# Apple M1 MacBook

64 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple M1 MacBook and 21 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 5.3 years (13 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Still fast, efficient and long-lived years after release, many say, handling everyday and dev work. Common caveat: slowdowns with heavy browsing and 8GB memory.

## Why people recommend it

- Still fast years after release (10 comments): "So you can expect ~2-4 more years of updates for an M1. Even after no updates, you can probably still use it longer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48687821)) "it is still going strong. I think even with the recent flaws of macos and instability, the hardware is pretty great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48394890)) "It's still so fast, so cool, great screen, biometric unlocking... it's just incredible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47549535))
- Big leap over Intel Macs (4 comments): "The M1 was great. But the jump felt particularly great because Intel Macbooks had fallen behind in performance per dollar." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46149313)) "I didn't feel any huge speed boosts like that until the M1 MacBook in 2020." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47290048)) "When the M1 came out it felt like jumping 10 years foward." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45817020))
- Cool and low power draw (4 comments): "easily fits on an old M1 macbook/mac mini, whose idle power consumption is well below 10W" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48789089)) "I like the performance and the power consumption of the current apple lineaup" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47339896)) "for normal web-browsing and netflix-watching it's cool to the touch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45923157))
- Lasts all day, light to carry (2 comments): "my M1 Macbook is still better at just being a light machine I can take anywhere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913626)) "It still lasts all day, and it's still the only computer I use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48351742))

## What people warn about

- Slow under browser and RAM load (3 comments): "running a browser concurrently with Figma made everything slow down to the point where he went around asking for advice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47249984)) "it is not enough and you'll have to restart the browser at least a few times per week to not make the whole system lag" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47278937)) "with only 8GB you are getting into the swap territory very fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47332388))
- macOS updates cause problems (2 comments): "I have a MacBook M1 and I recently had to downgrade from Tahoe to Sequoia." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349281)) "I do NOT like Mac OS (and with every update I like it _less_)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47340109))
- Missing Thunderbolt and display support (3 comments): "just set up playing with an M1 (non-max) and realized it can't drive 3 displays" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264982)) "don't expect usable battery life, Thunderbolt output or a few other niceties" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47852933)) "Most things apart from touchid and usb-display work really well on M1-M2." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47241770))
- Warm at idle, slow charging (2 comments): "my extremely expensive workstation cannot even idle without sometimes getting warm or hot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137462)) "Takes at least 5 minutes on the 65W charger to get bootable from a full drain." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47731643))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apple MacBook Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macbook-pro.md): 928 recommend
- [Apple MacBook Neo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macbook-neo.md): 707 recommend
- [MacBook Air](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macbook-air.md): 633 recommend
- [Apple MacBook](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-macbook.md): 499 recommend
- [Framework Laptop 12](https://hackerapproved.com/p/framework-laptop-12.md): 83 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Apple+MacBook+Air+M1+13-inch&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apple M1 MacBook", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-m1-macbook/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).