MacBook Air for WOW?

If you take care of your device then likely. But that’s not the average. Electronics isn’t unobtanium, it can break or when it breaks it may be hard to repair, harder if vendor isn’t keen for repairs.

If a unit gets a keyboard defect or some logic board malfunction depending on Apple decisions the official repair cost may be so high that they will “say” to buy a new one. This is true for every company. In US Apple shops usually say “water damage” even when there is no water damage and give a high repair cost (which makes a market for third party repair).

Plus as any other device they may have a design flaw/weakness that sometimes are under free repair/recall but sometimes are not.

@Bigkeg

I am speaking partly from a professional capacity - where I am Head of IT for a medium size international organisation. My colleagues are neither gentle, nor considerate, towards the kit they’re given and a many of them travel a lot.

I can say, as will the people who work for me, that the Macs we purchase for them have a much longer life-expectancy than the PC’s. I don’t buy cheap kit - it’s a false economy - but I am lucky to see 2 years out of a decent Windows laptop. A similarly priced Mac laptop I can easily expect 4-5 years out of.

My mother, having used PC’s her entire working life bought one of the original Bondi Blue iMacs - after ten years she replaced it with a Mac Mini - and gave the iMac away (it was still working properly) and it lasted another 3 years. Her current Mac Mini is now 7 years old and still chugging away quite happily. She’s a complete convert to Macs and even watches things like WWDC !

I’m aware anecdote is not the singular of data, but I have a lot of data which shows that Macs are a good investment and, barring catastrophes like spilled drinks, will go on for a long time.

My advice to most people is the same (I’m asked a lot…): Unless you have a specific need to use Windows you are usually better off, in the long run, with a Mac.

Yes, you can find a lot of old Apple hardware still running but there is also a cost associated to it. People on a budget (or out of convenience) often pick cheaper options even with their disadvantages - and then there are only low tier Windows based solutions. 1 year “warranty”. If you go for a HP/Dell/Lenovo business devices that cost more (or double) then even if they break they give you next-day on site fix/replace.

I need Linux for work (macOS would almost-work), and Windows for games and astrophotography :wink:

Sorry for keeping bumping this thread but I like to post stuff while I find new things out. They may turn useful for someone.
Apparently turning vsync off boosts the fps but makes the system somehow more prone to freezes and crashes. So… back at it still playing around with settings

Using the Mac mini m1 to play classic myself. For the moment I’m using a 4k screen and getting about 60 fps on settings 3 in SW / IF. When turning up to 8 and out of any major city I’m normally on 55 - 60 fps (shadow quality low). Average cpu use Is about 18-24 %, temperature is around 31 - 34 (depends on if I’m running one or two clients). What I would put into my consideration is that Macbook Air have no cooling fans, but MacBook Pro and Mac mini have.

Hope this helps.