I know this is a heavily tech circle.
however for the common person out there, unless they're buying for status -- this will meet most of their needs
office workers, hospital workers, stay-at-home parents - who just wanna fill forms occasionally, write emails, browse the web - design a few posters on canva for a funeral, special event etc
so yeah to those people they don't give a shit about M-series, as long it has enough memory and can do what they want without freezing.
well done to apple
Counterpoint; Apple was already selling ~$600-700 Macs with the M1 MBA. If you weren't already in the market for one of those laptops, there is pretty much a 0% chance that these pared-back models will appeal to you.
I’m still on an M1 Air for my personal laptop and probably will be for another couple years. It doesn’t feel “slow” and I feel no urge to start browsing newer models.
My understanding is this laptop matches or exceeds the M1 Air’s performance, so it should be pretty damn nice for most people.