Since I bought myself some used Apple hardware at the end of June, I'm now writing a consolidated review on it.
The M1 MacBook Air was the first piece of Apple hardware that I bought and cost me 630€. There were no further surprises and everything I said about the M1 MacBook Air and about MacOS in my review of last year still applies. While it cost by far the most I consider the M1 MacBook Air to be the most useful of the three items I bought.
I should note that at work I continue to use a Linux PC with Emacs and strongly prefer that setup for productivity.
Shortly after the MacBook Air, I bought myself an iPhone XS that set me back 80€, plus another 10 for a case. Despite it being heavily used, it still gets me around two and a half days of battery life, given my very light usage. The only third party apps I have installed on it right now are SpendNotes for expense tracking and Medito for guided meditations.
What I don't use in third-party apps I make up for in first-party apps. Synchronizing with the MacBook Air, I like to use Apple notes, reminders and the calendar. And also found it quite useful to have my photos synchronized between the devices.
With iOS apps working natively on the MacBook, I plan on relegating the
iPhone to the drawer and to continue using my dumb phone, as I've done for the past two years.
Doesn't work nearly as well as it seems at first glance. Also, turns out old phone is starting to get battery issues. iPhone stays default.
The Apple Watch is a heavily used series 6 that I purchased for 60€, with it arriving only two days ago. I primarily tested it for workout tracking and apple pay and I also tested the apple maps navigation once. I did also test the sleep tracking, but find that to be kind of useless given my near-perfect sleep.
I think an Apple Watch is a poor fashion choice and not really worth over a hundred bucks unless you are a cyclist that will make frequent use of both the navigation feature and workout tracking.
But for those two features it's useful enough to keep around and use occasionally.
I'll keep using it as my default and keep my analogue watches around for when I need to dress up.
iCloud Web doesn't work for me with advanced data protection enabled. Useless.
A cheap iPad might be nice for media consumption and/or diagramming via apple freeform. Without having tried it, I'll recommend it to moms and startup techbros.¹
Apple has some nice hardware available at decent prices on the used market.
If you're the kind of guy who will make use of it, it surely isn't a bad choice.
But for me, I think I'll refocus on the essentials and continue using a regular watch with a dumbphone while also leveraging the M1 MacBook Air to its fullest potential.
Sike
