Apple's first Mac using its M1 chipset is the MacBook Air with M1. This probably shouldn't come as a huge surprise, as the MacBook Air is the most popular Mac and the world's best selling 13-inch notebook. The design seems to be unchanged from the previous generation, but it drops the Intel processors and jumps straight into M1 territory.
This means you're getting a fanless, fully
silent laptop, with what Apple claims is up to 3.5 times the CPU performance of
the previous-gen Air and up to 5 times faster graphics. The SSDs are said to be
two times faster too.
Aside from the much improved performance,
you're also getting better battery life. For browsing the web on Wi-Fi, the new
MacBook Air will last you for up to 15 hours, while if you just play video
offline, it will go on for 18 hours. That's 6 more hours than its predecessor,
and the longest ever battery life in a MacBook Air. Apple also says you will be
able to video call twice as long as before on one charge (without mentioning
numbers here).
The laptop's 13.3-inch 2560x1600 Retina
Display now supports the P3 color space and has 400 nits of brightness, as well
as True Tone tech. There's Wi-Fi 6 on board, Touch ID is still in, and you have
two Thunderbolt ports with USB 4 support.
The MacBook Air with M1 pre-orders have
started today from US$ 999, while for educational customers it will be US$ 899 and
up. The entry-level model comes with an M1 chip with 8 CPU cores and 7 GPU
cores, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. For one extra GPU core and double the
storage space, you'll have to pay an additional US$ 250. The laptop runs macOS Big
Sur, and will become available next week in Space Gray, gold, and silver.
