs compatible with the M1 chip works flawlessly and I had no issues downloading anything.
- Just to be aware, however, some programs do not run right away and I could need to quit it and launch it again but it isn't rare.
- Also more and more programs are releasing M1 compatibility so do not worry, everything will be fully supported and optimized for M1 (in fact Google just released Chrome for the M1, YEAH GOOGLE!)
- Speed/ Usage: So far I been using this device with my program editor, multiple safari tabs, chrome tabs, and discord doing assignments and sometimes even on a video call with my professor AT THE SAME TIME! I have not seen any drop in performance or any beachballs popping up. For 8GB RAM, this is insanely good, and normal for my old device I would have seen slowdowns and the beachball.
- NOTE: Some of these apps aren't even natively compatible for M1 yet it works better and much more efficiently than the Pro I had.
- 8GB is more than enough for me, as a student who does a lot and as a programmer. I feel 8GB is more than enough for anyone who is NOT a professional and doesn't run heavy tasks for long periods of time.
- Heat/Temperature: EXCELLENT! When I open up all my applications and do my work, I have been feeling the bottom of my MacBook to see if there is any heat and at most I felt only a little bit of heat but that was after 2 hours of heavy usage! Plus with no fans, this was a welcoming feature as I personally hated how my Pro's fans would run constantly and at times, obnoxiously loud asf.
- Only gets hot when you do heavy tasks for a long period of time.
- No sound at all.
- Cons:
- Still shitty webcam
- Same design and keyboard
- Running mobile apps on it sucks
- No longer can run Bootcamps (Windows) but I don't personally use it, just something to take note of if you do!
- This is still your basic MacBook Air, so I only wanted this review to be about how the M1 chip was, other than that this device is simply far superior than my Intel MacBook Pro. So I won't be going over any other hardware features (Wifi 6, Better Bluetooth, Thunderbolt 3) which are just MINOR improvements.
BOTTOM LINE:
This device is extremely powerful and is not just a bluff. I took the chance when I sold my Pro for the Air and I can confidently say that this is definitely an UPGRADE! I highly recommend this for students and anyone who is on a budget and needs something to get the job done! Only get this if you can afford it or, like me, you can sell your current device above the sale price of the Air. It is not worth getting if you have to pay extra. There will be BETTER M1 chips and this is simply the beginning! But rest assured if you invest in this device, you are in good hands as you can see even Google recognized Apple's new chip and everyday developers are optimizing their applications for M1 for how amazingly powerful it is!
Score: 9/10. Better than my MacBook Pro, better than Intel, so much power for a small price.
Any questions, please comment and I will gladly answer them!
***Your current device is still MORE THAN ENOUGH and Apple still offers Intel MacBooks. The M1 is just the beginning, if you cannot afford it now, do not worry because you will definitely be glad when you get the next generation of Apple Silicone chips. No need to break a leg for it! ***
submitted by
The_Great_Khal to
macbook
CoMaS Source Code - Updated & Memed on
I took a few hours and memed around with CoMaS.
I decompiled it all and posted it on my github, as there's absolutely no "terms of service" outside of a popup message saying
"Hello! Please ensure that all the unauthorized documents, webpages and applications are closed before you start. The webcam page would open up in your default browser in a couple of minutes. You can start your webcam by pressing the "Open Webcam" button" on that page when you are ready.
Good luck with your exam. Scheduling and Examination Services " which is meant for the "time_to_agree_to_monitoring" which isn't REALLY a terms of service/privacy policy/eula. It does however, download handle.exe to monitor windows processes, which has a eula.. that it autoaccepts for you.. (CoMaS\src\resources\
WindowsFileTask.java) which seems hella sketch and probably illegal to do so.. sooo not entirely sure what's up with that.
This isn't that sketchy, tbh, some were scared on the windows registry calls, but it seems to be just to get your Documents & Desktop folders for the current logged in user.
Some of it's capabilities:
- VM Detection (pretty loose/relatively easy vm detection bypass)
- Windows Registry Checking (Specifically to look for your Documents & your Desktop folder of the current user)
- Random screenshots/webcam captures (Active computer, stores them on your desktop in a "CoMaS" folder iirc)
- All wifi/ethernet/bluetooth activity on your computer (with some of the dumbest checks to see if it's illegal activity or not.)
- Checks clipboard activity periodically.
- Collects hardware details. (Such as your mac address)
- Collects background resource usage stats
- Configurable audio/video monitoring (To be optional or mandatory, and by default it uploads every 10s)
Hell, the webcam monitoring system is so weird. It just visits
http://comas.cogerent.com:8443/COMP4601-Video/rest/loggewebcam/ECOR1047A/Exam-Nov-8/firstname-lastname-studentID so if you knew someone had an exam in a class, and you had their name and student ID, you could literally just be their webcam... ..
Not to mention... it's using absolute garbage legacy libraries such as Jersey REST. What even is this.
http://github.com/TASelwyn/CoMaS-Carleton Note: There's no true eula/tos. Nothing saying not to redistribute. Nothing. Most software tell you don't reverse engineer it, however this shit doesn't so here's some source lol.
submitted by
TASelwyn to
CarletonU
