MacBook Air with M1 Review, MacBook, Laptop, Specs, Price, Configuration, Design, Security, Display, Graphics, Battery life, Webcam, Warranty
MacBook Air Full Blog Review
- MacBook Air Review
- MacBook Air Specs
- MacBook Air Price
- MacBook Air Configuration, MacBook Air Design
- MacBook Air Security
- MacBook Air Ports
- MacBook Air Display, MacBook Air Keyboard, and Trackpad
- MacBook Air Audio, MacBook Air Graphics
- MacBook Air Battery life
- MacBook Air Webcam
- MacBook Air Heat
- MacBook Air macOS Big Sur
- MacBook AirWarranty
The MacBook Air with Apple Silicon ushers in a new era for Apple
A groundbreaking transformation; the M1 chip takes the MacBook Air to new heights with better performance and battery life than ever before. Put simply, the new MacBook Air is the best laptop for most people.
GOOD
- Breathtaking performance
- Outstanding battery life
- Slim unibody aluminum chassis
- iPhone and iPad app support
- Great speakers and Magic keyboard
- macOS Big Sur is a nice update
NOT GOOD
- Few ports
- The design could use an update
MACBOOK AIR (M1, 2020): SPECS
- Price: $999 (starting); $1,649 (reviewed at)
- CPU: Apple M1
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 1TB
- Display: 13.3-inch, 2560 x 1660-pixel
- Battery: 14:41
- Size: 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
- Weight: 2.8 pounds
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MacBook Air with M1 Review
It's amazing what a new heart can do for a laptop. The latest MacBook Air ushered in a new era for Apple with its custom-built M1 chip. Yes, Apple's long-awaited transition away from Intel and into ARM of custom silicon has arrived, and the new chip blows us away.
I'll start by saying that the new MacBook Air is an improvement over the previous model in every way, delivering great performance and extended battery life. The bold claims Apple has made about the M1? They weren't an exaggeration. This MacBook Air works out the muscles of every laptop in its class while running all day on a single charge. And it does so with a fanless design, which means the air is pin-drop silent.
Along with record-setting performance, Apple Silicon adds iOS and iPadOS apps to the Mac App Store. You also get better webcam quality, and macOS Big Sur is a gorgeous redesign of Apple's desktop OS. The new MacBook Air may have some flaws, but it's the closest Apple has ever come to producing the perfect laptop.
MacBook Air: Price and configuration options
Apple sells two configurable versions of the new MacBook Air, both powered by the new M1 chip.
For $999, you can buy the base model with the M1 SoC, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Look at the fine print and you'll see that this version has a 7-core GPU.
Upgrading RAM from 8GB to 16GB costs an additional $200, as does upgrading from 256GB of storage to 512GB. The 1TB SSD option increases the base price by $400 while the 2TB storage is an additional $800.
For $1,249, you get an 8-core GPU model with the M1 SoC, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Upgrades cost the same for this version: $200 for 16GB of RAM, another $200 for 1TB of storage, or an additional $600 for a 2TB SSD. Our review unit goes for $1,649, with an 8-core M1 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.
MacBook Air Design
The MacBook Air got a new heart but kept the old body.
It's the same design we've seen on previous models, and I have mixed feelings about it. That aside, the MacBook Air is a beautiful notebook with an attractive unibody aluminum design. However, the chassis lacks some modern fixings and doesn't dazzle like some of its competitors.
Starting with the positives, the Air's familiar design has been passed over the years in large part due to premium materials and precise craftsmanship. Once you have this laptop in your hands you will feel better about spending $1,000+ on this laptop. With a wedge-shaped design that's thicker at the back and thinner at the front, the MacBook Air has a stylish stance, and while 0.6 inches thin for a laptop, the Air feels even thinner.
The MacBook Air's lid features the iconic Bite-Fruit logo in centered reflective chrome, surrounded by unobstructed metal blanks. It's a minimalist design that Apple has used to great effect, and that's about it. Open the laptop, and you'll see a clean deck with a large trackpad under the black keyboard keys. There are speaker grilles on each end of the keyboard while nearly invisible hinges connect the deck to the lid.
I reviewed the Space Gray variant—my personal preference—but the MacBook Air also comes in a less silver or a flashier Rose Gold finish. I wish Apple would color-match the keys with the exterior (see Surface Laptop 3), instead, the keyboard is black, no matter what color you choose.
Not only does the MacBook Air look great, but its design is practical as well. This may only be a problem for nit-pickers, but thin laptops can be difficult to open. That's not true of the MacBook Air, thanks to the notch on the deck that lets you lift the lid off with one finger. Better yet, the base rests on a flat surface when you open the lid—a magic trick that more sellers should learn.
While the design is great, there is room for improvement. I expect the next version to be after the Dell XPS 13 and trim down the bezels further to allow for an even smaller footprint. As it stands, the MacBook Air, at 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches and 2.8 pounds, is larger than the Dell XPS 13 (11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches, 2.8 pounds), but more compact than the 13.5-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. . (12.1 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches, 2.9 pounds).
MacBook Air: Security
Returning to the MacBook Air is Touch ID, located at the top-right corner of the keyboard, above Delete, and next to the volume-up key. The small square-shaped key acts as the power button.
While the fingerprint sensor works quickly and reliably, I wish Apple had placed an IR camera on the top display bezel. The laptop wakes up from sleep immediately, so I want the login process to be as immediate. Touch ID is a better option than typing a password, but it's not as instantaneous as facial recognition.
The M1 chip also provides data encryption, hardware-verified Secure Boot, automatic high-performance encryption, and advanced runtime protection as part of its Secure Enclave software.
MacBook Air Ports
Bring your dongles as the new MacBook Air shares some of the same ports as the previous model.
On the left are two Thunderbolt 3 inputs along with USB-C connectivity. I wish these were split on each side of the laptop so you can charge from either end, especially because the power cord is short.
There's a lone headphone jack on the right side of the laptop.
Latest PCs support Thunderbolt 4; This may sound like a loss to the wind, but most people won't notice the difference between the two standards.
Wondering how the MacBook Air supports Thunderbolt 3 despite being an Intel technology? It was a decade ago when Intel and Apple collaborated to create Thunderbolt.
MacBook Air Display
One important, but overlooked change Apple made with Silicone in the MacBook Air is the addition of P3 color gamut support. what does this mean? The 13.3-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel Retina display on the MacBook Air with the M1 is more vivid this time around.
I really enjoyed watching the No Time to Die trailer on the MacBook Air; The screen gets bright and the colors are punchy. As much as I want to see the next 007 in theaters, I'd be fine watching it on a MacBook Air if streaming were my only option. The screen was so wide that I could see every crack in Rami Malik's scarred face and tiny orange dots on the screen as Bond sluggishly escaped the barrage of bullets. Daniel Craig's eyes were a sparkling aquamarine throughout the trailer and in the one-night scene, an amber explosion popped against the inky black tone.
We measured the display with a colorimeter and found that the panel covered 80.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, the standard used for film and TV. The older model was slightly less colorful, at 80%, while the XPS 13 (69.4%) wasn't nearly as vivid. The new MacBook Air would have won if not for the gorgeous panel on the Surface Laptop 3 (85.9%), which topped the category average (80.8%).
After reaching 366 nits brightness, the MacBook Air is visible outside on a bright day. That said, the previous model was even brighter, hitting 386 nits, while the XPS 13 (469 nits) was bland in comparison. While the most colorful, the Surface Laptop 3 (348 nits) was the dimmest of the bunch, and like the new MacBook Air, the premium laptop fell short of average (386 nits).
MacBook Air: Keyboard and trackpad
Magic made the butterfly extinct and the world of MacBooks is better for it. The Magic Keyboard on the MacBook Air is comfortable to type on. Although shallow, the keys are clicky and require just the right amount of force to activate.
The keys are a good size, even for those with larger hands, and the appropriate spacing meant there was no learning curve, to begin with—I was tapping words from the moment I Booted the laptop.
I also like the layout of the keyboard. The inverted-T arrow keys are set apart from the rest of the numbers and letters, making them easier to feel. Apple also swapped out some of the function keys on this new model. Keyboard backlighting brightness (backlighting can be adjusted via a slider in the Control Center) and Launchpad keys and in their place are Dictation (voice-to-text dictation), Do Not Disturb (turns off notifications), and Spotlight There are keys for. (system-wide desktop search).
I typed at 113 words per minute with 96% accuracy on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is faster and more accurate than my 109-wpm average and 5% error rate.
The 4.7 x 3.2-inch trackpad is spacious, taking up a good chunk of the deck below the keyboard. You can easily fit four fingers on the Surface to perform certain macOS gestures, such as switching between full-screen apps (four-finger swiping left or right) or four-finger swiping up By opening the "Mission Control" interface.
As we've come to expect, the touchpad did a great job of implementing these gestures; I've never needed a retake to get them off. Finally, Force Touch returns, and although I've never been a fan of how it feels, I appreciate the extra functionality it brings.
MacBook Air Audio
The thinner size usually means thinner sound, but not with the MacBook Air.
The top-firing stereo speakers flanking the keyboard sound great and get pretty loud. Joy Crooks' "Hurt" filled my large(ish) living room with vibrant, toe-tapping grooves. Pared-down percussion was detailed with gentle vocals, adding a crisp high-hat "chick" to this funky jam.
Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" was driven by a weighty "thud" and although LEISURE's "I2I" had some funky drum kicks forming the rhythm, the instrument was simple enough for me to hear. Were apart from playing the guitar between each hit. You don't get the chest-threading low-end on the MacBook Air, but there's more depth than I expected from such a thin laptop.
MacBook Air Performance with M1 and Rosetta 2
Apple's new M1 chip is a revelation. Delivering unmatched performance, the M1 replaces the MacBook Air with a low-powered entry-level Mac that's recommended for the fastest ultrathin laptops out there for running light day-to-day tasks. With an ARM-based chip, the Air is now able to power the demanding apps required by professional users.
My experience using the MacBook Air for my rigorous day-to-day workloads was generally positive. The M1 chip was mocked when I loaded 25 tabs onto Google Chrome (running Rosetta 2), four of which played YouTube videos while another pair streamed on Twitch. I've noticed some sluggishness with certain tabs that I don't usually get on my Dell XPS 15. When I tried the same workload on Safari, which it originally ran, everything loaded up instantly - the photos, graphics, and text blinked on the screen momentarily when I pressed return.
Before getting into the benchmark numbers, let's talk about the new chip. The M1, Apple's first SoC for laptops, is an eight-core chip divided into four performance and four efficiency cores. The former is used for computationally intensive apps while the latter uses a tenth as much power to preserve battery life while running lighter tasks. The chip uses an integrated memory architecture (UMA), which means (non-expandable) RAM is shared between the GPU and CPU.
As you'll see below, the shift to an ARM-based chip largely paid off for Apple. However, there is some fine print. Because the M1 uses a different architecture (arm64) than Intel (x86-64), apps need to be optimized by developers for ARM. You can still run non-native Intel apps but they are fed through a translator called Rosetta 2.
Reverse? This process is automated, meaning all the apps you're using still work on the new MacBook Air. Downside? Usually, the result of emulation has an impact on performance. As it stands, most apps require Rosetta 2, the emulator. This is something early M1 adopters should consider as Apple says the transition from Intel to ARM will take two years to complete.
Do any of these really matter? Well, it depends. The Rosetta 2 is a very capable translator, and the M1 chip's incredible performance means you probably won't notice when an app is being translated. That said, Google Chrome (via Rosetta 2) ran slightly slower than usual, while Safari, a native app, is blink-and-you'll-miss-it fast.
There are also cases when fake apps actually run faster than on the previous MacBook Air. So there's some variation to how each app functions, but in general, everything I tested was fast, and things will only get faster as developers port from Intel to ARM. We're early in that process, but there's reason to be hopeful: Adobe Lightroom for ARM will arrive next month, while a native Photoshop app is expected in early 2021; Native versions of Microsoft Office apps are also in development.
If you've been waiting for proof of the bold claims I make about the M1, sit down, because here they come. Our MacBook Air scored an impressive 5,962 in Geekbench 5.2's overall performance test with 16GB of RAM, crushing the XPS 13 (5,319, Core i7-1165G7) with 11th generation (Tiger Lake) Intel Core. The Surface Laptop 3 with 10th-generation Intel chips fell further behind (4,791), but still topped the category average (4,178).
It took just 9 minutes and 15 seconds for the MacBook Air to convert 4K video to 1080p using the Handbrake beta, which runs natively on the M1 (14:56 for Handbrake on Rosetta 2). The XPS 13 required 18:22 to complete the task, while the pedestrian results of the previous MacBook Air (27:10) and Surface Laptop 3 (24:55) weren't close to the 17:18 category average.
With a score of 653 on the Photoshop benchmark, the MacBook Air won out against the XPS 13 (588), while topping the category average (613) and beating out the previous model (459).
I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the speed of the MacBook Air's 512GB SSD. Apple wasn't kidding when it said an SSD is twice as fast as before, but let me remind you, it was already faster than any storage drive in its class by a huge margin. The SSD was blazing fast on the Blackmagic benchmark, reaching 2,897.8 megabytes per second. I'll let you do the math, but it's several times faster than the XPS 13 (806.2 Mbps), the Surface Laptop 3 (541.4 Mbps), and the category average (780.9 Mbps). Credits where credit is due, the previous MacBook Air (1,301.9 Mbps) was, as Apple said, about half as fast.
MacBook Air iPhone and iPad apps
With the introduction of the M1 chip in the MacBook, all of Apple's products: phones, laptops, and tablets, use the same architecture. It gives Apple more control over its laptop's hardware and software, and just as importantly, makes the company's walled garden more integrated than ever. One immediate benefit is the introduction of iOS and iPadOS apps on the Mac.
Yes, you can now run iPhone and iPad apps natively with the M1 on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. But just as not all Intel programs have been ported to ARM, not all iOS and iPadOS apps are optimized for the Mac. And some, like Snapchat, Amazon Prime Video, and some Google apps are missing altogether (developers can opt-out of bringing iOS apps to macOS).
When I searched Duolingo, my go-to language-learning app in the Mac App Store, I found no results. At least, not until I selected the "iPhone and iPad apps" option. As I expected, the app window occupied a small portion of the screen, a clear reminder that the app hasn't adjusted to its new home. Fortunately, there are plenty of apps optimized for the Mac — Microsoft Office Suite, Grammarly, and Facebook Messenger, to name a few — and I doubt iOS developers will port their apps to the Mac.
It's worth repeating that iOS and iPadOS apps are separate from apps made for Macs. Apple knows that the experience of using optimized apps is less than ideal. You generally don't want to run iOS apps on your MacBook Air until they've been ported to a Mac unless you really need to.
MacBook Air Graphics
Apple talked a big game about the graphics capabilities of its M1 chip, and it wasn't messing around. While it won't replace a discrete graphics card for gaming, the M1 (with eight GPU cores) outperforms Intel's long-hyped integrated graphics Iris XE with 11th-generation processors.
The MacBook Air played Rise of the Tomb Raider (1440 x 900) at 29 frames per second on Very High graphics settings. It's playable, but well below our 30-fps threshold for smooth, lag-free gaming. Cranking up the resolution to 2880 x 1800 was just too much for a MacBook Air, which made games run at a sluggish 8 fps.
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm ran smoothly at 1440 x 900-resolution at 37 fps, with graphics set to Medium. The XPS 13 played the same game at 1080p at just 16 fps, while the previous MacBook Air clocked in at 7 fps, well below the 28-fps average.
MacBook Air Battery life
Typically, laptop chips act like teeter-totters. There is performance on one side and battery life on the other. The M1 chip rears its head on that metaphor, boosting both performance and endurance over the Intel CPUs in previous models.
The MacBook Air lasted 14 hours 41 minutes on our battery test, which includes continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits brightness.
It's not the best runtime we've seen, but it is one of the top performers. For comparison, the XPS 13 lasted 11 hours and 7 minutes, while the Surface Laptop 3 lasted 9 hours and 17 minutes. The previous MacBook Air shuts down after 9 hours and 31 minutes. The new MacBook Air and XPS 13 are the only laptops in this group to surpass the average category (10:01). So, which laptop lasts longer than the MacBook Air? Asus's marathon running ExpertBook B9450 lasted 16 hours 42 minutes.
The MacBook Air's battery also did well in real-world testing. I watched the second half of a Nations League soccer game between Germany and Ukraine with about a dozen apps open in both Chrome and Safari. When the last whistle blew after a second 45-minute period, the MacBook Air was at 95% battery life. I was amazed when I ran some quick math to determine that, at this rate, the laptop would last 15 hours if it matched Apple's own rating.
And when I ran out of power with the MacBook Air at 55% charge, the laptop lasted several hours so I can rule out sections of this review that didn't require me to be connected to Wi-Fi.
MacBook Air Webcam
The same 720p webcam dates back to the MacBook Air but with a smarter mind. The M1 chip has its own image signal processor that improves noise reduction, dynamic range, and highlights. My hope that Apple would set a new standard for the historically terrible laptop webcam was dashed when I took a selfie in my office.
Don't get me wrong, video and photo quality is better than the vast majority of webcams we've had the misfortune of testing. But it falls well short of the camera quality of the smartphone I was optimistically anticipating. The picture I took is a bit fuzzy, but the colors are great and the image is bright. You can see the plush color of my cheeks and the burnt orange in my hat would make any UT Austin grad proud.
I took another photo outside to give the camera a good jolt, but it did something strange in the sky behind me. This picture is more detailed, you can see the individual hairs in my immaculate beard, but the sky is blown away. On a positive note, the mics do an excellent job of capturing crisp, clean audio, according to my colleagues at Google Hangouts Video Chat.
MacBook Air: Heat
no fans? There is no problem.
The MacBook Air kept cool in our heat test, heating up to just 84 degrees Fahrenheit after playing 15 minutes of 1080p video in full-screen. For context, we tend to get worried when the temperature is above 95-degrees, so the MacBook Air is well within the comfort zone. Even better, the parts of your skin that are touched, the touchpad and keyboard, are only accessible to 78 degrees and 81 degrees, respectively.
What makes it so impressive is that the MacBook Air-like the 12-inch MacBook before it—is fanless, relying entirely on an aluminum heat spreader to keep it cool. This is more proof of how efficient the M1 chip is.
These are great results for the Air, but keep in mind that one of the major differences between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is that the expensive models have a fan to allow for continuous performance. Run the taxiing program for a long time and the MacBook Air will eventually heat up uncomfortably (though it never happened during my testing).
MacBook Air macOS Big Sur
With a new chip comes a new operating system. The MacBook Air now runs macOS Big Sur, the latest version of Apple's desktop OS. You can expect a full review of Big Sur soon, but for now, I'll walk you through some of the top features and major changes.
Embracing the lead of iOS and iPadOS, macOS Big Sur represents the biggest design change since the release of OS X nearly 20 years ago. The new interface emphasizes bold colors that contrast with transparent elements, creating a visually pleasing effect that works great with the beautiful stock backgrounds available on Big Sur. App icons also have a new square shape, which matches the rounded squares of iPhone apps.
Also adopted from iOS is Control Center, which puts important system settings (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, AirDrop, keyboard brightness) in a single pane at the top-right of your screen. It's similar to the UI that appears when you swipe down from the top-right of an iPad, except on macOS, you access it by pressing a slider icon next to Siri.
Other updates are found in Apple Maps, which get a Guides feature, and a new Messages app that lets you pin conversations to the top of the list, inline reply to messages, or send someone's name to a direct message. types for. You can now add new widgets to the Notification Center (swipe with two fingers to the left of the trackpad) where you'll find the redesigned widgets.
The biggest advantage of all the changes that debuted in Big Sur is Safari. You can now customize the browser's start page and preview pages by placing your pointer over a tab. Apple's web browser is both faster and more power-efficient, making it a more compelling alternative to Chrome. Speaking of which, you can now import your passwords and settings from Chrome, should you want to switch. Other cool features coming to Safari are a language translator (in beta) and password monitoring, which alerts you if one of your passwords has been compromised.
MacBook Air Warranty
Apple MacBook Pro comes with a 1-year limited warranty along with 90 days of phone support. See how Apple fared on our annual special report, Best and Worst Brand and Technical Support Showdown.
Bottom line
Talk about breathing new life into laptops. Midas of processors, Apple's M1 SoC everything it touches turns to gold. With its new engine, the MacBook Air goes from a low-powered laptop that not only cuts into its portable segment but also into one of the fastest notebooks out there compared to everything else on the market. And with 14+ hours of battery life, you can easily spend a day, if not two, on a single charge.
The MacBook Air with the M1 is the best combination of power and stamina - and it has achieved this with a fanless design. Add to the mix a gorgeous new OS, webcam improvements, and better integration with iPadOS and iOS (including mobile app support), and the laptop earns my full recommendation. You'd think all these improvements would come at a hefty price, and yet, the new MacBook Air carries a starting price of $999.
While no other laptop can match the speed of the MacBook Air, I wish Apple had made some changes to modernize this laptop's design. Rivals like the Dell XPS 13 feature a bezel-less display, as a result of which they have a smaller footprint than the Air. And having only two Thunderbolt 3 ports — both on the same side — is an annoying limitation, worth considering if your hatred of dongles is as deep as mine.
But if you want the fastest, longest-lasting ultrathin laptop, the MacBook Air sets a new standard—and the competition is far behind.
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