Upgrading from Macbook Air M1 (2020) to M5 Air — not because of performance

I bought my M1 MacBook Air back in 2020 (16GB RAM). Today is March 4, 2026, Apple just announced the M5 models, and I’ve decided to upgrade to the M5 Air.

But not because the M1 got slow.

The M1 is still totally fine for my workload. I write code every day, and even in 2026 this machine handles everything I throw at it without issues. No complaints about speed, still fast, still silent, still cool.

The only reason I’m upgrading is because I damaged the screen (spilled soup on it — yeah, I know). Since then I’ve been using it mostly as a desktop machine connected to an external monitor. If that hadn’t happened, I’d easily keep using it for another year. Maybe two.

The screen still works, it’s just unpleasant to use. Most of the time I keep the laptop closed or put on a campfire video for the vibe =)

This has probably been the best tech purchase I’ve ever made. For the amount of work I’ve done on this thing over the past 5+ years, it feels more like an investment than just a laptop purchase.

Anyone else still happily running an M1?