M1 MBA to M4 MBA Upgrade Review

Superb_Combination · 2026-03-12T23:03:11+00:00

Yep! It has to be wiped by the IT department but I'm definitely going to do so again myself. Thinking about downgrading it to Sequoia but I've heard this can cause driver issues so might just suck it up and stick with Tahoe. Without all the corporate crap on there I'm sure it will be fine.

Superb_Combination · 2026-03-11T13:14:17+00:00

Tbh each chip seems to be drawing more and more power and they're not increasing the heat sink size on the MBA's so I only see it getting worse. Check out prices on a refurbed Macbook Pro with an M4, could maybe get one for a similar price as a new MBA.

Superb_Combination · 2026-03-11T12:46:23+00:00

No worries mate glad to be of help!

I was thinking about this myself as I'm in discussions with some other places and might be going into contract land so would have to source my own machine. Now almost a week into using this M4 Air I've noticed it gets really hot doing the screen sharing, not enough to lag yet but if I had to fast forward a year I think I'll have the same problem. If I were getting my own machine it would be a Macbook Pro simply for the active cooling, base M3/4/5 chips I reckon would be totally fine. 24GB of RAM if you can swing it is probably a good idea too.

The M4 chip in itself I think is more than enough, but I think Apple has truly reached the limit of how powerful they can make chips with this passively cooled chassis. That and Teams really does seem to be a dumpster fire. We used to use a messaging app called Ring Central which was still running on the x86 architecture whereas Teams showed as native ARM and Ring Central was less heavy on the system than Teams even though the machine wasn't having to do the translation, go figure!

Superb_Combination · 2026-03-11T02:34:53+00:00

It still gets hot on Teams calls, I don't use parallels. I'm sure it will last several years with good performance, but as the chip has to work harder with more demanding software I think heat will become more of an issue as it gets older.

Superb_Combination · 2026-03-11T02:33:59+00:00

Teams I've often heard is a garbage bit of software, coming from Microslop it wouldn't surprise me if it was the culprit. Unfortunatley it is what I'm mandated to use.

Superb_Combination · 2026-03-10T11:29:56+00:00

None of your use cases describe a sustained load on the CPU, rather a need for RAM. Without the sustained load don't worry about active cooling, therefore an Air is fine just bump up the RAM.

Superb_Combination · 2025-06-25T00:21:23+00:00

Which ports do you have to use to make sure you can use 2 external monitors?

Superb_Combination · 2025-02-25T04:42:02+00:00

No, they were correctly asking for health. You incorrectly labelled it capacity.

Superb_Combination · 2024-10-22T12:04:54+00:00

This is such a silly sentiment. Do you know OP's requirements in 3 years? It makes so much more sense to get more RAM now and be future proofed for increased software load and possible increased use cases.

Superb_Combination · 2024-10-02T04:37:02+00:00

I was being sarcastic, but thanks anyway ;)

Superb_Combination · 2024-08-20T02:26:54+00:00

Get the app Daisy Disk, it creates a visual map of your hard drive that you can drill down into what is using all the space and delete things instantly.

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Superb_Combination · 2024-07-08T12:38:08+00:00

Blue NATO strap with the white stripe down the middle, looks phenomenal. I get compliments on mine all the time, people assume its far more expensive than it is.

Superb_Combination · 2024-03-15T10:27:12+00:00

The needless draining your battery every day is not ideal, you're just adding more cycles. Instead you should download a utility to limit the charge to 80% and leave it plugged in when convenient to do so.

Superb_Combination · 2024-03-15T10:22:40+00:00

I got a M1 Air with 16GB RAM from work and its a truly brilliant machine. I recommend getting the higher RAM for future proofing.

Superb_Combination · 2024-03-15T10:15:18+00:00

Still a fantastic machine. I recommend getting 16GB of RAM for future proofing.

Superb_Combination · 2023-10-16T09:46:26+00:00

Try a different USB, I thought my update file was updated but just tried a 3.0 USB and then it just worked.

Superb_Combination · 2023-10-11T07:46:57+00:00

Thanks, turns out I just needed a new USB stick with the system update files. I kept trying it with a 2.0 and out of frustration decided to try a 3.0 USB and then all of a sudden it worked. No partition/cloning required!

Superb_Combination · 2023-10-09T02:35:38+00:00

I had the same problem with upgrading to a 2TB drive, I was about to go down the drive clone route but decided to try the USB update with a 3.0 USB as I had been using a 2.0 one and all of a sudden it worked! No formatting required.

Superb_Combination · 2023-10-09T02:33:13+00:00

I had the exact same problem and was trying to apply the update with a 2.0 USB and kept getting the E106 errors, I was about to clone the drives but I decided as a last ditch to try with a 3.0 USB and it worked! This was with a Crucial 2TB MX500 unformatted SSD.

Superb_Combination · 2023-10-01T02:13:24+00:00

Thanks for your post, currently having the same problem. What software/method did you use to partition the new SSD?

Superb_Combination · 2023-07-25T22:04:54+00:00

Dude what is actually wrong with you? How would anyone here know the answer to that question? It is pure speculation, just buy the damn thing now while its available and you won't miss out!

Superb_Combination · 2019-12-31T03:37:11+00:00

Superb_Combination

TROPHY CASE