But this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been watching Apple’s progress in chip design since the original iPad launched back in 2010. Apple has been auditioning, for years, its silicon design ability, and we’ve been more or less testing it for the last decade. This isn’t some unproven technology that Apple miraculously made appear out of thin air (no pun intended). What is surprising, however, is just how well Universal apps run, and just how well translated apps run under Rosetta 2.
There is very little negative to say about these MacBooks. Apple has taken a design like the MacBook Air, which it more or less perfected with the early 2020 refresh, and made it 10 times better. This is no hyperbole. These M1-powered MacBooks are such a huge improvement in performance and battery life with virtually no negative baggage. I can’t see myself ever wanting to go back to an Intel-based laptop.
In this review, I wanted to do direct performance comparisons to the previous entry-level Intel MacBook Air from earlier this year. That machine sported a 1.1GHz dual-core 10th-generation Intel Core i3 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz. The entry-level machine also came with 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD, similar to the Apple silicon version. Thus, I think comparing these two machines is a good litmus test — pitting the performance of Intel versus Apple silicon. All tests were performed while the machines were connected to power, so battery life throttling does not come into play. I also made sure to close all running apps that I could on each machine before running these tests.
Geekbench 5
One of the biggest changes with the M1-powered MacBooks is the outright lack of eGPU support. If you’re like me, and have used an eGPU for added graphics performance with past Macs, this may be a disappointment. However, considering how much better the graphics performance of these M1-MacBooks are, it may not be the big of a loss, especially when more powerful versions of Apple’s chips arrive in products like the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Battery life
Even when running using Rosetta 2 translation, the difference between the Intel-powered MacBook Air and the M1-powered MacBook Air is stunning, if not downright laughable.
Geekbench 5
Most importantly for Mac users, these USB4 ports feature backward compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 and older flavors of USB as well. It means that all of your Thunderbolt 3 peripherals should work (unless you’re waiting for a driver update from a vendor like Universal Audio), and all of your older USB 3.x and USB 2.x devices should work as well. USB4 itself is capable of Thunderbolt 3-like 40Gbps performance with USB4 certified devices and features tunneling of DisplayPort and PCI Express. In the future, a device doesn’t necessarily need to be “Thunderbolt” compatible to experience similar benefits that we’ve all grown accustomed to with Thunderbolt 3.
Thanks to the 16-core Neural Engine, operations assisted by Machine Learning can be faster and more efficient on Apple’s new Mac hardware. For instance, Final Cut Pro’s Smart Conform functionality, which employs machine learning to automatically reframe clips with an aspect ratio different from the project aspect ratio, is noticeably faster on M1 Macs. Pro applications like Pixelmator Pro can upscale images while maintaining sharpness and clarity even faster than before.
This speed increase is handy when considering that the 8GB machine will need to swap memory out to disk quite often. Although the SSD is far slower and features more latency than system memory, having the increased storage speed, which is in part thanks to the integrated storage controller, assists with overall system performance beyond reading/writing of user-files to disk.
Wi-Fi 6
It’s crazy to think that we have a MacBook Air with an 8-core CPU, but this is the chip that’s at the heart of the Apple M1. The 8-core CPU is broken up into a cluster of four performance cores (p-cluster) and four efficiency cores (e-cluster). Depending on the type of workload, each cluster can help drive the MacBook Air in the most efficient manner possible. For example, if your Mac is performing a background download, then the efficiency cores may handle the brunt of the work, but if you’re exporting a 4K video, then the performance cores will step up to bat. As you’ll learn, this design has a huge effect on battery life.
I tested both new MacBooks with the Pro Display XDR and they both connected instantly at full 6K resolution, and allowed for 5Gbps connectivity with the additional three USB-C ports on the rear of the display. I noticed that the M1-based MacBooks featured much better animations than the Intel version when connected at 6K, which comes as no surprise based on the GPU benchmarks showcased earlier.
Chances are you, as the end-user, won’t even know that anything’s different when you power up these machines and begin using them. All you’ll know is that your computer instantly wakes from sleep, your favorite apps work, and that battery life seems an awful lot better than you remember it being on your last MacBook. And that, folks, is the biggest sign that Apple’s new machines are a success.
The four four efficiency cores span cpu 0 – cpu 3, while the four performance cores span cpu 4 – cpu 7. Here’s an example of what these cores look like in action when under different types of loads:
Resting idle
Most cores are idle
Downloading Logic Pro from the Mac App Store
Efficiency cores are at work, while performance cores remain idle
Running Cinebench benchmark
All cores at work
On the outside, the 2020 MacBook Air is virtually indistinguishable from the model that preceded it earlier this year. Eagle-eyed people may notice the lack of any mention of Intel chips on the description of the contents, but outside of that omission, there’s little to clue you in on what a massive change has taken place inside.
M1 Macs can also run apps that are exclusively designed to run on Apple silicon, aka iPhone and iPad apps. These apps can be download from the Mac App Store via the iPhone and iPad app section. Developers of these apps have the option to opt-out, so popular apps like Instagram and TikTok aren’t yet officially available, but there are unofficial means of obtaining them.
Although the iPhone app experience on the MacBook Air has been a mixed bag, it will no doubt get better with time, and I’ve already been able to identify a few gems during my testing period. Marco Arment’s Overcast podcast app can be run on Apple silicon Macs, and it works great. Other apps, like the Apollo Reddit client work great as well.
For 2020, the MacBook Air takes another step forward with the implementation of P3 wide color gamut support in its displays. This addition will probably be one of those changes that flies under the radar with most of the hype given to the M1 chip, but it’s an awesome improvement for those who regularly work with photos and videos. With the updated MacBook Air, you now have a screen that’s capable of displaying millions of additional colors when compared to the same model released earlier in the year. For workflows involving 10-bit video capture, for instance, this is a noteworthy enhancement.
P3 wide color finally makes its way to the MacBook Air
Although there are some noteworthy differences between the Late 2020 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the machines are more similar than they are different. I don’t think you could go wrong with either machine, but there are several differences that should be considered based on how you plan on using your MacBook. In this hands-on review, we consider both the base model MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.
Geekbench, too, demonstrates the large gulf in performance between Intel and Apple silicon, but it also showcases the advantages of having an extra core and active cooling with the MacBook Pro.
Final Cut Pro performance
It’s still too early to see the types of machine learning improvements that I’m expecting, especially with pro apps like Final Cut Pro. The Neural Engine could potentially be used for features like automatic captioning and transcription among other exciting prospects.
Unified memory
Macs featuring Apple silicon can run three different types of apps: Universal apps, Apple silicon (iPhone and iPad) apps, and Intel silicon apps. Universal apps are the most desirable Mac apps, because they feature arm64 and x86_64 binaries, and can thus run on Apple or Intel silicon Macs. On M1-equipped Macs, the app will default to arm64 unless otherwise specified in the application’s Info panel.
What do you think? Have you purchased a new M1 MacBook? Sound off down below in the comments with your thoughts.
The biggest advantage is the 10-bit HEVC (H.265) performance. HEVC is a highly compressed video codec that needs good hardware encoding and decoding to be usable. The iPhone 12 features such hardware, which is shown by its ability to now shoot, play back, and export 10-bit 4K HEVC videos with ease. Now similar ease of use comes to the Mac, which is perfect timing with flagship cameras like the Sony Alpha 7S III and Canon R5 relying heavily on 10-bit HEVC compression.
But here lies the real interesting test. How does Apple silicon perform against Intel silicon? I pit both 2020 MacBook Air models against each other, and it’s immediately clear that Apple silicon is far superior. In single-core performance, there are noticeable advantages, but in multi-core Apple’s 8-core CPU devastates the base model dual-core Intel i3 found in the MacBook Air.
Cinebench R23
The base model MacBook Air comes with a 7-core GPU, while higher-specced versions and all MacBook Pro models feature an 8-core GPU. The reason for this difference is explained in a post by 9to5Mac’s Ben Lovejoy, but it basically boils down to binning.
Testing with Cinebench was interesting because this is where you get an opportunity to see the active cooling advantages of the MacBook Pro come to light. Unsurprisingly, both machines absolutely gut the Intel-based MacBook Air, but notice the nearly 500 point difference in multi-core performance between both M1-flavored MacBook models.
7-core GPU
With that being said, if you’re running pro apps like Final Cut Pro, I absolutely recommend maxing out to 16GB of memory, because you will notice performance benefits when working with high-end video projects. Although 8GB is “fine” for many cases, I think it makes sense to upgrade to 16GB of RAM if you have the means. Even if you leave the storage at the entry-level 256GB designation, at least upgrade your RAM, since unlike storage, it can’t be bolted on later.
Fast SSD
I was able to use my MacBook Air for a full workday, writing, browsing the web, chatting on zoom, and editing video and photos, and the machine was only at 50% by the end of the day. I woke up the next day, and did several hours of zoom video calls and web browsing, and the machine finally gave me a warning to plug in when it reached 10%. And that was “just” the MacBook Air. For the MacBook Pro, battery life was even more impressive, allowing me to do numerous hours of zoom, video editing, and web browsing, without as much as sniffing the power outlet, over the course of two days.
Unboxing the unit yields a familiar experience that one would expect from an Apple laptop. There’s the computer, the ‘Designed by Apple in California’ packet (with Apple stickers), a 2-meter USB-C charging cable, and 30W USB-C power adapter (61W for MacBook Pro).
The Unigine Heaven and Valley benchmarks used to make my Intel Macs sound like they were about to blast off into low orbit, while I can barely even hear the fans on my M1 MacBook Pro or Mac mini when performing this same benchmark multiple times in a row. The point I’m trying to make is that both machines are usually dead silent to human ears, so don’t be pushed towards the MacBook Air solely because it lacks a fan.
A better display, but yet another subpar camera
One of the most annoying things about my Intel-based MacBook Air, and really all Intel-based Apple laptops, is how long they can take to wake from sleep. With Apple silicon Macs, this is no longer a problem, because these machines feature instant-on capability, similar to what you find with an iPad or iPhone. This feature alone makes the 2020 MacBook Air nice for its pick-up-and-work capability.
Look ma, no fans
However, there is one subtle design change that you’ll notice when opening the lid. If you look closely, you’ll notice that three of the function keys on the top row of the keyboard have been altered along with an addition to the Fn key. Instead of a dedicated Launchpad key and a pair of keyboard backlight brightness keys, there are now dedicated Search, Dictation, and Do Not Disturb keyboard function keys. In addition to those changes, the Fn key in the bottom left-hand corner of the keyboard now doubles as an emoji key, allowing you to quickly invoke the emoji-popover when pressed by itself. I don’t think any of these updates are things that people have been clamoring for, but I find them all to be useful.
The only difference between the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air displays are the brightness levels. The MacBook Air features up to 400 nits of brightness, while the MacBook Pro can get slightly brighter at 500 nits. For video content creators and photo editors, having access to the extra brightness might mean more than it does for other users. If you’re someone who primarily uses their Mac for email and web browsing, the MacBook Air display is plenty bright.
720p webcam…
Let’s begin by taking a look at the specifications for the base MacBook Air:
2560-by-1600 native resolution Retina display with Wide color (P3) and True Tone
8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
7-core GPU
16-core Neural Engine
8GB unified memory
256GB SSD
Two Thunderbolt / USB-C ports
720p FaceTime HD camera
802.11ax Wi-Fi 6
400 nit Retina display with P3 wide color
Stereo speakers with wide sound, and Dolby Atmosphere playback
Three-mic array with directional beamforming
Passively-cooled chassis
Backlit Magic Keyboard
Touch ID sensor
Force Touch trackpad
Support for one external display up to 6K at 60Hz
30W USB-C power adapter
Up to 15 hours of wireless web and 18 hours of movie playback
Weight: 2.8 lbs
Tapered design 0.16-inches at its thinnest, and .63-inches at its thickest
Starting price: $999
The MacBook Air can be configured with up to 16GB of RAM, but my base model version features just 8GB. If I was using an Intel-based MacBook Air, I wouldn’t even consider using a machine with such little memory to handle my day-to-day creative workflow, but Apple’s implementation of unified memory cannot be compared 1:1 with typical RAM configurations.
We all knew going into the announcement of the M1 MacBooks that battery life could see marked improvements due to Apple’s design efficiency, but I’ve been truly impressed by how good the battery life is on both machines.
Since the redesigned 2018 MacBook Air first appeared, Apple has slowly but surely stepped up the quality of its display as it seeks to gain parity with the higher-quality screens in the MacBook Pro. The 2018 model was the first MacBook Air with a Retina display. The next year, with the 2019 MacBook Air refresh, Apple introduced True Tone, which automatically adjusts the color temperature of the display for a more natural reading experience based on ambient lighting conditions.
While these aren’t perfect machines, the most exciting thing about the M1’s debut is the awesome future potential of Apple silicon in the Mac. If it’s already this good in the beginning, what will desktop computing look like several years from now? Exciting times, indeed!