20 comments

  • Jan ZhengJan Zheng, 6 years ago

    I used to have that! Loved my MBA, then one day the motherboard decided to pop and fry. Have an MBP now, but still miss my MBA. it's slightly lighter and thinner, and the battery lasts forever. Only downside is the non-retina screen but you get over it quickly

    3 points
  • Doug OrchardDoug Orchard, 6 years ago

    I think ( personal opinion ) it will do just fine. I ran Sketch on 4GB of ram and never felt slow. However Adobe software was a different story.

    3 points
    • Elliott ReganElliott Regan, 6 years ago

      Adobe CC was sluggish on a 2015 MBP with 16BG of RAM.

      0 points
      • Abram Goglanian, 6 years ago

        That's the same machine I'm working on at home and I too am often surprised at how sluggish Adobe software is. Even the trash-can Mac Pro I work on at the office is molasses. I feel like it's more of an Adobe problem because my Macbook Pro works wonderfully with Sketch.

        0 points
        • Elliott ReganElliott Regan, 6 years ago

          Definitely an Adobe problem...this was a brand new laptop. The more recent versions Ps got better, but for a while I had to install CS6 to get above 30fps.

          0 points
  • Elliott ReganElliott Regan, 6 years ago

    My 2012 MacBook Air i7 8GB RAM is still enough to run Sketch on an external monitor.

    Try Firefox because it is much easier on memory than Chrome is.

    2 points
    • Doug OrchardDoug Orchard, 6 years ago

      You sure about that? I tried opening same websites on both browsers to see RAM usage and found in my limited test Chrome was 100Mb less in RAM.

      ( Yes i did try this with the new Quantum Firefox )

      EDIT: Did a new test and yeah it seems there is a difference. Chrome has so many small processes going that end up using over 1GB for a twitter plus youtube alone.

      0 points
      • Elliott ReganElliott Regan, 6 years ago

        Yea, the cool thing about Firefox is the RAM sorta caps out. You can open up as many tabs as you want, and it won't slow down considerably or use more RAM.

        It will use more RAM on system that have more available, but scale back on older hardware.

        0 points
  • Julius Hagen, 6 years ago

    IMHO it should be fine. But I wouldn't suggest a MPA, cause it dosn't have a retina screen. If mobility matters, i would suggest the 12" and if not an MBP. I work on a full stacked MBP 15" 2015 and a 12" MacBook.

    Sketch even runs smooth enough on my MacBook 12" if I don't use an external Screen.

    0 points
  • Victor SoussanVictor Soussan, 6 years ago

    This works fine for Sketch/Zeplin. I own a MBA 2012 - 8Gb Ram - Retina for casual use at home and it is up to some interface design with no perf issues. Super quick to boot the OS + load sketch + files. Only concern is regarding the quality of the screen. A bit ugly in terms of color display. Contrast is off and color balance is not there.

    0 points
  • Luke SeeleyLuke Seeley, 6 years ago

    I can run Sketch and Figma just fine on an early 2015 MacBook 12-inch with the 1.2 Ghz Intel Core M and 8GB ram fwiw.

    0 points
  • Harrison TelyanHarrison Telyan, 6 years ago

    Thanks so much for feedback y’all, this helps!

    0 points
  • John Jackson, 6 years ago

    I bought a 13" MacBook Pro (the $1299 version) and I sometimes experience sluggishness using Sketch, but not very often.

    0 points
  • Darren Treat, 6 years ago

    It is enough but I wouldn’t recommend this model.

    The MBA is a really outdated model that does not have a Retina display, this means that the display is low resolution and your sketch work will look inaccurate if, day, you are designing for mobile, until you pull out sketch mirror. Also the CPU is pretty outdated.

    To be honest, the MacBook Air is just kept in the lineups to fill a slot, they stopped updating it five years ago. So. Do you want to buy a five year old computer?

    I would recommend a used or referbished pre-touchbar MacBook Pro, like this one:

    Apple MF839LL/A MacBook Pro 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display, 128GB (Discontinued by Manufacturer) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UGBMRQ8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_JdTeAbC2XT36W

    This model is actually newer than the Air and has better performance across the board. It comes in 128 and 256. If you can afford the 256, it is worth it.

    0 points
    • Elliott ReganElliott Regan, 6 years ago

      Yea, it's pretty annoying that half of Apple's lineup is just straight up old hardware. The non-touchbar MBP is still $2000 but 2 years old.

      Refurbished is the way to go right now. :/

      1 point
  • John PJohn P, 6 years ago

    Keep in mind the Macbook Air isn't an actively cooled device. This means that the hotter the processor gets the slower the processor has to run to stay within safe temps.

    Or to put it another way, the more you push the machine the slower it will run.

    Doesn't sound like the sort of device you want for a work machine right?

    0 points
    • Darren Treat, 6 years ago

      You are thinking of the MacBook, not the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air is a 15w core processor actively cooled device. The MacBook is Core M passively cooled.

      4 points
  • Eduard GiménezEduard Giménez, 6 years ago

    I work on a mid-2013 MacBook Air with a 1,3Ghz i5 and 8GB and it's been working flawlessly for over 4 years already. So the one you shared should be more than enough :)

    I usually have 1/2 sketch documens, sublime text, console, chrome, safari, telegram and slack.

    The only spec I'd try to improve is the size of the SSD, 128GB it's kind of small but I guess you can always use external storage.

    0 points
  • Derek Nguyen, 6 years ago

    My work laptop is a bit stronger than this (my processor is 2.6GHz instead of 1.8GHz), I frequently have Figma, Sketch & Illustrator open on top of 20 - 30 chrome tabs and the performance is okay-ish, not buttery smooth, but enough to get by

    0 points