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UPDATE 12-15-2020 - After three weeks, I'm still really impressed with the M1 MacBook Air/8 Core CPU/8 Core GPU/512 SSD/8GB RAM. --- My updated plea: MAKE SURE YOU GET AS MUCH MEMORY & STORAGE AS YOU CAN AFFORD. SPECIAL ORDER ONE TO YOUR PROJECTED FUTURE NEED! Remember, Macs live a very long time and the value it holds will depend on how usable it will be to you or someone else in 5 or even 10 years. Not that long ago, 80 GB hard drives were HUGE... and UPGRADABLE. RAM was upgradable. The SSD and the RAM in these machines is NOT upgradable. The one issue for me has been that I am a memory hog! I tend to have LOTS of tabs open at once (I've caught myself with 50 (Safari) open in one browser and 39 (Chrome) in another!), while running Affinity/Final Cut Pro - and YES, the dreaded Beach Ball has reared it's ugly head. Well, this got me to assess what I will be using the machine for and for how long. Storage can be added with external drives, slower, but it will let you scrape by. RAM is another story. When you constantly use up RAM, the system starts using "swap memory" where it uses the SSD to store temporary files. One of the YouTube reviewers (Created Labs) explains it like this: RAM memory is like writing on a white board, it's made to be temporary. Writing to the SSD is like writing on paper with a pencil. It can be erased, but if it's written on and erased for too long, it's going to degrade the medium. It will take years for this to cause problems, but keep in mind that in these M1 MacBooks, none of the parts are replaceable. The SSD and the RAM are soldered onto the board. ***As ridiculously expensive as Apple RAM is, when it's not upgradable, get the maximum, in this case, 16 GB. I really doubt that Apple will be making machines with user upgradable RAM after the switch from Intel is complete, except for possibly the very high end Pro models. There is also the fact that if I am going to be doing a decent amount of video editing, a M1 with a fan will be helpful. Upgrading to the cheaper ($699+Upgrades) M1 Mac mini would be the cheapest way to get better performance for the Pro Apps, but I need a laptop, so... So, that is why I'm planning to return this machine and get one (likely the MacBook Pro M1), with 16 GB RAM & 1 TB SSD. ***A note on browsers, Safari is by far the BEST browser to run on the M1, at least for now. I always had issues with saving web pages as PDF files in Chrome, where it did not save most of the images/text on the page. In Safari, it's worked perfectly. ------ I purchased the MacBook Air M1, 8 core GPU, and 8 core CPU model, with 512 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM in person at the Apple Store (11-20-2020), with education pricing. I traded in my (MNYH2LL/A) - 2017 12" Macbook with the Intel M3 processor, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB Ram. I kept my charging adapter & C-cable (which are both compatible with the M1 Late 2020 Macbook Air), so ended up with a $330 Apple Store instant credit towards the M1. The M1 model has blown me away with its speed and smooth running with a large number of apps open, including Final Cut & Logic Pro. Admittedly the 2017 MB was the bottom of the line and I suffered under frequent overheating issues with too many things open and the single C-port fiasco. I likely would have gone with the 7 core GPU model if one had been in stock at the time of purchase, but I wanted 512 GB of SSD space, so I paid more by going with eh 8 core. From everything that I've seen, the lack of more RAM upgrades is not nearly as important as it was with the Intel x86 processors and is really only useful when you have many GPU intensive "Pro Apps" running at the same time. I would never have dreamed of running Final Cut or Logic Pro on the 2017 Macbook, so this has been an amazing upgrade for me. I would say that the bottom line is that if you're someone who only uses a laptop for office & basic web surfing and only has a few tabs open at once, and you never experience overheating or the dreaded beach ball "not responding" issues, or if you have non-Apple programs that have not been compiled for the M1 chip, hold off on the upgrade until more apps run natively on the M1. If however, you really need a machine that is MUCH more capable, faster and cooler running than the Intel models, it's a solid buy and an amazing upgrade from any non-upgradable Mac.