There is another issue with throttling on MBA which I will mention below, but not because of running on battery. Unlike Intel devices (Macs or Windows) which throttle down when running on battery, M1 chips do not have this issue.
Looking forward to it, as this is the main thing I use day-in-day-out. I know it is in the roadmap, but no ETA has been announced.
Wish Microsoft rolls out the M1 version of VS for Mac soon. Just take my word for it, or search for reviews on YouTube comparing the same. I wouldn't even try to give numbers to compare them to Intel versions on my MBP or iMac Pro. All the native apps and M1 optimized apps are super-fast. In fact, if I have to play the devil's advocate, I would say that I am so much accustomed to working in environments with fan-noise coming from the laptops or desktops that I found it disturbing to work in a quiet environment and it was counter-productive (I was actually distracted by the silence).
Couple this with the TouchID sensor to unlock no need to enter password (at least on my iMac Pro). No frustration on waiting for a few seconds for the device to be available for consumption. Btw, the charger that comes with MBA is small, so I wouldn't mind sticking it in my bag as it is hardly noticeable. Now, I do not need to worry about carrying the charger with me in the bag (unless I am traveling and out of the country for more than 3 days). With my MBP, I could never imagine using it for 3-4 hours (let alone days) without connecting the charger.
And I did not charge the laptop in between. WOW!!! In fact, post this I fully charged my laptop and then used it for the next 3 days (moderate usage of 4-5 hours a day - as I usually did with my MBP), and still it was left with 30% battery.
Took me around 9-10 hours, and the battery dropped from 89% to just 42%.
Next, downloaded and installed Xcode (11GB+), VS for Mac (3GB+), Office 2019 (3GB+), UTM with Windows 10 (10GB+), Docker with SQL Server (2GB+), VS Code, Chrome, Edge, Postman and many more.
As a first step, I upgraded Big Sur from 11.3 to 11.5 (that's a download of 6GB+ and installing it). When I received the laptop and unboxed it, it was around 90% charged. Time will tell.īefore I dive into the specifics of using M1 MBA for Xamarin development, I want to share my experience of using this laptop after a week. But who knows, I may connect my monitor and external keyboard/mouse to the MBA and make it my primary machine in the future. M1 is just that good (I will explain below)! Of course, I will still continue using my desktop as I cannot see myself working on a small 13" screen with no full-blown keyboard and mouse.
Spoiler Alert! After using the M1 MBA for a week, I am not sure if I want to continue using my so-called powerful iMac Pro anymore. I am only planning on replacing my MBP with MBA my powerful desktop is still with me, right? And man, was I wrong? "What's the worst that could happen?", I asked myself. However, after reading all the great reviews of M1 devices and of course, watching lots of videos on YouTube, I decided to take the leap of faith. When Apple announced the plans to transition from Intel to its own Silicon last year, I was a bit skeptical. And I have never looked back to Windows ever since. I was so impressed with MacOS (the performance and stability), that I replaced my home Windows desktop with iMac Pro soon after. I used to be a hard-core Windows user for the past 20+ years, but bought my first Mac device (the MBP laptop) 3 years ago to aid in Xamarin development (you cannot build/publish iOS apps using Windows machines). Last week, I replaced my 15" Macbook Pro (Late-2017 Model, Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD) with M1 Macbook Air (8-Core GPU, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD), and boy-oh-boy, am I impressed? I also have a full-blown iMac Pro at home (7th Gen Core i5, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe, and 27" 4K Monitor) which I use primarily for Xamarin development. Updated on 1 to reflect after 3 weeks of extensive use. Platform Target Frameworks: SDK 28 - Run on Device API 26 - Emulators same result.The original article posted on 2 (after one week of usage) represents initial impressions.