The latest MacBook Air with Apple's M1 chip is a big success.
After a week of testing, I've pushed this machine and its brand-new Apple-made processor to the limit and found that these limits were far beyond my expectations at almost every scale.
It's also been used the way that a MacBook Air is meant to be employed: as a day-to-day computer for everyday tasks. While doing this, I got between up to eight or 10 hours of continuous usage using the battery.
In the course of this review, I was armed with a list of possible pitfalls Apple could have stumbled into while switching between one Intel chipset to its own. Chip swaps can be incredibly challenging and often don't go as smoothly. The MacBook Air not only avoids most of the mistakes, but it also jumps over them.
It's not perfect, Of course. Apple's insistence on using clunky webcams is disappointing, and running iPad apps is a nightmare. However, when I was using MacBook Air, I was amazed. MacBook Air, I was often so impressed I could not accept it.
You can believe it. It's true. MacBook Air with the M1 chip is the most powerful laptop I've had the pleasure of using in recent years.
OUR REVIEW OF APPLE MACBOOK AIR (LATE 2020)
SCORE 9.5OUT OF 10
GOOD STUFF
- Fast
- Intel-based apps are compatible
- Great battery life
BAD STUFF
- Awful webcam
- iOS apps can be a breeze
- It's time to acknowledge Macs will be more efficient with touchscreens
MACBOOK AIR HARDWARE
On its exterior, the latest MacBook Air is nearly identical to the Intel-powered model Apple has released earlier in the year. It comes with the same popular wedge-shaped design and a screen of 2560×1600 pixels that reaches 400 nits brightness: touch ID fingerprint login, decent speakers, Apple's new scissor-switch keyboard, and that enormous trackpad. This is the best laptop for live webcam streaming. It's also available at the same price as the base model: $999 for a configuration with 8GB of memory and 256GB storage.
This model's base version also includes one less core in its graphics processor than higher-end models, although I cannot say the impact this could have. (I believe it's not a lot.) The model I'm trying out includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $1649. Like before, you can't upgrade later should you want to.
APPLE KEPT THE DESIGN EXACTLY THE SAME
There's just one external distinction between the latest version and the model before it: Apple swapped out some buttons on the function row with more efficient buttons.
There's now the option to use Spotlight search (which can be used with macOS Big Sur, finally will be able to perform Google searches) as well as Do Not Disturb, as well as Dictation. If, like me, you've never used Dictation in the past is the time, you'll probably be surprised by the quality of it.
Other differences are in the interior. There's no fan, and for instance, there's only an aluminum heat-spreading device. However, even as I pushed this machine to its maximum, I didn't feel it even a tiny bit warm. Apple knows what the ideal thermal ceiling of this model is and keeps the MacBook inside it.
However, the likeness extends to the camera on webcams. It is at 720p resolution and is still awful. Apple has tried to steal part of the processing it uses in real-time features from the iPhone in an attempt to freshen up the image, and I'm finding that it's better at evenly lighting my face; however, what I mostly observe is that it appears terrible (only this time it's a better-refined version of the bad).
Another internal change that will impact professional developers and users more than the typical MacBook Air users is the fact that Apple has changed to a unified memory structure that means you won't need separate graphics RAM. It is the best laptop for civil engineering students, Apple says this makes it more productive.
However, I'm not able to speak to the fact that the model 8GB has enough memory to handle both GPU and CPU requirements, but I've not had any issues with the 16GB RAM on my test model.
In actual fact, I have yet to encounter any performance issue in any way — since the MacBook Air is extremely fast.
MACBOOK AIR PERFORMANCE
The MacBook Air performs like a professional laptop. It's never grumbling when running multiple app
lications. (I've been able to run more than the dozen at once.)
It can handle demanding apps such as Photoshop and video editing software such as Adobe Premiere without complaint. It has never caused me to think twice about switching to another browser tab or 10even in Chrome.
In the last week, I reported about how Apple is “astonishingly confident in its new M1 Mac processors,” making impressive claims while refusing to disappoint or in any other way. As someone who has used one, I am just astonished.
I've had Windows laptops that have Arm processors made by Qualcomm and found them to be more clunky, slower, and more complex than Intel laptops. While I was sure Apple could handle this Intel-to-Arm transition better, I did not think that everything was going to perform as well in the way it has.
I was aware I knew that macOS and Apple's apps would be extremely fast, Many of which are specifically coded to run on this processor. The thing that has me awed is the speed at which each application is running.
A little background: Apps generally are designed to run on a certain type of processor. So when they're installed on a system using a different processor, something else is required underneath the under the hood. For the Mac, this work is performed through a piece of software known as Rosetta 2, which you install the first time you launch an Intel-based application.
In contrast to Windows, Rosetta 2 isn't an emulation but a translation. This means that these applications take a bit longer to start; however, once they're running, they simply… play. I've yet to experience any compatibility issues with apps (though there could be some that I haven't been able to find).
Of course, we used a variety of benchmarks. The graph below highlights some of our findings. However, I'd like to highlight one, particularly the frame rate of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The game's frame rate is thirty-eight per second, which I think is an acceptable amount on a laptop gaming equipped with an entry-level graphics card.
It's almost impossible to think of on a laptop equipped with a GPU. I'm working with the MacBook Air that would have taken my previous MacBook Air to its knees.
At the same moment that it unveiled the brand newly-designed MacBook Air with an M1 processor, Apple discontinued the Intel-based version of the Air. It was an unorthodox decision; the MacBook Air is Apple's best-selling laptop, and Apple has also made more money from selling Macs this quarter than it had ever before.
However, it was the right choice. There's no reason that I could find to use the old Intel version.
EXCEPT FOR THE WEBCAM, THE MACBOOK AIR WITH THE M1 IS INCREDIBLE
For professional users, there are still some enhancements Apple has to implement to improve performance on the highest end for demanding work. It isn't possible to run an external graphics card, and you're restricted to an external screen at any one given time, for instance, and it's highly likely that a professional would hit the limits of the integrated GPU quite quickly.
As a computer for everyday use, There's nothing quite like such a MacBook Air. It is great battery life, amazing performance for its price, and, yes, a great keyboard. The webcam is a bit shaky but. This is one of the reasons we weren't able to give this laptop a 10/10, which was something we had in mind.
Processor transitions are expected to be complicated and messy. People who are early adopters of the latest chips typically sign up for slowdowns, broken apps, and other bugs that aren't quite as obvious. With careful integration of the new processor with its software, Apple can avoid any of those.
You don't need to worry about any technical aspects that allowed MacBook Air to successfully navigate the transition. It's the fact that I am able to claim that is possibly the most impressive feature of all.
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