MacBook Air M1 Issues - What has Been Fixed With Big Sur 11.2.2 and Analysis? - Technology News of the Week
It's been many days since we last looked
at the early issues facing
m1 macbooks now at the beginning of
march 2021
we've had not only big sur 11.2 but
11.2.1
and 11.2.2 updates for these machines
whilst 11.2.2 is a more focused update
meant to address issues specifically
with certain usb type-c hubs that could
lead to a damaged logic board on these
machines
the 11.2 update had big fixes promised
it promised a fix for display issues
amongst other things
that there is no improvement or fix for
the display issues when connected to
certain external displays
i use the benq ew3280u
a 4k monitor that offers usb type-c
connections
hdmi or even dp connections the m1
macbook air can only output to 60 hertz
when connected to this display via hdmi
this has not changed with any of the
bixer 11.2 updates
the latest 11.2.2 included additionally
if you wake up your m1 macbook from
sleep whilst connected to
wire a usb hub such as cal digit ts3
plus sometimes
you will find that whilst all the other
peripherals stay connected
the external display is blank and not
detected by the system
this can be really annoying since it
requires you to eject
any connected hard drives via the hub
and then disconnect the thunderbolt 3
cable
and reconnect it to get back your
display now it's a known fact that for
most
everyday users native 4k resolution even
on a 32 inch monitor can be too small to
read
and not as sharp as a scale resolution
well for this reason i run my benq
monitor at 2560x1440 resolution
this leads to another complication with
the m1 macbook air
wherein when woken up from sleep almost
every time the display will only open in
windowed mode on the benq monitor
you then need to close and reopen the
lid in order to get back a full screen
display
on the external monitor again really
annoying and not
fixed with any of the big sir 11.2
updates
disclaimer here certain brand monitors
like lg have been reported to work
mostly fine with these m1 macbooks but
unlike the intel models
you may run into issues with certain
brands so do your research before
settling on a combination i would
probably be more forgiving with the
macbook air which is intended to be used
as a laptop mainly
but less so with something like a mac
mini which is a desktop
it's good that there's a built-in hdmi
port on the mini
in terms of usb file copy speeds the
issue has largely been resolved
a 7.53 gb file that took almost 53
seconds to copy to the internal ssd
from a samsung t5 ssd when the m1
macbook air initially came out
now only takes around 19 seconds for the
same still slower than going via the cal
digit ts3 plus stock or natively on the
intel max
which take only around 14 seconds for
the same but it's enough of an
improvement for this not to be a major
concern anymore
and thankfully it seems these speeds
were being throttled via software after
all
i intend on making another video
showcasing the video editing performance
of the m1 macbook air but let's just say
that the performance has been improved
in bits and pieces
unlike macbooks with dedicated gpus on
application of transitions or effects
the timeline will occasionally lose
audio
but a small 5 to 10 second break will be
enough for the background
render to finish and restore this back
the good news
is that this itself is less of an issue
now even from when we last spoke about
this
another concerning story that is
currently unfolding is to do with
swap file usage and the life cycle of
ssds used on these macbooks now i must
take a step back here based on my
experience in the past
with other macbook pros, i never faced an
issue with failure of the internal ssd
and that continues to be the case with
this m1 macbook air however
ssds do come with a limited number of
writes known as tbw
or total bytes written and the m1
macbooks have a love for swap files
so they are already reaching three
percent of this tbw
threshold in under three months for a
user with the 2gb ssd option
at that rate some users are speculating
that 256 gb
ssds will not last more than two years a
number of articles from leading tech
websites are available to read about
this
and i will link to them in the
description so even though this has not
affected me as yet
it is concerning enough to mention this
if only to emphasize the added benefits
of getting more ram from the start
after all with the ssds on these
machines being soldered on
the only solution is to replace the
entire logic board
once these fail do check out my video on
how the 8gb variants perform in the real
world and whether you need the 16 gb ram
upgrade
thankfully there's no other concerns
with these macbooks no connectivity
issues with bluetooth or wi-fi
all that is a thing of the past and you
will get stable and reliable connections
if you're facing any issues under these
areas then make sure
your mac is running the latest version
of mac os pixel
so in summary bixer 11.2 and its
iterative updates
fix most issues with m1 macbooks with
the exception of external display issues
so look up the support document for any
external displays you may be considering
or already have and then combine it
accordingly with any of the m1 max
also give due consideration to your
usage look at what might be your ram
requirements
not just today but in the future if you
intend on keeping the machine for a
while
inspect the machine based on that hope