![]() ![]() The MacBook Air doesn’t have the Touch Bar, instead having the traditional row of Function keys. Storage and RAM follow the same system as the 13” Pro, with the only real differences being in the physical format. It reduces waste as well as lowers the need for multiple production lines of variants, as they need only produce one chip type. In CPU manufacturing there is undoubtedly units that do not meet the standards for the chip, so instead are sold as a slightly lower end model. This is not a different chip per se but is what is known as a ‘binned’ version. You may notice the base model MacBook Air does not come with the same 8 Core CPU and 8 Core GPU, but instead has only 7 GPU Cores. Sticking with the physical format of the previous Air, it too got an M1 chip. Released at the same time as the 13” MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air shares many similarities with both the M1 MacBook Pro, and the previous generation Intel based MacBook Air. There are also display-link adaptors that allow you to run multiple displays despite the limitation. The display can be up to 6K at 60Hz, which is easily separated out using hardware like the Datapath X4. While this may seem terribly limiting, it is certainly not workable. This is a limitation of the SoC itself, which also does not support External GPU’s. The M1 SoC is limited to just one external display on both the 13” MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. One large caveat to the performance is the display outputs. There is also a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the right-hand side of the device. Thunderbolt 4 offers speed of up to 40gbps, fast enough to connect many devices. These are both Type C, and support charging, video output and data transfer. I/O is the same as previous 13” models, offering 2 Thunderbolt 3 Ports, which also double as USB 4. The RAM offering is fixed at either 8gb or 16gb, and also cannot be upgraded later. This storage is not user upgradeable after purchase, so it might be worth upgrading this if you are keen on future proofing. The 13.3” Model offers us a few standard storage options, ranging from 256gb to 2tb of SSD storage. This isn’t just marketing hype either, it is backed up by real world results (some have experienced over 24 continuous hours of video playback). Despite containing the same 58-watt-hour battery as the Intel version, it manages to double the battery life from an already impressive 10 hours to more than 20 hours of usage. It even manages to outperform far more expensive Intel Models that cost well over twice as much.Īnother area of significant improvement is battery life. ![]() This offered a huge upgrade in speed as well as thermals, with roughly 2.8x better CPU performance over the entry level Intel MacBook Pro and 5x better GPU performance. The standard M1 Chip has an 8 Core CPU as well as an 8 Core GPU. Released in November 2020, it offered the same physical format as the previous generation of Touch-Bar MacBook Pro’s, albeit with entirely new internals. The 13.3” MacBook Pro was part of the first wave of Apple Silicon machines. Let’s look at the current releases and what they offer us. Unlike many traditional CPUs the M1 has many components built onto the chip, including a GPU (graphics processing unit) and Unified RAM (Random Access Memory). The new M1 Chip comes in a few different flavours, each of which are scaled-up versions of the Core SoC (System on Chip). Software designed for Intel chips can be run using a translation layer (Rosetta 2), which allows almost all software to run with only a minor performance hit. The transition has not been without questions around compatibility of software and hardware, but 2 years into the transition, it is unlikely to be much of an issue. ![]() While the prices might deceive, the best deals are often to be found on the newest hardware, which offer significant upgrades in terms of performance as well as power consumption. Right now, Apple sell a combination of both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. This marks arguably the largest change to the Mac line up since Apple moved to Intel chips in 2006. Apple are currently undertaking a major refresh of the Mac line up, transitioning from Intel CPUs to custom Apple Silicon, using the ARM Architecture. ![]()
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