MacBook Air M1 Review: Apple’s Ultraportable has never been faster

The MacBook Air has 8GB of RAM, 512GB of SST and the new processor was developed and designed by Apple engineers. These M1 chips exploit the ARM architecture found on the iPhone and iPad. Like the MacBook Pro M1 we tested, the architectural change did not allow us to run all of our regular tests. We used Copertino machines to measure the performance of Mac running Windows via bootcamp to compare them to PCs. However, installing Windows on a Mac equipped with the M1 processor is simply impossible. Various players in Virtualization (Parallels and VMware) and those in Emulation (Godweaver with Crossover) are working on this issue and to date, Windows applications are not yet able to run. Additionally, keep in mind that since the arrival of MacOS Catalina 10.15 last year, 32-bit applications will no longer launch. So you have to do with 64 bit Mac applications. Fortunately, Apple includes a prototype – called the Rosetta 2 – that allows it to launch all current 64-bit Mac Intel applications, with better performance for the ultraportable PC. So we did most of our testing on Mac Intel applications to get an idea of ​​the performance of this Apple M1 processor.

The differences between them are because they have the same processor MacBook Pro With this new generation the MacBook Air is greatly shrinking. Previously, Intel CPUs made it possible to differentiate between the two limits. But now what? With the exception of video encryption in handbrake software that has proven to be superior to the Pro, we have seen similar results with the MacBook Pro M1 in all the tests we can do. This is definitely due to the passive cooling of the MacBook Air, which does not allow it to maintain high frequencies over time like the MacBook Pro, which can cool its processor more efficiently. Our colleagues in the photography department were able to do 8K video editing on the MacBook Air, which is generally reserved for the most well-equipped and more expensive engines.

To put this M1i up against competition, it became slightly faster than the Intel Core 7 1165 G7Asus ZenBook Flip UX363EA Or from the Raison 7 4700UAcer Swift 3SF314-42. Be careful, however, that our CPU code for the MacBook Air M1 is not as complete as usual, as not all of our tests dedicated to the processor can be performed.